Harmony (16 page)

“
I thought this was a servant’s quarters. What is this place to you?” she asked rising from the bed. The room was plainly furnished, and windowless. A person would find it quite ordinary if it weren’t for the wood carvings of people, sculptures that were exquisite in detail.

“
Vinnie?” Harmony spoke. She pointed to the shelf. “Did you do these?”

“
No. Yes. I did.”

“
Oh,” she said softly. “They’re beautiful. I’m surprised.”

“
Why? You don’t think I’m capable of creating beauty?”

“
No. It’s just. I guess you’re such a tough guy I didn’t think… Look at the detail. These, look so real. Like people.”

“
Let’s go Doll. This room is off limits.” He said, loosing his nerve to reveal more.

“
Wait.” She pleaded. He returned his gaze to her and found her smiling. It was the first genuine smile she’d given him since he captured her. Yes she laughed with him and he suspected at him, but she never smiled at him like this.

“
I want to know about the people you sculpted. Why do you create them?”

“
What do you mean why?” He tossed back at her. He didn’t mean to sound harsh. The pressure in his chest and head had him by the balls. He didn’t discuss his carvings or the compulsive desire to make one of every person who has come and gone from his life. Ever.

“
C’mon Vinnie. Start with her. This little girl.” She picked up the bust of a child’s head carved in detail down to the curly locks that framed her face. Harmony held her gingerly in her hands. “Who is she?”

He released a deep sigh and closed the door once more. “My cousin.”

Harmony. “How old is she, four, or five?”

“
She died of consumption in Lercara Friddi when she was three.”

“
Where is
Lercara Friddi
,” she pressed.

“
Sicily. A very long way from here. When I came to America I lived on the streets, until I met Annie and her brother Teek. She had her mother take me in,” he began, “I kicked around until I formed my own… family.” His gaze lifted to meet hers to see if she fully understood what
family
meant to him. She didn’t.

“
Your gang?” she said.

Romano blinked.
She did understand.
Harmony nodded for him to continue.

“
I made money, enough to send for Antonio. When he came I bought a place in the Bronx, and this place. The main house is where the boys hold up, but this cottage is mine. No one comes here.”

“
I’m here,” she said.

“
Yes you are.”

Harmony picked up the iron ring at the top of the lantern and lifted the encased flames causing shadows to dance over the faces of the sculptures. The light bounced off the wall to a painting. “Did you do this too?” she asked.

He nodded.

She raised the lantern before the single painting in the room. He’d done it after Annie left him. He couldn’t sculpt her image, it would hurt too bad to look upon her face and know she’d never return. The same with her brother Teek, Antonio’s best friend and a kid Romano considered as close as a brother. Instead he put down his carving tools and painted instead. This one was filled with cliffs and fields of red flowers. The painting was indeed his favorite. He would carry Antonio on his shoulders through the olive patches to the open fields for him to play when he was a tot. Romano would get a kick out of how his brother’s chubby legs pumped as he ran and chased butterflies before tiring out.

“
I’ve never seen any place this beautiful. Sicily must be a slice of heaven.” Harmony said her voice low and soothing. The anxiety drained from his limbs. Instead of focusing on how vulnerable he felt he focused on what Annie’s love inspired in him.

“
Sicily can be paradise for some. Not my family.”

“
Really? Why? Who is your family?”

Romano walked over to her. He took the lantern from her hand and captured it with his free one. He led her over to the only sculpture in the room that filled him with dread. A large bust carved from a block of wood. It stood a foot tall from neck to head. She gazed upon it curiously. Before her was almost exact likeness of Don Giuseppe Romano.

“
This man
is
the family. My Papa.”

“
He looks… mean,” Harmony said. “Did you mean to carve him with such an angry face?”

Laughter exploded from Romano and Harmony smiled. He was grateful for the levity. But it only lasted a moment, and faded altogether when his gaze fell upon his father’s image. He felt her hand slip from his. Had he dropped it? He wasn’t aware. Instead he stood transfixed by the hard glare of his father, remembering life as his son until he could stand no more. Don Giuseppe looked like a Neanderthal. He was a big stubble-bearded man with black malevolent eyes. His mother’s bust was next to him. She wore a sad smile, like the one on her face for most of her short life. He’d taken time with her bust. Even painted her carved long locks black, which he’d had, fall about her face in thick waves. He believed she was no more than thirteen when her family gave her to the Don, and fourteen when she gave birth to him.

“
He is more than mean. For the people in my village he is like a god. Children pray to the saints for him to be blessed before they pray for their own famiglia’s well-being. Men offer their daughters to him no matter how young just to show honor and respect. The town officials all seek his council before any law or decision is passed.”

Harmony’s hand went to his back. She stepped closer to him, staring at the detailing in the sculpture. “And your mother? Is this her?”

“
Yes, her name was Rena.”

“
Was?”

“
She died giving birth to Antonio.”

“
Must have been hard losing her?”

He gave a single nod. “I remember the peaceful smile on her face when we buried her. She was happy to be free of him.”

“
That’s awful. Why is your father so important?”

