“Then what?” Kyle asked, mentally taking note of every word coming out of her mouth.
It was gold, every bit of advice she was giving him. The type of guidance that had the potential to take his career to a level in which he’d never thought he had the ability to reach. He could feel it in his blood, surging through his veins, the excitement, the power. He desperately wanted to be the man that she was describing. He desperately wanted this limitless power she spoke of. The type of power that he’d seen so many men possess, but never thought that he himself could ever have.
He wanted it. And he wanted her to teach him how to get it.
But of course … Kyle’s luck.
In response to his question, Anastacia only shrugged, looking up at him with a wicked smile in her eyes. “That, I cannot tell you, Kyle.”
What? No! Fuck. He’d been so close. So damn close to finally having everything he needed. She couldn’t stop now!
“You need to figure out what you will do after that on your own.”
“But that’s not fair,” Kyle argued. “No!” He took a step toward the woman in effort to keep his words just between the two of them and away from the ears of both of their security men standing around them. “You can’t just get me all into your plan, then leave me hanging, Ana.”
Anastacia let out a short chuckle. “Silly,” she lightly tapped his arm with her hand. “I’m not leaving you ‘hanging’. And this,” she shook her head, “is not a plan.” She shrugged. “It’s the truth, baby.”
“But you didn’t …” Kyle frowned deeply, shaking his head back and forth. “You didn’t tell me what to do. How am I supposed to fix this deal?”
For a long moment, she said nothing. She just looked at him, her mouth closed tight and her expression unreadable. Kyle stood, too, waiting for the woman to cave. To give into his pleas and give him the answers he need, but … once again, of course.
“You have to figure it out on your own.”
Groaning in an immense amount of frustration, Kyle stepped back and turned away from his step-mother.
“Don’t be upset, my Ky-ky.” He felt her hand gently rub his back. “You don’t need me to hold your hand through it; you already have the tools to do what you need to do.”
“You know what?” Kyle turned back around to face the woman. “You and pop get me with that ‘you’ll know what to do’ parental bullshit. It doesn’t work for me. I need you to tell me what to do!” What the fuck was so hard about that? Just tell him what to do. Step by step; he wasn’t asking for much … at least not in his opinion he wasn’t. “All I want is a little guidance here.”
“The guidance that you have received from both myself and your father is more than enough Kyle. The last thing you want is for either of us to hold your hand through this.”
Bullshit. He’d take them holding his hand through this over failing any day.
“Kyle.” She laughed softly, looking up at him as if she read his mind once again. “You’re fine, baby. Your father and I are old school. You may benefit from our guidance, but we know nothing of the way you young people run things around here these days.”
Kyle rolled his eyes.
“Stop that,” she chided.
He turned away from her again. All of that advice—all of that beautiful advice—and he still felt as if he were fucked.
“Hey Kyle!”
A deep voice called from behind him, and Kyle nearly flinched, then breathed a sigh of relief when he realized it wasn’t Nathan.
It was Mickey.
The man made his way over to them, a slight smile in his eyes as he shrugged his leather jacket over his shoulders.
“You’re back,” he grinned.
He greeted Anastacia first, gently placing a kiss to her cheek and giving her his normal ‘hey stepmother’ before invading the sleeping Cami’s personal space to attack her with kisses.
“Sweet, Camiella,” he whispered, running his hand over her hair.
After visiting Cami, he’d made his way over to the front of the stroller to take a look at little Natalia.
“Jesus,” he chuckled. “What’d you guys do? Take the kids out with tranq darts?”
“It’s naptime,” Anastacia replied. “They take their naps no matter where we are.”
“I see that,” Mickey nodded as he came over to Kyle and gave him a light pat on his back. “How’s it going, brother,” he smiled, then reaching over, he ran his hand over Josef’s blond curls. “Everything alright?”
Brows furrowing slightly, Kyle nodded and answered, “Yes. Why do you ask?”
Mickey never greeted him like that. It was usually more of a sharp slap on the back and a ‘Yo’, or a ‘You good?’ … Shit. Did he know? Kyle stared into his brother’s eyes, unable to tell. Perhaps he was just being paranoid.
“No reason,” Mickey answered him. “Word around the soldiers is ‘consigliere is tense today’.”
Tightening his jaw, Kyle’s frown deepened. “What soldier?”
“All of them,” Mickey answered simply, his calm tone never wavering. “I wanted to call you and see how you were doing, but I’d figured you’d be here when I got back so …”
“Well I’m fine,” Kyle cut him off, giving a nod of his head as if he were actually telling the truth. “Just an unpleasant meeting today, that’s all.”
Mickey’s eyes widened slightly before his features quickly relaxed once more. “An unpleasant meeting with whom?” he asked, his brows furrowing slightly. “You need me?”
“No,” Kyle answered a bit too hastily. Quickly, he backtracked. “Well … not no, I mean yes.” He frowned. Did he? “Or maybe not,” he said slowly. “Or … I don’t really know?”
Okay, now he sounded fucking insane.
Sighing at his own idiocy, he looked over to his step-mother, a scowl now covering his face. This was her fault. She had him all discombobulated.
“Are you alright, Kyle?” Mickey asked, a light, confused laughter in his tone. “Do you need me? Yes, no, or maybe?”
Rolling his eyes, Kyle lifted his head to the heavens and held on a bit tighter to Josef. He had no idea how to answer that question. Luckily for him though, Mickey spared him. Instead of waiting any longer for Kyle to answer, the man instead gave him another pat on his back before turning his attention to Anastacia.
