“He can’t hear us right now,” Anastacia continued. “The cacophony of the city causes him much discomfort. I saw him remove the device from his head when we first arrived.” Running her hand over her grandson’s head, she smiled faintly. “Nathan and Carter won’t be happy that he isn’t wearing it, but you know me. I can’t stomach forcing him to wear it.
“Hmm …” Kyle hummed, showing his agreement with a nod of his head.
He wasn’t much of an enforcer with JoJo either. He left that part to the boy’s parents. They were far better than Kyle at braving through the little—as Reanna often called it— ‘boo boo’ face the toddler pasted on his face every time they made him put the sound transmitter back on.
Kyle interrupted his sister’s investigation of his face by popping a kiss on her lips, then handing her back to his step-mother. Once she was safe in her mother’s arms, Kyle turned his attention to Josef, kneeling down to the boy’s level.
“Hi,” he mouthed the word.
“Hi,” the toddler replied in a soft voice, making Kyle smile.
Kyle reached out to the boy, waving him over. “Come here …”
He was timid, as always, as he brought one of his tiny hands up to his head and began twisting his blond curls around his fingers. After only a few moments of hesitation, Josef nodded his head and scrambled over into Kyle’s arms. Kyle scooped the toddler up as he stood to his feet, chuckling happily and kissing little JoJo’s soft cheeks over and over again.
As he always did when picked up by someone, Josef clutched on to Kyle, throwing one of his arms around Kyles neck and the other around his arm as he rested his head on Kyle’s shoulder. It was the perfect hug from his sweet little Godson. Kyle reveled in it. He missed it. It had taken him so long to get Josef to come to him so freely like this, so Kyle never really took the time that he had the child in his arms for granted. After all, little Josef Salerno wasn’t the most ‘social’ of Carter and Nathan’s children. Not like his siblings.
He’d been around six or seven months old when he’d began to pull back, stay close to his parents and siblings and to his grandmother and Nathan’s father. Rarely did he interact with anyone else in the family, nor did he find interest in being in the same room when the family gathered together. He’d often crawl away or stay glued to his father’s side as he just watched. He always watched people, quite intently.
This was all around the time when the child’s hearing began deteriorating. In Kyle’s opinion, Josef’s anti-social behavior wasn’t really due to the hearing loss. He was just quiet. An observer. And he preferred the silence. The boy actually reminded Kyle of a young Mikilo. Mikilo had been the same growing up—and still was—quiet, anti-social, but more interactive with family and the few friends that he considered family.
As for the toddlers hearing? Well that was genetics. Nathan’s side of the family. Nathan had an Aunt that was hard of hearing; also, his Grandfather was deaf as well and had been his whole life.
JoJo’s hearing had been slowly deteriorating since birth. So slowly, that Nathan and Carter hadn’t even noticed until the toddler would stop responding when his name was called, and that hadn’t been until just about six months ago when the deterioration had accelerated quite rapidly until he was, in the words of the doctors, profoundly deaf. It had been a blow—one that both Nathan and Carter hadn’t known how to take. JoJo was so young and still learning how to speak. For a time, he’d been able to hear, been able to repeat words, but he had stopped talking completely once his hearing loss had reached a critical state.
It had been hard, even for Kyle, who hadn’t even been apart of the decision making process, to watch the intense amount of tension between Nathan and Carter as they sparred for weeks over whether or not it was a good decision to subject their—at the time— one-year-old son to a surgery that would afford him the ability to hear again. In the end, of course, they came to a mutual agreement that the surgery was a must and would benefit their son greatly. Even still though, every member of the family actively began learning how to communicate with JoJo. Not everyone was fluent yet, but a nice amount of the family—the Salerno men, and all adult members of the Stone blood line … this included Kyle— were fluent. And the children weren’t too far behind. Kyle enjoyed speaking ASL; he loved learning new languages, and he loved having the freedom to communicate with his Godson—who was also fluent after four months of learning— freely without any inhibitions. It had been that dedication to learning the language that had brought Josef closer to Kyle. They’d spent more time together, and Josef became more comfortable around him; so, of course, Kyle had no complaints about the learning experience. Being accepted in young JoJo’s inner circle of trust—as he and his brother’s often jokingly called it—was worth the countless hours he’d spent studying and mastering the language in effort to talk to him in the way he preferred.
