Page 16 of Cardinal

I waited for my men to respond to me before leaving the mansion to retrieve Juliet, who sat curled up in the seat of the car. Seeing her all scared and vulnerable made me want to turn back around and rummage through her room myself, but then that would defeat the purpose of me dragging her here and forcing her to do this herself. I wanted her to remove herself from her family's home and physically move herself and her belongings into mine.

Slowly, I approached the car and opened the door before reaching in and placing my hand on her shoulder, "Juliet." Regret quickly pulled me into the depths of the chilly ocean when she flinched and shied away from my touch. "Sorry." I should have been more mindful about physical touch and her after what she recently went through.

"Promise I won't see them?" She asked while uncurling her tense body.

Smiling confidently, I nodded in response before holding a hand out to help her out of the car. "I'll be right behind you."

Then, to my surprise, she shook her head, quickly darted behind me, and started pushing me forward. "No, you go first, just in case." I heard her quiet whisper as I let her steer me into and throughout the house until we reached a closed room.

It was so stupid, letting myself be pushed around—literally—by a girl half my size. If it were anyone else, I would've snapped at them, but I tolerated it for Juliet. If it made her feel better, then so be it. I'd deal with my snickering men later.

"Wait right here," I instructed her after pressing her flat against the wall next to the door.

When she showed no signs of disobeying me, I carefully opened the door after drawing my gun out and stalked into the room. Quickly, I swept her room, the connected bathroom, and the walk-in closet to ensure no vile surprises awaited her before returning to retrieve her.

"Was that really necessary? It's just my room, not like someone's gonna bug it or put a bomb in it." And that right there proved her to be too innocent for my fucked-up world.

I needed to find a way to shut Carol down before the end of the year and then clean up the shit with my lie before it blew up. No way in hell could I let it come true. I couldn't do that to Juliet. I'd be no better than her parents and those who've wronged her in life thus far. Besides, she still had her whole life ahead of her. It'd be somewhat wrong of me to chain her to someone more than twice her age and throw her into the mafia life when she had no place in it.

"I would argue with you otherwise, but I want your naïve innocence to remain intact," I replied with a sigh as I stood there and watched her whip through her room in a flurry.

The way she zipped back and forth with the occasional object being thrown onto her bed looked rather comical, and if the situation were different with a lighthearted feel, then I'd chuckle a bit. For her sake, I wished it was different. She shouldn't be packing to move in with a mafia boss because I was the only safe option in her life; she should be packing for college or some fun trip with her friends.

Speaking of college, what if I twisted things a bit? Alter the agreement? That should work. Well, that'll be plan B for now. If for some reason, I couldn't deal with Carol in a timely manner, then I'll just continue to lie and say Juliet and I came to an agreement to wed after she finishes college. Yeah, that'll be a good plan.

Everything will be fine.

Juliet deserved a good life, and I intend to give it all to her.

Chapter 9

Juliet

Everything, and nothing.

Whenever I thought I might not want or need to take an item, I did. Even though I made a mental list, being physically in my room threw me for a loop. I kept swinging back and forth between wanting to take everything to wanting to leave it all and start anew.

"Juliet." Luciano's concern broke my chain of anxiety as I looked over at him with a small frown. "What's wrong?" His comforting presence consumed me in his soothing scent when he approached my side.

Even though I pulled a good armful of items and tossed them on the bed to be packed, staring at it all made me want to turn away after throwing a match to it all. "I just… This feels weird. A part of me kind of wants to just forget it all and start anew because it feels wrong to bring bits and pieces of my old life with me to your place. It also feels like I'm tainting your place with my junk. On the other hand, there are some things that have a lot of sentimental value to me." I hated how indecisive I was.

The feeling of his hand on my lower back caused a bloom of warmth to engulf me. "You're not going to tarnish or cramp up my place. Besides, it is now your place as well, and I want you to feel at home." With a soft nudge, he urged me toward the bed, where I had a growing pile of items. "Just because this is part of your past doesn't mean it's all bad, so just bring the good with you and leave the rest to rot with time."

Swallowing the lump in my throat, I slowly made my second round with my room, this time mindfully looking at everything, unlike before, when I went at everything mindlessly. It didn't take me long to go through everything, as I thought. Soon, I was packing my things away into boxes with Luciano's help.

"Who's this?" It was an innocent enough question, but the grave tone, ladened with seething jealousy, chilled me to my very bones as a fire lit itself in my chest.

Warily, I turned my attention to Luciano, who held a picture frame of Gale and me at the library. One of our friends snapped the picture of me falling asleep on Gale's shoulder because I'd grown so exhausted from studying for our finals. It was rare for me to have pictures of my friends, at least the ones that meant the most to me. I had a shit ton of pictures on my social media, but they were all for show or with the 'it' crowd because it was what my parents wanted. The only pictures that mattered to me amounted to exactly five photos, the one in Luciano's hands being one of them.

"That's Gale… He's just a friend. We were all studying late for finals last year, and I'd fallen asleep on him without knowing. One of our other friends thought it was cute and snapped a picture of us. It's the only copy I have because my parents made me delete the one I posted on social media and the one on my phone. They also made my friend delete the original, too." Yeah, my parents controlled my life very tightly, and with the wealth they wielded, they got away with nearly everything.

Grumbling, Luciano briefly narrowed his eyes at the picture. "Friends don't look at each other like that." I barely heard his low words as he tossed the picture into the box.

I knew that look and reaction all too well. "Gale is just a friend. Besides, why does any of that even matter to you anyway? What difference would it make if Gale and I were dating? Hm?" Luciano's jealousy was wrongly placed, in my opinion. I mean, it was kind of fun to see a man like Luciano getting jealous over simple 'ol me.

Gale was nothing more than a friend, even if it seemed otherwise at times. Honestly, I had no romantic feelings toward him, nor would I ever. By society's standards, Gale was a perfect man, and he would be a great partner to anyone lucky enough to win his affection.

"Sure, just a friend. Soon, it'll be just my husband before you know it." He grumbled as he continued packing things away. "You're too young to be dating anyway. You have college to get through, and a whole life to live before you even begin to think about settling."

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