“So, who did you marry?” Taylor asked as he took the empty bowl and set it in the sink.
“Zachariah,” I answered. A pang of guilt set in my gut at the mention of him. My voice broke over the one word.
“He’s a bit old for you,” Taylor said. He still had that roughness to his voice, but I think it was just who he was.
“I love him,” I said. “I didn’t pick him, exactly.”
“Let me guess, Cody had something to do with that,” Taylor stated, not surprised.
“How do you know him?” I asked in way of an answer.
“He’s my cousin. Well, was. I ain’t got nothing to do with that family no more,” he stated with haste. “I tried to get Racheal to let me have you, but yeah. That didn’t work out well.”
“Yeah, well . . . not like I had any say over any of it,” I muttered. “Cody is dead. So is Racheal.”
“Shame,” Taylor said with a shake of his head. “I’d love to have a few words with that man. Anyhow, how was it that that boy got you, then?”
“He saved me, actually,” I said. “Cody and Lynn had both been planning to have me kidnapped, but didn’t know they were working against one another until it was too late. I got handed to Zachariah, and the rest is history.” I summed it up. It didn’t really matter what happened from then to now, did it?
“Huh,” he huffed. “I never saw the youngest son to be soft, but I guess you are the one girl that causes fights in all families.”
“Don’t remind me,” I said with a half laugh. “I’m tired of it all.” I still had no idea why everyone kept fighting over me. I was just a simple girl that had been handed one crazy life.
“Don’t blame you there,” he replied. “So, why are you running from him if you love him?”
“He doesn’t want kids,” I said sadly, looking at my hands. “He said as much, and I know he’d do anything to make sure I didn’t have any. I can’t risk it.”
“For you, he may change his mind,” Taylor said. He seemed to think as though my husband would do that like switching a light on. It wasn’t that easy; not when it came to my wants.
“A fat chance in hell on that,” I said. “He thinks killing an unborn baby is right. I can’t allow that to happen. Cody may have forced God on me, but I still believe killing is wrong. Even within a mafia family.”
“Sorry to break it to you, kiddo. But mafia families kill. They don’t care who you are,” Taylor stated flat out.
“The less I know, the better,” I yawned.
“I work the night shift. Will you be okay on your own?” Taylor asked.
“I’ll manage,” I grimaced.
“Here’s an extra cell I have. I have my number entered,” he said, pushing a black flip phone my way across the table to me. “There’s a gun in the safe under my bed and it’s left unlocked if you need it.”
“I don’t know how to use one,” I said, my eyes wide. Was he expecting something to happen?
“No worries about that,” he shrugged. “Anyone that comes by won’t know that. I’ll be back by six in the morning. Keep the doors locked, shades closed. No one will know you are here. Not like my neighbors like me much as it is.”
“Oh, why’s that?” I asked.
“I don’t like them,” was his answer.
“You don’t like anyone, do you?” my mouth ran off again.
“No,” he stated. He seemed to want to say more. Instead, he turned and put coffee in a thermos.
He didn’t seem like the talking type, but maybe he just had a soft spot for his chosen family. I was, after all, put into this mess by fate. I didn’t have many choices in anything.
I watched him from the table as he got everything ready for work. I almost wanted to ask what he did, but decided against it. I didn’t want to make him mad.
“You sure you’ll be okay?” he asked again.
“I can take care of myself,” I grumbled. “I’ll just go back to bed.”
He grunted through his nose as if he was afraid to leave me here. Should I have been more afraid to be left in some stranger’s house? Surely Carlos wouldn’t have left me here if it wasn’t safe for me to be left entirely alone.
Five minutes later, I was left alone in the house. I felt out of place being here. Maybe I shouldn’t have come here. Maybe I should have just stayed and faced the consequences with Zachariah.
It was too late to doubt that now. I was here, after all. And somehow, I was able to find the will to get my lazy butt up and take a shower. I couldn’t remember the last time I took a shower, as the days had all blended together in the past week.
In the shower, I let all my worries, for now at least, be washed away. My heart may be broken, but I had to do what was right. I had to take care of the little baby, to give it a life that it needed to survive in this world. I refused to let this choice be the end of my life, or the one inside of me.
I just hoped that my emotions didn’t take over and make me second guess everything.
Chapter 3
Zachariah
I felt like utter shit. My elbows were on the counter, my head in my hands as my mother busied herself with making food. My head pounded so horribly, I thought it was going to explode. It didn’t help when my mother thought it was necessary to slam every cupboard she opened, and banging the pans around.
I blamed my father. I wouldn’t feel like this if he’d just let me drink myself to death. It would have been a lot easier. Or at least let me keep drinking to numb the pain. Or if he’d just fucking answer one of my many questions.
“Would you knock that off!” I hissed as my mother dropped the pan again on the counter. I swear she was doing it on purpose. Oh wait—she was.
“Don’t you dare,” she hissed right back, not afraid of me. “Serves you right for your unwise choice.”
I clamped my mouth shut, knowing she’d only make it worse if I said anything more. It wasn’t often that I was hungover. But the times I was, my lovely mother always made sure to bang every blasted thing. I was sure it had more to do with the fact that I should know better.