“I’ll handle her.” Kyle held tight to little JoJo as he resumed the conversation of Aniyah Clark. He locked eyes with her. “We have measures in place for this kind of thing. I assure you, she will do nothing.” He smiled warmly. “But if, by chance, I feel she poses a threat to the organization …” he shrugged. “I’ll put a bullet in her head myself.”
Smiling brightly at his words, Anastacia chuckled and took a step toward him. “That’s my Ky-ky,” she cooed, reaching up to cup his face.
Leaning forward, Kyle accepted the soft kiss to his cheek from his step-mother, then laughed softly when she gave his ear a slight tug. “You learn so fast … and don’t think I didn’t hear you call me mom.”
Kyle laughed a bit louder at that. “Well the first time was unintentional.”
She pursed her lips. “It shouldn’t be.”
“… But,” he said, cutting off what was sure to be a lecture about how much she wished he and Mickey would just call her mom. “The second time had been on purpose.”
That got her to soften back up a bit. She gave him a nod of her head. “As it should be,” she said softly. “I am your mother. Your loving, perfect …”
Kyle laughed.
“… step-mother that you love so much, so you should call me by my rightful name.”
“First of all,” Kyle chuckled. “I call you my mother on occasion.”
“Only when you’re startled or joking around. Not nearly often enough.”
“And Mikilo’s mother would have a fit if she found him calling another woman mother.” The most dramatic of fits, too. She’d cry and scream at him in Hindi for hours about how severely he’d broken her heart.
Groaning and rolling her eyes at the mention of Mickey’s mother, Anastacia gave a slight flick of her wrist. “Please spare me any talk of that woman, Kyle. She’s a—”
“But at least,” Kyle cut her off before she called Mickey’s mother a bitch. “But at least you have one step son that will welcome you as the mother he never had.”
To that, she smiled. A soft, small smile, but a smile nonetheless.
“I suppose I can’t be greedy then,” she conceded. “Besides, you are more than enough.”
“I’m your favorite,” Kyle finished for her. “And don’t worry,” he gave her a wink. “I won’t tell the biological ones that you love me more.”
“Why thank you,” she said drily as she took a step back toward Natalia’s stroller and grasped on to the handle bar. “Now,” she smirked, “are you going to tell me what has you sneaking around as if you do not want to be seen?”
Kyle’s eyes widened a bit, surprised at the abrupt change in subject. What?
“We saw you,” she motioned toward the doors with her head. “Outside. I was changing a couple of soiled diapers and my driver pointed you out.” She sighed, smiling as if he made her tired. “You had your men surrounding you, Kyle. Who are you hiding from?”
Looking up to the heavens with a silent groan, Kyle closed his eyes tightly. Dammit. He’d actually managed to forget about what had happened today for a brief, blissful moment. But now he remembered.
He’d been on the run before his plan to stealthily walk to his office in effort to avoid family had been foiled by fucking Aniyah.
“Everyone,” he replied, his eyes scanning the area around him. After he assured himself that he was still safe, he brought his eyes back to Anastacia right before he mouthed, “I fucked up …”
Chuckling softly at his pain, Anastacia shook her head. “So much so that you’re sneaking around here trying to hide from the boss of this organization, Kyle?”
“Yes,” he answered in a sharp whisper. “I just …” he let out a long breath as a frown fell over his face. “I need time to think before I see Nate or anybody else.”
“Nonsense, Kyle.” Anastacia waved off his worry. “You sound like your father, always making something out of nothing.”
“But you don’t even know the situation,” Kyle argued. “I actually messed up this time.”
“Mmmhmm,” she nodded, a hint of mirth still present in her tone. “I’m sure you did, mon amour. But you will fix it, yes…”
Nope.
