First Love Only Love (The Life 2)

“You know the deserted music room on the third floor at school? I’ve been using it for years now.”

“Isn’t that place full of dust and old furniture?” She shrugged her shoulders as if she hadn’t just given me a heart attack with her admission.

I know only too well the room she mentioned; I’ve used it before until I found my spot. It’s been off-limits for the better part of three years, maybe more. No one goes up there, not since the new music room had been opened, so it was used for storage more than anything else. It’s the perfect place for her to hide away. But all I could think about was the danger of something going wrong while she was in there alone.

That thought brought my mind crashing back to reality, her reality, damn. “Where’re you going?”

“I can’t stay in this costume all evening, silly. I need to put my dress back on.” She kissed my cheek and walked away to join my sisters. I nodded at Lancelot to do what he does best, ride roughshod over the Russo twins; I had somewhere to go.

I slipped out the front door and walked down to the gate in the cool evening breeze. Mikey saw me coming and met me halfway. “You were right; how did you know?”

“Easy guess, she’s diabolical. Where is she?”

“Left side at the very edge of the property. She has binoculars, been there for a while after I turned her away.”

“Okay, thanks.” I played around with the idea of confronting Victoria but figured there was no point. Now that I knew where she was, I’d be sure to give her something to see. I took a wild guess that she would show up here, that she wouldn’t be able to stay away. My intent is to push her ass over the edge so that she and her hag of a mother can crash and burn together.

I’d told the twins to put a moratorium on the information flow about tonight. Nothing would make someone like her, a narcissistic sociopath, crazier than ostracizing them without warning. By now, she should be making herself nuts, thinking that everyone was talking about her, laughing at her. So, of course, I knew she’d come here tonight, be bold enough to even try to get in. She’d learned from her mother, after all.

I’m almost going to miss tormenting those two when this is all over with; then again, I have others to play with. Thinking about that almost put a damper on the evening, but I pushed it away with ease when I walked back inside and saw her waiting for me. “Let’s take a walk.”

GABRIEL

“Let me grab a jacket. Be right back.” She started to fret that there was nothing to do justice to her gown like a typical female before I stopped her.

“No need. Here.” I walked to the coat closet where the rest of her outfit waited and removed the cape I’d left hanging there.

“Oh my, it’s beautiful.” I draped the ermine coat around her shoulders and stood back to look. The padded silk cape had been died to match her gown in daffodil yellow, while the white ermine border glistened beneath the light of the chandelier. “I’ve never seen anything like this.” She ran her hands over the fur in awe.

I took her hand and led her to the door, or I have a feeling she’d have stood there all night admiring herself. She hadn’t yet noticed the butterflies outlined with gold thread pattern that flitted along the back and sides of the cape, but I knew that would be a whole other conversation if she did, and I didn’t want my prey to retreat before the finale I had planned.

“It’s not too cold, is it?” it shouldn’t be; the thing was lined enough to withstand the worst of Siberia.

“Not at all; I can’t even feel the wind.” I stopped on the top step and pulled the cover over her head to complete the look and ward off the wind. “Let’s go to the garden.” That should give Victoria a perfect view of our moonlight walk. Call me petty, but what better way to torment someone than by using their own weakness against them?

I know the binoculars I’d left surreptitiously at the Fontane residence were high-powered enough for her to see every last thread in Gianna’s clothing. We walked in silence for the first few minutes until we came to the Turkish garden, which was in the best location for Victoria to see us plainly.

“Oh wow, this is beautiful; we’ve not been here before.”

“That’s because, like mom, you prefer the Japanese and English gardens. There’s still another three or four after this.” I can’t keep up with Ma’s obsession with gardens and Pop’s need to fulfill them all. There could be twenty of the things around here, for all I know.