“We’re coming down,” he spoke into the mic, and I couldn’t help but grin. It was like he was part of the secret service.
When we got off my heels clicked as I reached the grand staircase. At the edge I saw him scrolling through his phone, dressed in a dark gray suit and burgundy tie and shoes and I waited. I might have had to wait forever had one of the two men beside him not gotten his attention. He glanced up, his green eyes solely on me. Placing his phone into his suit pocket, he walked up the stairs and offered his arm.
“Good morning,” I said.
“Morning,” he replied. Neither of us said anything, walking back down the stairs and out the front the door where a white Bentley sat parked. He took the keys from one of the men and opened the passenger door for me. Sitting in the red-colored seat, I watched as he walked around to sit beside me.
“You look nice,” he said, starting the engine.
“You had to wait until we were in private to say that?” I crossed my arms. “Why? You think your cronies will think you’re soft or something?”
He glanced over at me, one of his eyebrows going up as he asked, “Who the hell still says cronies?”
Seriously.
“Me.”
“And yet you call me bizarre.” He snickered, shaking his head as he drove past the gates.
“I never said I wasn’t either,” I muttered, leaning back into the seat. In the rear-view mirror I saw the black Range Rover following us.
“You are Catholic, correct?” he asked only now…as we were on the way to his church.
“Does it matter?”
“Is it impossible for you to answer me directly?” He frowned.
He was kidding me! “You hardly answer me directly either!”
“What have you asked that I haven’t answered?” His palm slid over the steering wheel with ease. And I caught the gold ring on his pinky finger.
“Last night when I asked you where you disappeared to…you distracted me and avoided the answer.”
“You never asked—”
“I did—”
“You stated I disappeared. You never asked me where I went.”
I thought back to that conversation and wanted to roll my eyes. “It was an implied question.”
“I don’t answer those,” he stated, pulling up at red light, staring down the street.
“Fine. Are you a gangster, Mr. Callahan?”
The moment I asked, he looked over at me. His eyes cut like knives through me but what really took my breath away was the smile that spread over his lips. He was…so damn beautiful.
“Remind me to get you an updated dictionary,” he replied, pressing down on the gas so hard my body jerked back as he accelerated.
“See, you’re not answering.”
“Yes.” He glanced at me through the corner of his eyes. “But a gangster with sophistication and morals.”
“What kind of morals could you possibly have?”
“A biblical one,” he said as we pulled up to the cathedral, and of course there was a spot dedicated for his family, which he easily parked in. He didn’t move to take off his seat belt, just glanced up at the church before saying, “Appoint as a penalty, life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.”
He thought he was so slick, so I reminded him, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well.”
“And yet here you sit, a hypocrite.” He snickered. “Where is your forgiveness?”
Always had to have the last word. “I never said I was moral.”
“It was implied,” he said and though he was serious I could feel him tease me.
I shrugged. “Apparently those don’t count.”
“Apparently,” he replied, stepping out of the car and walking over to my side. When he opened it, I saw his eyes shoot down to my legs as I did my best to step out without opening my them. Taking his hand, he helped me out.
We must have come a little late because we were the only ones in the parking lot, and when I said we, I meant him, his shadows, and me. We walked through the doors as they held them open for us. And I realized we weren’t late, but perfectly on time. Mass hadn’t started yet, but everyone was already seated, and when the doors opened they glanced back at us…they were waiting for us. He wasn’t even fazed, walking to the very front where the rest of his family sat. Blessing myself before I entered the pew, Ethan sat on the end, sandwiching me between him and his grandmother, Evelyn, who looked me over and nodded, approvingly. Of what, I wasn’t sure. But I took the book she handed to me.
Not a second after we sat the music played, signaling for all of us to rise and turn back as the priest came in. Instead, on the other side of the church, I saw the brown eyes of Klarissa glaring at me, not just her but a few other women too, and I wondered just how many of them Ethan had actually been with.
“Don’t mind them,” Evelyn whispered as everyone else sang. “Each one of them would sell their souls to sit where you sit. Everyone knows now.”
Would one soul even be enough for this spot? Sitting back down, Ethan leaned into me, softly saying, “Would you like to turn the cheek or your list?”
My eyes widened as I stared at him. He chose now to bring that up? Now?
“Speak now or forever hold your peace.”
He was the devil. Fucking evil. He wanted me to say it, to reconfirm it here, in church, in God’s house.
“My list,” I muttered.
The son of the bitch had the nerve to smirk at me.
“It’s all right,” he whispered, looking forward again. “If we were sinless we wouldn’t come to church.”
TEN
“All my life, I've understood the nature of where I come from, but I never thought it might be wicked until now.”
~ Brenna Yovanoff
IVY
I exhaled, staring at my reflection in front of the bathroom mirror in the church. The whole mass felt like I was holding my breath, making sure I didn’t make any mistakes. I didn’t even really listen to the message…scratch that, I didn’t listen to it at all. How could I when I felt a dozen glares like daggers shooting into my back, Ethan’s thigh brushing up against mine, and his grandmother holding on to my hand.
“You looked overwhelmed.”
My head shot up to fucking Klarissa Moretti, dressed in a cream-colored skirt and black blouse. She walked over to the counter and placed her clutch down.
“I have to give it to Ethan. He sure knows how to pick his women.” She smiled, taking out her red lipstick. “Look at us, we’re beautiful.”
“I wasn’t aware Ethan was into polygamy.” I smiled, washing my hands. “But then again there is only one ring on the two pairs of hands here, so…you must be mistaken about whose woman you are.”