“You really are a fool,” I mutter, trying to hide my flattery. “You’ve seen what I’m capable of, Zane. It’s destructive and... malevolent. I taint everything I touch with who I am and I am corrupt to the bone now. My father made sure I would be past the point of saving.”
“But I don’t think you are,” he quips, a small smile adorns his face, aiding his honesty, and I’m mesmerized at how we could be having such an open, honest chat in a public setting. He makes the world fall away every time, and I don’t want to lose that escapism. “I love you and all your tainted shades, Amelia. You make yours too beautiful to ignore. There’s nothing not to love and everything to want.” He edges a little closer and although his hand falls away entirely from me, the intimacy of the moment isn’t lost. “You see yourself as past saving, as corrupt, as a monster, but that’s not how I see you.” He takes a moment between speaking to build the anticipation between us. “And do you want to know why I don’t?”
“Why’s that?” I dryly whisper, finding my voice ebbing away.
“Every time I look into your eyes, I see that little spark of you in there. The one that tells me you’re still fighting. I won’t stop while I still see that,” he tells me, his hand cupping my cheek.
I close my eyes, not caring for the shoppers coming and going in the middle of the mall. “I don’t know how long you’ll be able to stand the sight of me.”
He reaches up and rubs away my straggling tear. “All the time you’re like this, I won’t look elsewhere. I can’t lose hope when you still feel everything.”
We’re back to that argument, and I realize as long as I’m bearing guilt, remembering those who have died at my hands, feeling the impact of every notion around me, Zane won’t look elsewhere. And I guess that right there is my saving grace – with my humanity intact, there’s still hope.
“C’mon, I’m taking you home,” he says, reaching out for me with one hand and grabbing all the bags with another.
He issues me with one moment of normalcy as we walk out of the shopping mall hand in hand.
CHAPTER TEN
“Zane Maverick, alive and kicking,” a deep, velvety, baritone voice breaks into the conversation, stopping us in our tracks. “A sight I didn’t think I’d live to see.”
I see Zane’s face illuminate brightly, and he turns to face the culprit. We all do actually and I’m relieved to see it’s Billy – aka Zane’s former partner – standing before us with my father beside him. Immediately, the two men are hugging a welcome to one another, obviously having missed each other.
“It’s been too long, Maverick,” Billy says, releasing him to step back. “We all miss you so much at the precinct. We lost a fucking brilliant detective the day you just decided to take off.”
“I told you I wasn’t coming back, so don’t try the guilt trip,” Zane comments, trying not to come off as too harsh. “This is where I’m meant to be.”
“So, he’s legit,” Giovanni asks, squashing the moment. “I mean, he has literally quit his career to be one of us, yeah?”
“Yeah, he has,” Billy grounds out, bristling a little. I find it all too amusing that he’s clearly still not much of a fan of Giovanni’s. “He handed his resignation in just before he was meant to come back after the shooting, and he practically took off. We tried to get him back, but he was off the grid and then the next I’m hearing is from Sal saying my partner keeps turning up begging for a shot at this life. I told him he was stupid, but apparently, Maverick had other things to fight for before he came back.”
“Still do,” Zane considers, his eyes flicking to me. “That’s another life now, Billy. I mean, one day I might join you guys and be an informant, but for now, I need to prove myself to Salvatore, here.”
“Oh, you’re well on your way to that,” my father comments proudly. “If you can win some of the guys over here then you’re well on your way to finishing up a trial period.”
“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” Giovanni sneers, scowling at our father for that comment.
“Shut up,” Enzo comments, stepping forward as an ally to Zane. “Costello is the man running this poker night. You win him over and you can thank your lucky stars. He’s not a friendly man at the best of times, but we’ve all shown our loyalty and willingness that he can’t fault the Dio Lavoro.”
“So, don’t go screwing with that,” Giovanni snarls from beside Zane. “Still waiting for you to make one wrong move, so we can finally get rid of you.”