Page 54 of Protecting Charity

I held my hand out for her to take it, and she did, interlacing her delicate but deadly fingers through mine, and I brought her out of my bedroom. Vito, Max, and Nico stood at the bottom of the steps waiting to see her as if she was the prom date. Such a weird thought that was.

“Is Vito coming?” she asked, probably noting that he was dressed to the nines as we were.

“Yes, he is driving us. That way, we’ll have some backup should we need it.”

We reached the bottom of the steps, and Max stepped forward, giving her a small black rectangular box covered in velvet.

She gasped as he opened the case for her to see the diamond-encrusted bracelet. We all knew this would be the first and the last time she would wear it. It just wasn’t her style outside of this moment.

A wide, heartfelt smile lifted at the corners of her lips. “It’s beautiful, Max. Thank you.”

She wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him extra tight, then he put it around her wrist and clasped it into place.

“Don’t take it off.”

“I won’t.”

She held her wrist up, admiring the glitter as the light touched its angled design.

“We should get going.” I tugged on her elbow gently so she wouldn’t topple over on the heels she wasn’t used to wearing. She’d curse me to Hell and worse if she fell on her face in those things.

She hurried and hugged Nico. Then, we walked out the front door where the Rolls-Royce Ghost sat waiting for us.

“We are going in that?” she questioned.

“Yep, it’s bulletproof. That seems to be what the mood calls for lately.”

She laughed. “It looks like a grandpa car.”

I scoffed. How could she insult a half a million-dollar car? It was eloquent, high-class, and stylish.

“If grandpa could afford it, then yeah, I guess so.”

I opened the door for her, and she slid in while Vito walked to the driver’s side. I always hated having the door opened for me. I was perfectly capable of opening my own goddamn door. It took longer for me to sit in the car or outside of it and wait for someone to do it for me. Sliding in next to her, she fingered the diamond and rolled the bracelet in a circle around her wrist.

“What is it? What’s bothering you?” I turned to face her.

She wasn’t giving me much to go on, aside from the fidgeting. She was nervous; playing with the bracelet stopped her from tapping. Charity was learning to find other ways to distract her nervous tick and feed it something else. She was evolving and teaching herself.

“I’m scared.”

Her confession took me by surprise. Charity didn't admit to humanistic feelings. She never confessed weaknesses, so this was new. Did that mean she was becoming comfortable enough with me to open up? I needed to handle this delicately so as not to ruin what we had been building.

“Of what, baby?”

I placed my hand on hers, pausing her from spinning it one more time.

“I’m going to fail. I have gotten nothing right since my brother disappeared.”

I chuckled, even though it was a wildly inappropriate moment. “Coming from the woman who just convinced us she is indestructible. You aren’t alone in this, you know. We are helping you every step of the way. If you fail in this, then we do as well.”

She gave a half-hearted smile, “That’s what I’m afraid of.” Charity kept her gaze cast down to the floor, refusing to look at me because she knew, if she did, the tough facade she put up to fool everyone would fracture, and we would see inside the real Charity.

“We’ll figure it out. We always do.”

“Thank you, Luca. I don’t know what I did to deserve you guys.”

Her quiet voice struck my heart like a spear thrown at war. It pained me that she felt like a failure. She was the furthest thing from a failure.

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