“What?” I asked, craning my neck. From the angle I was sat at I couldn’t see anything. Placing the book back down, I heaved myself out of the chair only to hear the door close. Gabe was back from whatever had pulled him away so early.
“You’re about to find out.” There was a malicious glint in Franco’s eye that made my stomach clench. Had Dante told Luc where I was? Were we about to have round two, once again, completely unplanned?
Voices grew louder until Gabe appeared at the doorway with his father beside him. Xavier’s interest in continuing the conversation dropped instantly and his icy blue eye landed on me. His silver hair was slicked back, clothing impeccable, and he bore none of the stresses of the past few months. A silver fox that could charm his way out of most situations with a few words and a signature on a check.
“Mia,” Xavier greeted me.
I suddenly lost the ability to swallow at the sight of him before me. Everyone else had made me feel a rush of panic before it was replaced by a lingering nostalgia. With Xavier, the panic rooted me to the spot, and I didn’t know what to do with myself. He had received exactly what he wanted the moment I’d packed my bag and left, but standing with him now I half expected him to pull out a gun and aim it at me.
“You’ve come back.” His tone was completely neutral, much like Gabe’s had been after the initial shock. “And with an added surprise.”
My bump was not the most prominent, so Gabe must have filled him in. I breathed in, as if my stomach would sink away in an attempt to protect my unborn child. If there was anyone in the world he would need protecting from, it would be this man.
“Gabriel, Franco, I’d like a moment alone with Mia.”
Whether it was the blatant panic that I could no longer hide, or the fact that Xavier was giving orders in his house, Gabe stepped in. “No,” Gabe told him. “We’ll be staying.”
Xavier turned toward his son. “I’d like to remind you who you’re speaking to, Gabriel.”
“And I’d like to remind you who’s house you’re in.”
“A house that I bought,” Xavier snapped. “Now, you did well to tell me she was back, and I’d like to speak to her alone.”
Why had Gabe told his Dad I was back in town? I would place my money on the fact it was because I hadn’t given him an answer he wanted yet. There were plenty of ways to skin a cat. If he couldn’t gain favor with the rest of the family, then he’d attempt to gain Xavier’s approval, to forge a stronger bond between them, even if it meant selling me down the river. A flicker of anger sparked in my chest.
When Gabe didn’t move, Xavier barked, “Out!”
Gabe looked to Franco and there was a beat of silence before Franco crossed the room and they both left me alone with Xavier. Gabe might have just proven himself untrustworthy but I’d yet to see him be lethal. I would have preferred to have him in the room, especially considering he hadn’t wanted to leave us alone in the first place. He didn’t trust his father and neither did I. Being alone with this man had been a situation that plagued my nightmares, but surely, he wouldn’t kill me in cold blood at his son’s house? Pregnancy was making me delirious if I thought that was true.
“Does Luc know you’re back?” Xavier gave the door a gentle nudge and it clicked shut softly before taking a few steps toward me.
“Yes.” The word sounded weird, almost like it hadn’t come from my mouth.
“Interesting,” he mused. “He hasn’t mentioned it.” That surprised us both. I thought Luc would have gone straight to Xavier with the news. After everything Dante had told me, it sounded like they were both leading the crusade against my existence. “I’ll need to have words with him,” Xavier said.
“I know you took the note I left.” My brain tripped and stumbled over so many things that it was a roulette as to what I could say to him and apparently that was what it landed on.
“What note?” Xavier asked with mock innocence that made me want to reach out and slap him. Innocent wouldn’t even make the list in words that could be used to describe him.
“You know exactly what note,” I hissed. The flicker had begun to grow into something steadier. “You twisted all of this to suit your needs.
“I run a business, Mia. I capitalized on what would get me the best deal. You’d have been better off staying away from all of this. I would have been happy to let you live your life as long as you weren’t on my doorstep.”
“No, you wouldn’t,” I told him. “You wanted me dead.”
“Only if we found you,” he said, lips twisting into a cruel smile.
“I heard you had quite the struggle with that.” That wiped the smile clean off his face. Xavier might have been looking, but his attempts had been unsuccessful, and I knew that for a fact.
“It would have been a matter of time.”
“If you say so.” I relished in the fact that I had gotten under his skin. That calm composed demeanor had been ruffled by a few words concerning his incompetence.
“But you’re back now,” Xavier reminded me. “Right where I can keep a close eye on you.”
“You’re not going to do anything.” Even as I said the words, I had no guarantee of them. All I knew that was, as much as Xavier might have wanted me dead, there were others who wanted to keep me alive. I had stumbled onto the chessboard with a match already in play, and people were trying to decide where to place me to gain an advantage.
The smug expression reappeared on his face. “Not until you give birth to my grandchild.”
