Page 54 of Hidden Ties

Blinking, Valerie had no idea what to say. Did she lie or tell the truth? Then, if she did, how much of it did she tell him she knew of his story?

“She did.”

Sal understood the unspoken words. Valerie couldn’t help but look at him differently, to see him as he was completely, besides just being The Great Salvatore. Instinctively, Sal knew that look all too well.

“How much did she tell you about me?”

“Enough,” Valerie finally admitted. There was no lying to the man who held all the secrets.

“I see.” Sal moved away from her in that instant, and she hated the look he held in his eyes. Even when she tried to explain that Maria had only done so as a sister, that look of sadnessnever changed. He just stood there, staring out through the floor-to-ceiling windows and up to the almost full moon.

She only wished she could read his thoughts.

“I know you might be hurt, but I am glad she told me. You keep everything so hidden and locked away so tightly that it’s hard to even see you, Sal.”

“That’s how I’ve always liked to keep it,” he admitted, finally speaking in a soft tone. “Because I don’t like it when people look at me the way you are now.”

“How do you think I’m looking at you?” she questioned and got her answer quickly.

“In pity.”

“You think I’m looking at you in pity?” Valerie said confusedly. If that was the case, he needed to look at her again.

Turning his face from the moon, he made sure his eyes met hers. It wasn’t often Valerie turned serious, because life was too short and way too serious for her liking, but when she did, she meant every word.

“This is me looking at a man I think I could actually fall in love with. A man I think could break my heart. A man who could hurt me and toss me aside like he did with the other women before me. I’m not looking at you ’cause I feel sorry for you, Sal. I’m looking at you because, for the first time since I got thrown out by my father, another man is gaining the power to be able to do that very same thing to me again.”

Those words struckSal right in his heart.

Valerie possessed a vulnerability he had never had. When you looked at her, you could see her for all she was. There was nothing about her that washidden and locked awaylike she hadsaid about him. Hiding who he was, was his way of shielding himself from the rest of the world, which was ironic considering the rest of the world could never be hidden from him. How could he possibly be upset that, for the first time in his life, a woman he was interested in had to see him for all that he was worth? It was something he had been fearful of his whole life—to be vulnerable with a woman and let her in on all his secrets. But what was he supposed to do? Keep them hidden forever? Or finally let someone have a peek at him out from behind the computer screen?

“I got lucky my father wanted nothing to do with me.” He started letting down his firewalls as he spoke, knowing it was all Valerie was asking. He had already made his decision in wanting her, so it was time to admit Maria might have done him a favor tonight. It was left up to him if he wanted to lose her or let her in. “I got the best end of the deal out of all my siblings. Dominic, Angel, Matthias, Katarina, and Cassius had it much worse than I ever did, even when I was living on the street. I simply didn’t really know Lucifer, only that he was a person to fear and stay away from. My brothers and sister were the ones who had to deal with him, and while I have hate in my heart for Lucifer for other things he has done, I don’t have hate in my heart for him as my father. ’Cause he wasn’t one to me. He’s still alive to this day, rotting away, but I refuse to see him, to give him the satisfaction to think I thought he was my father ’cause he wasn’t.”

Valerie’s shock was apparent when he first started to speak of his own father, but that shock was replaced with a different kind of shock from this new knowledge.

“Lucifer is still alive?”

“Yes,” Sal said, knowing it was impossible for Maria to have told her everything. He could sugarcoat things for her, but his life and profession were impossible to sweeten. “He’s waiting for his executioner to wake up.”

“And who is that?” she asked, her mouth going dry.

“The son he managed to kill the most inside,” Sal revealed, and little did she know it was the one she had just briefly met. “Matthias.”

TWENTY

STICKY SITUATION

“Are you sure you’ll be okay by yourself for thirty minutes?”

“It’s not like I’m going to run away.” Valerie stopped her packing to see that he wasn’t fully convinced, even after last night.

They hadn’t spent the night bickering or having sex. They had spent it talking about not only their past but their hopes and dreams, too. Sal opening up about Lucifer had only been the beginning, and while she hadn’t learned everything there was to know about Sal yet, in time, she would.

“Listen, I promise you’re stuck with me until either I go to prison or your dick gets sick of me, okay?”

The smirk that played on Sal’s lip lasted only for a moment. “Okay, I’ll be next door, picking up a few things. I’ll be right back.”

She shooed him to go on as she continued her packing.

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