Evelyn (Fallen Angel Series Book 3)

by Tracie Podger

  I was busy in the kitchen, laying out bowls of pasta when he came in. Moving around me, he collected glasses, wine and plates. It felt so comfortable, so normal to be in his kitchen, I imagined this would be our life if we lived together. If we could summon up the courage to tell my father, perhaps we could. He was still topless, just in his jeans and as we sat, my eyes wandered over his tattoos.

  “What do they all mean?” I asked.

  “What?”

  “Your tattoos, do they have meanings?”

  “Some, others are just designs I liked or drew myself. This one here,” he said pointing to a dragon that snaked up his arm. “This means strength and courage, something I needed a long time ago.”

  “Will you tell me about it?” I asked.

  He set his fork down and rested back in his chair.

  “It was a month or so before I came here, to America, I think, when I was sat with my sister in the square, in my village. We were just watching the world go by when I saw him, one of the men that had taken my father and brother. I watched him sit with his friends, drinking coffee, laughing and grabbing for the waitress when she passed. I don’t think I have ever felt such hatred, it was eating me inside. His face was all I had seen every time I closed my eyes. I knew it was him. He caught me staring and I knew he thought there was something familiar about me, but he couldn’t place me, you know, when someone frowns at you?”

  He paused to take a sip of his wine. I watched a pulse beat frantically in his neck and I placed my hand on his arm.

  “You don’t have to tell me anymore, Rocco, it’s fine,” I said. My words were ignored.

  “I waited until he left then I followed him. I watched him walk into a house and I crept to the window to see. There was a young woman with him, he was shouting at her and she was crying. He slapped her face and she fell. I must have stepped on something, I don’t know, but he looked towards the window. I ducked but he must have seen me. It was all quiet for a little while and I started to move to the back of the house. I don’t think I really knew what I was going to do but as I rounded the corner, I came face to face with him.

  He went to grab me and we fought, I could hear the girl crying and saw her trying to pull him from me. She might have been his daughter, she looked too young to be his wife but he pushed her to the ground, again. She ran to the kitchen and came back with a knife, a fucking big knife. Maybe she had lost it, I don’t know, but she was never going to get close enough to him to do anything with it. We all just stood, watching each other and somehow she managed to be standing next to me. He was laughing at her, goading her, “Fucking do it,” he was shouting. I took the knife from her hands and did it myself.”

  He turned to look at me. “I stuck him right through his ribs, as far as I could and I watched him die.”

  “Oh, God,” I said as I covered my mouth. I felt sick and rushed to the sink.

  I heard the scrape of a chair as I retched, I felt him pull my hair to one side and rub my back. He reached for a glass, filled it with water and as I stood, the back of my hand wiping my mouth, he handed it to me.

  “Sit, take a drink,” he said, quietly.

  “I’m sorry, it was just a shock, to hear you say that,” I replied.

  He shrugged his shoulders. “I haven’t told anyone the full story. I ran, I left the girl there screaming and I ran home. My mother knew something was wrong, instantly. My hands were covered with his blood. She called my uncle, he called your father. I hid, in the grounds of the house for a few days. We had a small wooden building, for tools, I slept there every night. One evening though they came, I heard the shouting, calling my name but I stayed put, hiding out until they left. The next thing, I was on a plane.”

  “What would have happened, if you had stayed?” I asked.

  “It was his friends that had come looking for me. You have to know, everyone knows everyone in the village, the girl must have described me, I don’t know. Fucking amazing considering she was the one who went for him first. If they had caught me, I guess I wouldn’t be sitting here now.”

  I couldn’t put my finger on the description I wanted, to understand the expression on his face. It was a mixture of sadness, of remorse but more, resignation of what could have been, I guess.

  “As much as I respected your mother, I knew she didn’t want me at your house. But your father thought it was the safest place. No one would come for me at your home. I didn’t like it though, I was putting you at risk.”

  He had turned to face me, my knees between his and his fingers tangled with my hair, smoothing a strand behind my ear.

