The footage ends and Guido slowly hands the recording back to me. “You were telling the truth.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Those men, who were they?”
“I’m looking into it, sir.”
“Thank you for saving her.” Guido finally sets his gun down. “These are dangerous times. I can’t express how important this deal is with the Irish. Without Aerin, I have nothing. Do you understand?”
“I do, sir.” I understand that heruntouchedstatus is more important than her life. What a horrible cage to be trapped in.
“Your wages will be docked as punishment for losing her.” Guido sinks down into his heavy leather chair and picks up his glass.
“That’s all?” Giacomo snaps, finally finding his voice again. “You saw what happened!”
“I did,” Guido snaps. “But any other punishment delivered to Falco will be detrimental to his ability to protect Aerin, so as it stands docked wages are the limit.”
“You can’t be serious!” Giacomo throws one hand in the air. “He’s lost her! She nearly died under his care and?—”
“How did you know she had been attacked?” I ask quietly.
Giacomo’s dark eyes slide to mine, glowering. “She called me last night in tears and told me what happened.”
Is that why she was so quiet last night? She turned to the one person she feels she can still trust.
I remain silent, studying Giacomo until Guido waves me away. “Thank you for clearing that up, Falco.”
“Of course, sir.” I duck my head and retreat from the room while mulling the situation over in my mind.
Aerin’s arranged marriage to that Irish prick feels like nothing more than a show Guido is trying to put on, and his words confirm it.
The marriage barely matters.
The ceremony is only for show to warn Guido’s enemies away.
The real prize here is, apparently, her virginity. Guido’s looks of relief while watching that video will haunt me.
There wasn’t even a hint of distress at his daughter’s fate in that footage. All that mattered to him is that she wasn’t raped.
No wonder Aerin acts out and pushes at me for attention. No wonder she threw herself at me looking for affection.
No one here cares about her.
Her room is empty when I return.
Through messaging the guard I left her with, I find Aerin out in the garden curled up on a bench overlooking the small koi pond with a book in her hand.
She’s subdued as I approach and doesn’t even look up while I dismiss the guard and slowly sit next to her.
“Aerin. I’ll just get right into it. I had to show your father the footage from your attack.”
“What?” Aerin surges forward as if my words activated a switch inside her. The book slips slightly in her grip. “Are you insane? Why the hell would you do something like that?”
“Aerin—”
“No! How dare you? You didn’t even want me to see that footage, but you show it to my dad like it’s some kind of weird movie? What the fuck is wrong with you? I thought you were supposed to be on my side!”
Crimson flares across her cheeks and her eyes, wide and wild, dart rapidly back and forth between mine.
