Angel's Mafia (gxg) ✓

XXXLLV | Trusting You

I BLINK AT ANGEL. I'VE JUST WOKEN UP and she is staring at me like . . . like this is the last time she'll ever see me. Like we are the last two people on earth. For a moment, my breath catches. Is this what I think it is?

"Hey, sleeping beauty."

"Two years ago," she begins, sitting down next to me, "I met you." Her hand goes to my face, resting against my cheek. She smooths my hair. "And I didn't know what you would become to me. I didn't know what you would do to me."

I stare at her, heart in my throat.

"You broke my heart," she whispers. "You broke me. More than once. I've . . . I have lived with knowing you're dead. I've lived with knowing that you hate me, because you thought I had betrayed you. I had even lived with you being with Cassian, because I thought it made you happy."

She pauses. Her hazel irises gleam, surrounded by sunflower yellow. "But nothing, nothing compared to seeing you in true pain yesterday. When I thought you were going to die as you clutched your chest. Because in that moment, I knew . . . my heart is yours. As you told me your story, asking me for forgiveness, I didn't know what to think. I didn't know how to trust you, but I want to try. I know we'll get there someday. But I'll always love you, even when you break my heart." A tear slips from her eye, and she wipes it away, sniffling, half-laughing. "You can have my heart, Cade. It's all yours. Just . . . take care of it, alright?"

Dominic's words come back to me. Take care of her, will you?

I will, I think, sending up a silent prayer to him, wherever he is. I'll take care of her.

"Angel," I say softly. Strangled.

"When I met you," she continues, "I was living in the only world I knew. I needed the respect of Sicily, so I got it the only way I knew how: through fear. But you, you have taught me empathy. You've taught me mercy, and kindness, and how to good. For that, Cade, you not only have my heart, you have me. Forever."

"You're not . . . leaving?"

She shakes her head, wiping away the tears as they come. "I'm not leaving."

I start to cry, too. "Angel, I thought you wouldn't forgive me."

"It was the same for me," she says in a hushed voice. "Being without you, feeling that constant pain, it was the same. I never stopped missing you."

"But Maria . . ."

Her eyes flicker away guiltily. "I used her to make myself feel better. I never thought you were coming back. I know it was wrong, but . . . I needed a way to ease the pain."

I nod. Understanding. "But what about the Mafia? What about you being a lord? You know I don't want to stay here. You can't always be on vacation."

"I won't be. I gave it up."

My jaw drops. "You did what?"

"I renounced my title," she says. "Publicly. I am no longer the Falcone lord. I'm just . . . Angel."

"Angel," I say, testing it out on my tongue without the weight of the Mafia behind it. I like it. "I'm Cade."