“
He just is, and so was his father and his father before him. He owns the land, the creeks, the air everyone breathes. But he doesn’t own me.” Romano stepped away. He set the lantern down on the tiny wood dresser. She walked up to him and put her arms around his waist blocking his ability to turn. Her hands went up his chest with her palms flat. She nuzzled her nose to the center of his spine and it felt heavenly. Romano closed his eyes thankful for the serenity he found in her embrace. The intimacy surprised him. Yes, he’d made love to her body, but she never willingly touched him.

“
You are no different than most men, full of regret and pride, but unable to see your blessings.”

“
I’ve never been blessed.”

“
Not true. You’re alive, you survived whatever happened with you and your father and started again. You found a life and name of your own. You didn’t do these things alone. I think it’s courageous.”

“
I’m no saint Songbird.”

“
Well, maybe not. But you’re no devil either Vinnie Romano.” She pressed her face to his back. He stood silent for a minute staring through another sculpture, one he did of Antonio when he was a small boy. She withdrew and the separation was a disappointment. “What was that for? The hug?” he asked casting his gaze back at her from over his shoulder.

Again she smiled. “Because sometimes a girl needs a hug.”

“
I can take you up to the main house. You’ll be more comfortable there, more rooms and space, until we work our agreement out.”

Harmony shrugged. “I kind of like it in here.” She spun then pointed at the small carving. “What is that, a schoolhouse or church?”

“
Schoolhouse.” Romano nodded. “We all attended together, me, Antonio, and then my mother. She wanted to learn to read and write her name. That was until my father discovered she had been and was angered. The school was burned to the ground.”

“
Jeesh. Why would he be angry that she wanted to be educated?”

Romano yawned. “I don’t remember. Look Doll, I’m tired, you have to be. Like I said, let’s go to the main house. Do you have something to change into?” he swept his gaze over her ripped ruby red dress. Though she zipped it up in the back, it hung on her now like a rag with the bodice stretched revealing more of her bosom, and the split to her right torn all the way up to the bend of her hip. He didn’t want to march her up through the fields and his men to see her disheveled state. Hell he didn’t want any man looking upon her treasures, ever again.

“
Can we stay here? Tonight. This room?”

“
Why?” he struggled to keep the discomfort from his voice.

She didn’t flinch. She walked over to the bed that slept two barely, “Because I’m comfortable here, and so are you. If I have to stay out in the woods with a bunch of mob boys I’d prefer to do it in a place they can’t reach me.”

“
You think you’re safe with me?” Romano smirked.

Harmony let go a sweet peal of laughter. “I think this is the one room none of those bad boys come into. So yes, I’m safe.”

“
I wouldn’t hurt you Harmony. You do believe me, don’t you?”

She blinked and didn’t answer. He understood her reluctance to accept his good intentions. At best they were half-ass to this point. His promise to her was true. Dame had a way of making him at ease. He’d never shared the story of his parents with a female. Annie though a sweet tempered woman, preferred the city and rarely visited.

“
This room is you Vinnie. I’d like to know a little more about you.”

“
And why is that?” he pressed, his gaze narrowing her into his single line of vision.

Harmony rose again. She batted her lashes at him and he knew he was in trouble. The tables had turned. He felt vulnerable, trapped by the gleam in her eyes and the sexy curve of her smile. She slowly lowered the zipper to let the dress drop away. She stood before him in her stocking and round toe shoes. The melting softness of her body was evident in the golden brown flawless skin covering her flat tummy, round hips, thick thighs and slender legs. Her bush lay over her sex like black velvet. Her up tilted breasts were absent of age, or the weight of suckling babies, and were large enough to fill his hands.

She extended her arm with an upward turned palm. “You’re not going to leave me here by myself are ya?”

His lips drew away from his teeth in a tight smile as he approached her. His hand cupped her gently behind the neck and her lashes lowered until her eyes closed. “Are you playing with me Songbird?”

She nodded slowly and breathed lightly through her soft lips. “Maybe.”

“
Before the night is over your answer will be yes.” He dropped her back to the bed. Memories of home, good and bad, would normally render him incapable of the emotions she drove through him now. Tonight he felt charged, exhilarated, a bit of happiness to have her so willing to be his without his threat of harming her brother. Yes, they had a bargain. Her body and a bit of her soul for her brother’s life was fair trade according to her, for him he’d need more, much more.

The tension drained from his body as he eased over her. He lifted on his elbow, positioned with his erection pressed into the mattress and her thighs closed around his hips. With his free hand, he framed her face, and placed his thumb under her jaw while his fingers pressed to her cheek. “I’m having a hard time keeping things straight Doll. You… you do this to me.”

Her dark lashes lowered but her gaze never broke from his.

“
The first moment I heard you sing I thought of home, what I’ve lost, what I miss.”

“
Why? There are other singers, other girls.”

Why indeed?
He refused to voice the answer. He’d had another woman, a lovely woman, and when she rejected him it did burn in his gut. But in his most intimate moments with Annie he never felt the fire that he felt through his loins whenever Harmony was near. He never felt free to be who he was with anyone but his Songbird tonight. The truth was, he never felt much of anything but bitter regrets until she slipped in his arms.

“
Let’s just say you’re the tops kid.”

She ran her hands up and down his arms. He winced at the sting slicking up to his left shoulder.