“There was no trouble-or...we were on the right side of it at least.”
“How-”
“Would you stay with me while I sleep?” he asked, curbing her next question.
“I will,” she smoothed her fingers over his brow.
“I finally...finally understand it...”
“Shh....sleep...”
“I understand it, Athena.”
“I know,” she whispered to calm him.
“I know why my brothers did what they did.”
She frowned. “Liam?”
“What they did...”
She understood. “For your parents.”
“It started with them. Now...now they carry out vendettas like the soldiers we met today.”
“Shh...”
“That’s why people know my name-why they fear me.”
“No one could fear you, Liam Tesano. You’re too sweet,” she cupped his face and put a kiss to his forehead.
“You wouldn’t have thought that-not today. Do you believe people are born bad, Athena?”
She went rigid and hoped he hadn’t noticed. She didn’t want to answer that. It was a question she had often pondered. It was one she’d often overheard being discussed about her by others when they thought she wasn’t around.
“What else can people be? We are all born into sin, no?”
“I suppose,” Liam grimaced. “I think we all carry it inside for times like this. The soldiers we met were hired by a powerful man to find the bandits who stole his daughter a couple of months ago. Our fabric customer arranged to smuggle guns to them along our route. We were set upon before we could unload the weapons.”
“Polizia?” Athena guessed, rapt with interest over the story.
Liam shook his head against the pillow. “Bandits who know the cowards who took the girl. It felt good to help, but we didn’t know about any of that until later. The soldier told us to pick up guns and wound the others and...we did. We wounded six-did worse to more than that.”
Athena kissed his forehead. “You did a good thing. All of you.”
“I didn’t care about doing a good thing then,” he said. “Part of my soul craved the bloodshed no matter the reason.”
He winced fiercely and Athena moved to get him settled beneath the covers. “You need your rest, not to be thinking this way. Shh...” she smiled as his long dark lashes began to flutter.
“I want to be...a good man, Athena.”
“You are, shh...” she feathered her lips across his brow.
“I want to be a man res-respected for his-his contributions, not...feared for his brutality.”
“Shh...” she soothed and continued to do so until he drifted to sleep. Gingerly, she moved off the bed and stood in the bedroom doorway. After watching him for long moments, she returned to the kitchen where she’d planned to prepare a bowl of the peppery sausage soup she had planned for dinner.
Instead, she sat to the table and replayed Liam’s words. Were people born bad? People were born into circumstances that forced them to behave badly. It was as Liam had said, they all carried the badness inside until they needed it.
Some of them needed it more often than others. Some of them didn’t need it at all-they wanted it. They wanted to nurture it because they liked the way it made them feel and where was the harm? Hell! She wasn’t taking lives for pity’s sake! If anything, she was experiencing all that it meant to be alive. Not that anyone could understand that.
A faint voice chimed Liam inside her head. She brought an image to mind of him watching her with Mariana. Could he understand such wants?
Whether he did or not, it was a certainty that she wouldn’t find anyone else like him in Trento. She wanted to be gone from there. At the very least, she wanted to rise above the small-minded bastards who thought to judge her.
If rising above wasn’t a possibility, then she wanted out. She wanted to be someplace where she could live unnoticed, unexposed, free. Free to be who she was and who she intended to be.
~13~
Liam spent the next few days recovering from the graze to his side. Athena had been a doting nurse...and a demanding one. Liam was confined to his bed per her orders and only given leave to visit the toilet. She said when he was strong enough to overpower her, he could have his way. Liam couldn’t be sure if they were discussing his strength to leave the bedroom or to have her join him there.
At any rate, three days convalescing had provided rest and several extra pounds. Athena had proven herself an experienced cook. Her minestrone soup was better than any he’d ever tasted. According to Athena, it was the best way to return him to his full strength. The hearty blend of shell pasta, onions, beans and other vegetables was a filling treat. Liam didn’t doubt the soup’s powers to make him feel like his old self. Sadly, the creation lost its novelty after three days of it for breakfast, lunch and supper. By day four, he’d had enough of it and his bedroom.
~~~
Liam had already dressed for the day and was heading for his door when he met Athena on her way to his room with a tray. Her lovely face tightened with a scowl when she took note of her patient.
“Get back to bed,” along with the order, she used the tray to block him from the doorway.
