by Zavi James
“Of course, it’s a family matter,” Xavier said, narrowing his eyes. “She’s proven herself to be a liability, Lucas. We need to discuss what we do now that she’s decided to show her face again.”
My grip tightened around the glass. Dante had called me a puppet and I’d told him to get out of my house. Xavier had offered clarity on a situation that I couldn’t make sense of. I’d let him lead while I followed, too caught up in everything to trust myself. I could handle the wider family; I done it plenty of times before, proven them wrong and proven my worth. Reminded them that a Foster had pride, a Foster didn’t take pity and doubt. But Mia had always sent the needle on my compass spinning out of control, and I was glad to have reasonable mind to help me. Although, now that I’d seen her, Xavier’s logic no longer held the same persuasive power.
“I’ll decide what to do next,” I told him. I’d spent so long listening to everyone’s opinions on the matter that I needed to step back and figure out just what I wanted to do with this mess. I could end it all with a single shot. She wouldn’t even see it coming if I chose to make good on my word.
“You already know what needs to be done. You need to silence her, permanently.”
That was the plan. We found her and we killed her. Clean and simple, with no questions asked. Without her Dad, no one would look for her. What I hadn’t banked on was the tsunami of emotions that hit me when I saw her again. It had thrown all my plans off kilter. I almost willed her to show her face, to make another mistake so that I could reaffirm all the fatal thoughts I had. So I could drown out the need to feel her against me again.
“I assume you’ll want to wait until after she gives birth to the child.” The sentence cut straight through my thoughts and this time I couldn’t keep my face under control. “Oh,” Xavier said, reading my expression. “You weren’t aware.” It was hard not to notice the smug tone that wrapped around the words.
My heart had stopped, and the room swayed. When I’d seen her at Dante’s I hadn’t noticed any visible sign of a pregnancy. She’d drowned herself in clothes too large for her frame, and Dante had placed himself between us like a guard dog. He’d known. He must have known. It wasn’t just an act to protect her, but the child she was carrying.
“We’ll need to ensure the child is yours once it’s born,” he said slowly.
But if Dante had known, why wouldn’t he have told me? Why hadn’t Mia breathed a word of it?
“Pregnant with a child, she left you, and when she returns, she’s playing house with Gabriel. That’s bound to raise some questions, but once we know for certain, you can file for custody. She won’t be able to fight you.”
The tests had read negative, and I remembered how deflated I’d felt, lying in bed, holding her against me. The chance of being a father had sparked something inside me that I thought I would never feel; however, with Mia, that was no surprise. She had changed my mind on so many things, like monogamy and marriage. If I were to ever have children, they would be with this woman, a perfect combination of us both. As far as I knew, no one else knew of those tests. The possibility that Xavier prattled on about, that the child was anyone’s but my own, was an impossibility depending on how far along she was. But even Dante wouldn’t have been stupid enough to bring her back here carrying another man’s child.
“I need to go,” I said, reaching past him and placing the glass on the desk. I needed answers and, still not trusting myself to be in close proximity to Mia, there was only one other person I could rely on for them.
“Lucas, we really should discuss this.”
Turning away from him, I left the room, calling over my shoulder, “There’s nothing to discuss.” Not with Xavier. Not right now. My head reeled with the news and what to do with it.
“Lucas, wait.” Xavier followed me back through the house.
I turned on my heel and looked at him. Xavier had been so intent on finding her and ending her life. He didn’t have the same history with Mia as I did. He didn’t understand that this woman had turned my world on its head in ways I didn’t believe possible. Just because you couldn’t see the sun, didn’t mean you stopped orbiting it, didn’t stop everything from depending on it. “I’ll be in touch,” I told him curtly, wanting this conversation to be over so I could find out the full story.
Once again, I turned away from him and reached for the door. As I pulled it open, I felt Xavier’s hand on my shoulder. “Keep your head. You have your reputation to protect. Your father’s name to honor.”
Shrugging his hand off my shoulder, I left without another word.
Chapter Sixteen
Dante
“She should have been able to come to us,” Lydia said, nursing a cup of tea at my kitchen table. She hadn’t taken more than a sip, more than likely due to the extra teaspoon of sugar I’d added to the black liquid. She’d refused milk. “She should never have had to deal with all of that alone.” I hadn’t explained the whole situation to Lydia. No one else needed to know all the messy details that resulted in Mia leaving, but she did know Mia had returned and with a plus one.
“Technically, she wasn’t alone,” I said to her with a shrug, stacking meals Lydia had made me in the fridge. It was a small comfort to know that Carmen had taken care of her when we couldn’t. We’d be forever indebted to the Diaz family for their kindness.
“DANTE!”
My name boomed through the house, preceded by the slamming of my front door. Good to know that Luc felt familiar enough with me again that he could walk into the house unannounced. It had been a while since he’d treated the place like his second home, and I wasn’t sure if this was a good sign or if I was about to have my ass handed to me for a second time this week. If I’d had enough sense, I’d have changed the locks after him trying to gain the upper hand while I was unarmed.
