“I can’t,” I told him. He got into the car and drove off without another word.
You don’t know how much I’m risking for you.
Why? Why are you risking so much, I wanted to ask him but he was gone, and he wouldn’t reply anyway.
Mom was curled into herself, expression blissful.
“Who’s that?” Cheryl’s voice made me jump. She appeared beside me.
“My mother,” I admitted.
Cheryl didn’t say anything as we both watched my mother being lost in her drug haze. “She can’t stay here. Roger will lose his shit if he sees a junky in his parking lot.”
“I know,” I said. “But I don’t have a car, and there’s no way a cab will give us a ride like that.”
Cheryl sighed. “I hate to say it, Chick, but you are more trouble than you look.” She pulled car keys from her back pocket, then pointed at an old, rusty Toyota. “Get in. I’ll give you a quick ride. Mel can handle the bar.”
“Thank you,” I whispered. She waved me off, then helped me carry my mother to her car and position her on the backseat. She also helped me get my mother into the apartment, even as my father raged around us. I had paid for food and had given him more than enough money in the last few weeks. He would have to deal with Mom sleeping on the couch for now.
“You will end like her!” he shouted as he stormed out. Cheryl was already gone.
I perched on the edge of the couch beside my mother who was mumbling in her haze. Mom being in Vegas meant more trouble for me. I didn’t want her to work the streets again, but I didn’t have nearly enough money to pay off her debt to the Camorra.
My mobile beeped. I removed it from my backpack.
It was a message from Fabiano.
Do you need me to pick you up from work tonight?
Even though he was pissed about the situation, he honored his promise to protect me. I smiled down at my phone.
No. I’m home with my mother. Thank you.
“That look,” Mom croaked, startling me. “Who is he?”
“No one. There’s no one, Mom. Sleep.”
She could barely keep her eyes open, the drug haze beckoning to her. “I hope he’s good to you.”
“He’s good to me,” I said. Good for me, that was a different matter.
“Does he love you like you him?”
My throat closed. “Sleep, Mom.” And finally her eyes closed.
Love broke people. It had broken Mom before the drugs had done the rest.
I didn’t love Fabiano. I…I was falling for him. Falling deeper and deeper every day. Into his darkness, and what lay beneath it.
Fabiano didn’t want love. He didn’t believe in it.
I couldn’t love him.
Chapter Sixteen
My stomach fluttered with nerves. As if I was the one who had to fight in a cage. I glanced at the changing room doors, waiting for Fabiano to emerge. That was his second fight I got to watch but this time I was worried. Worried for Fabiano, worried he’d get hurt or worse. In the last few weeks of me working in Roger’s Arena I’d seen how brutal cage fighting could be. Several men had died in the hospital afterwards. What if something happened to Fabiano?
I hadn’t seen him since he’d dropped off my mother in the parking lot yesterday. I’d been in the storage when he’d come in and it drove me near crazy that I couldn’t tell him again how much I appreciated his help. Mom had been sleeping most of the day, and I’d made her promise me she wouldn’t leave the apartment alone. We’d figure out a way to get the money she owed later, until then my savings would have to do. My father wasn’t going to help, that much was clear.
The door of the changing room opened and Fabiano stepped out, tall and muscled. I smiled. He looked invincible. Fabiano was grace and fierceness and power as he strode toward the center of the room under the cheers of the crowd. His eyes were the scariest thing I’d ever seen. He was furious. This was because of me, because of my mother. Perhaps his opponent, who waiting for him, saw it too, because for a moment he looked like he wanted to cancel the fight.
Fabiano leaped into the cage, cat-like and breathtaking. His eyes sought mine and for a split second he looked at peace.
I had stopped washing the glasses, stopped listening to the customers. There was only him. The crowd erupted with a new wave of cheers. That man. He was mine.
I had never been worth anything, but one look from him made me feel like the center of the world.
His opponent hopped from one foot to the other, balled fists raised, trying to goad Fabiano into action. With a last glance at me Fabiano leaped toward his opponent.