Page 5 of Stealing Her Heart
Telling him a silly little girl dream about wanting to get drunk at a local bar, I am smiling wide. I never get to talk about myself. Unless I am fighting for something I want, I hold my tongue. Before this engagement was announced, I did not want for much.
Getting drunk at a bar with friends. Hell, having friends. Going out to dance in a country bar. Sit on the beach from sunrise to sunset. Little things I was never allowed to do. All I ever put up a fight for was my Sunday’s. After church, I begged for a little freedom. It was never anything big. Just me being by myself for a few hours.
I find myself wanting to tell Gabriel about my Sunday’s. About what I do when I get to be alone. And I wonder if he has a ritual like that. Just a simple thing that he likes to do for himself. Something that reminds him that he is human and imperfect in the way he was meant to be. Before I can, he is telling me to head inside, ending the reprieve he had given me.
Back inside, I cannot stop thinking about him. I don’t even mind Santino keeping his gorilla grip on me for the rest of the night. I smile, I greet the others, and I pretend I am going to go along with this sham. I am not, of course. I could never say yes to a man who doesn’t ask me about my dreams.
Now that I know men like Gabriel exist, I think I ought to hold out for a man like that. One who does ask about my dreams.
Chapter Three
Gabriel
Sleep has never been a close friend of mine.
It was hard to sleep growing up. During my youth, some of the families were at war, fighting over their borough lines and who deserved what. My father was often gone with his soldiers, so I felt obligated to take care of my mother and two sisters. From an early age, I took care of the women in my life, and nothing about that has changed.
Both of my sisters, Dita and Sabin, had a constant bodyguard with them from the time they were in junior high. They may not have liked it, but they allowed it. We’ve always been close. While they don’t love the life, they understand it and have found their place in our world.
Now another woman will find her place in my world. Because after just one night, just a few moments of one night, there is no way in hell I am letting Gianna out of my sight. It was hard to let her go back to Santino that night, but it was too soon to blow things up.
“Boss, she has a guard,” Dario argues with me over plates of my mama’s meatballs and ziti.
Glaring at him as I sip some vino, I shake my head. “Not good enough. Her guard works for her father—that means he is inept. I want one of my men with her. Is this going to be an issue, Dario?”
Shaking his head at my question, he puts his hands up. “No, boss. I have zero issue with you pissing on a princess that ain’t yours.”
Dario grins as he shoves a huge saucy meatball in his big mouth. I laugh despite his challenging words. He does not mean them. He knows me better than anyone else. Even better than my sisters. I would not be asking this, demanding it, if it was not important to me.
I never do things just for the sake of it. This is not about riling up the other families. Not about stepping on Santino Marconi’s toes. I could not care less about how this affects any of them. This is about me. It is about me and Gianna, and what comes next for us.
Since the engagement party, she is all I can think about. I am going mad. I have spent all my waking moments finding out all I can about her. Dario thinks I am being reckless, but he hasn’t dared try to stop me. Even when I began following her the day after the party.
At first I told myself I just had to be sure she was safe. That Santino was not hurting her. I sat outside her father’s house for hours that first day. I was about to storm the place and drag her out of there. Then she came out. It was a Sunday and something about her seemed…free. At ease.
They attended church at the same place my family has gone for years. How has this goddess been just a few pews down from me all this time? If I were not so focused on taking care of business for my father, I would have found her before Santino ever had a chance.
After mass, she broke off from her mother and father to my surprise. Cutting through the church courtyard, she hailed a cab. We followed, confused when it stopped at a park on the edge of town. Gianna sat on a battered park bench with a book for hours, reading in complete peace.
All she wanted was some peace, something she was not allowed.
“It will be done, Gabriel. Whatever your reason, I do not need to know. I will just do as I am told to. We’ll have someone on her within the hour.”
“I cannot let anything happen to her,” I stress, putting down my fork as my hand starts to tremble.
I’ve been a wreck in the days since we met. That day at the park, we left her alone because I knew it was what she wanted. Dario let me know she walked home at dusk, happy as a lark, no bodyguard in sight. He also learned that she has run off half a dozen times, just for her father to drag her back. Just thinking about her out there on her own, with no one to protect her, no one to save her from herself, it drives me mad.
That night at the party, I was meant to go in, drop some good wishes and some cash, and be done. I had even thought how I would never have to host that sort of night. No wife or kids for me, I had thought. Just like that, everything in my mind has been rearranged.
“We won’t, Gabriel. Calm down. How far we taking this?”
“I am not sure yet, Dario. I need to…I need to see her again.”
“Boss, we’ve been following your little princess all over town. You have been seeing her,” he reminds me as he takes a sip of wine.
“Who have you followed?” Dita chimes in as she takes a seat beside me, pressing a kiss on my cheek.
Dario makes a plate for her, shaking his head at her as they exchange a look. They have always had secrets, those two. They know me best, but I don’t know if I can explain to my sister what I am going through. How I have had a complete reversal of behavior after meeting Gianna.
