Chapter 18
Zack
I needed room to breathe and time to clear my head. I felt like I’d been pulled into a true crime movie. The whole thing was so surreal. As it was, I’d been struggling with the fact she was so much younger and a student, but now we were adding onto it with the fact her family had ties to organized crime. Hell, they were organized crime – not just ties.
I’d always tried to live my life with as much integrity as possible, but this… Just knowing she had these ties nagged at me. But at the same time would faulting her for her family be any different than faulting someone whose family had someone incarcerated or someone who made a mistake, learned, and moved on from it.
Humans by nature weren’t perfect. She had good reason to keep this information from me and I believed her when she said she was trying to protect me. But it just left me in a strange position and feeling at odds with myself. By being with her I’d also have to turn a blind eye to what would be in front of me every time I interacted with her family. And that was just the beginning of the complications that could and would arise by pursuing a relationship with her.
However, there was one important thing that I was leaving out of the equation and that was that I truly was in love with her. I took her home that first night because I had felt something between us, an attraction I couldn’t explain. When she showed up in my class the next day my heart was telling me it was destiny. What were the chances that out of all the women I’d refused to go home with because one-night stands had never been my thing, she was the one I finally took a chance on?
The elevator reached the main floor of the hotel with a ding. Exiting the elevator, I made my way into the bar. Upon entering my eyes immediately spotted her brother sitting alone at a table to my right. Fuck. I was about to turn around and hightail it out of there when he caught sight of me.
“Zack! It is Zack, right?”
Double damn.
He motioned for me to come join him at the table. “Let’s have a drink on me. We should have a chat. We really should get to know each other better.” The smile he shot me was cold at best. I wanted to refuse, but I really didn’t see that have a choice in the matter. I suspected he was the type of man who didn’t take the word no well.
“Sure, that sounds great.” Crossing the room, I pulled out a chair across from him and took a seat.
“You’re not enjoying the suite?” he asked as his eyes searched the bar, spotted the hostess and then flagged her down.
“It’s not that, I’m just trying to get some things sorted in my head.”
He pinned me with a stare. “Like what?”
“Well, I just found out my girlfriend’s family is the mafia, that’s not something someone comes across often.”
“No, I suppose not.” The waitress arrived and Isaac ordered a bottle of white wine, not bothering to ask me if that’s what I wanted. But then again, he hadn’t threatened to kill me yet, so I suppose I’d consider that a win. “I don’t know how much my sister has told you about growing up, but she grew up very sheltered and honestly, she’s not like the rest of us. She just wants to be normal. However, because of who her family is she’s not and can never be.”
“I can appreciate that.” And my heart went out to her and her plight, it truly did. However…
“But, as I said, she wants to be. And she seems really into you.”
“Well, I care for her as well. Caring for her isn’t the question I’m struggling with.”
“Then what is?” The waitress delivered the bottle of wine and poured us both a glass before leaving the bottle in ice on the table.
“This whole thing. This isn’t a world that I’m familiar with and it honestly makes me uneasy. I’m just a sociology teacher who grew up in a poor family and hope to one day have a wife, a few kids and a mortgage I can’t afford.”
“What’s stopping you? If this life isn’t for you no one is going to force a horsehead tattoo on your hand and make you work for us. You and my sister can be happy making it on your own or accept help from the family and live a life most people dream of, but never achieve. It doesn’t matter to us which way it goes down, money isn’t an issue.”
It was wild to think that with so much poverty and homelessness there were people like the man sitting across from me who had so much money that it was nothing more than an afterthought. Mind-blowing. Truly it was.
“And that’s part of it. There’s blood on that money.” Looking into his eyes I could see that he’d never understand. The man across from me didn’t have the capacity within him to feel sympathy for those who were hurt because of their endeavors. But Isaac wasn’t his sister. In fact, I’d seen the kindness and love that Sophia had to share with the world.
Picking up the glass of wine, I didn’t take the time to indulge in the smell, or even take note of the flavors, as I downed the contents of the glass, picked up the bottle and refilled it.
“It’s not all blood money, Professor Von, in fact, what we’re doing on Helka Island is something quite extraordinary. And if you’d like over the winter break, I invite you and my sister over to the island. We can send a plane and you can experience it for yourself.”
“I’ll think about it.” Maybe I needed to keep an open mind. He was right, she wasn’t her family and there could still be a future with her. I just needed to sort out in my head what that future would look like.
“Good I’m glad to hear it. I think you’d enjoy yourself. Now on to more pleasant topics,” he pointed to the wine bottle sitting between us, “What do you think of the wine? Should we order a second bottle?”
Sophia
Knocking on the hotel room door of Asher Rossi felt like I was knocking on the door of the devil himself. And in a lot of ways, it was, but I needed to protect Zack and the career he cherished. Asher was the only one I could think of who could ensure just that.