by Kiera Silver
Chapter Eight
“Do you remember what you said?” It had taken most of the evening for Katie to gather the courage to ask him that, and it was over a shared pint of Ben & Jerry’s that she managed to push the words through her lips. Lucas was on a blanket on the floor, doing his best to sit up, though he was likely still too young. He was pushing up on his hands, and she was certain he’d be crawling far sooner than she was ready.
Just like this conversation was happening sooner than she wanted it to, but she couldn’t live with the uncertainty anymore.
He arched a brow as he dipped his spoon into the pint of ice cream, taking a large bite before he responded verbally. “Do I remember what?”
“What you said right before you fell asleep. Do you remember?”
He cocked his head to the side, looking as though he was considering the matter. “I think I might’ve mentioned that I have a meeting tomorrow at four, or perhaps I told you Sophia called and wants to have lunch with us all next week, except my parents.” He frowned as he said those words.
Her heart plummeted in her chest, and she realized her worst fears had come true. He didn’t remember what he’d said, and she couldn’t bring herself to remind him. She just nodded and scooped up another spoonful of ice cream to temporarily blunt the misery.
Armo suddenly laughed. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have screwed around with you, but it was just too easy. I remember exactly what I said, Katie, and I meant every word. I love you. I have from practically the first day we met. Every other woman ceased to exist from then on—including while you were gone.”
She bit her lip, looking at him hesitantly. She searched his expression, but found no reason to doubt his sincerity. “I sometimes thought you were on the edge of telling me that, but you always pulled back. Why, if you knew right from the start?”
He let out a soft sigh. “The main reason I didn’t tell you was because if I admitted I loved you, it meant I had to tell you everything about what I do. I was sure you wouldn’t stick around once I told you the truth, so I kept putting it off and thinking that the longer you were with me, the harder it would be for you to leave when I eventually had to tell you the truth.”
She took a bite of ice cream she didn’t really want as a delaying tactic while she organized her thoughts. “I see. Why did you plan to tell me at all? You probably could’ve kept me in the dark.”
He flinched. “Um, maybe, but I doubt it. Either way, I promised my mother a long time ago, we all did, that we’d tell the women we loved what we did before we married them or had a permanent relationship. She said we owed them that, and we all agreed. So even if I felt okay with lying to you about something so huge for the rest of our lives, I don’t think I could have. I certainly can’t break a promise to my mother.” His eyes twinkled as he said the words, but there was definitely an undertone of seriousness to them.
She smiled. “Of course not. I’m sure your mother is scary if you break a promise. I’m just glad she likes me now.”
He scooped up more ice cream in a bite big enough to give her an instant headache that he seemed to swallow with no problem. “She’s always liked you. She was just hesitant when I wouldn’t tell you the truth, and she wanted me to decide whether I was willing to commit to you and tell you everything or let you go. She didn’t like that I was keeping you in the dark, so any disapproval you felt was directed at me and just happened to spill over to you. It wasn’t personal.”
Katie nodded. “I think I figured that out for myself after we talked the other night. She said a lot of smart things. At the time, I wasn’t really ready to hear them, but they make sense now. I’m not entirely sure how to completely incorporate her advice, but I think I see a point where I can.”
Armo looked slightly puzzled. “I’m not entirely sure what you’re talking about, but it sounds like a good thing.”
Giving him a reassuring smile, she took another bite of ice cream. “Yes, it’s a very good thing. I just need to figure out a few more things.”
He looked satisfied as he continued devouring ice cream. It was only later, after he had gotten up to put their spoons in the sink and tossed away the empty container, that she realized she hadn’t reciprocated the words. They were on the tip of her tongue when he came back to join her, but she couldn’t quite make herself utter them just yet.
It wasn’t that she doubted her love for Armo. She’d loved him for a long time, even when she shouldn’t have after learning about his ties to the mafia. She just had to figure out exactly how to accept that part first. Even more daunting was accepting that he could kill when necessary. She wasn’t a pacifist, but she had a deep respect for all life, and it was disquieting to know Armo could be the instrument to take that away from someone else and still sleep soundly at night.
When she’d told Haley she wasn’t leaving with her, she had made the decision to stay. She just had to figure out how to reconcile everything to make it work. In the meantime, she was content to drift in the current state of limbo, and to not tax herself to find a solution. He was in the mafia, but it was just part of who he was. She could accept it. She just had to find the right way to do so.
In an attempt to change the subject, she asked, “I never got a chance to find out why you came home early today.”
He arched a brow. “Did you plan to sneak Haley in and out?”
She fidgeted uncomfortably. “Not entirely. I just thought it’d be easier to have my first meeting with her, and introduce her to Lucas, without you here.”
He frowned. “Are you implying that your sister doesn’t like me?”
Her eyes widened at his hurt expression, and she struggled to find a diplomatic answer that wasn’t an outright lie. “Um, well…”
Armo started laughing. “It’s okay. I know she doesn’t like me or approve of me.” His expression grew serious. “I take it she knows about my side business?”
Katie nodded, eyes widening. “Is it just a side business?”