She would even do it when it came to my father.
Speaking of him, I was currently not talking to him. There was no way he’d get his say in any of this. He took my wife, even if she asked, away from me. He wouldn’t give me answers that I had to have. My father was not just one of the men I could do as I pleased with. I couldn’t just shoot at him and get what I needed. With Carlos, I would have been shot back at, or worse, killed for even daring to do such a thing as that.
“So why are you ignoring your father? He won’t tell me much of what is going on, but I’m not the one giving him the cold shoulder,” my mom hinted, sliding a plate of food my way.
“You know why,” I grumbled. “He took Avidya.” That was the only answer he had given me after I pretty much pushed him against a wall for at least one answer. It didn’t help matters for either of us. I wanted my wife back and I knew that my father was the only man that could make that happen at the moment. It wouldn’t stop me from tearing the entire earth apart to find her, though.
“She asked to be taken,” Mom stated sadly. “She has her reasons.”
“Which you don’t know of,” I huffed.
“This is one of those things where the less I know, the better. Your father wouldn’t tell me if I were to ask anyhow. She wanted out, and that is all there is to know,” Mom explained. “She’ll come back when she’s good and ready.”
“Why? That’s what I don’t fucking get!” I hissed.
“Watch it,” Dad spat my way as he entered the kitchen. He had cleaned up the office, the one that had been completely destroyed by me just hours ago. I would have just left it, reminding myself of what a huge failure I was to my wife. “I won’t put up with you talking to your mother like that.”
I glared at him, daring him to do anything to me. It was completely his fault. I clenched my sore fists, feeling the cracked skin sting in protest. I nearly broke one hand from my tantrum. I did dese
rve it.
“She’s safe, right?” Mom asked.
“As safe as she was here,” Dad answered. “She’ll be fine, though. I trust the people I left her with.”
“Which is where?” I asked, hoping beyond hope my question would be answered.
“Somewhere,” Dad answered. “She doesn’t want you to know.”
“Why can’t you just fucking tell me?” I seethed before storming off. I ignored my mom’s concerned voice floating after me.
Of course, my father just had to follow me. Again. What did he think I was going to do? All my whiskey was gone, so I couldn’t go back to drinking away my problems.
“Go away,” I muttered as I went upstairs. I just wanted to be left alone.
“Not till we have a little chat, son,” he said. I knew that tone of voice. The voice that meant he wasn’t going to put up with my shit. Too bad for him. He’d deal with it until he brought back my wife. I was not going to let him have that option of controlling me like a toddler.
“Well, that isn’t going be happening,” I stated.
“It is,” he said, his voice turning into the demanding mobster that I knew him to be. “You will listen, and you will obey my orders.”
“Or what?” I laughed, not afraid of this man.
“Then I’ll make damn sure that your wife never does return to you. I’m sure with time, she’d rethink her actions. But I can certainly make sure that she doesn’t,” he threatened.
Oh? He thought he could just threaten me like that? Really? Did my father think he had that much power over one person that had nothing to bargain with?
“I’ll find her on my own then,” I snapped.
“No, you won’t,” he said, amused that I even thought that. “Guess I can always just make sure she knows that you won’t ever change your ways.”
Was he goading me? Really?
“What the fuck do you want?” I said, turning around without warning. My dark eyes blazed with hatred and fury at this man I called my father.
“I told you,” he said calmly. He waited for a moment before speaking again. “Are you ready to listen?”
“You don’t give me much choice,” I stated harshly.
“Alright,” he sighed, running a hand down his face. “You are going to get cleaned up. Since your main income source is no longer up and running, you will put your efforts into that club of yours. You will keep money coming in. You will live, and be ready for when your wife returns. And you will keep an open mind when she does.”
“You think running my club is going to change anything?” I asked, not getting what he was trying to do. Who cared what kind of money I brought in anymore?
“No,” he said through his nose. “It’ll give you something to do. You can’t wallow in self-misery. You will get things back in order and live life like you did before she ever came into our lives.”
“For what? So, she can see I don’t want her? So she can see just how fucked this family is?” I asked sarcastically. At least I was no longer filled with heartbreak. Pure anger ran through my body as hot as ever. “I am not going back to how things were before her. There is no chance in Hell that I will do that. Ever.”
I hadn’t known what I was missing until I had it.
“You will keep on living to make sure you have something for her when she returns,” Dad stated.
“There’s no point!” I yelled, my voice echoing in my ringing ears. “She left me. You won’t tell me why, or where she went. She won’t be back unless I drag her ass back here. Then I’ll whip said ass so much she won’t ever think about running again.”
Before I knew what happened, my father’s fist hit my face with such force, I was knocked sideways into the wall. My hand clenched at my side as I glared daggers at the man. My heart beating rapidly inside my chest.
“You will never raise a hand to her,” Dad seethed. “And if you keep up that line of thinking, I won’t bring her back. It won’t matter that our entire family is heartbroken by her leaving.”
With that, he turned and left me in the hallway, steaming with anger and shock.
He had never hit me before. My father had never raised his hand to me. Ever. Even with being a man of power, the Don of this family, he had never raised a hand in anger at any of his family members.
