Arianna POV:
I hate to admit it but following my sister's attempt to bring me home I stayed inside. The shelter his home provided for me was warm. I enjoyed at first spending my days reading and watching TV. I found myself relaxing when I really needed it.
I felt more comfortable after spending more time in his home, curling up in the den and wandering to the fridge as I would have at my place. We found ourselves in a familiar routine. He would come home to me cooking a tradition I had come to cherish in a short time.
He would be ragged from whatever treacherous path he had lurked down. I would make a meal and by the end of it, we would be laughing and worry free.
I had asked him more and more questions about himself getting to know him more every day. He wasn't what he looked like at all, very well spoken and intelligent with a softness behind his very dominating exterior. He never wanted any of this but he didn't like a villain so he became one to take my father down.
"You said my sister had attempted to hit on you," I wrinkled my nose asking him.
He chuckled and nodded cringing slightly. "Yeah she thought I didn't know who she was but I had to wait until we could clear out their men from the car to make my getaway so I played along until Luca gave me to go sign and then I fled. She was very forward, very needy," he shook his head. "That's why it was so shocking meeting you. You were sure of yourself, strong. You didn't care what anyone there thought and you took care of yourself," he looked at me, deep in my eyes making me suck in a breath.
Many moments like that had occurred where one of us got so comfortable that we let our emotions out a little bit, only for the other one to hesitate long enough to reel them back in. I felt its inevitability harden in me.
It couldn't last forever the resolve that it would complicate things. I wanted to reach across the table and hold his hand, feel his lips on my neck when he came home from work.
Unfortunately, the monotonous life of lazing about lost its allure after about a week and I started going stir-crazy. I would have gone out but there was nothing that I needed and nowhere I wanted to see. I found myself asking Luca an odd question.
"Can I go to Giovanni's office?"
His eyebrow raised and I'm sure I saw him bite back a smirk before he tilted his head to the side and shrug. "I don't see why not,"
I knew that Luca was aware of our attachment to each other. He watched us from time to time, lurking in the corner. I felt weird and tried to invite him to eat with us but he always shook his head.
I wondered if he liked the thought of me Gio together but I shook my head reminding myself how I had put myself in this position, and I couldn't make it worse for them. My family had torn them apart. I wouldn't make it worse.
Luca drove me to his office and I found myself feeling like a silly schoolgirl stalking her crush. It wasn't just that though if I did spend one more minute in that house alone I would lose my mind. I needed something to do, and I hoped Gio could help.
His offices were far different from my father's, with no old falling down wood, or haphazardly put-up offices. There were glass windows and dark leather seats.
When Gio saw me he shot up and walked over fear covering his features. "Is everything alright are you okay?"
"I'm fine, I'm fine," I held up my hands not realizing showing up unannounced in the middle of a gang war might raise concern. "I was just bored and I didn't feel like shopping,"
"Oh," he sighed. "Well, you're welcome to hang out here and get a change of pace. I'm afraid it's a more boring day if you were looking for any excitement,"
"No, just something to do," I didn't need any more excitement for the rest of my life.
He introduced me to Rose a pretty auburn haired girl in a tight skirt and I kept my face together but I felt myself clench when I saw her smile at him. It wasn't fair of me to be upset, he wasn't mine and I wouldn't even let myself go there. He's allowed to have pretty girls around his office if he so pleased.
"I'm all for the help today we've had so many acquisitions lately. Anybody scared enough of the Caputos or not under protection are lining up outside our door. Gio is taking up more and more work everyday poor guy," She sighed, I felt more annoyance rise at the way she tenderly spoke about him.
I had no right to feel this way, he wasn't mine. In fact I was the reason he working such long hours, why so many people needed his help. I felt gray thinking about the horrible grip my father had on this city, it wasn't my fault but I was tainted by my last name.
I sat quietly while I helped Rose organize, I felt glum from the way she spoke about the current situation. How horribly people have been treated, I felt sick when she told me about the old man my father had beaten for missing a payment, he'd been followed here but Giovanni had his family protected in time.
The issue both men faced right now was the fact that the FBI was still watching them, any blood on the streets would lead to an investigation. That was the last thing they wanted. My father was a mobster through and through, drugs, tax evasion, racketeering. He had been bullying business owners and landlords for years at this point or running them out of business. He seemed determined to grow his miniscule ego by dominating a nothing port town.
Rose kept going on and on with every file we picked up another horror story one after the other, a single mother the sister of the watch commander at the police department being harassed by my fathers men, they threatened to kill her son. A mom and pop shop who lost their son in an incident last eyar so now they had to go back to work in their seventies to keep their shop open, my father has their windows smashed after they refused his help. Gio had helped every one of them.
It was nearly impossible not develop feeling for him. He said he'd done horrible things to take down my father but all I saw was good, I'm sure there was dirt beneath the floorboards, and skeletons in the closet. At least he ahd been honest with me about them, he didn't hide the ugly part of himself.
At the end of the day Gio walke dover to us and held out his hand for me, "since we've both worked hard today, why dont we got out to eat tonight," He offered his arm and I blushed as i took it despite how horrible I had felt the weight of all the files weighing down on me, person after person, family after family, life after life, all being brutalized by my family.
I got into Gio's car and three SUVs followed us I couldn't help but look out the window waiting to see the older cars that signaled my fathers men had found me again on my risky venture out of the house.
"They wouldn't dare in this part of town," he pulled me gently away from the window.
I felt safe with him, even with the things he had done, even with how dangerous the world we lived in was.