“Why?”
This was a conversation that was easily diverted from when Scarlett wasn’t as wise. Now, she was getting to the hard questions.
Sal and I stayed quiet.
Her jaw locked. “Why did they have my mother? Why was I with them?”
I rubbed a palm over the scruff of my short beard. “Scarlett, there are certain questions your family must be the ones to answer—”
She quickly stood and slammed her hands on the table. “My name is Scar! And I am tired of hearing about a family I don’t know! Where are they?”
How could I tell her that one or more of them wanted her dead because he or they wanted the money she didn’t even know how to spend yet.
When we said nothing, she side-swiped her plate and silverware. They went soaring then crashed into a wall. “You took me from the only family I knew!”
As right as she was, I grabbed my chest because it felt like I’d been stabbed. “They were cruel to you.”
“That was only because I was misbehaving!”
I cringed. “How on Earth were you misbehaving?”
“I fought back when they wanted sex with me.”
Scarlett had learned that word when a sex scene had come on the TV and Sal or I had quickly changed the channel. My stomach soured that night when she told me it was fucking, not sex. And that she was fucked often. Since then, I had done all I could to avoid questions like these.
At the dining room table, I swallowed. “They should have never punished you for saying no.”
She slammed her hands on the table again. “How do you know? You grew up in a different environment, remember?”
Scarlett stormed out of the dining room, leaving me speechless and tormented.
Since stowing away in the mountains with this Giordano had never been a contingency plan, I wasn’t sure how much we were allowed to answer. Did Scarlett’s grandfather truly want her to ever know that he was to blame for her mother’s abduction? That a deal had gone wrong and her mother paid the price, in turn making Scarlett’s own life a living nightmare?
“It’s time for the talk, Angelo.”
Still at the table, I threw my hands up in the air. “And say what? What is allowed?”
Sal, also seeming defeated, told me, “They are not the ones here dealing with her. I say they lost a vote. It is only you and me. We need to do what’s best for her. And that is being honest—”
I growled, “No.”
“She has a right to know what her ‘fathers’ did to her.”
“I said no.”
“Not discussing it will not make her past disappear.” He took a sip of his red wine.
“Stop speaking to me as if I’m not aware of that.”
He took a folded napkin from his lap and set it next to his plate. “Then let’s speak about what else is going on. Another subject you want to stay in denial about.”
“Stop it,” I warned as I tossed my own napkin.
“You have fallen for her.”
“Have not.” I pushed my plate forward for some space. I had. I knew I had, yet felt if it wasn’t spoken out loud, I still had a chance of reversing my feelings.
Casually, he leaned back in his chair. “And you’re still falling. Every day, you are more in love with her.”
“Sal, you are seconds from me punching you.”
“If that will help you face the facts, so be it.”
“Why do you keep pushing for something that can never be?”
“Because she deserves your beautiful love.”
I winced. “I don’t offer that.”
“Every. Fucking. Day. You do. And she knows it. And she wants it.”
“We have no idea what she wants. She doesn’t even know.”
“You’re wrong. On both accounts.”
I was. Scarlett was very intelligent and getting more so every passing day. “Fine, you want me to admit my feelings for her?”
“Yes.”
“Then what? Act on it? Openly give her my heart so that her grandfather can shred it? How do you think she will survive my murder?”
“Angelo—”
I stood. “No. We’re not attending some sort of teenage summer camp here. We are dealing with real life. We are dealing with a very powerful family. I am a Suit. That is all. She needs to get home and be a Giordano.”
Sal finally snapped and also stood, switching to Italian. “That’s what I’m afraid of! You know that family will be so hard on her tender heart! It’s going to be like tricking a lamb to enter a lion’s den! Give her some glimpses of Heaven before sending her to Hell, Angelo.”
After a moment, I finally said, “You have not thought this through,” and walked away.
Entering the living room, I saw Scarlett doing the same from the hallway to our bedrooms. She wouldn’t look at me, so I asked, “What are you doing?”
Holding her plastic cup, she walked around the couch. “I am going to watch TV. Is that okay with you?”
“Hey,” I bit. “I don’t deserve this disrespect.”
“Then what do you deserve? Be sure to instruct me when you are ready to be honest again because,” she screamed the next part, “I do not even know what disrespect is!”
My shoulders sulked. “Jesus. I’m sorry.”
From behind, Sal quietly spoke Italian to me, “Tell her how you are feeling.”
When I saw that Sal trying to help me had put him in the line of fire, I lifted my hands to Scarlett, trying to calm her. “I just don’t feel it is fair that you are mad at me.” I know Sal wanted me to express more, but that couldn’t be.
She balked, “Fair? I’m starting to suspect nothing about my life has been fair.” She grabbed a remote control from the coffee table. “And you two not being honest with me only confirms I am correct.” She plopped down on the couch, folding her legs into her lap.
Suddenly feeling drained, because she was absolutely correct, I took a seat in a captain’s chair. I was being a coward, pushing off all these explanations for her family because I didn’t want to be the one to rip apart her spirit with a horrid truth. “Scarlett—”
She glared.
“—please try to understand—”
“That’s all I’m trying to do! Don’t you see? I am asking my heart to continue to beat. I am begging myself to be brave and keep learning. I am doing all I can with what little I know.” She held up a hand to stop me. “No. If I have any say over my life, I am now saying I am done talking to you until you can say what I need to hear.” She turned on the TV. “And since you won’t answer questions I have, I will see if this thing,” she waved at the TV, “can teach me more.”
I exhaled, “Scarlett—”
Glare.
I raised my hands again, begging for a truce, then sat back in the chair, lifting my feet. I was confident there were no movies that would resemble her experiences. I would leave her alone for now.
Sal offered her a blanket. She accepted but sneered, “I am angry at you, too.”
He dipped his chin. “Let’s movie binge until you are ready to talk to me again.”
As Scarlett grumbled about not knowing what a ‘binge’ was, Sal stared at me while walking to the other captain’s chair. Even though he didn’t deserve her anger, he took the lashing for me.