Kyle shook his head. “I really think I did it this time, Ana.” He gave her a look that he was sure would convey the sheer intensity of his inner anguish. “I ruined the whole deal. I lost my temper and everything went to hell.”
“Kyle,” she chuckled, completely ignoring his anguish.
Kyle snapped back in offense. “I’m serious,” he said firmly. “I messed up everything.”
“Son, it isn’t possible for you to mess up this deal.”
Kyle’s frown deepened. It was, and he did.
“You didn’t,” she said, as if reading his mind. She adjusted Cami in her arms as the toddler rested her head on her shoulder and began to doze off. “You cannot fail. Not in this world, Kyle.”
“But I did,” Kyle persisted, adjusting the now snoozing Josef in his arms as well. “My job was to talk peace, to stick to my plan. But instead I lost my temper, assaulted David Mitchum, and took back territory that I hadn’t planned on taking back quite yet.”
She rolled her eyes in response to his words. “You’re being dramatic, Kyle.”
“I’m not—”
“You are,” she nodded. “And for the life of me, I don’t really understand why you’re putting in so much work on this … peace deal.” She said the words ‘peace deal’ as if they left a foul taste on her tongue as she looked away from him, her demeanor unimpressed. “It’s a waste of time if you ask me.”
Kyle shook his head, confused by her words. “So what do you suggest then. War?”
She snapped back. “God, no,” she groaned. “That would just fuck everything up.” Releasing the strollers handle, she gave a light wave of her hand. “I didn’t say not going to war was a bad idea. I agree with you that there should be a peace deal; I just disagree with the way you’ve gone about it.” She shook her head. “You’ve done it all wrong, mon coeur.”
Wrong? Scusami …
Slightly offended and taken aback by her criticism, Kyle blinked. “Well,” he cleared his throat. “It’s nice to know what you think of me.”
“Kyle, stop that. You know that’s not what I meant. ”
“You know what,” Kyle brought up a hand, cutting the woman off. “Regardless of how unimpressed you are with my approach to this deal, evil step-mother; I am doing my best.”
“Oh please, boy,” she waved off his words. “Do not insult yourself by calling this your best—”
“Jesus Christ, woman,” Kyle chuckled humorlessly. He was pretty sure he was more offended then he’d ever been in his life. “You really don’t give a single fuck about my feelings ,do you?”
“Of course,” she softened, her eyes genuine. “Of course I do, bébé. More than anything.” She gave a slight nod of her head. “This is why I am honest with you. Because I care, because I love you, and because I believe in you more than anyone else on this earth, mon amour.”
“Well … you could have fooled me,” Kyle muttered.
“I only seek to help, dear. I promise.”
Frowning slightly as she released a long breath, she motioned Kyle forward with her free hand. “Come to me, my Ky-ky.”
Kyle could never disobey her when she called him that. Not even when he was upset with her.
Rolling his eyes, Kyle took a reluctant step forward.
“Now give me your hand.”
He did as she asked, then he looked into her eyes just as she began to speak to him.
“Sweetheart, for the life of me, I can’t imagine why you never come to me. I understand you going to your father because you sit in the seat he once occupied but, Kyle, dear, I was born into this world, shaped in it, traveled to its deepest depths and seen things that even you have yet to discover, and then became the most powerful woman the criminal underworld has ever seen. Do you understand me, son?”
When Kyle didn’t respond, she sighed.
