Chapter Three
Aurora
Once Gabriel and I finish our meal, he walks me back to my room. Probably trying to make sure I don’t make another run for the front door. But I know what’s at stake. I won’t risk my father’s life.
“I have to know,” I say once we reach my door. I don’t want to go in there because to go in there means I am truly a prisoner. “Why make me wear this dress?”
His eyes flick down my body, darkening as they do it. Is it anger in his eyes? Or something else? “I wanted you pretty for me.”
I flush at his words, though I’m not sure why. “But why did you want that? Why does it matter? I’m your prisoner.”
“I don’t have many pretty things to look at in this place. It’s nice to have one thing now.”
I can feel my spine stiffen. “But I’m not a thing. I’m a human being.”
“You’re paying off your father’s debt to me. That makes you my plaything. Not a human. This is your life now, Aurora. You made this choice.”
“I made the choice to save my dad’s life. Not be treated like I’m not even human.”
He makes a sound low in his throat. “We all make choices in life that don’t have good outcomes.”
“Is that how you got your scar?” The words are out before I can stop them.
A look of pure fury crosses Gabriel’s face. “Don’t ask me about my scar.”
“If you’re insisting on treating me like I’m not human, then I’m going to do the same to you.
I don’t care what you want. I want to know how you got that ugly scar on your face.
” I know I shouldn’t provoke the man who has my life and my father’s life in the palm of his hand but I can’t help it.
I refuse to let him bend me over and treat me like this.
He slams his hand into the wall on the other side of my head. I gasp and flinch. Gabriel smirks as he leans his face towards mine. There’s nowhere for me to back up. Nowhere to run. Gabriel has me caught.
“Do I scare you?” he asks in his low voice. It sends a shiver down my body. Being this close to him, almost lip to lip, is the most intimidating thing I’ve ever experienced.
“Yes,” I admit.
“You want to be tough with me, Aurora? Brave with me? Most people are not. Most people run from me. You should have run from me. You never should have come here.”
I’m starting to see that. But then I never would have found my dad. Never would have had the chance to save him. I did the right thing but it makes a heavy weight settle in my stomach.
“You work for the mafia,” I say. “What does that mean exactly?”
“Now you want to talk? You didn’t want to talk to me at dinner.” He still doesn’t pull back. I know what he’s doing: using his physical presence against me.
“Tell me.”
“You don’t get to make demands of me.”
“Neither do you,” I snap.
He huffs, still smirking. “I am your captor. Of course I get to make demands of you. You’re a feisty woman, I’ll give you that. I never knew Andrew Rossi was hiding a girl like you away. It makes sense though. Every man in the mafia would have gone after you otherwise.”
“What do you mean by that?” A cold sensation travels down my spine. It makes me back away from the wall but that only draws me closer into Gabriel. I can feel the heat from his body. The pure power he possesses.
“You’re beautiful. Young. A sense of innocence about you. Men in the mafia are drawn to that like a moth to a flame. It’s our nature to seek out good things and corrupt it.”
“And you?” I ask, feeling breathless. “Do you want to corrupt me?”
His eyes rake over my body once more. “I would corrupt your body in ways I’m sure you’ve never experienced.”
His words send a heat through my stomach that I don’t understand.
As a virgin, I’ve never experienced this before.
None of the boys at my high school ever caught my attention and when I started working at the café, everyone left me alone due to my lack of money.
I’ve never had a man as intimidating as Gabriel talk to me this way.
“Does that make you feel something?” he murmurs.
“Yes. Fear,” I spit out.
“I can see your eyes, Aurora. There’s a curiosity there. Why is it there, I wonder?”
I want to back away from him but I’m stuck against the wall. “There is no curiosity. You make me afraid.”
“And yet, you’re bold with me. I have killed people for less.”
I swallow hard. “You’ve killed people?”
“I’m the mafia, Aurora. Of course I’ve killed people. It’s our way of life.”
“I know a little about the mafia but not everything. How high are you in it?”
“I’m at the top,” he says with pride. A sense of horror settles within me. Gabriel isn’t just some low level mafia man trying to make a quick buck. He’s a mafia boss. It explains the money he has. The arrogance. The fact that he believes he can play God and decide who gets to be punished or not.
“And my father?”
“He’s at the bottom. He left the mafia but one can never truly leave the mafia behind.”
“He left for me,” I whisper, remembering what he told me in Gabriel’s dungeon.
“And yet, he tried to steal from me. He never really left.”
