My fingers relaxed.
But only a fraction.
“Well?” I demanded.
Hurt washed across his pretty face. “Liam…how could you ask that?”
“Answer,” I snapped.
Connor lifted his hands in surrender. “You’re the boss,” he whispered.
“Then watch my wife.” I let him go.
Chapter 37 – Gabriella
He didn’t come.
For the last few months, I lived for these Tuesdays, and he didn’t come. I tried not to panic as I put my journal back in the book bag. I was more careful about what I wrote, knowing that Liam read every word.
But just because he knew, didn’t make me want to stop. Call it sick or twisted, but I liked having this direct line of communication to the mobster. Maybe my written words could convince him that I didn’t abhor his scarred visage. That it was becoming impossible for me to stop the hurt the idea of ending things with him gave me. Of course, I didn’t tell him I was leaving, but I did convey that I had real feelings for him. Today, I recorded the garish details of the bonfire as if they were the scene in a fantasy romance novel. I called the mobsters fae and recounted in great detail how the unseelie king was crowned. It was fun…until I lost myself to the words and realized ninety minutes had passed.
I was sunbaked and scared as I walked out of the park with my guards. They didn’t protest when I took the left and not theright at the four-way stop. We crossed the road and wandered down a few residential streets. I tried to make it seem like a pleasure stroll, when in reality my heart beat a mile a minute and I couldn’t think straight.
What if something happened?
It’s okay, maybe they took a vacation.
Normal families did that. They traveled. They spent time with friends and relatives out of state. Not that I’d ever experienced that. Papa bitched about plane fair, and what a waste it would be on a half dozen ungrateful girls. And that was before the younger sisters were born.
I stopped in front of a brownstone. Acting like I had a stone in my shoe, I waved off Finn who looked concerned despite the splotchy red patches on his skin and sweat streaming down his face.
Sitting on a raised bed of city flowers that decorated the sidewalk, I unlaced the shoe—and looked.
The blinds were open.
In the brief seconds I waited, a figure passed in front of the window. She carried a writhing lump that was redder than Finn, and I could almost hear the infant’s scream despite the glass.
O, grazie dio.
My heart ached. The way the woman held the babe made the child thrash. I would have wrapped him tight, snuggled him close. The ghost of the unknown touch tormented my arms.
That woman needed help.
The husband was never there. He should be there. The mother and child needed him, but the one time I saw him, I knew he was such a piece of work.
“Missus? Everything alright?” Finn broke my tangle of thoughts.
I jumped. “Fine! No stone.”
I shoved the shoe back on and forced myself to stand. Every instinct in my body raged that I was needed inside that house. But for the child’s sake, I made myself walk away.
I died a little more inside, but I did it.
Tears sprang to my eyes as we wandered back to Liam’s gated property. There would only be one outcome, no matter what I chose. My heart was splintered. If I left Liam, that fracture would never heal. And the same was true if I stayed.
“Dio sopra, am I really considering choosing between them?” I asked under my breath.
When it came to this fork in the road, it was hard to say. But I was here. The time to choose my path was fast approaching. Liam might never forgive me if I stayed with him. The distance between us the past few days said as much. As we passed through the gate, Storm came bounding down the driveway, where he’d been playing with the guards who’d stayed behind to monitor the property. I bent and smooshed my face in his, despite the wriggles. Yes, Liam was a dangerous choice, but he was a future I never dreamed I could have.