He nodded firmly as he dropped onto the floor beside Lucas, offering him a small toy. “Yes. My mother always knew I was more… squeamish than my brothers when it came to family business, so she directed my talents and energy toward learning how to run the foundation. I’m not hands-off, but I’m not as actively immersed as Dante and Larenz.”
A wave of relief swept through her at the words, though she hesitated to fully embrace his explanation. After all, she’d witnessed him shoot someone. “What about Parsing? That wasn’t foundation business.”
His eyes darkened with a shadow of rage. “No, that was personal, and pleasurable.”
She flinched at the words, shaking her head. “I don’t understand how you can be so comfortable about taking a life, Armo.”
He lifted his shoulder. “Some people just need to die. Parsing was planning to hurt you to get to us, and I couldn’t let that happen. I dealt with him once and for all, thinking it was over. I don’t regret shooting him, but I’m sorry you saw it. I wish I’d told you the truth before now, and maybe we wouldn’t have lost the last year.”
She hesitated, not quite ready to respond to that. Katie couldn’t be certain she wouldn’t have run away even if he told her in a different fashion, one that didn’t require her witnessing someone being shot in the head. Instead, she focused on another part of his statement. “You said you thought it was over, but it isn’t?”
His mouth tightened. “Not yet. Parsing’s father is as crooked and dirty as he was, and he’s going after us for a piece of the pie now. He also wants revenge for his son’s death probably. Or maybe he just wants the money and power. It’s hard to tell what he’s thinking, or what he really wants, since he’s a politician. That’s pretty much synonymous with consummate liar.”
“It’s that senator, isn’t it? Randall Adams? I saw him ranting about bringing down organized crime on television the other day.”
Armo nodded sharply. “That’s him, and his motives aren’t wholesome. He doesn’t care about the pe
ople of the city, or reining in crime. He just wants to take over the Moretti empire and see us in prison, both to pad his pockets and because of Parsing.”
Her brow furrowed. “He’s Adams, and the agent was Parsing? Are you sure they’re related?”
“I’m sure. Larenz had it investigated, and it didn’t take our people long to discover that back when he still ran an oil company, Adams’ wandering dick happened to land in a young secretary. He paid her off to disappear, and she was supposed to have an abortion as part of the package deal. She didn’t, and Parsing came looking for his father a few years ago. They had become close, but Adams hasn’t publicly acknowledged him. To the world, he’s a faithful man who’s been married to the same woman for more than forty years. He can’t risk his image. You know how politicians are.” He rolled his eyes.
She nodded her head. “I’d like to think there are a few honest ones, but I’m not terribly optimistic.”
He let out a laugh. “Who are you kidding? You’re the most optimistic person I know. You can always find the good in a situation and in a person I would have written off as terrible long ago.”
She shook her head. “I’m not quite as naïve and trusting as I used to be.”
He looked sad. “If that’s true, I’m sure I’m the one who took that away from you. I’m sorry. I never wanted to hurt you, and I should have just walked away after dropping you off at the hospital that day I hit you with my car.”
She bit her lower lip. “Why didn’t you?”
He made an ambiguous sound. “I wanted to, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t bring myself to leave your side. Like I said earlier, I had it bad for you right from the start, and I think I might’ve started to fall in love with you the moment I picked you up in my arms and carried you to my car. Whenever it happened, I was already a goner then, but I didn’t know it yet.”
“What happens now, Armo?”
“We start over and try to rebuild what we had.” He spoke without a hint of uncertainty or doubt that it was possible. She supposed after their lovemaking, and the way she had refused to leave with Haley, she felt the same way. It was possible, and she just had to find a way to reconcile the bad and the good.
Chapter Nine
Over the next month, Katie focused on the good and tried to ignore the bad. She started helping Armo with the foundation, meaning that they sometimes worked from his home office, and sometimes went into the foundation’s building downtown. Lucas always accompanied them, and he was soon a popular visitor among foundation employees.
Armo was integrating her into the daily running of the foundation, going out of his way to include her in all aspects of his duties. She was given input on a great number of things, and it allowed her to see the best parts of Armo and the Moretti family.
She’d been coming to the office daily with him for a little more than a month when the words spontaneously came out of her mouth. Armo was pouring over a grant proposal for a charity that provided shoes in South America and Africa. His brow was furrowed, and he was muttering under his breath about the manufacturer charging too much for shoes when it hit her. She couldn’t stifle the urge, and she no longer felt the desire to do so. “I love you, Armo.”
He paused in the middle of his perusal of the papers, looking up from his desk where she stood near his side, nursing Lucas. He frowned at her. “What did you say?”
It had been easier to say when he wasn’t looking at her, and she had to wet her dry lips with the tip of her tongue before she could say them again. “I love you. I don’t think I ever stopped, but I wasn’t ready to admit it or say the words until now.”
He still had a faint frown. “I’m glad to hear them, but why this particular moment?”
She shrugged the shoulder that wasn’t on the side Lucas was nursing from at the moment. “I don’t know. It was just the right time.”
