Chapter 10 - The Bench at the Pier
The bus shelter was made of rusted corrugated tin and cracked plexiglass. The wind whipped off the freezing ocean, howling through the gaps and driving needles of icy rain across the concrete floor.
Curled in the corner of the wooden bench was a tiny yellow ball.
Lily was huddled with her knees pulled up to her chest, shivering so violently her teeth were chattering in loud, frantic clicks. Her little hands were blue. Her brown curls were plastered to her pale forehead by the sleet.
She was hugging an empty soda can she had found on the ground, pretending it was Poppy.
"Lily!"
The thunderous cry cut through the sound of the howling wind.
Lily lifted her head weakly. Her vision was blurred with cold and exhaustion. Through the gray curtain of rain, a massive figure was sprinting toward her.
He wasn't wearing a coat. He wasn't walking with the slow, terrifying dignity of a king. He was running like a desperate, terrified father.
Alessandro slid onto the wet concrete of the shelter, dropping to his knees so hard the impact echoed against the tin roof.
"Lily..."
He pulled her into his arms.
He wrapped his massive suit jacket around her tiny, freezing body, lifting her off the cold bench and pressing her directly against his chest, tucking her head under his chin. He rubbed her cold arms, her icy cheeks, breathing warm air onto her blue fingers.
"You're okay," Alessandro whispered frantically, his voice breaking completely. "I have you. I've got you, little one. You're safe."
Lily blinked up at him. She felt the heavy, fast thumping under his shirt.
Thump-thump-thump-thump.
It was beating faster than the clock today.
"Mister Boss...?" she whispered, her voice barely a breath against his neck. "Why are you here? If you find me... Mommy can't stay..."
And right there, on the dirty, rain-swept floor of a rusted bus stop, with the freezing sleet pouring down around them, something happened that had not occurred in nineteen long, bloody years.
A tear welled up in Alessandro Romano’s dark eyes.
It rolled down his rugged, scarred cheek and landed softly on Lily’s cold forehead.
"Your mommy is staying," Alessandro choked out, pressing his face into her wet hair, his shoulders shaking as the dam of nearly two decades of grief, isolation, and ruthlessness finally broke wide open. "And so are you. You never leave this house. Do you hear me? You never, ever leave me again."
Lily looked at the wet drop on his cheek. She reached up with one tiny, thawed finger and touched his eye.
"You have water on your face," she whispered.
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"It’s just rain, Lily," the crime boss lied, holding her tighter against his heart than he had ever held anything in his life. "It's just rain."
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