“I should get going.” Lydia looked like she was about to drain the cup but thought better of it and placed it back on the table.
“Don’t leave on his account. This isn’t his house so he can’t do shit.”
“I don’t want to cause any more problems between the both of you.”
“You’re not the one who’s causing the problems,” I muttered.
“DANTE!”
“God gifted you legs, use them!” I bit my tongue before I could add you dumb fuck to the end of the sentence. I wasn’t about to go running after the stunt he’d pulled. This wasn’t business, which meant I didn’t need to keep face.
Moments later, Luc stormed into the kitchen, hair disheveled and red in the face. He opened his mouth to speak before he clocked Lydia at the table. “What are you doing here?” he asked. “You don’t work for me anymore.”
“This isn’t your house,” I reminded him, irritated at his backseat management of my life.
Lydia had been with the Foster family for as long as I could remember. She was stern and fair and always expected you to wash your hands before you sat to dinner, no matter how hungry you were. She never flinched at the business that came through the door, and I’d have bet my left kidney, maybe even my right, that she was made of stronger stuff than some of the men that I knew.
“You want to be careful, Lucas,” Lydia said, standing up from her seat and pulling on her coat. “Or you’ll burn every bridge and be left all alone on an island with no one to blame but yourself.”
There had never been a moment in my life that Lydia and Luc hadn’t resolved an argument. Usually, Luc was in the wrong, and after a day or two he would swallow his pride, but this time around, both had dug their feet in and neither of them were ready to concede.
“You don’t need to leave,” I repeated.
“I won’t stay where I’m not welcome.” There was a good reason as to why pride was a sin and it was being displayed perfectly in my kitchen. Lydia crossed the space and dotted a kiss on my cheek. “I’ll see you next week. Call if you need anything before then.”
“Thanks, Lyds.”
As she left the kitchen, Luc stepp
ed out of the way, leaving enough space to ensure that neither of them brushed against each other. I would have liked to have banged their heads together in hopes that they’d both see some sense.
“Since when did you hide things from me?” Luc asked, when the front door clicked shut signaling that we were alone. We were standing at opposite ends of the kitchen. There was no desire for a repeat of our fight, and yet I still found myself balling my hands into fists. I wouldn’t let him catch me off guard for a second time.
“We don’t exactly have an open-door policy anymore.”
“You work for me. You do what I tell you to. You should have told me you went looking for her and that you found her.”
“Not sure if you noticed, but we haven’t exactly been on talking terms, Luc. Especially where Mia is concerned.”
“I’m your boss!”
“You’re meant to be my brother!” We’d gone from fist fights to yelling at each other like kids across the space. My words settled a blanket of silence over the room.
“Where did you find her?” Luc said, calmly. He didn’t want to address my statement. He was after answers. Luc was more focused than I’d seen him in months, but I grew curious about why he needed them now. He’d told her to leave, made me pick a side, and then hadn’t breathed a word about her. I had vowed to Mia that I would keep her safe from him. That was never a vow I thought I’d have to make; however, it was one that I would never allow myself to break.
“Why?”
“Answer the damn question.” Calm only lasted so long, but this had to be a new record.
“Carmen,” I told him. He’d find out eventually, and Emilio wouldn’t take any of the shit that Luc was trying to pull as of late and I was too curious to let this go.
“Emilio knew,” he hissed.
“No,” I corrected him. “No, Carmen did this all on her own. Thinking about it, Carmen and Mia might actually give us a run for our money with how long they managed to hold out.”
“This isn’t a joke, Dante.”
“Apologies for trying to stop you suffering an aneurysm in the middle of my kitchen.”
“Why is she with Gabe?”
“How do you know that?” Mia’s reappearance was bound to become public knowledge, but I hadn’t realized how quickly the news would get out. It was strange to think Gabe might have gone to Luc when things hadn’t exactly been smooth between the pair.
“Answer my question first. Why is she with Gabriel?”
“Where was she meant to go, Luc?” I asked him. “You made me choose and I chose you. What was I meant to do? Send her back to the house that her father was murdered in?” He flinched at the words. That had been the only other option: sending Mia back completely unprotected to the house she had discovered her father’s body in. As sick and twisted as people painted us to be, I wasn’t a monster. There was no way that was happening on my watch, and so Gabe had been the most favorable choice. The only choice.
“Is there anything else you need to tell me?”
In the depths of my mind there was an alarm bell that went off. We placed so much focus on the way questions were phrased, took in every nuance and change in body language. Luc was not asking me because he was in the dark. Luc was asking because he already knew the answer and wanted to see if I would give it to him. There would be no point in lying to him. A well-placed lie could save a life, but a lie in this situation would only add further strain to our crumbling brotherhood.
“She’s pregnant.” The sentence hung in the air between us. We were still picking out pieces of shrapnel from the fallout of this mess, and every time we thought we were done, something else happened. Only this time, it wasn’t something to tidy up. It was something to be excited over. A flicker of emotion passed over Luc’s face. He’d come to me for confirmation. Whoever had told him—it could have only been Gabriel—Luc hadn’t believed them.
