Fifteen

 

 

Giovanni

I storm out of the room, pissed. Pissed at Aria for wanting me. Pissed at myself for wanting her. Pissed at the world, knowing we could never work. Even more pissed at Cecilia for putting it in Aria’s head that she should work here. I slam my office door behind me and slouch into my office chair. I stare at the computer screen for several minutes, not focusing on anything when there’s a knock on my door.

“I’m busy!” I growl. The door opens and in walks Johnny. “I said I’m fucking busy.”

“Too busy to hear that Aria has been pulled over by the police?” Did I just hear him correctly?

“What the fuck did you just say?” I’m already grabbing my wallet and cellphone, and heading out the door.

“They pulled her over for speeding.” I turn around when I hear a hint of laughter in his voice.

“And why is this funny?”

“She was driving your Lambo. Doing over a hundred miles per hour.” He has the sense to hide his grin. “They pulled up your plate and called me immediately wanting to let you know. They are holding her at the station until you can get there.”

“Jesus fucking Christ!” I get to my garage and sure enough my goddamned Lamborghini is missing. While the car isn’t my most expensive, it’s sure as fuck my favorite! Of course, that’s the car she would steal. I grab the keys to the BMW and jump in as Johnny gets in on the passenger side.

We ride in silence for the first few minutes until Johnny says, “Cici told me Aria might be working here.”

“Over my dead body.” It feels like I’ve said that same sentence a dozen damn times in the past twenty-four hours.

“What do you care?” he challenges. “You’ve said for years, you don’t want to settle down. Have you changed your mind?”

“She’s fucking better than this shit.” I see Johnny shake his head out of the corner of my eye. “What?”

“You have never been ashamed of this life.”

“And I’m not. But it’s not a life for her. She’s good. She’s been through too much.” And that’s the goddamned truth. Getting to know Aria, there’s so much more to her. She’s the bright in a world full of dark. She sees the good in everything. She’s been through more shit than anyone I know, but it doesn’t bring her down. A weaker person would be in the corner licking their wounds. But not Aria, she chooses to see the roses in a pasture filled with shit. Chooses to stand tall and face the world head on. It would be so easy for her to play the woe-is-me card but she doesn’t. She takes what life has thrown at her and moves forward.

“Speaking of which, before I got the call from the cops, I was coming to tell you we got into the safes. They were exactly where she said they would be. A bunch of papers and contracts. But you won’t believe this. Her birth certificate. The name under father. Angelo Moretti.”

My head jerks toward Johnny, the car jerking as well but I straighten it out quickly. “The real estate conglomerate from New York?” And then it hits me. “Holy shit!”

“You thinking what I’m thinking?”

“I sure as fuck hope we are both wrong.”

“That Aria’s boyfriend being related to the man who was business partners with her alleged father isn’t a coincidence.”

“How long ago was he killed?”

“I looked it up. Only eight months before Aria’s mom was killed in the car accident.”

“If Angelo was Aria’s dad, that would make her his heir if he recognized her, which he clearly did according to her birth certificate. She would be worth millions. So where the fuck is all the money?”

“And that’s the million-dollar question, my friend.”

We pull into the police station where I see my two-million-dollar limited edition Lamborghini sitting in a parking spot. Johnny chuckles under his breath as we get out.

We walk inside and Dan Mills, the chief of police—who is also a member at my club—gratis, of course—greets us and walks us back. “Dan, thank you for calling me before taking any legal action. I can handle it from here.”

“Sounds good, Giovanni. She’s lucky one of my guys pulled her over, otherwise she would be behind bars right now for driving reckless and your car would be impounded. She was clocked at doing one-oh-five in a fifty.”

“I can assure you this won’t happen again.” We shake hands and Dan opens the door to the small interrogation room where Aria is sitting with her arms crossed over her chest. Even being faced with reckless driving, she sits there tough as nails, ready to take on the world.

“Hey Johnny, can you drive the Lambo home? I’ll drive Aria back with me.”