  “I saw how you looked at me, I knew,” he whispered. “I needed to get out, to protect you.”

  “Those men wouldn’t have dare come to my house,” I said.

  “Not from them, Evelyn, from me. I was in a bad place.”

  I raised my hands, placed them either side of his head and pulled him towards me. His kiss was tentative at first, loving even. He stood, held out his hand and walked me from the kitchen, up the stairs and to the bedroom. Silently he undressed me, lay me on the bed and then, well, then he made love to me.

  He was gentle, he whispered words I didn’t understand, he kissed the whole of my body. He held me in his arms as I came, giving in himself at the same time. I felt the wetness of his tears against my neck and I wrapped my arms around him as we both fell asleep, entwined, tangled, together.

  Chapter Five

  I woke before the sun had risen. At some point during the night Rocco had untangled his legs from mine although his arm was still around my shoulders, my head resting on his chest as he lay on his back. I could hear his heartbeat, a steady rhythm that soothed me. The heat of his body was making me hot though. As gently as I could I slipped out of the bed, threw on the T-shirt I had found discarded on the floor and made my way downstairs. After making myself a coffee I sat and thought about the previous night. It shamed me to not have any particular feelings about what Rocco had done. I guessed, although on the fringes, I had grown up around this ‘eye for an eye’ code. Selfishly I was more excited about how he had treated me after. We hadn’t fucked, we had made love, I had stayed the night. For me, this symbolised a real relationship. I had never mentioned how I felt after that first time and he had never responded. It was something left unsaid.

  I felt two arms wrap around my waist as I stood at the sink, rinsing my coffee cup, it startled me and he laughed into my neck.

  “I need to go out, will you stay here?” he whispered between kisses.

  “Now? It’s so early,” I replied, then laughed. I sounded like his nagging wife.

  “I won’t be long, business,” he said.

  Turning in his arms I kissed him hard, giving him something he would want to return to. He left and I made my way back to the bedroom. I was wide awake there was no point in returning to bed. I showered and dressed, disappointed in one way to erase the smell of him from my body. I cleaned the bathroom, made the bed and tidied away his clothes. Looking in his closet, there was so little hanging there. It looked like it belonged to someone who wasn’t planning on staying too long. Or, someone who hadn’t the time to pack a suitcase before being bundled on a plane, I reminded myself. But that was a couple of years ago now. I pushed the thought down that had crept into my mind, perhaps he never intended on staying, my insecurities about us taking over.

  I sat in his courtyard with another coffee and my book. The sun had risen and that little area was a trap for its rays. I watered his dying plants and generally busied myself playing house. It was a couple of hours later that he returned.

  “Ciao,” he said as he saw me sitting in the garden.

  I rose to greet him, he smelled of cigarettes as he pulled me to him.

  “Let me get you a coffee,” I said.

  As he sat, he said, “Mmmm, I could get used to this.”

  My heart skipped a beat, maybe, one day, I hoped.

  I knew not to ask about his ‘business’, I had seen, far
too many times, my father wave his hand, dismissing, should my mother had ever asked. In my world, ignorance was most definitely bliss. I watched through the window as he pulled his T-shirt over his head and stretched out his legs, resting back in this chair to catch the sun. Rummaging through my bag, I took my camera and snapped a shot of him through the glass. His eyes were shut, his face raised to the sky and a smile played on his lips. He had his hands behind his head and his biceps bulged, his stomach muscles were taught. It was a photo I would take to bed with me on lonely nights.

  Taking pictures had become a new hobby, after receiving the camera for my nineteenth birthday a couple of months previously. My father had proudly presented it to me but I would have to be careful, he was as enthusiastic about seeing my pictures as I was. I would have to make sure when I had the film printed, I removed the one of Rocco.

  Taking his coffee to him, I sat and picked up my book, letting him relax.

  “What are you reading?” he asked.

  I showed him the cover.

  “Knights on white horses and all that shit, huh?”