“Your dumb ass is going to be a Dad,” I reaffirmed, the ghost of laughter lacing my words. Imagining Luc as a Dad was a slight stretch. Having a baby to raise and care for would be a steep learning curve for all of us.
The stony expression settled back into place. “You should never have kept that from me. I could have done anything to her.”
Was that a breakthrough? News of the pregnancy had chipped away at the impenetrable anger enough so that he cared if he’d hurt her. All I needed was to get them into the same room again to talk over everything that had happened. I could tell him and get the ball rolling. The last secret that I’d kept from him bubbled in my chest and almost spilled out of my mouth. Luc deserved to know what was going on, but he needed to digest this information first. He needed to at least speak to Mia before we decided to rip away an integral part of his life. Everything had to be handled delicately, no matter how badly I wanted to rush in. Pulling the rug out from under him when he was already questioning things in his life would not be the best idea.
“I would never have let you,” I told him honestly.
“Anything could have happened!”
“It didn’t. Breathe. They’re both okay. Where are you going?” I asked, following him as he left the kitchen. Apparently, Luc was done with our conversation.
“I need to think.”
“Luc, what are you going to do? You need to speak to her.”
“I don’t know,” he said. I could hear the loss of control that he’d had for so long. “I don’t know. I just need to get my head around all of this.”
Chapter Seventeen
Mia
The service had been an ambush. If Sunday was the Lord’s day of rest, then I would place my bets on the fact that the Devil worked overtime. Gabe had refused to tell me where we were going, only that jeans would not be appropriate. The ensuing argument that I had nothing else hadn’t pleased him, and my request to stay at the house with Franco had subsequently been declined.
The sweltering day had made me wish I hadn’t lied about the contents of my bag, but being told what to do had never sat well with me. I longed to dress in flowing sundresses and skirts that would give me some reprieve from the scorching day, instead of denim that stretched at the waist, to accommodate my growing stomach, and stuck to my skin. As Gabe pulled up outside the church, I dug my heels in, refusing to leave the car until Franco threatened to physically remove me, causing an unnecessary scene. The frustration made my skin prickle worse than the heat of the sun, and by the time I slid from the car, most of the revelers had moved inside.
Father Duffy’s voice echoed in the cavernous room as he preached to the flock before him. I hadn’t been raised in faith and the loss of my mother had driven Dad and I further away from God. Churches were only frequented for weddings and funerals and even then I didn’t understand the necessity. There was the sense that I might burst into flames after two decades of uninhibited blasphemy, but judgment from God was the least of my concerns. It was the rest of the congregation I feared most.
When I’d walked up the aisle, Gabe leading the way, the tension was palpable. Conversations dropped and eyes landed on the pregnant, unmarried traitor. The one thing I longed to keep to myself was no longer a secret and had been unveiled in the most public way I could imagine. The humiliation burned in my cheeks and up my throat as the whispers picked up again. How could I have been let back into the family after what I had done to them? How had I suffered no consequence? They had no idea of the threats Xavier had laid out, or the way his gaze pierced me as I squeezed past him to sit in the pews with his family, wedged securely between Gabriel and Franco.
As the Father droned on, I lifted my head and peered across the aisle. I was tucked into the right side of the church with the rest of the Moretti family, minus Tori. She had placed herself beside Dante on the other side of the room in an open display of her loyalty to him and trust in their relationship. The profiles of so many familiar men brought the deep-rooted longing back to my chest. Whenever it rose, it wasn’t gentle but made me feel unsteady. My eyes scanned along the pews, hu
nting for the figure that I knew best. Luc had always been set deep in his faith and I expected to see him amidst the congregation, but he appeared to be missing.
A pair of blue eyes locked with mine and widened in shock at being caught. Katia Shultz turned her head away so quickly I was worried she might have suffered whiplash from the movement. Everyone wanted to look, everyone would want to gossip, but no one would risk getting caught. I was an uncertain bet, still shrouded in too much mystery for them to warrant a conversation or, apparently, even a glance. A small, uninhibited part of me wanted to stand up and tell her to take a photo but the larger, more logical part of me reminded me the best way to survive this mess was to keep my mouth shut.
“Stop that,” Gabe said, turning his head toward me. His hand lifted and I released my bottom lip from my teeth. His thumb brushed across it and I jerked away from his touch to see my blood stained the pad of his digit. Franco let out a low disapproving hum as I knocked into him.
“Sorry,” I muttered, and he bowed his head again.
“It won’t be much longer,” Gabe said, wiping the blood on his thigh, a small dark streak staining the pale grey of his pants.
I didn’t say another word, settling back in the seat and letting the words of God fall on deaf ears. My mind was more preoccupied with Luc and where he would be on Sunday morning, if not at church. Dante was bound to have an answer.
With the mutterings of amen, my own slightly delayed thanks to not knowing the protocol, and lack of attention, the service came to a close. People got to their feet and the conversation once again buzzed in the air as women fanned themselves with their hands and hymn books and men unbuttoned suit jackets. I spied Dante gesturing to Tori to walk ahead out of the row. It took everything in me not to call out to him.