Chapter 34 Giselle
GISELLE
“You okay, G?” Thayer asked from the driver’s seat of his truck a week later.
I stared out the passenger window at my condo, ready to go inside and pack my belongings. “Yeah.”
“Kason will be here with the U-Haul within the hour.”
I nodded, just needing a minute before I went inside.
Thayer reached over and slipped his fingers into mine. “G. He was never here. You’re safe.”
I glanced to him, appreciating his certainty. “I know.”
“We’ll be here with you the whole time,” he said.
“I know that too.”
We entered my condo a short time later, and everything was as I had left it the day of the robbery. A rotten basket of fruit sat in a basket on the island. My throw blanket was still in a ball on the sofa. I never could’ve expected that I wouldn’t be returning.
It took most of the day, but I packed up my bedroom as Thayer packed up my kitchen. When Kason arrived, he helped Thayer move the furniture downstairs and into the truck. Once I finished with the bathroom, my entire condo was bare.
I glanced outside to see Thayer and Kason loading my sofa into the U-Haul. It seemed like only yesterday that they had brought it in. I remember giving Thayer shit for being there. But in reality, I liked the way he just fit in my space, and it pissed me off.
The sunlight from the now bare windows filled the empty condo as so many emotions flooded me at once.
I’d felt independent when Gino signed the lease for the condo.
I’d envisioned such a different life on the day I’d moved in.
I thought I’d get engaged in this condo.
Never could I have imagined it would become a place I was terrified to enter alone.
“Giselle?”
I spun around to find Gino standing in the doorway.
I sucked in a small gasp. He looked older.
And not in a way that meant he’d aged now that we’d broken up.
But in a way that finally let me see he’d always been too old for me.
Too serious. Too…not-Thayer. I hadn’t seen it before.
But I could see it now. “Hey,” I said, burying my hands in the back pockets of my jeans because I didn’t know what else to do with them.
He moved toward me, and I glanced out the window. Thayer and Kason were laughing by the U-Haul; they clearly had no idea Gino had snuck by them, likely entering through the back door. “Can I hug you?” Gino asked.
I pulled my hands from my pockets and accepted his hug.
His cologne was familiar, but not inviting like Thayer’s.
His arms were strong, but not reassuring like Thayer’s.
I stepped out of the hug first, feeling uncomfortable in his embrace.
“I’m just about done here,” I said, glancing around the empty space.
“Looks like it,” he observed. “I just need the keys, and I can drop them off when I sign the papers.”
I unhooked the key from my keychain and placed it into his palm. He wrapped his hand around my hand, and my eyes shot to his when he didn’t release it.
“I know you came to Florida,” he said.
My heartbeat started pounding harder, faster. “What?”
“Simone mentioned someone came to see me. When she described the person, it sounded like you, so I showed her your picture. She confirmed it,” he said, still not releasing my hand.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
“What I can’t figure out is why, if you took the time to fly all the way there, you didn’t wait to see me.”
“I…” Words escaped me.
His voice dropped to a low, unnerving tenor. “You need to let it go.”
“Let what go?” I asked, my hand still very much clasped in his.
“You know what,” he said.
“I would’ve given you the money,” I said.
His eyes cut away from mine. “You’re not understanding.”
“Then explain it to me,” I said, my voice cracking.
“None of that should’ve happened.”
“Oh no? Why’s that?” I asked, needing the truth. No. Deserving the truth.
He held my gaze but didn’t speak. It was as if there was only nothingness behind his eyes.
“How do I know I’ll ever be safe again?” I asked, my voice rising.
“You don’t.”
My stomach lurched because there it was. The truth. No matter how much therapy I received, or how safe I felt when Thayer was around, I’d never be completely safe again. “Wow. I expected another lie.”
He said nothing, and his silence was deafening.
I ripped my hand from his hold. “So, he’s your friend?” I scoffed coldly. “Is that why I never met him? You had this planned all along.” I was finding my voice. My strength. My courage.
“No,” he said. “He’s not my friend.”
“But your secretary said—”
“That’s what he told her. And because he visits me often, she has no reason not to believe it.”
“Who is he?”
He shrugged.
“Gino,” I pressed.
“I owe some pretty bad people a lot of money.”
“What?” I said, his words not making sense. My business was very lucrative, as were many of his other business investments—at least that’s what he’d told me.
“He makes sure they get their money by any means necessary,” he continued.
I sucked in a breath. This was not what I was expecting to hear. “You’re not working with him?”
“What?” He asked, shocked by my question. “No.”
“You’re sure?” I asked, knowing it’s what I’d been thinking since seeing Carlo at his office. I tried not to think it, but seriously? What else could I think?
Gino’s eyes cut to mine, but he didn’t respond. I could see it then that he was telling the truth—ironic given there was so much he hadn’t told me.
“Then pay them back,” I said matter-of-factly; my safety depended on it.
He shook his head. “I don’t have that kind of money.”
“G?” Thayer said.
Both Gino and I looked to the door where Thayer and Kason stood glaring directly at Gino.
How much had they heard?