Her gaze searched his and he didn’t flinch. Didn’t look away from her. He was willing to strip himself bare for her. For this one woman, he would be whatever she needed. Do whatever she needed. There would never be another in his world. He waited for the verdict. His mouth had gone dry and blood thundered in his ears. He had faced death a million times and it had never felt like this.
“You’d do that for me?”
It was her tone more than her question that gave away the fact that she realized the enormity of what he offered. Holding her gaze, he nodded slowly. “I think it’s necessary, Giacinta, for both of us. Do I want you to see inside of me? Hell no. Hell no. But you have to know, not think, that you can count on me. We have to be closer than any two people have ever been. I’m willing to risk everything for a chance at keeping you. A few days of you thinking about what your uncle did and your trust factor is going to hit zero. I don’t want to be a casualty of the inevitable.”
“There’s a part of me that wants to pack up and run home to hide on the farm,” Lissa admitted. She leaned into him and rubbed her forehead against his shoulder. “But I can’t do that. I don’t have the kind of personality that would ever allow me not to know the truth and then do something about it. I can’t leave the Sorbacovs’ threat hanging over us either, not when I know I have the best chance of anyone of getting close to them. As for my uncle and Arturo, if they really were part of the murders of my parents and all the people who worked for us, then I would never be able to live with myself if I didn’t do something about that as well.”
“Malyshka, you have to think hard about that. I’m willing to take them out, but if circumstances dictate otherwise, could you do it? You have to know that before you put yourself in harm’s way.”
She didn’t answer right away. She kept her head down, pressed against his shoulder so he could no longer look into her eyes. He ran his hands down her back, along her spine, down to the curve of her waist and the indentation at the small of her back. The longer he spent in her company, the stronger he felt the bond between them.
“I’ve been going over my childhood, so many things that didn’t make sense that add up now.” She lifted her head and met his gaze.
His belly knotted. His arms tightened, trying to surround her with his strength. He wanted to shelter her next to his heart, the feeling of tenderness nearly overwhelming him. Simultaneously, he wanted to rip out her uncle’s heart and feed it to him. He wouldn’t mind spending a few hours making the man’s life unbearable until he begged for death. The two emotions warred with each other, and he worried that she would see that in him as well.
“He doesn’t have multiple sclerosis. That’s why he wouldn’t allow my father to talk to his doctor, or for me to ever see him ill. He went into his wing of the house and left to go to his family. I had to study night and day. Languages, reading maps, everything that could possibly help me along with my regular studies. Every type of weapons training and styles of martial arts, boxing and street fighting. I didn’t play with dolls or watch television, not unless it was a training exercise. All the while, he ranted about going after those responsible and how no law would ever bring them to justice. All along I thought I was the patient one, insisting we go slow and make everything look like an accident, but looking back at the conversations, he led me in that direction.”
Casimir nodded. He was certain her uncle had the patience to carry out a long-term plan to reach his ultimate goal, which was to be the sole power of both families. Luigi wouldn’t have been able to take over both families immediately. If Aldo Porcelli and his father had been killed right away, even his wife would have suspected him. By slowly reducing the old guard, and then going after the men in charge, Luigi had positioned himself, over time, to be the natural choice for head of the family. He would have had to plant the necessary lies in his niece’s mind in order to make her think it was all her own idea.
“He sometimes sent me to boarding schools. Not for very long, but he said it was to gain an insight into other people. It never made sense to me. I was with other children. Gaining insights to how a child’s mind worked didn’t seem as if it was going to help me later down the road. Of course he was with his family during those times. It was his idea that I go to the States. Again, he needed me out of the way.”
“You’re intelligent, Giacinta. He couldn’t take the chance that you might see or hear something he didn’t want you to. You trusted him implicitly, but he still didn’t dare chance it.”