  “It’s romance, Rocco, something us girls love.”

  He chuckled, “Well, come on over here, you can always ride me.”

  Giving me a cheeky grin, I couldn’t help but laugh. I climbed on his lap, my knees either side of his legs and wrapped my arms around his neck. His hands ran up my thighs, pushing my shorts as far as they would go.

  “You are so beautiful, Evelyn,” he murmured as he nuzzled into my chest.

  I kissed the top of his head and rested my cheek on his hair. He raised his head and kissed his way up my throat.

  “It’s been so good having you here, sleeping in my bed,” he said.

  “I know, I don’t want to leave,” I said with a sigh.

  “Maybe it’s time, Evelyn, we tell your father. You can move in with me.”

  “My father won’t let me move in with you, even if he did approve of us.”

  “We’ll see. There’s something going on right now, though. I can’t tell you, but in a few weeks, I will talk to him.”

  He saw my look of alarm.

  “Your father is fine, it’s just business that needs to be concluded, he will be in a happy place after, trust me.”

  I settled into his lap with a smile, the future was suddenly looking very rosy. He had to love me, he wouldn’t want me to live with him otherwise, would he? It would be lovely to hear him say the words though. He hadn’t mentioned marriage, just to live together. Perhaps I was jumping ahead of myself, living together would be wonderful, marriage could come after. I started to dream of my wedding day.

  A banging on the front door startled us, Rocco leapt from the chair, holding me so I wouldn’t fall to the ground. He placed his fingers to his lips, pointed to a corner in the yard. I nodded and backed into the shadows, out of view from the kitchen window. He pulled on his T-shirt and made his way to the front, closing the back door behind him. I could hear voices, laughing and saw Jonathan peep through the window. I shrunk back into the wall, as far as I could. The back door opened and Jonathan poked his head out.

  “Want a glass of wine, Evelyn?” he asked.

  I stepped forward. “You scared me, again,” I said.

  He laughed and made his way to the small table, followed by a stunning woman and Rocco.

  “Evelyn, may I introduce Patricia?” he said, ever the gentleman.

  “Hi, I’m really glad to meet you,” she said, holding out her hand.

  I took it, gave her a smile and returned the greeting. Rocco poured wine while we chatted. Patricia and Jonathan had been dating a few months and it seemed he was introducing her to his friends, our family. There was a wariness in everything that was said, she certainly asked some probing questions and whether she guessed we had dodged the answers or not, I wasn’t sure.

  “Joe doesn’t know Evelyn is dating Rocco, so no mention of her being here, okay?” Jonathan said, gently, to her. “But, Ev, you might want to move your coat from the hallway.”

  Rocco didn’t keep his distance, he sat beside me, his arm slung across the back of my seat, his fingers gently rubbing my back and I was pleased. Our first public display of being a couple. We chatted for an hour or so, the temperature dropped as the sun dipped down to the horizon.

  “Ev, I think your father is expecting you back for dinner,” Jonathan said.

  I nodded, my perfect weekend coming to a close. I would have loved to have stayed longer but I could use Jonathan to give me a lift home, he lived not far from where I had told my father I was staying. I headed up to the bedroom to collect my things while Jonathan and Patricia headed for the car, to wait. Rocco followed me. Wrapping his arms around me, he hugged me.

  “It’s been a perfect weekend, Evelyn, thank you,” he said.

  His kiss was deep, wanting, his arms tightened around me as one hand snaked into my hair, holding my head to his. We were breathless as we parted.

  “I’ll see you in a couple of days?” I asked.

  “Of course,” he replied.

  I didn’t see him a couple of days later. In fact, I never saw him again.

  Chapter Six

  Two days had passed since my perfect weekend with no sign of Rocco. My father seemed a little distracted, there was a lot of coming and goings, especially late at night. Mid that week I sat at the kitchen table, my father eating a meal, hastily.

  “Papa, is everything okay? You seem, well, anxious,” I asked.