Until now.
Chapter 5
Avidya
I swear I had just fallen asleep when I was being shaken awake. The shaking was so bad that the entire bed was moving with the force.
Was there possibly an earthquake?
No. The hand on my shoulder was a good indication that was not happening.
With a low groan, I forced my eyes open. The first thing I saw, other than it being way too bright outside, was Taylor as he stood over me. I stared up at him, confused as to why he was waking me up. I was sleeping so well, too. Why couldn’t he just let me sleep?
“You have a visitor,” he grunted, not seeming happy about that fact.
“Huh?” I muttered, trying to rub away the sleep and the fogginess that covered my brain. This man was going to learn quickly that I was not a morning person. It had gotten worse the past few weeks, too. I wasn’t an anything type of person, truthfully.
“You have a visitor,” he repeated, a bit slower this time. His hard voice turned into slight amusement.
“Who?” I asked after a moment as the words registered. Who would possibly come here?
“I guess you’ll have to see,” he said, leaving me to myself.
Thoughts of my husband instantly filled my head. I was sure it wasn’t him, since he’d most likely just charge in here without a second thought. Plus, Taylor didn’t seem to be a huge fan of the man. There was no one outside of a very few limited people that knew I was here, and I figured it would have stayed that way.
With a long sigh, I slowly pushed myself up and out of the bed. This bed wasn’t as soft or as welcoming as the one at Zachariah’s house, but it was good enough. The bedroom had a full-sized bed, a tall six-drawer dresser, a window looking out to the back yard, and once more, nothing personal. All my belonging easily fit in the closet. Not that I had taken the time to unpack just yet. A plus side to it was that I was right next door to the bathroom.
After using the shared bathroom, I slowly made my way towards the living room and kitchen. I didn’t bother getting dressed, or brushing my hair. I had no one to impress, so I didn’t see the point.
I may be eating now, but that didn’t mean I was trying the best that I could to keep things as if nothing had changed. My heart was still in millions of pieces. I was broken, and forever would be. I would eat enough just to get by, my appetite nearly nonexistent as it was.
Pausing before entering the living room, I wasn’t sure how to react. Nor what to say. I assumed this wasn’t a simple social call, given I have been here for only a little over a week. I never expected to see him, at least not here of all the places he could have shown up.
“Kent,” I said with a nod of my head his way. My voice came out emotionless as I hid my worry.
“Hello, Avidya,” he replied in kind. He took a moment to look me over as I stood there, fidgeting. Yeah, I wasn’t impressed with my own appearance, but it was the least of my concerns at the moment.
“I’ll just go out back,” Taylor stated, feeling as awkward as I was I’m sure. I had quickly found out that Taylor didn’t like change. I didn’t care much for it myself most of the time.
It hadn’t been all that long ago with Kent and I were able to get along fairly well. It was during that time when Zachariah was in the hospital, but I had hardly seen this man since then. My husband and I had been a bit busy dealing with life. Now, I wasn’t so sure how to behave in the presence of this man.
“So, it’s true?” Kent asked, not walking around the subject.
I shrugged, willing tears to not come to my eyes. Many things were true these days. “Depends on you are asking me.”
His eyes moved to my stomach, seeming to try to
calculate things in his mind. I wasn’t showing yet, but that didn’t stop him from saying what he wanted.
“Are you sure? I can talk to my grandson about this, you know,” Kent stated, raising his eyes back to mine.
“There is nothing on this earth that will change his mind. Zachariah has said what he will force me to do if I became…well, this,” I said, hot anger flashing behind my eyes. I moved one hand up and down my body in a manner that spoke what my words were unable to. “This is the only thing I can do.”
“Alright,” Kent said. He didn’t argue. I figured he may have wanted to since I was carrying his great-grandchild.
Once more, I couldn’t help but notice just how much the male gene took effect in this family. I knew for a fact that when Zachariah was old and gray, he’d look like Kent’s twin. Dark brown eyes, dark hair with gray, and slightly wrinkled skin around the eyes and mouth. Kent looked good for his age, that was for sure.
“I had to see for myself,” Kent went on. “Zach isn’t doing well.” Why he made sure to tell me, I wasn’t sure. What was the point in even telling me? To make me feel worse than I already was?
“You think I am doing any better?” I asked with a huff. “Sorry, I’m not a morning person.” I took a deep breath, willing my anger at the situation to leave me.
“I think you are entitled to it,” Kent laughed. “That man of yours is going to hate me, but I think you did the right thing. Zach has always been stuck on the rules he made for himself. You need to get a doctor lined up. And how long do you plan to stay away? Julia sends her well wishes.”
“You mean she knows you are here?” I asked, surprised.
“Well, no,” he said slowly. “But I’m sure she would all the same.”
He didn’t seem sorry that Julia, nor anyone else for that matter, didn’t know I was here.
“I don’t know how long I’ll be away,” I answered. “I want to keep the baby. I can’t be like my parents, either set of them. I can’t stand by and let someone raise my child.” My vision clouded with tears, but I forced them away. I had to stop crying over everything.
His to Know (His to Own Book 3) Page 2