“Your father cannot help you the way I can, Ky-ky.” She pointed to herself. “I made them,” she smiled, nodding her head when Kyle chuckled softly at her arrogance. “I did,” she said softly. “Both your father and Angelo. I gave them the knowledge, as well as the money they needed to start this organization. Every move they made to ensure the success of S.O. was made by my words. Alexis Stone. My father,” she squeezed his hand gently, “your grandfather; his influence, and his methods breathed life into these walls. And as you move forward in your career, as you continue to explore what this world has to offer, you will find countless organizations to which ours, the Stone influence, has given life to. And because of this, sweetheart, you possess an infinite amount of power in the underworld. You are a descendent of Alexis Stone, an heir to his resurrected empire. The most powerful men and women in the underworld will seek you out just to host you in their homes and have a chance to align with you. They will treat you like royalty and protect you with their lives just to protect the legacy of your grandfather. This is the type of power that you possess, my love. A power that knows no limits. And I know …” Her words died off as she lowered her eyes for a moment before lifting them back to his. “I know that you were in the dark for a long time. And I know that the last thing you want to do is use the …” she cleared her throat, “… is use the name afforded to you because of your biological mother’s lineage …”
“That’s not true,” Kyle interrupted her quickly, shaking his head. “That’s not true at all.” And he was being honest, too. He had absolutely no problem accepting nor using any advantage that came with being a descendent of Alexis Stone; he could give a fuck about Abrielle. “If there is something within the Stone name that can aid me in this deal, then I’m very much willing to use it. Honestly.”
At his words, her eyes brightened as her lips curved into a smile. “So smart,” she murmured, looking down at his hand. Turning his hand upwards, she gazed at his palm as she ran her thumb over his skin, applying light pressure with the motion.
It was very relaxing, the way she touched him. As if the motion of her thumb relieved every bit of tension in his body; Kyle’s eyes nearly fluttered closed; he felt so relaxed.
“I’m proud” she said softly. “So proud of the man you’ve become. Even though I have no right to be.”
A faint smile appeared on Kyle’s lips, even as tension continued to exit his body.
“I’m proud of your father, too,” she continued, “for raising you to be strong. To be a leader; a good one. And an exceptional consigliere for the Salerno Organization. But he has not the experience to teach you how to wield the kind of power that you have, Kyle.” Ceasing the calming motion of her thumb on his palm, she finally looked back up at him. “You limit yourself,” she began. “Hold yourself back because you think you are restricted from certain tactics because of some fictitious set of rules, and you are not. You are being tested by these men, and because you have yet to rise to the occasion, you have given them the illusion that they are your equal when nothing,” she shook her head, “could be further from the truth. You a
re in control of all of this, dear.” She gave his hand another light squeeze. “You have to stop limiting yourself, following direction, and stressing over this, Kyle. You can relax, perhaps have some fun with this.”
“But how can I do that?” Kyle asked, a frown of genuine inquiry falling over his face. “If it is true what you say. If I am so powerful then why has this deal been a struggle for me since it began.”
Since the moment he’d made it up in his mind to broach the subject of making peace, Kyle had been met with opposition. Blatant, exasperating defiance; so much so that he had actually wanted to give up on the whole fucking thing once or twice and just go to war.
“I already answered this question, sweetheart.”
Kyle’s frown deepened, even as his head shook back and forth.
“They only have what you have given them, my son,” she explained softly. “And you have given them the illusion that they have the upper hand. Now,” she chuckled softly, “it is up to you to fix this mess that you’ve made.”
“But how?”
“Simple,” she shrugged. Releasing his hand, Anastacia brought her hand up and pressed it against his heart. “You must show them your strength, Ky-ky. You’ve already begun by reclaiming territory that is rightfully Salerno, now you must finish the job. Show them who they’re up against, and use every single weapon afforded to you to do so.”
Every single weapon? “What do you mean, like …” Kyle frowned. “A gun?”
“No,” she laughed softly. “No, my dear son, I do not mean a gun.” She gave his chest a light pat. “Although, a gun is a convenient weapon to have on hand …”
Kyle nodded, agreeing with her.
“I was referring to our family, baby” she smiled, then bought her hand up to gently caress his cheek. “A beautiful, big family of individuals blessed with various talents. You are not alone, Kyle, and you don’t have to do this by yourself. Use them.”
Use them …
“Use all of them,” she nodded. “They are your allies. Allow them to be exactly who they are, do not hold them back. This is how you show your strength, as well as the strength of your most loyal allies. And once you’ve done that, then you will have ripped away this illusion of equal playing fields, and you can show them just how much they need this peace deal in place …”
Dangerous Beauty: Part Four: Beautifully Broken Page 40