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“What about your mother? Why didn’t she stop him?” I gritted out.
“She hadn’t fared any better. She tried when we were little, but my father was so brutal that he broke her arm once, finally locking her in the bedroom when he performed his ritual of discipline. I think she was broken long before she fell ill. She’s a shell of a woman now, her coping mechanism falling into a bottle.” Lucia laughed bitterly, finally tipping her head in my direction, every blink allowing another tear to fall. When she noticed my harsh gaze, she wiped them away furiously. “I told myself I would run far away. I thought I had, but you can never run from the claws of a monster.”
The words hung in the air. Why hadn’t I known? Why hadn’t she told me? I could hear her voice so long ago. She’d told me that she’d be the one to protect me. “Fucking asshole.”
“I am so sorry. I have no idea why I told you that. How inappropriate for a date. I seriously am not very good at this,” she whispered.
“You don’t need to be anything but yourself around me, Lucia. I think you know I understand. Although there is no such thing as the perfect family, what you described is intolerable. The man should be chained and beaten.” I resumed cutting, trying to keep the seething anger from becoming an issue.
“You’re right. I wish I had the courage to do it myself.”
I wanted to tell her that she didn’t need to worry, but that would come in time.
The nervous tic in the corner of her mouth was more endearing than I’d remembered, her eyes shimmering with conflicting emotions. “I don’t know why I feel I can trust you, Nicolo. And I don’t trust anyone.”
“You shouldn’t but I’m glad you feel that way.”
“It’s almost as if I’ve known you my entire life. I…” She smiled as she took a sip of wine, easing closer, shutting down the obsidian pathway to hell she’d allowed cracked open. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
“Nothing but enjoy your wine.” I grabbed a pan, placing it on the burner and turning it on. Everything about being with her felt natural, far too much so. However, the urgency to carry through with my plan weighed heavily on my mind. She had a target on her back, one large enough that the fact she had a weapon hidden in her purse, more inside her apartment wouldn’t matter in the end. I needed to determine who else had been assigned to carry out the deed Franco still believed I’d follow through with. The potential list was long, any recklessness in determining the entity’s identification likely resulting in another tragedy.
“You really can cook. Why do I have a feeling there’s more surprises in store for me?”
“You might be shocked.”
“No,” she whispered, her eyes full of lust as she trailed her hand down her long neck to the swell of her breasts. When she rubbed the tip of her index finger around her still hardened nipple, I could feel my control slipping.
“If you keep looking at me that way, we won’t get to dinner, only to dessert.”
Her laugh sent another wave of heat through every vein and muscle. “Dessert is the most important part of the meal. Right?”
“What did I tell you about tempting me?”
As I tossed the peppers and onions into the pan, I was thrown when she started to hum. She wasn’t following the music of a popular song she’d heard on her satellite radio.
It was my creation, the same piece of music she’d asked me to play countless times. Fuck. I closed my eyes, shoving the memories aside. They had no place in my future plans. None.
The hard edge of nerves cresting through me cut through all the bullshit, the years of rage. I’d thought she’d forgotten, that she’d shut down her feelings completely. “What is that?” The demanding sound in my voice was harsher than I’d intended.
“It’s something I used to hum to Sophia when she was so terrified.”
Every muscle stiffened, my heart racing. “It’s beautiful.”
“It is. My favorite in the whole world.”
“Maybe I have the CD.”
“No, sadly, you wouldn’t. I wish you did. Then that would mean… the world hadn’t been turned upside down.” Her last words faded, her lower lip quivering. “The musician was a special person, someone I miss very much. He put his heart and soul into every creation.”
“Who was he?”
“Someone I lost a long time ago. I’m sorry, Nicolo. I can’t talk about it. I haven’t been able to do so since it happened.”
“It?”
She looked away, shaking her head slowly.
“I’m not pushing you, Lucia.”
