CHAPTER NINE
"HIS PIERCING GAZE"

SCARLETT DEL GATO

I wrap a towel around my body, letting my loose hair flail against my back as I leave the bathroom. My skin was red from the hot bubble bath I had and the air inside the bathroom was thick and steamy.

The steam washes out of the door as I opened it.

It was crazy and completely reckless to do something like this in a house full of men—mafia men—but when I saw no one stalking the hallways, ready to catch an eyeful once they see me in only a towel, I made a break for it and I ran to my room as fast as I could without bumping into anyone.

I close my bedroom door behind me and released a breath of relief when no one saw me wrapped in nothing but a towel, my body damp from the steam that came from the bathroom.

But as I flung around to go to my dresser to see if there was anything else I could wear for today, I see the brothers seated on the foot of my bed, looking directly at me wrapped in nothing but a grey towel to cover up the important bits of my entire body.

I go completely still, my mouth falling open.

I didn't expect them to be in here.

"I, uh... What are you guys doing here?" I ask, gripping the towel around my body tighter to keep it from slipping down.

Vito blinks slowly as he tried to look at my face instead of my bare legs.

Giovanni however cleared his throat when he noticed a few water droplets running down my bare legs and the parts of my chest that wasn't covered with the towel.

"What are you doing in my room?" I ask again. My voice betrayed me by being squeaky. The grip around the towel tightened even more.

Giovanni's gaze flickers back to my face.

I suck in a deep breath, seeing his eyes turning this darker shade of blue.

I don't know if he was angry or if the sight in front of him amused him.

I could never tell.

A conversation I had with Eden a few weeks ago popped into my mind: "They can kill you just because you're wearing something that can give them a hard-on."

I was wearing nothing but a towel wrapped around my body.

My heart started to beat uncontrollably inside my chest at the thought. I felt it pounding against my ribcage.

My hand was trembling slightly as it held onto the towel and I felt a droplet of sweat rolling down my forehead.

I wasn't hot from the bath. I was hot from his penetrating gaze.

"We, uh, want to discuss a few things with you." Vito says, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly while Giovanni kept staring at me.

I felt his stare on me the entire time, even while I frowned at Vito wondering what they wanted to discuss with me.

"Uhm..." I drawl, swallowing hard. "Can I get dressed first? If I knew the two of you would be here, in my room, I wouldn't have arrived in only a towel."

Giovanni's eye contact was deep and prolonged when he just smirked at me. "You shouldn't be running down the hallways with only a towel wrapped around your body, Scarlett." He says, keeping eye contact.

"T-there was no one in the hallways!" I defend. "And if I had more clothing options, I wouldn't have come here in only just a towel, but I have no other clothes other than the pair of jeans and shirt I have to keep washing because it's the only thing I own."

"Where is this supposed pair of jeans and shirt?" Giovanni asks.

"Giovanni." Vito says, shaking his head at his brother. "Let's wait outside until she's dressed. We can ask Amelia if she doesn't have anything for her to wear. She's about the same length and size as Scarlett."

Giovanni nods, getting up from the bed.

He wore a charcoal grey coloured pinstripe suit that complimented his blue eyes perfectly. He had on shiny black dress shoes that have been polished recently. And he had a watch wrapped around his wrist.

Vito, on the other hand, was wearing a black pair of jeans and a black buttoned-up shirt. It was formal, but not too formal like his brother's outfit.

Suddenly I wished that I had something to wear.

They always looked well-dressed and here I was, treading around in a washed-out, too tight to get it over my hips pair of jeans, and a shirt that I loved but started to hate because it was the only thing I wore the entire time I was here in this mansion.

Vito passes me first when I stepped out of the way.

Giovanni falls in step beside me.

A tendril of panic seized my chest, but he only tilted his head to the side just enough to look at me, but his eyes never found mine when he spoke.

"You really shouldn't be walking around in a towel." His warm breath caresses my cheeks, sending involuntary shivers cascading down my back.

With that, he leaves my room.

I draw in a stuttered gasp, swallowing hard when the door clicks shut behind me.

I started to panic a few minutes later.

I went to the dresser, but there was nothing but socks inside of it. There wasn't a shirt to wear. There weren't any pairs of pants. There wasn't anything to wear.

But a knock at my door had me releasing a breath of relief. Vito mentioned something about going to Amelia to ask her if she had anything to wear for me, but I started to panic again.

What if he came back with nothing? I'd have to stay in my room the entire day to wait for my clothes to dry.

I shake my head at my worrying, making my way to the door with the towel still wrapped tightly around my body. I open the door just a little bit, seeing Giovanni—the rings on his fingers told me that it was him and not Vito—sticking his hand through the door to hand me the clothes.

