A shiver ran down my spine. During this entire pregnancy, I hadn’t quite connected the dots that Xavier would be my child’s grandfather. “You don’t even want anyone knowing Luc’s your son,” I blurted out. “You’re not going to want anyone knowing you have a grandchild.”
“No, but it doesn’t mean I can’t keep it close. I’ll convince Luc to fight for the child. Wait until you make your next mistake, because everyone will be waiting for it, and then dispose of you like I should have in the first place.”
My time was borrowed. I was only of use now because I was growing a child that would become another piece in the game. While I had been away, Xavier had been twisting Luc around to his way of thinking, and, having witnessed the way Luc had gone off at me, I couldn’t bank on the fact that he couldn’t go along with everything Xavier told him.
As he pressed a kiss to my cheek, my body froze, muscles coiled with fear. “Enjoy your stay, Mia. It won’t be for long.”
Chapter Fifteen
Lucas
It wasn’t often that my presence was requested by Xavier, so when he called me earlier that afternoon, I knew it had to be important. I had a sneaking suspicion that I already knew what the meeting would regard, and I wasn’t exactly a willing participant. I hadn’t spoken to anyone about it, not even Dante when he returned to work. Instead, I had tied myself in knots, arguing with myself over every little thing.
Mia had been a consistent occupant of my thoughts since the moment I’d met her, but since seeing her again in Dante’s kitchen it was like I had no reprieve. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw her face, shocked and devastated and beautiful. I replayed our exchange over and over until it drove me to the brink of madness. All the things I’d said to her were an attempt to make her hurt, to feel pain on the same level that I’d experienced it.
A small part of me regretted not listening to her. Late at night, when the house was still and I was alone in my room, I thought about the ways I could have handled it. She said she’d made a mistake. I could have taken her into my arms and told her that she was forgiven. I could have listened to her and reassured her, let her wrap around my senses again and submitted to her will. I could have had all of my questions answered, but instead, I’d let my anger corrupt the situation as it often did, and we were no closer than when she had vanished.
That anger remained white hot. She’d pulled a gun and taken a shot. Deep down, I think my world had started to corrupt her black and white view. There was no good and bad, just bad and worse. There was something about seeing her fight that made my rage all the worse. In every imagined scenario, Mia took her punishment, doe eyed like Bambi’s mother, but to see her fight back… well, that had made things interesting. That was what I should have expected. That was what had drawn me to her in the first place. Mia’s inability to realize what she was up against, to fight when she felt she or someone close to her had been wronged was what had pulled me under when we’d met.
“Come in, Lucas,” Xavier said, answering the door. “We’ll go through to the study.”
I followed him silently through the house, mind still wrapped up in Mia and what she might be doing now. Dante had returned to work, effectively choosing me over her. There had been a momentary panic that he might be swayed by her, but he’d turned up, unimpressed and with a black eye, but there all the same.
“How are you doing?” Xavier asked as we entered his study. The walls were lined with old books and a dark wooden desk sat by the window.
“Fine,” I said shortly.
Xavier took the stopper out of a bottle of amber liquid and poured two glasses before handing one to me. The malty scent filled my nostrils and reminded me of Dad. He was probably up there, or more likely down there, shaking his head at the mess that I was in.You’ll understand one day, Son, how a single woman can hold your entire world in her hands.Dad’s voice rang clear in my head. I was fifteen at the time and hadn’t believed a word of it. I’d never make myself soft for the likes of a woman. Never fall so hard that I wouldn’t be able to pick myself up again. I bet God laughed at my arrogance. It was my belief that he created Mia just to spite me.
“Are you sure about that?” With his glass, he gestured to my face and the liquid sloshed wildly but remained contained.
If Dante bore the physical effects from our scrap, then I was his mirror image. There had been so much said in that fight that neither of us had been able to verbalize. We’d barely exchanged a word since, apart from me giving orders.
“I said I’m fine.” The last thing Dante needed was for me to spill all to his future father in law. The poor idiot had already drawn the short straw there, and I didn’t want to add to his issues by confessing his role in my current state.
“If you say so.” He didn’t look convinced, but he wasn’t pushing the matter. “I asked you around to discuss a development regarding your situation.” He had never been one to beat around the bush. “It appears that woman made a reappearance in our lives.”
I drank from the glass, alcohol causing the split in my lip to sting viciously, before replying, “I know.”
He didn’t seem shocked by my response. “And you didn’t think to tell me? I was surprised to see Gabe had taken her in.”
“What?”
He cocked his head to the side and shrugged. “My understanding is that she’s living with my son.”
It took a herculean effort to keep my face neutral on receiving that piece of information. I had no clue what had happened to Mia after our showdown at Dante’s. The less I knew, the better, while I tried to straighten out the tangle of emotions. I’d told him to take her back to wherever he had found her; the last thing I had expected was to hear that she had moved in with Gabriel.
Tension between me and my Godbrother had steadily risen over the past few months. The joy he had expressed when I’d first walked back into the family fold had quickly dissipated the more time I spent with Xavier, putting Gabe’s position in the family in jeopardy. I was a safe bet if I were to ally myself to Gabe, another man at his beck and call when Xavier left us, but my handiwork had seen family slowly turning to me when they couldn’t find Xavier. So, what was he playing at taking in Mia when he knew how they all felt about her? Going against his father’s feelings wasn’t going to help his case.
“This is a personal matter, not a family one.” My words were tight as my mind tried to figure out just what Gabe’s motives were. I didn’t trust for one moment that he was doing it out of the kindness of his black heart. There wasn’t just Gabe to consider, but Mia as well. Why had she gone to him? She’d proven herself resourceful to have stayed hidden away for so long. She’d also proven that she would take a shot at me. Just under the surface, the question remained: could I return fire?
“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’lldecide 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 comingifI chose to make good on my word.
“You already know what needs to be done. You need to silence her, permanently.”
