Page 92 of Dangerous Games

I wish so badly I could take away what he’s feeling, but I can’t. I can tell he’s trying to act like nothing is wrong for my sake, but his body is wound tight. His jaw is tense. His eyes are hard. And to anyone else, his tone sounds like normal Gio. But to me it sounds like he’s covering up the monster.

“So that’s why nothing hurts and I feel like I’m riding a fluffy cloud.”

“Yeah, baby, that’s why nothing hurts.”

“I’m okay, Gio.”

Gio sighs heavily. “Yeah, thank fuck you’re okay.”

“Come here,” I tell him. I want him lying beside me. Not sitting beside me like I’m fragile and he’s scared to touch me.

“I’m right here.”

“No, here.” I pat the bed. “Lie down.”

“Bronwyn…” Gio trails off. He looks conflicted. “You need to rest. I need to call Aldo in to check on you now that you’re awake.”

“Just lie with me for a minute.”

“This doesn’t bode well for my future,” Gio grumbles as he moves to carefully lie down.

“What doesn’t?”

“The ability to not say no to you.”

I laugh lightly. “You say no to me all the time.”

Gio carefully settles in next to me but doesn’t place his arm around me. It’s then that I notice a bandage around his bicep that has me tensing.

“What happened to your arm?”

“Don’t worry about it.” Gio brushes me off.

“Gio,” I say, my tone sounding tired with a hint of desperation for him to just spit it out.

His eyes find mine. “Just a small graze. Nothing I haven’t experienced before, and it probably won’t be the last. I’ll live.”

Great.

Because that sounds good.

The meds Aldo has pumping through my IV have me floating on my own fluffy cloud because I can’t find it in me to argue with him.

“Is he gone?” I ask after a moment of silence. I can barely hear my own voice.

“Yeah, cara, he’s gone.” Gio answers like he’s delivering me a blow he doesn’t want to.

I’m sure he’s expecting me to break down and be mad to the point I’ll never forgive him for what he did, but all I feel is relief. Relief because I’ll never have to worry about what’s coming next with dad. It might have taken my entire life to realize he never gave a shit about me, but I’m glad I did before he died. In a weird way, it gave me a sense of closure.

“Good,” I tell him, my tone firm.

Gio’s mouth opens and closes as he second-guesses how he’s going to respond. “You say that now, cara, but there’s going to come a time when it hits you and it won’t be a good thing. It might not be today or tomorrow, but it’s going to happen. But when it hits you, I’ll be by your side every step of the way. You need to know that I’m the man who has your father’s blood on their hands. You need to know who is going to be sleeping in your bed every night. I won’t have that cloud of darkness lingering over us the rest of our lives. This is the only time I’m going to give you an out, so if you think you won’t be able to live with knowing that, you need to let me know now.”

The drugs are making it hard to wrap my head around what he’s saying, but there’s one thing I know.

I’m not leaving him.

Why would I leave a man who will kill for me if someone so much as looks at me the wrong way?