Chapter 9

The fact that I would still be watching her didn't ease the wrenching feeling in my gut that day. I would still be close enough to protect Constance, but not as close as I would have preferred. I couldn't just leave her and wait to see what would happen. She was my girl and so as her date loomed, I found myself going to what I would consider great lengths to protect her. I had never been one to believe in the pros of mace and yet, I had that, and more in my pocket when I knocked on her mother's door.

"What do you want? I thought Constance had gotten rid of you for the night?" exclaimed Sophia immediately, standing in the doorway in only a bathrobe, a strange man appearing just behind her. I didn't think much of it at the time as I moved immediately into the house.

"Hey! Where do you think you're going? You can't just walk past me into my house. This is my home and I'm telling you to leave, right now" screamed Sophia moving to block my path while her gentleman quickly moved aside. Apparently, my reputation had proceeded me, but I didn't think long on that as I walked past her to the stairs. She kept trying to block me, but that didn't last very long. I was an assassin and if one little woman was a problem then I needed a new job. Luckily, this one was not.

I only moved around her again, going to the stairs, and going up.

"You may live here, but last time I checked Don Falcone pays for everything, so you could say I'm walking past you into his home" I said as I moved up the stairs. I didn't look back at her to see her response. I really didn't care for her response as she left my sight.

"Fuck you" called Sophia, making me grin as I entered the upstairs hallway stopping at the top of the stairs to decide what direction to go in next.

"Her room will be towards the back of the house" I thought, somehow knowing that Don Falcone would put her there to protect her as I moved through her home for the first time my senses seeming to take in everything around me.

"I need another story—" Constance was singing, I could hear it from down the hall, and I walked towards the sound.

"Till all my sleeves are stained red, from all the truth that I've said" sang Constance, her voice higher than the song as it reached my ears.

"She shouldn't do this outside her bedroom" I thought as she came into view, her voice not terrible, yet not good as it sang the unfamiliar song blaring through the walls. There were clothes on the floor and on the bed as she stood in the center of everything singing to her mirror. I didn't say anything as I leaned quietly in the doorway to watch her. The truth was I kind of enjoyed watching her. Being close to her felt right and now it felt like I was seeing apart of her that she had denied me all this time. She held such joy inside despite the reality of her circumstances. She held it around her like a shield and I don't know why, but I admired it. She had a strength in her, but I suspected I was the only one who knew that. I think she was content to let them think that. She didn't notice I was there until she turned around to pick something off the floor.

"Hi" I exclaimed as our eyes met, a smile playing on my lips at the absolute look of horror on her face.

At first, Constance didn't move. She stood halfway between bent over and standing. Her eyes were locked on me. I watched those eyes as they blinked first once then twice. Constance stood straight up after a moment and she took a visible breath.

"You can't tell anyone about this" said Constance her voice somehow firm and even at the same time. She stared at me then as if expecting an answer, but there was no answer. I continued to stare at her and her me until her face became hard. Her eyes formed slits of fire and suddenly, she was glaring at me. It was as cute as if was unexpected. I could only smile as I met her at the center of the room.

"So, I shouldn't tell anyone about you singing to yourself in the mirror" I exclaimed, loud enough for someone down the hall to hear, but she quickly smacked me in the chest as a growl left her that I liked more then I should have.

"Victor…you can't tell anyone what you saw" growled Constance, her voice firm as her teeth seemed to grind together her voice serious.

I let myself smile at her then, drawing out this little game we'd started until it finally fell away.

"This stays between you and me" I said gently, getting that glare to change to a smile. Our moment didn't last as long as I wanted it to. Soon, she was turning away from me to pick up the things on the floor. I watched her do so trying not to admire things I wasn't supposed to but failing as my eyes found the heart shaped roundness of her ass as she kneeled on the ground not far from me. My mind kept taking me other places. Places where she was on the ground in front of me doing things that I wasn't supposed to be thinking about. I shook the thought away just as she turned back to face me. She was standing straight up now, her hands on her hips in a sexy cute way that aroused something inside me. I looked into her eyes and knew what she was thinking. Why was I here? Her curiosity was fierce as her eyes pieced mine seeking the answer to the questions kindled within that curious stare.

"What are you up to? Daddy said you didn't have to watch me tonight" whispered Constance a smile playing on her lips. Somehow, I knew she was glad I was there. That she was happy to see me even if she continued to stare at me accusingly. I found myself stepping close to her, close enough to smell that she had recently taken a shower and applied apricot lotion. I let the scent drift into my memory as I peered down at her as she waited for her answer.

