For those few seconds in his strong arms, I had floated.
Pisolino jumped up next to me, curling in a ball against my side, all forgiven between us. I scratched him behind the ear.
Rocco fixed his suit and headed toward the door again. He stopped and turned to me. He recited everywhere I’d been on the island since I’d arrived.
“How do you know all that?” I whispered. I had asked the question because it seemed like the most obvious one, but I already knew the answer—I just wanted him to admit it to me.
“I know everything,” he said, as if he was the king and the entire world was his kingdom.
I could believe that.
Closing my eyes, I yawned. “I thought the island was safe.” I mean, until I get whacked in the head by a candelabra that may or may not have been thrown by a raging ghost.
“Amora,” he said, his voice as fierce as I’d ever heard it. It was as strong as a vow. As steady as if he were repeating a verse from the Bible he knew by heart. “No place is safe enough for you.”
My eyes slowly opened, and I found him watching me with the same intensity as in his voice, and silence stretched between us. In it, what Ifelthe didn’t say could be heard.
No place is safe enough for you without me standing behind you.
Behind me at thetrattoria—when he was the one who had made those boys and the doctor scatter like mice in the face of a lion.
All I could do was nod. The feeling was so overwhelming, it almost hurt; it felt so good, I closed my eyes to it, like a woman would do with a kiss that carried her away from her body and to her lover’s. When I opened my eyes, I knew he was already gone by the feel of my heart, but Uncle Tito and a woman who Iassumed was his wife were entering my apartment. Scarlett was right behind them, two other women following behind her. Aunt Lola, as she had instructed me to call her, was Uncle Tito’s wife. Mia was Scarlett and Brando’s daughter. Then there was Stella, who was married to Matteo, who was Scarlett and Brando’s firstborn son, but who was younger than Mia.
Sitting up some, I watched as the group made themselves at home. Scarlett went to the kitchen, starting dinner, while Aunt Lola took a seat and propped her feet up. Uncle Tito explained that he and Aunt Lola would be staying next door until my symptoms passed. Mia and Stella just wanted to meet me. Brando, along with Matteo and Saverio, who was Mia’s husband, arrived a few minutes later.
Pisolino watched everyone with fascination as he kept purring at my touch. I was so tired,the head injury, but I felt exhilarated at the same time. Rocco’s cologne lingered in the room, and it kept zapping my senses awake. I closed my eyes, though, drowning out all the noise, and continued writing our story in my head.
I was so full of inspiration, I feared I might burst.
Chapter 16
Haunting inside of the Heart
My men were pale as I walked up to the villa with Mac beside me. Donato, Guido, and Vincenzo were behind us.
Vincenzo made awoooosound as we entered.
“What was that?” one of the men whispered.
Vincenzo did it again, making his voice sound eerily close to a howling wind.
“Thereitgoes again!”
“Caro Dio. Salvaci.”Dear God. Save us.
Donato and Guido crossed themselves. Mac grinned at me. Vincenzo laughed quietly. Mac was on the fence about ghosts. Donato and Guido were believers that they existed. Vincenzo believed in them and did not try to ward them off. He said one day he, too, would become a ghost, and he was attempting to be proactive by making friends ahead of time. If he did not, who would teach him how to haunt?
As I had done lately, conversations swirled around me, but I kept the voices on the outside. I was a ghost myself, watching from the opposite side of this world. A world void of life. Perhaps that was why when Aria Amora Bella ventured onto my property,all I could do was stare at her. I was attracted to the warm life inside of her veins. She glowed with it.
A beautifully warm figure who had stepped inside of a frozen world.
The cold could not seem to touch her. She was summer incarnate.
My eyes focused on the broken glass shimmering on the ground. I bent down, taking a few shards in my palm. Amora had taken a rock to the window so she could get through and to safety, not realizing the place she chose to find safety in was haunted.
Poetic?
Perhaps.
