He nodded.
“But I thought … how can you have been in foster homes if you’re part of the mafia?”
“I’m not one of their bastard sons, Arika. I told you. I work for them. The mafia did take me in and in a way I’m close with one of the families, but I came from the foster system. I was dumped on the orphanage’s doorstep when I was nothing more than a baby, only a couple of days old they said. My birthday is unknown, so they gave me the date I was dumped instead. I was nearly a teenager before the mafia took me in.”
“The same for me. No one knows anything about who I am or who left me.” She shrugged. “I was there in a little car carrier. I didn’t have anything else but the blanket the hospital wrapped me in.”
“Didn’t they check their records at the hospital?”
“They did, but they couldn’t locate my parents. It looked like I wasn’t even born there. That whoever had the blanket either worked there or had given birth there before or something. I’m not really sure. It’s all kind of hazy.”
“You never thought to look into it?”
“Getting a PI is a lot of money. I’m trying to build for my future. Besides, I wasn’t good enough to want back then, and no one ever came back for me. So, I never even considered looking for them, seeing as they never came back for me and I never got adopted out. Why go hunting for someone that clearly didn’t want you?”
“You’re not upset by that?”
“In the beginning I was. Whenever a new family would come and I’d never even get looked at twice, I’d wonder why. You know. I’d be sad, and I’d cry for a little bit. Over time I didn’t even bother trying. I didn’t stand up as tall or smile or show the nice new family what a great person I was.” She shrugged. “I concentrated on my studies as I knew one day I’d be out of there and I wouldn’t have anyone but myself to rely on. So that’s what I did.”
“I was never adopted out either.”
“You were taken by the mafia or a family within that group of people. You were adopted.”
“My reputation preceded me. I had a thing about hurting … stuff. They heard about me, and the next thing I know, those skills I’ve been told to stop, they’re wanting me to explore. Soon, I’ve got everything I ever wanted, and in time, I found my use for them. It wasn’t for a family though, Arika. They didn’t adopt me to let me be their son. I’m a means to an end.”
“Doesn’t that bother you?”
“No. I got out of foster care, and I make a very good living.”
“I gathered that. You’re living in the suburbs.” She’d gotten out of bed this morning and looked outside to see the beautiful street where he lived. “Why do you live here?”
“It relaxes me. There’s not a lot of danger here unless you don’t mow your lawn on time.”
“I did hear that the suburbs can be deadly.”
He winked at her. “I’m the only deadly thing here.”
She finished her food and didn’t like the way his wink affected her. It wasn’t a problem; of course it wasn’t. He probably winked at a lot of women. What she didn’t like was how good it felt to have him wink at her. Her stomach tightened, which caused a little pain, but she felt the wetness between her thighs.
She was attracted to him.
When had she stopped fearing him and now found him attractive?
“Considering you hate Italian, you made quick work of that.”
“Your food is great.”
“I will change your mind on your cuisine choice.”
“If you could never have Italian again, what would you do?”
“Quite simple, that’s not an option.”
She saw the seriousness on his face and couldn’t help but chuckle, then wince. “You’d fight to always have your way?”
“Always. There’s no such thing as living anyone else’s way. I won’t allow it.” He leaned in close, and she got a scent of his cologne.
Again, the arousal hit her quite unexpectedly.
Leaning back, she tried to stay away from him. The shirt she wore was one of his, and his closeness didn’t really help matters.
“I’ll be up with dessert.”
“I get dessert as well?”
“Every lady should have dessert.”
When she was with him, he made her forget just how plain she was. She wasn’t being a party pooper over this. Everyone she was with told her how plain she looked, how she needed to change to enhance what little beauty she had. One of the old waitresses at the diner said she should learn to be hot in the sack so then men would come crawling back for more.
She, personally, just wanted to be left alone.
However, Vincenzo made that quite impossible.