Page 94 of Taboo Flames
With everything that just happened, I think it’s time some truths were shared between Gio and me. I don’t want to spend more time second-guessing our relationship. We both could have died today, and he would have never known what he meant to me.
“But I knew you were coming for me. That’s the only thing that kept me sane,” I add.
He presses a kiss to the top of my head. “I’ll always come for you, princess, but it doesn’t mean you should make a habit of running off in the dead of night without informing me or the men I put in place to keep you safe.”
I wince. “I know, I know. It was stupid of me. I put myself at risk all because of a stupid text.”
He frowns at me. “What text?”
I blink up at him innocently, hoping it will lessen his anger at me. “Well,” I drawl, “I received a text from an unknown number promising me information about you. In my defense, if you weren’t so tight-lipped about yourself, I wouldn’t have been so easily tempted.”
He sighs loudly and exasperatedly. “Next time you are tempted, tell me.”
“You’ll only try to stop me and thwart my efforts.” I cross my arms stubbornly.
Gio gives me a hard look, and after a few beats, I relent and huff. “Fine, I won’t run off like that again.”
“Good girl.”
My heart melts like ice cream on a hot summer day, and at the same time, heat washes through me.
“I love you, Gio,” I rush to say before I can change my mind about telling him. “And I believe you have feelings for me too, and I don’t care how long it takes you to admit it. I’m in for the long haul.”
He’s quiet for a while after my admission. Then, he mutters, “When I stood before Giordano, and he told me I was just like him, I was struck by the thought that maybe I was.”
“You’re not,” I snap. “You’re nothing like that monster.”
“I know,” he says quietly. “My primary motivation hasn’t been ambition for a while now. It’s been keeping you safe and happy.”
“Oh, Gio,” I sigh with a smile.
He wraps my hair loosely around his fist. "Giordano was good for me in the sense that he gave me what I needed at a time in my life when I was full of gaping holes. Those feelings of grief, hurt, and abandonment? He took them all away. He gave me a purpose and taught me that this world we live in is a survival of the fittest.”
“He should have let you grieve. You deserved to grieve.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” he says, shrugging. “Anyway, it’s all in the past now. Thinking about it now and knowing what I now know, Giordano took advantage of me. All my life, he was the monster in the closet wearing the face of a friend.”
He sighs, and there is no anger in his voice when he speaks, just a deep sadness that he doesn’t bother trying to hide. “I used to be proud of what he made me into. A killing machine. I was his trump card, killing mercilessly in his name. He gave me names on pieces of paper, and I didn’t ask questions. I just went in, butchered his enemies quickly and quietly, and got out before anyone was the wiser.”
I stare at him with wide eyes as he keeps on talking.
“They called me Giordano’s reaper. Women and children, I killed them without batting an eyelid. I can only wonder how many innocents died at my hands,” he mutters, looking down at said hands.
“You didn’t know,” I say softly.
“I didn’t care,” he replies brokenly.
“You were used and manipulated by a man who was the source of all your misfortune in the first place,” I insist. “You were just a child when he took you in and molded you into what he wanted.”
“You don’t understand,” he says with chagrin. “I was weak, and I was being bullied by Salvador and his boys?—”
“The one you—” I trail off.
“Yes, Aurora,” he says slowly, his gaze searching mine. “The one I beat to death in the parking lot. I’ve done a lot worse, baby. I should never have touched you with these filthy hands.”
I cup his much larger hands in mine and look at him steadily. “I see you, Giovanni. I see all the dark corners of you, and I want you anyway.”
He shakes his head. “You don’t mean that.”