Finding Beauty in the Darkness

“I know.”

“He’s dead. I can’t give you the specifics, but he’ll never hurt you again.”

I would never wish death on anyone, but knowing he can never get to me again gives me a sense of peace I desperately long for.

“And Cecilia?”

“She’s gone.”

My eyes widen. Surely, he wouldn’t…

“Not dead,” he says, answering my silent question. “She’s just gone from here. I fired her.”

Gio stares at me for a few minutes, with a mixture of sadness and something else marring his features. It causes a weird feeling in my gut to stir, like there’s more but he doesn’t want to say it.

“Can we get out of here?” I ask. “Let’s go away. Anywhere but here. Just the two of us.”

His frown deepens. “I can’t. There are too many fires to put out and I need to do damage control.” He gets up from the bed and goes to the bathroom and that feeling in my gut intensifies. He didn’t kiss me and he hasn’t touched me. I could be overthinking this but something in me is screaming that I’m about to lose Gio.

I hear the shower running, so I throw the covers off me and, ignoring the pain radiating from my body, strip my shirt and panties off. Gio’s shower is different from most. It’s a huge rectangular shape, tiled throughout but instead of having a shower door, it’s completely open, with two entrances you can step down and walk through. There are five shower heads that spray down and there’s a bench that runs along the entire back wall.

I step into the shower and, coming up behind him, wrap my arms around his middle. He stills for a second then turns around. “Aria, you should be resting. You were attacked last night.”

“Nothing happened.” I know I’m downplaying it, but I don’t want him to push me away.

“You might not have been raped but you were still assaulted. Please go lie down.”

Standing on my tiptoes, I wrap my arms around his neck, but he reaches around and removes them, stepping back. “I need to get ready for work. Go rest.” His voice is no longer soothing but cold, devoid of any emotion.

“Don’t do this, Gio. Talk to me, please.” Stepping toward him, I put my hands on his chest, but once again, he removes them.

“There’s nothing to talk about, Aria. You were attacked last night and you should be resting. I’m not going to fuck you right here in the shower mere hours after you were almost raped.” I flinch at the way he’s speaking to me. He’s never spoken to me like this before. Before he can see my tears, I turn and get out of the shower, grabbing a towel to wrap myself up in.

I pull the top outfit out of my drawer and throw it on. Snatching my cell phone from the nightstand, I push it into my back pocket and run downstairs and out the door, needing some air.

“Need to go somewhere?” I look over at Rome standing behind me. “I figured I would ask before you steal another vehicle.”

“I can drive, you know. And now that Weston is dead, I don’t need to stay here under lock and key.”

“That’s true, but you don’t have a car.”

“Maybe I’ll go buy one today,” I challenge.

He chuckles and shakes his head. “Would you like a ride to buy a car, Aria?”

I sigh, having no idea what the hell I’m doing, then sit on the curb on the side of the house. “I think Gio needs some space. Would you mind taking me over to Amber’s place?” I pull my phone out and dial her number. She answers on the second ring. “Aria? Nico just told me what happened last night! Are you okay?”

“I am, but I need to get away from here for a little bit. Can I come stay with you?” There’s a pregnant pause and then Amber shocks the hell out of me when she says, “Well, I’m actually living with Nico. A few of my roommates graduated this year so we had to give up the apartment.”

“You’re living with Nico? How did I not know this?”

“It literally just happened. I was so busy moving everything, I haven’t had time to tell you. Why don’t you come here? Nico won’t mind. Plus, he’s out of town until the end of the week. We can do a girls’ night.”

“Are you sure? I don’t want to cause any issues with you two.”

“Oh my God, stop! Get over here and let’s hang out.”

“Okay, I’ll be over shortly.”

After hanging up, I head back up to the room. Gio isn’t there anymore, so I grab a suitcase and fill it with some clothes and toiletries. Then I go back to the first floor to his office. He’s not in there either so I write him a note to let him know I went to stay with Amber for a few days.