  He did his, waving of the hand, dismissing me, thing. Something was agitating him, that much I was sure of. On two occasions I lifted the telephone to call Rocco, I had never called him at home before and both times I was interrupted. I wasn’t, at first, concerned that I hadn’t seen him. There had been times over the past months that we might go a week before he would either sneak into my bedroom or arrange for us to meet. I wanted to speak to him to find out what was going on, what had made my father so jumpy.

  I managed to catch Jonathan one evening, alone. He had come to get some signatures from father and as I was showing him to the door, I stepped outside.

  “Jonathan, what’s going on? I haven’t seen Rocco at all this week.”

  “It’s okay, Evelyn, Rocco is fine. You know I can’t tell you but, please, don’t worry. This will all be sorted in a couple of days.”

  “When you see him, tell him I miss him,” I said.

  He smiled, hugged me before leaving and getting into the car that had been waiting by the sidewalk. We seemed to have Paulo staying with us and I wondered why. I also noticed the bulge in the side of his jacket. If he was carrying a gun, I was going to be really pissed. There were children in the house.

  ****

  The weekend came with still no sign of Rocco. I was starting to get worried. I knew, sometimes, he would travel for business but Jonathan would have said, wouldn’t he? I was being kept in the dark, that much I was aware of. Late one evening, desperate for news, I asked my father where he was.

  “Away, bella, why do you ask?” he replied.

  “Oh, he has my coat in his car, I just wanted to get it back,” I stammered.

  “Your coat?”

  “Yes, he gave me a lift home, a while ago. I left it in his car.”

  “I’m sure you can get it back when he returns,” he said.

  So Rocco had been sent somewhere, that would be why he hadn’t been in touch, but where? He wouldn’t have been able to ring the house, to speak to me, and I wasn’t going to get my father to divulge without arousing suspicion. I would wait until I could speak to Jonathan, demand to know where he was.

  The following day, I took myself off to work but couldn’t concentrate. My mind was on Rocco the whole day. I asked Mr Philips if I could finish a half hour early, I made up a story about a doctor’s appointment and headed out to hail a cab. Giving Rocco’s address I settled in the back. I wasn’t sure whether I was doing the right thing, I had been told he was ‘away’ but I needed to know. Pulling up outsid
e, I asked the driver to wait for me. I knocked on the door, there was no answer. I stepped to the side and looked through a window. Nothing looked out of place, there was still the washcloth over the arm of the sofa that I had used when I was tidying up and forgot to put back. I climbed back in the cab and gave the address for home. A sadness started to engulf me and I squeezed my eyes shut to stop the tears from falling.

  We couldn’t get close to the house, cars lined the driveway, people were milling about. Most I recognised, some I didn’t. Jonathan paced the drive puffing away at his cigar. I climbed out of the car, knowing someone would mention to my father that I had arrived home in a cab, without caring. As I walked towards the house, as I saw the look on Jonathan’s face, I started to run. Something terrible had happened. Was it my father? Joey? Maria? He caught me in his arms before I could barrel through the front door.

  “What is it? What’s happened?” I asked, panic rising in my voice.

  He closed his eyes.

  “I’m sorry, Ev...” before he could finish, I pulled away.

  “Papa,” I shouted.

  “No, Ev, your father’s fine, he’s in the house. It’s...”

  I looked at him. “No, oh God, no. Please, tell me you’re wrong. Please, Jonathan.”

  Everyone was staring at me but I didn’t care. Jonathan held my arm and walked me into the house, into the room my father was sitting with his guys.

  “Ev, Rocco had to return to his village, his sister was hurt, an accident or something. He didn’t want you to know in case you worried. He was only going for a couple of days and then he would be back, but...” Jonathan trailed off, looking at my father.

  “Does someone want to fill me in here? Why are you involving my daughter in this?” I knew my father was angry, he gesticulated with his hands. He only did that when he was mad.

  “Evelyn and Rocco have been together, for a while, Joe. They were in love,” Jonathan answered.