"He did, but as your friend and the person responsible for protecting you, I wanted to give you something" I said it under my breath for only her to hear. We stood toe to toe now as our eyes staying locked eye to eye. I saw those eyes soften, not just out of sentiment, but keep appreciation. Constance let herself smile at me as her hands left her lips to dangle at her sides as she waited for me to tell her more. I took her hand then opening it, so her palm was open. I felt something shiver in us as our hands touched in that moment. I didn't know what it was as my fingers traced hers going over the lines of her palm as her eyes remained solely on me. When I came back to myself, she was still waiting, and taking the mace from my pocket, I placed it in her hand. She seemed to examine it with that avid curiosity I had come to associate with her. She then let her eyes stray to look at me, and that smile grew.

"I care enough not to leave you completely defenseless without me around" I said, my voice firm, but faltering when she wrapped her arms around me.

"You can pretend to be all big and scary all you want, but this is why I'll never be afraid of you" whispered Constance, surprising me as she held me in her hug, my own arms going around her as well.

I didn't say anything as I stared straight ahead. I didn't know or even have the words until her head moved. That was when she was looking right at me and I found myself looking back. I had never been more tempted to kiss her, and I've never regretted anything more then the fact that I didn't do it. That moment was not the time for that though. Our time was not at hand yet.

"I have to admit, for a moment there I thought you were going to give me a gun. I never would have taken you for the mace carrying type" said Constance smiling as she disentangled herself from our embrace.

"I'm not. I solve my problems with a gun" I said, removing something smaller than mace from my pocket. I opened the switchblade and pressed it into her hand.

"That boy or anybody else does anything they shouldn't, you stick this anyplace you can" I exclaimed, showing her how to open and close it. As she nodded, I was hoping she wouldn't have to use it as I closed it one final time before handing it to her. She graced me with that same smile for one more moment before something else grabbed her attention altogether.

She didn't say anything in response. Laying them down on the bed, she turned her back on me, and she picked up a pretty blue and black dress from the bed. Her eyes seemed to admire it before turning back to face me with the dress pressed to her chest.

"I have to get ready; Timmy will be here in a little while…thanks for looking after me, Victor" whispered Constance, looking at me over her shoulder as she pressed the dress to her chest as she looked into the mirror. I didn't say anything as I left her, I only went back downstairs, and got back in my car. I kept thinking about her in that dress as I drove away.

I knew she would look beautiful. I thought it as I thought of the feelings this girl seemed to stir in me.

"Of all the women in the world, in Gotham, why her?" I thought it, but I had no answer for it in that moment. Others I knew it without even having to look at her. She made me feel things when all this time I had been numb to everything, but the rush of the next kill. She made me question things and want things that hadn't crossed my mind before. Though she could be naïve, she was happiness which was rare in a place such as Gotham was, but most of all she was peace. I calm in the storm that I never knew I was looking for until she appeared. It was amazing and yet scary as I contemplated it all that night as I waited for her to leave with the Thorndike boy. As I thought about it, I realized that she was the first person that I knew if anyone ever paid me to kill her, I would kill that person instead. It was a rare thought but welcome all the same. Constance Falcone was mine now and yet I knew neither of us truly understood the other yet.

She didn't look at me as if I was a wild animal set to kill, but like a human. I felt torn most of the time when I was with her because every instinct, I had seemed to be fighting something. Not just being with her or loving her. It was fighting the very way I felt about her. Because I knew she made me soft. She was someone I cared for and when you're an assassin that is always so dangerous. Yet, she also had every bone and muscle in my body set to kill. I wanted to protect her. To keep her locked away for no one to see or know about. Yet, that decision was not mine as I watched her house, waiting, always waiting. Whether I was supposed to be there or not, if that boy made one false move, I would kill him with very little effort at all consequences be damned.

"What are the consequences though?" I thought then, knowing there would be none even as I knew that consequences would come if my feelings were ever revealed. She was just another body to protect or she was supposed to be. Now, she had become my secret.

Not just someone to protect, but a secret that no one could know. I would always have to love her and never tell another soul that I did. I couldn't even tell her. Because I would lose what little of her I did have. Because she would never feel the same because she was an innocent and I was a monster. I didn't deny myself the truth even as she appeared just as a limo pulled into the drive-in front of her house. I was still picturing her in that blue dress when the Thorndike boy arrived to pick her up. I saw her illuminated in the car's headlights. They seemed to dull her beauty as she took the boys arm to let him lead her to the car. I watched from the shadows, one hand always on my gun, but always vigilant as I watched the car drive away. I moved to follow after a few moments, always remaining just out in the shadows as I did. When they arrived, I saw her again, and I couldn't help it. My eyes stalled on her as she stood in full beauty.

She looked just as I thought. She was beautiful. I stored the secret of how I felt for her away inside myself. It beat away inside the recesses of my heart and as it did, my eyes landed on Timothy Thorndike. If he did anything to hurt her, I wouldn't think twice, I'd shoot him right between the eyes.