I take it gratefully, closing the door behind me again.

I rush to the bed, throwing the material onto the bed before me.

I unwrap the towel from my body, turning around to see if the door was still closed, and picked up the red dress from the bed.

My hand caresses the thin material of the dress. It was so beautiful and definitely something I would wear if I were to be asked out to prom someday, not in a house full of guys though.

When I pulled it over my body, the dress barely skimmed the top of my knees. It was too short and seeing that I didn't have anything to wear underneath it but my pair of underwear I had to wash when I was in the shower earlier, I couldn't risk wearing that around the guys.

But they wanted to talk to me so I better had to hurry.

Brushing my fingers through my tangled hair and smoothing down the dress just enough to make sure everything important was covered, I slowly made my way to the door, feeling nervousness bubble up inside me.

What if they notice that I wasn't wearing underneath?

Shaking my head, I opened it, seeing the brothers leaning against the wall.

Giovanni notices me first, his eyes coming up from the floor to look at the dress I had on.

My hair was loose, covering the bits of my chest that were uncovered, and I had my hands hanging by my sides to keep the dress from spilling upward if I were to walk into the room first.

"Uhm, we can talk now." I stutter, feeling his gaze caressing the thin dress. "Thank you for the, uh, dress." I add, already making my way into the room so I don't have to feel Giovanni's gaze burning me.

Vito steps in the room again, making his way to the bed. Giovanni follows closely behind, sitting on the foot of the bed right next to Vito.

I kept standing by the door, but I closed it behind me to have more privacy. I didn't know if what they wanted to talk to me about was important or not.

Giovanni looks at me and I feel my cheeks heat up immediately. "How would you feel about going back to school to finish your last year?" He asks.

"What?" I ask, unsure if I heard him correctly or not. "How would I feel about going back to school to finish my last year?"

Giovanni and both Vito nod in unison.

"We want you to finish school." Vito says.

"Are you serious? This isn't some sort of sick joke or something?"

Giovanni shakes his head.

My face and neck flushes, looking at his busted up face. I look down at the purple bruising of my knuckles and feel bad again for hitting him so much.

It was funny really.

I wanted to punch the shit out of him in the yard the other day when he threatened Eden and yesterday when he gave me permission to do just that, I felt bad for hitting him.

"But I thought the two of you didn't want me to leave the mansion." I tell them, wondering when they got this change of heart to let me go to school.

"We don't." Giovanni says, rubbing his forehead.

"But," Vito chimes in, "we also don't want you to feel like you're a prisoner here." He continues. "After the fight the two of you had yesterday, Giovanni and I came to a decision to trust you, hoping that you'll trust us in return."

"But," Giovanni cuts in, "there's just one condition."

I sigh.

There always are conditions when it comes to these kinds of propositions.

"What is this so-called condition?" I ask him, folding my arms across my chest.

"You have to let at least one of us drive you to and from school, at all times. You can't walk home alone and we can't let you go to school alone either."

"Those aren't bad conditions." I tell him.

They were just concerned about my safety. But my heart drops to the ground. Or was it their safety they were worried about? They don't trust me to go alone because they're afraid I'll cut and run to the police the first chance I get.

I shake the thoughts away.

"And it seems like a bargain more than a condition seeing that I don't have a car to drive myself anyways."

"And..." Vito trails off, looking at me.

"You said there was only one condition!" I argue.

"Giovanni said that there was just one condition. This one comes from me." Vito says.

I roll my eyes at him. "Fine. What is it?"

"Don't talk to anyone else but your friend, Eden." Vito says.

I chuckle.

Easy.

That wasn't going to be so hard seeing that she's the only person I actually am friends with.

That wasn't such a bad condition at all.

"Deal. She's my best friend and I don't talk to anyone else other than her anyways. So I accept your conditions." I tell them both. "If you'll accept mine too." I add, seeing Giovanni's interest being piqued.

"What is it?" Giovanni asks me.

"We have to go shopping first." I tell him, feeling a smile tugging at the corners of my mouth.

I see him frown at my proposal. "What?! No!" Giovanni replies quickly, shaking his head frantically. "I am not going shopping with you."

"Last time I checked, I wasn't asking." I tell him with one of my eyebrows raised. "I need clothes to wear... unless the two of you want me to strut around in a towel only. And besides, I'll need pens, books, etc too."

Giovanni sighs. "Fine. We'll go on Friday." He caves and I flash a satisfying grin.

Having my way is going to be so much easier than I thought.

"Fine. Then we have a deal." I tell him.

Vito gets up from the bed, smiles at me, and leaves my room but Giovanni stays put on my bed.

