Repaying the Mafia’s Dept

ISABELLA Tristan has been away for most of the day. I had a feeling he was speaking with his brother about my mysterious dream. I couldn’t imagine that a dream locked in my head could be of so much importance, unearthing more secrets.

Tristan comes through the door, his face a tell that things are about to change. I can always sense things like that. The clue is in his eyes and the way he moves as he takes his stride toward me.

I’m exactly where he always finds me. Out on the terrace watching the sea, watching the waves crash against the rocks. What once used to terrify me for looking so foreboding has come to soothe me. Just like this man.

His hair lifts in the gentle breeze and his eyes take me in with a glow of admiration I savor. It’s nice to be looked at like that. Nice to have a man look at you and you know he can see what’s inside you.

“Hi,” I say.

“Hey.” He lowers his head and we kiss.

It’s a brief kiss but it’s nice.

“I found your father,” he tells me and a soft gasp escapes my lips.

“Really?”

“Yeah,” he breathes. “Your idea worked. We were able to pick him up from a telecall made to Nikoli.”

“You can do all of that?” I’m more impressed.

“I’d love to take credit but it’s Dominic who’s the brains of the operation. He worked his magic and we located your father. Things are going to move fast from here.”

“What’s happening?”

“He’s going to be in Rhode Island on Saturday so we’re going to strike then.” He pauses for a moment and runs a hand over his beard. “Um…all day I’ve been thinking about what to do with you to keep you safe.”

“What do you want to do with me?” The longer I look at him the more clarification fills my mind.

The change in the atmosphere I feel is goodbye. The end.

“Truthfully, I want to keep you here on the island forever where I know you’ll always be safe. A world away from the darkness, no one can find. That’s what it’s supposed to be. It’s built on a dream from my heart, and since I can’t lock you in my heart this is the only place I can think of. I want to keep you away from anything and everything that could hurt you. But it would be wrong to do that. It might not be good to cage something wild, but it’s not good to cage anything at all. This is your path to escape everything and do all that you want to do. Live where you want to live, be with whoever you want to be with.”

“Tristan…” I rasp. My heart is so full and I’m in complete awe at his words. “No one has ever said anything like that to me.”

The other day when Candace told me Tristan built this place for his wife, I wondered what it would be like to feel so loved. Now I know. I know what it feels like. People have been telling me all my life that the restrictions placed on me were all for my safety and keeping me locked away from the world was all for my good, but all my father did was kill my soul.

“It’s true Bellezza,” he says stroking my cheek. There’s a smile in his eyes but then it fades and the seriousness returns. He drops his hand to his side and straightens up. I know now I’m about to hear the real plan. “We’re heading out tomorrow morning. We’ll go to LA first, somewhere safe where you’ll stay until it’s over then someone will accompany you back to Rhode Island where you’ll reunite with Sacha. My guards will sort everything out and make sure you’re both safe.”

I rivet my gaze to his and gaze deep into his bright blue eyes, brimming with so much emotion.

The wealth spills over into his soul. He said someone would accompany me back to Rhode Island.

Someone as in not him.

“What about the man from my dream? Aren’t you going to need me to identify him?”

“Yes… I’m going to arrange for one of my brothers to talk to you about that when things blow over. I was thinking that maybe going over images of people we know would be a good way to start.”

“But you’re going to arrange for your brother to talk to me? And someone to take me back to Rhode Island?”

“Yeah.”Please check at N/ôvel(D)rama.Org.

“Not… you?”

“Not me. I think it’s best Isabella.”

“So when you leave LA it will be goodbye? I won’t see you again.”

“You won’t see me again.”

The pang of sorrow that presses against my heart isn’t something I expected. I knew this was coming. Saying goodbye was always on the horizon, I just didn’t know it would feel like this.

“I didn’t know it was all going to happen so soon, so fast. It was just this morning we spoke.” I sound so foolish. I’m making it sound like we really were in a relationship. We barely know each other. It’s been three weeks since that day we met in the park. That’s not long even if it feels that way.

“I’m not a man you should see ever again Isabella. I’m not a man you should have in your life, someone who treats you like collateral damage. You and I both know you deserve better and so much more than that,” he stops talking and draws in a slow breath. “You need someone who can look at you and the second they see you they think of the person you are. It doesn’t matter where you came from, or whose daughter you are. You are your own person.”

I press my lips together and nibble on the skin. I appreciate his words and confession of what he wants for me, but I’m not ready to say goodbye to him yet.

“What if I want to see you again?”

“Isabella, I kidnapped you. I drugged you and took you so I could use you to get the location of your father. I will always hate myself for that. I can’t even say sorry, it’s not enough. There’s no sorrow anyone can express for doing what I did. There’s nothing I can say to make it right because it was wrong and of anyone, I should know better than to do something like that to you.”

Everything he’s saying he’s right. Any normal person would agree. In fact it should be me saying those things to him. Me telling him he can’t apologize and there’s no words of sorrow to suffice the terror I felt when he first took me.

It should be me telling him I shouldn’t have a man like him in my life but I can’t.

“Are you sorry?”

“I am. I am truly sorry and if I could I’d go back to the night we were at the club and do everything different from there. Everything.”

“What would you have done?”

He gives me a smile. “I would have taken you home. Then I would have gotten to know you. We would have watched those classic films, and I would have danced with you under the stars every chance I got. Most of all, I would have tried to be the kind of man you deserve.” A tear runs down my cheek and he catches it. ” Even if you could forgive me, my problems are not going to end with your father. I’m always going to have danger in my life. As long as you’re with me, you’ll be the caged bird who wants to fly and can’t. So this is best. ” I shake my head. “Tristan…”

He lowers and plants a kiss on my lips. It’s another kiss but one that feels final. One that signifies the end of this whirlwind romance. The forbidden romance we shouldn’t have had.

“Mne zhal’ my Bellezza,” he says and give me a curt nod. Then he turns to go.

I watch him leave and my heart squeezes.

I remember wanting to escape.

I wanted to escape my father and then I wanted to escape Tristan.

I never realized that being with Tristan was my escape from my father, and being with him was freedom. He allowed me to just be me.