“What’s going on?” Milli asked. He looked down at the shattered glass on the floor and then up at me. “Are you okay? What happened?”
“I’m fine, just…”
In my distraction, something made hard contact with my head. I heard something drop to the ground and shatter before I looked over in time to see that Avion had made her way into the kitchen and had taken to tossing her few dishes at me to try and get me out. “Get out of here! Leave me alone!”
She had lost all sense of logic and sanity. Did she forget that I owned this entire place? That I had guns at my disposal? Where was this sudden errant bravery coming from? Milli stepped towards her, but I reached out an arm and pushed him back.
“Gio,” he warned. “You can’t just continue…”
“It’s fine,” I said. “I’ll calm her down.”
“You don’t understand. Your fa…”
“I said, I’ve got it!” I barked.
Taking a few more steps towards where Avion was in the kitchen, I held up my hands in surrender. “Look, can we just talk about this?”
She tossed the plate in her hand and then went clattering towards the bathroom. She bolted inside, having to try a few times to get the bathroom door closed, as she had dragged the comforter with her to keep herself covered, and it kept getting caught in the door. Finally, however, she got herself inside and I heard the door lock.
“Clean this up,” I heard Milli demand of one of the staff.
“No!” I growled. “Everyone get out.”
Milli stepped forward. “Gio. Your fath…”
I turned and glared at him. “I said, get out!”
With a sigh, Milli turned around and coaxed all of the staff members out of the room. It was still a mess, but I’d worry about that later. Right now, I had to deal with Avion and make sure that she understood I wasn’t trying to peep on her or be a creep. I honestly didn’t know she was unaware she was being watched.
When everyone was gone from the room, I stepped up to the door and knocked a couple of times. “Avion. Can I please just explain?”
“No. Leave me alone,” she huffed.
“I…” My words were cut off by the quiet sounds of her sobs. I hated the way it made me feel. Even if it had been an honest mistake, she felt violated, and that wasn’t good. She’d been so observant before, that I assumed she saw the camera, but maybe I shouldn’t have acted on that without making sure she knew. “I’m…” The word was difficult to say. I didn’t apologize to people. It was rare I thought I did anything wrong, but even if I didn’t entirely think I was wrong here, it didn’t change the effect that it had on her, which meant I still owed her an apology. “I’m sorry.”
“Just get out,” she called back. “Please. Leave me alone.”
Her use of the word please defeated me. The one thing I’d taught her was if she asked nicely, I’d give her what she wanted. How could I, after all that, not leave her alone when she asked so nicely? It’d be counter-intuitive and against who I was as a person.
“Okay,” I murmured.
Then I turned around, stepped over the carnage of the many things she’d thrown at me, and left the room. More than anything, I just wanted to go back to my bedroom and crawl into bed, but I knew I had to check in with Milli. He was probably pissed to high hell after the turn that my little experiment had taken, and if I was going to keep him from calling my dad and telling him how wrong everything had gone, I was going to need to offer a good enough explanation for why shit went south.
There were a few house staff just sort of lingering around who had run into the room due to the commotion, but I made sure to tell them to give Avion her space for now. When they brought her dinner, they could ask if she was ready for her room to be cleaned up, but if she said no, then leave her alone. They were surprised, and I couldn’t blame them. Never before had I deferred to anyone else under my roof, but Avion was a unique case. I couldn’t risk making her feel any more alienated than she already did.
When I turned the corner to where my office was, the door was already open, and it made me pause. There was only one person other than me that had a key to my office. I groaned as the realization washed over me of what Milli was trying to say when he came to Avion’s room.
“Shit,” I said out loud to myself. “This is not good.”
Doing the full walk of shame with my head down, I walked towards my office and turned through the doors. Part of me was still hoping that I would only see Milli when I walked inside, but I was wrong. Already sitting in my desk chair with his fingers knitted together and a look of deep irritation on his face…
…was my father.
“Giovanni,” he started in that horrible, disappointed dad tone. “I am not happy with what I’ve walked into.”
“Yeah,” I responded. “I can explain.”
“Can you? Because from what I can tell, you kidnapped Governor Narzand’s daughter and have somehow considered that an acceptable repayment for a half-million-dollar debt when I already told you that sharking was too much of a risk. Not only that, but it doesn’t even sound like you have control of the situation. I show up and hearheryelling atyou. Please, I would love to hear your explanation, because right now I am not very happy with what I’m seeing.”