"I think we have some things we need to discuss after yesterday's outburst."

I wave my hand in the air, wanting him to stop right there. "That's just going to end with a fight and I'm not up for that right now, Giovanni." I tell him, tucking a strand of my hair behind my ear.

"Me punching the shit out of you were built-up emotions I needed to get off of my chest. And last time I checked, you practically forced me to hit you."

"I thought it would work," he says, shrugging, "but I still see the way you look at me."

"The hurt and hatred isn't going to disappear overnight, Giovanni." I tell him. "But I can honestly say that I'm trying here. Otherwise I won't be here talking to you civilly."

He nods. "That leads me to the proposition I want to make."

I walk towards the bed and sit down next to him, making sure to put distance between the two of us.

I also kept my dress from pulling upward by keeping it tucked underneath my thighs before he catches a glimpse of all the things I wanted to hide from him.

"What proposition?" I ask him sceptically.

He rakes his fingers through his hair and sighs like he isn't sure that he should suggest the proposition in the first place, but he looks at me, his blue eyes staring right into my soul when he speaks.

"I want you to ask questions about your brother." He says. "I want to help you answer your questions about why he betrayed me. We can only do that if I set the anger aside. I want to figure this out just as much as you do."

I have questions.

A lot.

I remember the picture I found in, I assume his dad's office, and get up from the bed before I walk over to the dresser where it was currently hiding underneath the shoebox he gave me.

I grab the photo from the desk and walk back towards the bed and sit down next to him. "I found this photo when I plotted my escape the other day. I want to know all about it."

"I can't believe I forgot about this picture." Giovanni chuckles and takes the photo from my hand to look at it closely.

"The two of you seemed really happy." I tell him, looking at their smiles in the photograph.

"We were." He nods, staring at the picture in his hands. "This was taken two years ago but I can't even remember why we were smiling. I think it was something Vito said, or did... But I can't remember what it was."

My heart ached seeing Giovanni staring at the picture like he was reliving that memory all over again.

I'm sure his heart ached too with the way he was smiling sadly at the photo.

"We wanted to be normal for one day." He continues. "I didn't want to be the bad guy with a bad reputation anymore. I just wanted to walk alongside the beach and I wanted to hear the waves crashing against the shore instead of guns being shot. I just wanted to feel normal for once in my life."

"So all of you went to the beach?"

Giovanni sets the picture down on the bed and nods before he looks at me.

"Yeah, but as you can see by the looks on everyone's faces behind us, we weren't civilians taking a nice stroll on the beach. We were being feared for the people we were—" he pauses, shaking his head, "are. Gangsters."

"You know... Now that I think about it, my brother let my stay over at Eden's at the time. He probably told me to stay with Eden because he was planning a beach day with you guys." I say, brightening the mood a little bit.

"I didn't even know he had a sister at the time." Giovanni says. "He never mentioned you once, ever. He only mentioned that your parents were in a car accident, but he never told us that he had a little sister."

"He never let me out of the house really either." I tell him. "I think it's because he wanted to keep me safe somehow, or he didn't want me to know that he was a gangster, so he kept me inside the house and in the dark from what he was doing at the time."

Giovanni nods, taking his fingers through his black hair. "Like I said, it was a circle of lies and secrecy all around."

For the first time since I came here—or woke up here—I agreed with him.

My brother didn't tell me a lot of things, and it seems like he didn't tell Giovanni a lot of things either.

So ruling out the fact that he was innocent was out of the question.

How does the saying go? Everyone's innocent unless proven guilty. But in this case it was the other way around: my brother was guilty until proven innocent.

"Do you think I am a bad person for thinking that my brother is guilty too in all of this?" I ask him, smoothing down the dress, feeling the thin material caressing my thighs.

"What I think doesn't matter at the moment." Giovanni replies.

"Giovanni, we were both lied to." I tell him, lifting my shoulder in a half-shrug. "I don't know what else he lied to us about."

"I think you already have your answer then." He says, looking at me in the corner of his eye.

Did I?

Was I a bad person for thinking he's guilty?

"But to answer your question... No, you're not a bad person, Scarlett. Family might be by blood but it's the trust and loyalty that really and truly counts."

"You mean the fedele?"

He smiles. "That's exactly what I mean."

He almost seemed surprised that I remembered what the symbols meant.

I return the smile and tuck a strand of my hair behind my ear. "I hope we can figure this out. It's driving me insane."

He squeezes my hand and he gets up from my bed. "I hope we can figure this out too." He whispers.

He leaves my room and the door softly clicks shut behind him.

I look down at my hand he just touched mere moments ago.

He just squeezed my hand.

Giovanni Castiglione just squeezed my hand.