Page 85 of Urgent Vows
"I'm glad to have met you all," I say to the men still standing around me. "Thank you for telling me about yourselves and I hope you will allow me to get to know you better as we spend more time together."
The men all reply in different ways, but all of them in the affirmative. Then Aldo tells the other three that they can go.
"You're staying with me?" I ask.
"I will be with you from after breakfast until dinner six days a week."
"That means you'll work nine to ten hours a day with only one day off a week. Isn't that against labor laws, or something?"
He laughs. "I'm a made man, not a corporate drone. We have our own laws in the mafia."
"But what about when you get married? Your wife won't want you working so much. Even if you are a made man."
"When things get serious enough for me to ask a woman to marry me, I'll be removed as the lead on your security detail."
"What?" I don't like the sound of that. "Why?"
Change is not a big part of my life, or at least it hasn't been until now. And I already know it's not something I'm going to embrace when it comes to the people I spend a lot of time with.
"Your primary bodyguard needs to be able to put your life above anyone else's. Even the don's."
"What about your vow?"
"I would die for Don Severu, but I would not place his life above yours because my vow to him means I execute the duties he gives me without failing."
"And he assigned you to keep me alive."
"Yes."
"Is it the same for all dons' wives?" I wonder out loud.
"If they are assigned a personal bodyguard, yes. But usually only one bodyguard is tasked with that level of loyalty to their charge. Your husband has tasked everyone on the team with your personal safety."
"You said they'll guard the house and Aria sometimes."
"Regardless of where they are working, if it is a choice between your life and anyone else's, yours comes first."
My heart is racing and I'm finding it difficult to breathe. I don't know why. All of this talk of death? Or is it that I know there are ten people assigned specifically to protect me when I have spent the last fifteen years without a single person I could trust to do that?
"Are you alright, Signora Severu?"
"Please call me Catalina," I gasp out. "I'm fine." But it's a lie.
"Do you need to lie down?" he asks.
I shake my head. Then through the archway into the living room I see the edge of the piano I noticed this afternoon when we were in there talking. I head towards it.
Situated near the windows in a section of the room that is raised above the rest, the white lacquer Steinway grand piano is a beacon. Playing has always helped me deal with the chaos of emotion.
I climb the two steps and cross the floor before settling myself on the tufted velvet piano bench. There is a harp to one side and chairs similar to those in the lower area of the living room arranged in three conversational groupings. It's like a music room, but made part of the main living space.
Someone in the De Luca family tree loved music like I do.
Right now, I don't care who that was. I just want to play.
Running my fingers lightly over the keys, I play a scale to check if the piano is tuned. It is and my tight muscles relax just a little, my heart beating not quite so fast. I begin with the song I always do withLa Campanella. It sooths me and I can feel my breaths even out, my heart rate settle and the tension leave my shoulders.
Then, because the only one here is Aldo, I allow myself to indulge in one of the songs I composed.