He agrees and heads back up to the front with Dan. I stand in the doorway for a few seconds watching Aria without saying anything and thinking about my conversation with Johnny in the car on our way over here. Have I changed my mind about wanting to settle down? No. Not until I look at Aria that is, and then as clear as day, I can see an entire future with this woman. Her light shining down on my dark, illuminating my world. But am I going to act on those feelings? No. Aria will never understand this life, and just like her dad stayed away because of the dangers, that’s what I will do as well. Locked up in my house, it’s easy to create a bubble for us. But outside those walls is reality, and bringing Aria into my life… my reality, isn’t what’s best for her.

“Did you have a nice drive?” I step into the room.

“You have a fast car.” She looks up at me, her eyes filled with unshed tears.

“No shit. It better be for what it cost. Where were you going in such a rush?”

Aria shrugs, a solemn tear falling down her cheek. “Trying to run, I guess.”

I sit down across from her. “From what?”

“My life.”

“Is it that bad living with me?”

“No. I just…” Aria swipes her tears away and stares at the ceiling, trying to keep herself from letting any more tears fall. Her head shakes back and forth and then she looks me dead in the eyes, her eyes filled to the brim. “I just want…fuck! Gio…” She swipes another fallen tear “…I just want for once to make my own decisions. My entire life has been based on everyone else. I didn’t know my dad by his choice. I didn’t know about him by my mom’s choice. I went to the school Weston insisted on because he was paying. I even had to lie about my major because photography wasn’t an acceptable career goal. My mom made me change my last name. She moved Weston in without asking me.”

“What do you want, Aria?” I hold my breath, wondering if she will say me, unsure if I will be able to resist her if she does.

She stares at me for a few moments before she closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, and swallows thickly. She opens her eyes and says, “To be independent. I want to work at La Stella’s.”

There’s a fork in the road. I can go left and tell her no. Tell her I want her and want to try to settle down. Or I can go right. Tell her ok and lose her before I’ve even had her. My heart says to go left but my head says to go right. Her working for me will mean she’s off limits. It will mean she’s safe from the life I live and I know it’s the choice I must make. “Ok. If you want to work at La Stella’s I won’t stop you.”

She doesn’t smile. She doesn’t say a word. She simply nods and stands up then walks out the door, and fuck if my heart doesn’t feel like I just made the wrong choice. Like she’s not just walking out of this room but out of my life.

We ride home in silence and once we get up to the room, she begins to pack her stuff. “What are you doing?” I begin to panic. There’s no way she’s leaving.

“Escorts sleep on the second floor.”

“So what? You sleep in here.” I grab her clothes from her hands, not wanting to come to terms with the fact that I’ve pushed her away. That I’ve made my bed and now I have to lie in it… alone.

She takes the clothes back and sets them on the bed. “I’m going to be staying on the second floor, Giovanni. Sierra and Natalie said I can room with them.”

I watch as she continues to pack. She’s only moving one floor down but it feels like she’s moving across the fucking continent. I don’t help her. She comes in and out of the room several times, taking all her stuff and I just sit here—frozen—unsure of how to fix this. When she’s finally done, she closes the door behind her and I sit in my same spot, staring at nothing, as my heart feels like it’s been ripped from my fucking chest, knowing this is the way it needs to be.

For the next several days I drown myself in work and finding out about Aria’s biological father. Most nights I sleep on my office couch, not wanting to go back to my room, not wanting to accept that Aria is gone.

I stay away from the main area. Cecilia updated me that Aria is being trained but I told her I don’t want to know anything. She doesn’t update me on the other girls, so there’s no reason to update me on Aria.

My phone rings and it’s a New York area code. “Hello.”

“Giovanni Valentino?”

“Yes, who’s this?”

“This is Anthony Torino. My assistant has told me you have called looking for me. What can I do for you?”

“I think it’s best we meet in person.” That way I can look him in the eye when I threaten him.

“Ok, well I’m assuming since you want this meeting you will be flying out to New York.” Smart guy… he wants the home court advantage but a true player knows it’s not where you play but how you play and I’ll win at this game no matter where we are. Game on, fucker.

I check my calendar. “I can be there the day after tomorrow.” We confirm the time and location before hanging up.

“Are you going to tell Aria?” Johnny asks, sitting across from me.

“I’m going to bring her with me.”