Page 82 of Ravage God

“Don’t worry. I’m not going to ask for your deepest, darkest secret… yet.”

“Yet,” I repeated.

She bit her bottom lip in a small grin.

I moved my hand up to her waist, and she jolted a little. My girl was ticklish. Good to know. “And what about you? Any dark secrets I might need to know about?”

I was only half joking, but there was a fraction of a second when her expression changed, and I didn’t know why.

“I don’t have any dark secrets,” she said casually.

I narrowed my eyes on her. She was still a shit liar.

But the way she suddenly tensed in my arms told me she wouldn’t be very receptive to me questioning her about it.

What kind of secrets could she possibly have?

It would have to involve her father… or the guards…

My mind ran a million miles an hour as I thought of all the ways she might’ve been hurt, and I wasn’t there to protect her.

“Tell me about your childhood,” I said casually.

“My childhood?” she asked, sounding confused.

“Yeah. You said we’re going to get to know each other, right? What better way to do it than to find out about each other’s childhoods?”

“Are you going to tell me about yours?”

“I’ll be an open book,” I responded. At least as much as I could be. There was some dark shit in my life that she didn’tneed to know about, especially the shit that happened when Amadeo De Luca was still alive.

I never mourned my father’s death.

The only thing I regretted was that it didn’t happen sooner.

“My childhood was…” She hesitated, as if she was trying to find the right words to say. “As you would expect.”

I didn’t say anything to that. WhatIwould expect?

“My mom died during childbirth, but you know that already.”

I nodded. I knew that. I didn’t know the late Mariana Gambino very well. She died when Valentino was eight, and sometimes, he would reminisce about how his mother was too kind for this world, and God took mercy on her and called her home to him early.

“So it was just Valentino and my father.”

“Did your dad ever date anyone?” I asked. Perhaps Joseph had taken home another woman who might have scarred her. But there had never been any reports of another woman taking up residence there.

“No. He never brought anyone home, if you can believe that. My father has a lot of vices, from gambling to alcohol. But women weren't one of them.”

I knew that already, too.

It wasn’t a secret that Joseph had racked up gambling debt a time or two. Had it not been for Aldo bailing him out a few times, I was sure he would have lost his home already.

“Valentino didn’t like to spend his time at home much,” she said. “He was always running with you.”

“It must have been lonely for you,” I said, wishing there was a way for me to go back in time and just… I didn’t know. Be there more?

She shrugged like it was no big deal. “That’s about it. I told you. There’s not much to tell.”