Armo pushed away from his desk slightly and took her hand, pulling her onto his lap. Lucas was briefly disrupted and made his displeasure known with a sharp squeal. After repositioning the baby, she sank against Armo and enjoyed their afternoon cuddle. If they hadn’t been in the foundation’s office, she was certain they would have been doing more than cuddling after Lucas went down for his afternoon nap.
Life was good, and the mafia thing wasn’t bothering her much at all anymore. It had faded into the background, and she was confident that as long as she continued to turn a blind eye toward it, it wouldn’t affect her life or relationship with Armo. She didn’t consider it denial. She was simply focusing on the best parts and ignoring the worst.
Katie followed the nurse down the hallway while she rocked Lucas in her arms. He’d been fussy the past couple of days, and was currently crying in a shrill pitch that indicated he was in pain. When he’d woken up that morning tugging at his ear, along with running a slight fever, it was time to bring him to the clinic.
Armo had an important meeting that he couldn’t miss, but she was going to join him at the office as soon as Lucas saw the doctor. There was a car waiting for them, along with two of Armo’s goons, though she felt sort of bad referring to them that way. Tony and Stephan had been nothing but polite and deferential to her, and she understood why they were necessary, even if she didn’t like the idea of needing bodyguards to protect her from any enemies Armo might have.
It didn’t mean she was going to let them traipse into the clinic with her. She’d drawn the line at that, not wanting to draw attention to herself and Lucas. Armo had reluctantly agreed to the stipulation, ensuring the guards would listen when she told them to stay in the parking lot with the SUV.
The nurse led them into a room and started taking notes. “He’s such a big boy,” commented the nurse as she weighed him. Lucas was on the chubby side, with adorable cheeks that invited pinching, though she didn’t give in to the urge. Whenever she did, he screamed bloody murder no matter how lightly she tweaked him. He was already showing a strong personality and making his preferences known. She wasn’t at all surprised, considering the Moretti genes in him.
The nurse left them a short time later, and she sat with Lucas on her lap, surprised when the door opened almost as soon as the nurse had left. “That was fast,” she commented to the young doctor entering the room.
“We’re hurrying them through today,” he said in a gruff voice.
Lucas flinched at the man’s tone, and she glanced automatically at his chest, expecting to see he was a resident or even an intern. She was going to tease the doctor about needing to work on his bedside manner when she realized that he wasn’t wearing a name tag, though his lab coat was embroidered with a name. She knew it was the wrong name, because Dr. Wellesley was who they usually saw, and he was an older man, not this rough-edged young guy with a stern demeanor and scary voice.
She clutched Lucas tighter to her as she tried to think. She was certain that the dark-haired stranger wasn’t a doctor, and when he held out his hands for Lucas, she unconsciously tightened her hold and shook her head.
“Give me the kid.”
She shook her head again. “No, thank you. I think we’ll wait for his regular pediatrician.”
The imposter doctor opened his lab coat enough for her to see a gun at his hip. “Give me the kid,” he said in a cold, hard voice.
She tried to step backward, but there was nowhere to go. All she managed to do was get to her feet before stumbling and falling into the wall, though she ensured Lucas didn’t connect with it too. Her shoulder stung, but she ignored the pain as she tried to back away from the man looming over them. His gun was frightening, but she knew she couldn’t let him have Lucas.
She opened her mouth and started screaming, and he backhanded her as hard as he could. Stars danced behind her eyes, and she fell toward the corner, her head colliding with the cabinet on the way down. She didn’t quite black out, but she was definitely in a gray zone. Katie tried to keep a strong hold on Lucas, but the imposter had little difficulty prying the baby from her hands.
She
made a sound of protest, not quite able to scream again, because her mind was too jumbled at the moment. Lucas was screaming plenty, apparently sensing the person who held him was bad—or maybe just because he wanted his mom since he was sick.
She tried to get her feet as the man in the lab coat drew his gun and ran to the door. She heard feet pounding down the hallway, and she tried to rouse herself enough to get up and follow him, but she wasn’t able to move. With another heave, propelled by desperation, she managed to sit upright before a wave of dizziness crashed over her, sending her back to the floor, and straight into blackness.
Armo’s face was the first she saw when she opened her eyes. Katie winced at the bright light, and the way it increased her headache.
“Lucas,” she rasped.
Armo’s expression was a mix of terror and anger, and he shook his head. “We don’t know where he is. Do you remember much?”
She almost nodded, before realizing that would increase the pain in her head. “This guy came in. Tall, broad-shouldered, and with dirty blonde hair. His eyes were cold, and his manner was just off. I could tell right away he wasn’t really a doctor, and then I saw he was wearing Dr. Wellesley’s lab coat, and I knew for sure he wasn’t a pediatrician.”
“What happened then?”
“I tried to keep him from taking Lucas, but he hit me really hard in the face, and I hit my head on the way down. I think I remember him taking Lucas from me, and then the rest is kind of a blur.” Katie burst into tears as she finished speaking, gladly embracing Armo when he sat on the bed and put his arms around her. Abruptly, she realized she was in a hospital room. “I need to get out of here. We have to find our baby.”
“We’re turning the city upside down even as we speak. So far, we’ve kept it out of the papers to keep the FBI from sniffing around.”