“He only tried stealing money to help me,” I snap. “Don’t make my father out to be a bad man.”
“I don’t like it when people try and steal from me. It tends to make me angry.”
“You don’t know anything.”
His smirk makes his handsome face look crueler. “I know enough. Your father tried to steal money from my club. So I stopped him. Your father needed to pay the price for his actions anyway. He stole money from Giovanni Greco years ago and never paid up. It was only fitting I finish the job.”
“Who is Giovanni Greco?”
A cold, hardness settles over Gabriel’s face, turning his expression more stoic. Even though I’m face to face with him, I can’t read his eyes. “You don’t need to know who Giovanni Greco is. He doesn’t concern you. You’re mine now, Aurora. No one else’s.”
“I can’t belong to another human being. And I especially can’t belong to a thing that refuses to treat me like I’m human.”
For just a second, Gabriel flinches. It happens so fast though that I wonder if I even saw it at all.
“You are mine. My prisoner. I am allowing you some liberties because of your selfless act. It makes you a better person that most people I meet. But that doesn’t mean you have any power over me. Remember your place, Aurora.”
“Or what?”
“I might have to spank you to keep you in line.”
“Spank me? Like a child?”
“How old are you?”
His question startles me. “Twenty-one. How old are you?”
“Thirty-one.”
Knowing Gabriel’s age does something funny to me. It makes me realize that learning more about him makes him more real. More human and I don’t know how to feel about that.
“You look surprised,” he murmurs.
“I just don’t know anything about the man I sold my life to. It’s… strange, to say the least.”
“My age doesn’t mean anything to me. But you won’t get to know anything important about me. You’re my plaything, Aurora. Nothing more.” He finally steps away from me and I feel like I can breathe again. It’s like a spell was breaking that I was under and I didn’t even realize it.
“Go into your room,” he commands.
“If I say no?”
“I already told you what will happen if you disobey me.”
A spanking. Surely he can’t mean to spank me like a child? But I know nothing of Gabriel and how serious he is. I don’t know how well he keeps to his word. Given that he locked my dad up for stealing, I think he’s a man who takes things very seriously.
“Fine. I’ll go into my room,” I say. “But there’s one thing you should know. My dad stole from you because he was trying to keep me safe. We had no money. I barely made enough at my job. He was trying to be a good father.”
“A good father wouldn’t have let his daughter take his place.”
“You didn’t give him any chance. And he tried to fight back. You were just stronger. My father is a good man. Better than you’ll ever be.”
“I don’t steal from people.”
“And yet, you kidnap them,” I say.
A scowl crosses his lips. “You think you know me, Aurora, but you don’t know anything.”
“You’re right. I don’t. I just found out yesterday that my dad used to work for the mafia.
I hadn’t even heard of you until I went to save his life.
I’m not ashamed to admit any of that. None of that is my failing.
But you don’t get to judge my father for a crime that isn’t as bad as kidnapping.
For a crime where he was just trying to put food on our table. ”
He leans in closer to me again, making me breathless once more.
“I never claimed to be a good man. I know theft isn’t as bad as kidnapping.
I just don’t care. I get my way, Aurora.
That’s one thing you should know about me.
I always get my way. I’m Gabriel Romano, head of the mafia here in Florence. I run this city.”
“And yet, you seem to hide yourself away in here.”
His eyes widen for just a second. “What makes you say that?”
I point at the fabric on the wall, covering the mirrors. “You can’t even look at yourself in a mirror. Isn’t that hiding away? Is it just your scar or some other reason?”
He jerks away from me. “You’re playing with fire.”
“I have nothing to lose. I traded my life for my dad’s.
He’s safe as long as I stay here. So you can do whatever you want with me.
I’m not afraid.” That’s a complete lie. I am utterly terrified but I have to stand my ground with Gabriel.
I am his prisoner for life. I refuse to be miserable for the rest of it.
“You are truly bold.” Instead of hitting me like I’m expecting, Gabriel laughs. It’s not light and soft. There’s a hardness to it – a rustiness that speaks to how little he laughs. “I would have killed people for speaking to me this way.”
“So then kill me.” My heart is pounding and I think I might faint, but I will hold my ground.
“Where would be the fun in that? You’re my pretty prisoner. Killing you would be a waste. Now, go into your room. While I’ve enjoyed our verbal sparring, it’s time for bed. I have work in the morning.”
Mafia work. “What exactly do you do? Other than kidnap people?”