Piero looked out the window as the train passed by the landscape around him. His flight over the ocean was restless. He was nervous, excited and terrified.
The hardest part for him was leaving his Bella. He couldn't think about how she would feel or react when she noticed him missing. That would be the second time he wasn't there after a long night being tangled in each other physically and to his surprise, mentally as well. He didn't know what it would look like having her. They weren't always on the same side of the coin and neither seemed willing to cross over. He didn't have details, but he knew enough to know that her resources, the ones that found his son, the ones that flew her from Africa to France in the highest of luxury couldn't have been her government. They had too rich of taste and the budget to match.
They had his taste in fact.
It'd been a long while since he was in a position to indulge in fine spirits, leather couches, marble tables, and silk sheets. The past near twenty years had been a trying sort. Always on the run, always looking over his shoulder. And, of course, always focused. Focused on finding his blood. Until recently, the boy was the only thing that mattered to Piero. It made no sense, true. How could someone he never met be the reason why he breathed? Part of him couldn't believe how close he was to meeting his son. Sometimes he doubted if he was real, but he knew somewhere deep under his bones he was as real as the sun warming the earth.
Then there was Bella.
She was real too. She started off being a real thorn in his side, now she was, well... She was something else. Of course he did a background check on her, and it was hazy. Her father died when she was young. She had a sister that no one seems to know anything about. He couldn't even find a birth record for the girl. She was like his son, a ghost of sorts.
In the file he also found that Bella's Mother died in childbirth. His Bella was essentially alone, or at least she had been. Now, she had him. It might not count for much but he liked to think there were worse companions to have.
He knew that she would be less than pleased to hear that he took the key, but he needed to get back in the U.S.'s good graces. He couldn't risk her saying no. The key was the price and he agreed to pay it long before he knew her well enough to feel guilt over it. In the moment, he thought her temporary rage was a small price to pay for sanctuary, but the guilt still settled on a conscious he thought left him a long time ago.
The only other citizenship he cared about was to get back home. He had no idea how he was going to manage that now that Giovanni had risen his ass from the dead and with more juice than when he was alive. The man quickly won favor with the Families and was back on the throne. There was no way Piero would be able to go home as long as Giovanni was alive.
He grabbed the small bag he brought for his short stay, or at least what he thought would be a short stay, in Paris. Then again there was something about the place wasn't there?
The train came to a stop and he grabbed up his bags and filed out onto the platform. How many pairs of shoes had that platform seen over it's long life? He exhaled looking around him and the hustle and bustle of life. The corner of his mouth lifted when he saw a sign on the wall that mentioned his son's school. He approached it and read the flyer that mentioned a musical that was happening in another week.
He pulled out his phone and followed the map down the streets enjoying the temperate weather. It was overcast, which wasn't abnormal for that time of year. He could feel the rain in the air though none had yet fallen from the sky. He slowed his pace when he heard the school bell ring. A bus pulled up and teenagers piled. Even at the distance he could see him. Not as well as he would like, but he could see him. He pulled the photo up on his phone to confirm. Piero's chest clinched to know he was so close, yet there was an entire street with cars and people standing between them.
His mind started racing with all sorts of strange things like, he wondered what he sounded like, did he have friends, did he play any sports, was he smart, the class clown, a ladies man. He wondered so many things, but he didn't have the time nor the introduction to ask those types of prying questions. He didn't connect with the guardians or course. He didn't want to risk them alerting Sophia or worse turning him away. He pushed the crosswalk signal for a mom and her three children. She thanked him and waited until the cars stopped before she crossed. He crossed too, keeping his eyes on the boy. He stepped to the side after getting off the bus and stuffed earbuds into his ears. Piero wondered what type of music he listened to. He smiled when another boy came up to him and they started walking together toward the school building.
He exhaled when the boys disappeared on the other side of the door. He hadn't even realized he was holding his breath to begin with. He pulled up the short report that his contact sent him about his son and plugged in the address to a coffee shop that the boy frequented for lunch. Yes he was stalking, and yes it might be even below him, but he had to know. He told himself all these years that he just wanted to see the boy, but that wasn't enough. He had to know something about him. He thought for the longest that he was going to swoop in and save him from a horrible life, but that didn't seem to be the boy's fate. Now he was torn between taking him away and leaving him to his life. If he left him, would it not have been a complete waste the last fifteen years?
He shook the thought and started the short few blocks to the cafe. He brought reading material that he couldn't focus on during his flight there. Maybe he could get in a few chapters to help pass the time.
He checked his watch. It'd be around one thirty in the morning where Bella was. Despite the hour he'd probably venture to call her even if just to let her know he wasn't lying in a ditch somewhere dead. He chuckled at the thought as if she'd even care that the thieving crook had disappeared. Good riddens is what she was most likely thinking.
Good-bye and good riddance.
|:|A/N|:|
The anticipation of finally, after almost two decades, meeting his son has to be an incredible feeling. After you've spent so much of your life chasing something what do you spend the remainder of your life doing?
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-ALEX
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Smoke & Gun (+18) (COMPLETE)
Romance|:| She remembered her last interaction with Piero Albano. He was on his knees before her and she pressed the gun against his forehead . He said the words that she dared to repeat. "Well, what are you waiting for?" |:| Piero had plans to kill her b...
