Arianna POV:
"What were you doing that night?" I started. It wouldn't be comfortable, but I wanted to know what he was doing. He insisted he was just as bad as my father but everything I had seen so far was to the contrary.
"I was getting information out of a man we had captured. He was one of the ones who'd gone to your house," He responded quickly I saw in his face the blankness of defeat to tell the truth. I felt like I was prying, but at the same time, I felt entitled to know.
I swallowed, "Did you get information from him?"
"Yes,"
"How,"
"I stabbed him and popped his shoulder out its socket. He'd been beaten all day," He told me I saw the twitch in his jaw and how he didn't look me in the eyes.
"What did he tell you?"
"Where a shipment of heroin was," He explained
"Where is it going?'
"I've tipped off the feds,"
I smiled a bit, he clenched his fist. "I'm not going to apologize for smiling when you did a good thing,"
He leaned back in his chair rolling his eyes. "A good thing I tortured a man, and I'm going to tip off his location to your father. I have no remorse for this I will send the hounds after him like he's fresh meat,"
"You clearly do have remorse if you're getting angry," I shot back.
"No, I'm angry because it's gone!" He snapped slamming a hand down on the table. "I used to feel awful for what I had done, and then one day I noticed I didn't feel as bad. I killed dozens of your father's men torturing more, taking out little flies here and there to get more and more of his empire gone, and still, it's not enough it will never be enough,"
I sat there shocked as he yelled furious that he wanted to bring down someone like my father and that he was willing to do anything to make it happen.
"I have drained the life of men with children, wives, parents. I do it because someone was taken from me, but I'm doing the same to countless others,"
His self-loathing was on full display, I should have felt sympathy and suggested he stop. Perhaps it's my father's genes that caused me to say what I did, perhaps Gio and I are too much alike. "You shouldn't blame yourself," I told him. "Those men bring drugs into the streets, they assault family businesses, they burn down homes, assault women," I told him. "I'm not saying murder is good and kill without remorse, but you aren't slashing throats for fun, you're bringing down men who do awful and evil things,"
He stood back from me the look in his eyes one of disappointment.
I didn't feel ashamed. The fear and paranoia I experienced under my father's thumb was something that lingered under my skin slithering around and making me itch. I could sense his long arm reaching for me, even in my secret haven. Gio had done nothing to my father simply importing goods, yes they were illegal, but his brother died for no reason but power,"
"My father has no remorse for the innocents, he doesn't care who he steps on. He even squeezes his own family to get what he wants. I'm not going to sit here and pretend you are this demon for feeling bad for those you have hurt,"
He shook his head. "You would understand if you had ever done that,"
"Perhaps you're right, but what I do know is that you're still working to free people you don't even know from a greedy and evil man,"
He stood there shocked at me for a moment. "Here I was thinking I was tainting you, but instead you see this as a necessary evil,"
"I don't like that bad things have to happen and people get hurt to have good guys come out on top in a perfect world that wouldn't be the case. This isn't a perfect world, and I'm not going to whine that it isn't," I stated matter of factly.
He stopped close rot me his eyes lingering on me in a way that gave me goosebumps. "I knew when I saw you that you didn't sugar coat things, that you saw the whole of life good bad, and in between, but I don't think I was prepared for how much I needed it," He stood so close to me and I felt the pull between us intensify.
Still, he moved away and called up a number. "Do you like olives on your pizza?" He asked me looking over his shoulder.
I wasn't sure how our conversation had ended so quickly how he had accepted my radical take on the horrible truth he['d confessed. We had gone from fighting to acceptance and now pizza. I don't think I would ever know what he was about to do next, but I liked that.
He ordered the food and then held out his hand for me leading me off to a movie room in the back corner of the house.
"Enough arguing world views and beliefs, it's best if we agree to accept each other as we are. I don't want to fight with you anymore I simply want to enjoy your presence,"
I had begun to argue with him, ready to state he couldn't sweep it under the rug just like that, but then I realized he was right. I saw this differently than he did, we had seen it from different points of view from the start. "What do you want to watch?" I asked him.
Perhaps that was the trick, finding someone you were crazy about and then somewhere along the way accepting your differences no matter what. I didn't say I was marrying Giovanni, but in this tailspin, I was beside him for better or for worse.
We watched our movie and ate our pizza once it was delivered, that stuffiness that was there before that kept us apart melting slowly. Another barrier between us was broken down. When the movie ended I felt as though there was a chance something more could happen but he simply gave me a grin and said good night.
I knew still there were reasons to stay away, good reasons, logical reasons. Reasons that protected our safety, but they were starting to seem farther away. Sadly they weren't far enough I didn't find myself questioning it anymore, we weren't together and there was a clear line in the sand, but the agreement was obvious. Get as close as we can, be together yet don't blur the line. So long as I had him when he came home at night I was content. I didn't see a reason to ask for more when I was the woman who gave him peace at the end of the day. I laughed in bed as I lay there reviewing the events of tonight, it felt cliche, two hot-headed Italians arguing about the worldview so passionately. It had all happened so fast and ended so calmly I had to wonder what it would be like if we did ever get together, we might just tear each other apart in the process.