Her brows pulled together in confusion, and she slowly shook her head, not understanding what I meant.
“What are you referring to?”
“The house I grew up in.”
“Roman,” she said, shifting now to look at me, “I heard that burned down after your dad died. What did you do?”
“I fixed it up,” I simply told her, as if it was the most obvious answer.
“When? How? The fire was ages ago, right?”
“It was, but when I was older and able to afford it, I wanted the house. More like I wanted the land. So, I redid the area and moved the baseline of the house. But no one else knows about it. Not even Marcell. To him, it’s still burnt down. Hell, to my mom too.”
“But your dad….died….,” she slowly trailed off and I reached over and took her hand.
“My dad started the fire, yes. Did he die in it? No. He died at the hospital later on, after signing me over to the family. But, how about we go over that in a little bit? I want you to take in the place. Because,” I said, passing a fence that was hidden by bushes and trees, “that starts the start of my property. And believe me, this whole place is set up with motion detectors and cameras. In fact, I get so much wildlife out here, I have to be careful of how weak I make the sensors.”
She squeezed my hand before turning her gaze back to the area around her. And it was breathtaking, no doubt about that.
My dad might have been a jerk in a lot of ways, but he did well playing both sides, and at least Marcell’s dad was smart enough to keep the land my father lost. Well, I bought it, but no one knew why.
The land my father bought was up against the base of the mountain, with pretty much a straight cliff on one side. In fact, part of the house now had a wall in the main living area that was the side of the mountain. Too much noise could easily cause rocks to shift, so I had to be careful.
Of my two homes, though, this was far smaller, being nothing more than two rooms that both had a connecting ensuite bathroom to it.
I had redone it, thinking of my mother, of maybe her wanting to move back, but after a while, I knew she wouldn’t.
Minutes later, I pulled up to the house, parking under some trees.
“Holy crap, not only is this area beautiful, Roman, but it’s hard to see,” she said, climbing out of the car.
“When the house was here,” I told her, pulling her to my side to show her, “it was further down the way, still at the base of the mountain, but it was clearly visible. When I re-built it, I said I had to hide it. So, I used the land, the cliff, and the mountain, to do everything for me.
“Come on in,” I told her, leading her into the house.
She looked around, her jaw dropping at how simple yet open it was, as I had nothing but floor to ceiling windows surrounding the house.
“Blinds come down to block out the sun, or anything else,” I mentioned, showing her to her room. “There’s a sliding glass door that leads to a balcony, but please watch your step.”
She frowned until I slid open the door, showing her that she was on the back side of the house, and if she happened to lean too far over the railing, she was going sky diving without a parachute.
“You could kill yourself if you were drunk,” she muttered and I couldn’t help but laugh, because that was true. But then, I hardly drank to that point anyway.
“I guess liquor won’t be something you partake too much of, huh?”
“You make me want to drink though,” she tossed back and I shrugged. “Roman?”
“Yes?”
“How did you end up with my uncle?” she asked, sitting on the bed.
“I was signed over to work for the family. My dad thought it wise to work for both the Russian and Italian mobs. One day, he got a little too far in with Marcell’s dad. Your uncle found out and told my dad that he had better figure out a way to pay him back otherwise it was his life.
“The best thought he had was to sign me over. I grew up with Marcell, even if I was Russian. We were good friends and your uncle; he never treated me any differently. Had he me working just like all the other men under his care. I don’t regret it, though.
“Being with your uncle was far better than being with the Russian’s. They would have had no problems taking their anger out on me, even as a kid.”
“I never knew the story.”
