Giana Darling

“Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked”

Nothing can be loved or hated unless it is first understood.”

– Leonardo di Vin

Nothing can be loved or hated unless it is first understood.”

– Leonardo di Vinci

Nothing can be loved or hated unless it is first understood.”

“You say nothing for a woman with eloquent eyes,”

The world, Ms. Lombardi, wants me to the be their villain. So, I will give them one they can truly sink their teeth into.

Death was nothing.

Sacrifice, that was the real killer.

“Elena, lottatrice mia, you are just a girl in a very large world that owes you nothing. Not one thing in your life will come easy. This is the way of girlhood in Napoli. I wish it was not so. I wish I could have given you a better start, but understand, every woman must be a fighter, Elena, because history has tricked men into thinking women are less.” Caprice gripped my face in her hands so tightly, I remember thinking she might pop my head like a crushed watermelon. “This is what you must understand, Elena. They are wrong. Women bear the trials of their men, the delivery of their babies, the weight of their families. Women are extraordinarily strong. So, you must trick the men into giving you power. Do not tell them you are strong, and do not fight them with words because words can be undone. Fight the injustice with action, lottatrice mia, because action can be understood in any language, by any man.”

I didn’t want to be safe. I wanted to be brave and bold in the only arena I’d ever felt capable in—my job.

“If you will allow me, I think you are leaving her in capable hands.”

I opened my eyes when Pierre nudged me indelicately with his elbow and cleared his throat. Immediately, I blinked.

The man who stood before us dominated the entire aisle. His dusky golden skin stretched taut over his strong features, almost brutally constructed of steeply angled cheekbones and a bladed nose. I had only the vague impression that he was tall and lean because his eyes, a deep and electric blue like the night sky during a lightening storm, held me arrested. The way he held himself, the power of his lean build, and the look in those eyes reminded me of a wolf, caged within the confines of civility but eternally savage.

“I’m sure she would be delighted.” Pierre sent me a barely concealed look telling me to pull it together.

I smiled hesitantly at the gorgeous stranger, aware that I was a mess of clammy skin and melted make up. “I’m fine really.”

He nodded curtly, his eyes devoid of any real sympathy. “You will be.”

Pierre hesitated, his eyes scoring my face for reluctance. I smiled at him and took one of his hands between my clammy palms. “Merci beaucoup pour tu m’aides. J’espere que tu passes un bon temps avec ta fille.”

I was rewarded with broad grin before he hastily collected his things and moved towards the front of the plane. I watched him go instead of focusing on the stranger as he took Pierre’s abandoned seat but after a few moments with his eyes hot on my face, I turned to him uneasily.