Page 68 of Vow of Darkness
I squeeze his hand and he squeezes it back. “It’s a start.”
“Thank you,” I say to Gabriel on the drive home. “For letting me see him. I would like to see him at least once a week.”
“I can do once a week.”
“Good,” I breathe out. “That means a lot.”
“I’m starting to see that the tighter I hold onto you, the more I push you away. I want you in my life, Aurora. I know that. So if letting you see your father makes you want to stay with me, then I’ll give you that.” His eyes flick to mine and back to the road. “I want to see you happy.”
“I want to see you happy too. I don’t like how much anger you’re holding onto for Giovanni. I’m worried it’s going to break you.”
He barks out a laugh. “I have been dealing with it just fine on my own for a long time.”
“Gabriel, you hide yourself away in that house. You can’t deny it. Maybe going after Giovanni isn’t the answer.”
“You’re new to the life of the mafia. Giovanni needs to die at some point. He will come after me, or worse he’ll come after you, and then I will have to fight him. I found him before but I was reckless. The next time I find him, I won’t be so reckless again. He’ll get what’s coming to him.”
“Ok,” I whisper. I know Gabriel isn’t ready to move on from Giovanni and I understand it, given the horrible things Giovanni did to him and his family. “I just wish that you would choose to be happy. I think you’d feel a lot more free.”
“I’m happy with you.”
His admission catches me off guard. “You are?”
“I am.”
I let Gabriel’s words settle in my heart where a warmth begins to spread.
I find Gabriel playing the piano in the middle of the night. He had to leave for work after my meetup with my father and I haven’t seen him since.
But I woke up to the sound of music and found him in the large ballroom, playing the piano, all alone. The notes are haunting and sweeping. The look on his face is that of pain.
I feel like I’m intruding on something I shouldn’t but I can’t get my feet to move.
“I know you’re there,” Gabriel says, still playing the piano. I startle and then walk into the room, my face on fire.
“Sorry. I heard you playing.”
“I got home late. I saw you were asleep and I didn’t want to disturb you. So I came in here.”
Tentatively, I approach the piano. “You play beautifully. When did you learn?”
“When I was a teenager. From Giovanni, in fact.” His fingers slam into the keys. “He thought a proper boy should know how to play the piano. He set me up for success and didn’t even know I was coming for him.”
“You tried to attack him, you said. What went wrong?”
“When I was twenty. I thought I could kill him but I looked into his eyes and found I couldn’t move. It’s haunted me every day since. And then his men descended upon me and Giovanni tortured me for days. I managed to escape and I haven’t found him since then. Well, I did find him a few weeks ago but I missed my chance at killing him. I’ll have to try again.”
“Do you know any happy songs?”
“A few but Giovanni always insisted I play the sad ones. He thought it built character.” He scoffs. “Giovanni was made out of bullshit.”
I grab one of his hands and wrap mine around it. “Thank you for letting me in.”
He lets out a shaky breath. “I have to admit… it feels good to let someone in. It makes my shoulders not feel as heavy.”
“That’s good.” I study his strong, large hand.
“You like what you see?”
