Angelo hugged me so hard he sucked all the air from my lungs. Then, he moved his hand to my stomach. He glanced over at his father, then his mother, before returning his gaze back to me. Shaking his head, he studied my face. “How did something good come from all of this?”
“Because I had faith in you. I knew you would find me. We always find our way back to each other.” I cupped the side of his face in my hand and smiled. “That’s what I want to call her… if it’s a girl.”
“Faith,” he whispered against my lips. “Faith Morelli. It’s perfect. You’re perfect.” He leaned his forehead against mine, and a tear slid from his eye to wet my cheek. “I promise you, G. Our child will not live this way. I will do whatever I can to get us out of this mess.”
“I love you, Angelo.”
I sobbed. Angelo didn’t cry. One fallen tear was as close as I would get from him.
“I love you, too, G.” He brushed his lips against mine. “I promise to take care of you and this baby. I will never let anyone hurt us again. Our child will never have to pay for my sins.”
I wanted to believe him. For our child, I had faith in Angelo.
But was it a promise he could keep?
Chapter Twenty-One
Angelo
After my mother fed Gia enough food for an army, I carried her upstairs and into the bathroom that connected my bedroom to the vacant one next door. I lowered her to the floor, clutching her at my side, and turned the shower knobs. Still in disbelief I had her back, I got on my knees in front of her. Staring up at Gia, I pushed the dress over her legs and pulled her closer to me by her hips.
She took her dress off and dropped it to the floor behind her. I analyzed every bruise and scar left on her body by her kidnappers and kissed each of them. My lips caressed every bit of her skin.
Gia threaded her fingers through my hair and moaned. “Angelo… baby, I missed you. I missed this.”
With each kiss, I whispered I was sorry and that I loved her. I promised to never let her out of my sight again. I promised to care for her and our child. I vowed to be a good husband and father. Most of all, I vowed to keep her safe. No one would ever touch a hair on her head again. I would kill anyone who tried to harm Gia or our child.
Family was important to me. Even though I had a love-hate relationship with my brothers and father, I still loved them. I would die for them. I would kill for them. And I would do the same for Gia and our family.
After I finished appraising every inch of Gia’s body, I pushed myself up to my feet and slid my jacket over my shoulders. Gia removed my pants, while I worked on my shirt. We stood there with nothing separating us.
I pushed the glass door to the side, reached into the tiled shower to feel the water, and then lifted Gia up and placed her inside. She closed her eyes when the water splashed across her beautiful face. When she opened her eyes, she smiled at me. It was the same smile she’d given me the last time I saw her. I’d hoped for weeks that my Gia would return to me. She was still there, the same girl I’d fell in love with as a boy.
I got in with her and closed the door behind me, pulling her into my arms. She hooked her arm around my back and leaned her head against my chest, turning her head to the side to look up and into my eyes.
“I can’t believe you’re here,” I whispered and smacked a kiss on her forehead. “I tried to buy you. I thought I lost you. Forever.”
“You could never lose me, Angelo.” She moved her hand up my chest to cover my heart. “Because I will always be in here.”
I stroked her cheek. “Cuore mio.”
Gia had said those words to me since we were old enough to understand what we had was real love. The kind of love worth fighting for. Worth dying for. She was my heart, my soul. Gia was my end and my beginning. I didn’t exist without her. I couldn’t function without her. Her absence was proof of that.
“I love you, Gianna.” I kissed her lips, softly and only for a few seconds, before pressing my forehead against hers. “I can’t live without you. While you were gone, I couldn’t sleep or eat. All I did was hunt and kill. Losing you turned me into a madman. I’m not the same man as before you were taken from me.”
She moved her hand up to my cheek and held it there, stroking my skin with her thumb. “There’s good in you, Angelo. You show me every time we are together. I know you’re afraid of failing me. I know you blame yourself for what happened to me. But I don’t. Not once did I blame you for my kidnapping.”
“You should. It’s my fault.” The water rained down us, but I shielded her the best I could. “None of this would have happened if I didn’t kill Enzo’s son. If I didn’t kill some of his men. You suffered so Enzo could show me how much power he has over our family. My father is losing his edge. Everything is falling apart.”
“No matter what, you still have me. You have this baby that’s growing inside me.”
I leaned my head back against the tiled wall and held Gia at an arm’s length so I could get a good look at her body. It was different and still as beautiful as I’d remembered. Her breasts were bigger, more rounded. I cupped her left breast in my hand and massaged her nipple with my finger. As always, Gia was responsive to my touch. The tiny bud hardened for me, and Gia let out a soft moan.
I ran my other hand over her stomach. “I still don’t believe it,” I confessed. “I thought you were on the pill.”
“I was.” She leaned into my hand. “I kept forgetting to take it with all the shit we had going on. I would double up on the pills I missed. I tried to remember to take it on a regular schedule, but in all honesty, I didn’t care as much after we got engaged. You were going to be my husband. We knew we wanted kids. I figured if it was going to happen it would, and it did.”
“How can you be so sure?”