“What are you doing in the city today?” he asked.
“Waiting,” Anastacia said softly. “Carterina and I are having a late lunch with Kyle’s bride.”
Kyle’s eyes widened as they immediately shot to his mother. What?!
“She’s supposed to be meeting us here, then we’re heading to the penthouse together—”
“Reanna’s coming here?” Kyle interjected. “When?” He hadn’t known she was coming by the office today. That was perfect! She would help calm him down and perhaps … slip off to an empty office with him for a few minutes and assist him in relieving a bit of the tension in his body. “What time will she be here?”
“She should be on her way,” Anastacia smiled. “She had to get the twins and Sofia first.”
“Sofia.”
His daughter.
His sweet baby girl.
He’d gone through the entire day trying his best to repress how much he’d missed her, as to avoid doing something stupid like pulling her out of school for the day and bringing to his office just so he could have her close to him. God, he missed her so much. Just the mention of her name turned loose the anxiety that came along with extended separation from her. It was a feeling he couldn’t bare for so long, which was why he’d forced himself not to think about how much he missed his ladybug. That was what he needed. Not to slip off with Reanna—although, he’d still be doing that later— but to spend time with both of his girls. His perfect little family.
“Yes,” he heard Anastacia sigh. “She misses you, too. We couldn’t get the girl to hush about how much she missed you all the way home from Florida.”
“I miss her, too.�
�� Her perfect face flashed through his mind at that moment, and Kyle finally felt that calm warmth that only the thought of his baby girl could bring to his heart. Now feeling a smile of anticipation pulling at his lips, Kyle reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell. “Perhaps I’ll call Reanna,” he said to no one in particular. “See if they’ve almost arrived.”
Scrolling through his contacts, he searched for Reanna’s name, eagerly anticipating the moment that he’d get to hear her voice. When he finally found it, he gave the screen a tap and was surprised by what he found next to her phone number.
Blocked …
“Blocked?”
Next to him, Mickey took a step closer to him, leaning over to see what Kyle was staring at. “Blocked what?” he asked.
Frowning and shaking his head at the screen, Kyle answered, “Reanna.” She’d been blocked from his phone.
With a few taps on the screen, Kyle unblocked her number.
“I didn’t do this,” he muttered, still staring at the screen. “How did it happen?”
“Perhaps it was an accident,” Mickey said from beside him.
Kyle shook his head at the explanation. “I didn’t mistakenly block my fiancé’s number from my phone, Mickey.”
He’d been wondering why he hadn’t received a call from her all day, but he had come to reasoning that she’d just been as busy as he …
“Well, then how did it happen? No one else has had your phone Kyle.” Mickey nudged Kyle’s shoulder, urging him to turn in his direction. “Here, give me the child. I want to hold him before he leaves.”
Nodding numbly, Kyle handed over the snoozing toddler, then resumed his silent investigation.
Yes, it was true that no one had had access to his phone today other than him … well, him and his secretary. But she only took it for a limited time in the morning for the purposes of programming in his schedule for the day. But right after she put it in, she usually …
Oh shit.
Kyle let in a slow gasp right as realization hit him.
“Is everything alright, mon amour?”
The voice of his step-mother cut through his shock, and Kyle shook his head in response to her question before he’d even realized it.
“She knows,” he said, his voice barely audible. Chuckling humorlessly at his own stupidity, he ran his hand over his face. “I can’t believe it. She knew the whole time.” And Kyle was pissed as hell about the newly discovered fact.
“What are you talking about, man?”
Mickey had asked him the question absently, even as his eyes stayed glued to the sweet face of the sleeping baby in his arms, and Kyle had just been about to answer, just been about to rant about the revelation, but was interrupted by the large metal doors bursting open, echoing through the crowded lobby, and both the Don and Underboss of the Salerno organization came walking through with a large number of soldiers.
At first they looked as if they were going somewhere, perhaps leaving for a meeting or something. They were talking to one another, all looked well, and most importantly, they did not notice that Kyle was—
“Oh, Nathan, dear. Over here … Hi! I brought the kids to see you.”
Gasp!
Eyes shooting wide, Kyle turned to his step-mother in utter horror. What the fuck?!
Evil woman! The evil, evil woman.
“Oh come on, Kyle,” the mad woman chuckled in the face of Kyle’s horror. “You couldn’t possibly have thought that I’d pass up the opportunity to mess with you after a reaction like that.” She looked over to him with a smile, even as she waved Lucca and Nathan over in their direction. “Blame your father, dear.” She gave him a wink. “I didn’t have a sense of humor until I met him.”
Chapter 22 The kids
“I still don’t see why I had to get in trouble and get a note sent home when I have no idea what I did wrong. No idea, Zia!”
Rolling her eyes and trying her best not to laugh while Aleksandr continued to relay the very interesting day he’d had at school, Reanna held tightly to Maksim and Sofia’s hands as they made their way down the sidewalk, heading in the direction of the Salerno Organization building. Walking ahead of Reanna, Aleksandr turned to face them and walked backwards, even as he continued to tell them his story.
“I tried to tell my teacher, hey, I think you may be mistaken, it wasn’t me. But she just kept yelling at me. She refused to hear my side of the story and kept threatening to have my Papa come to the school again. Then I told her, maybe it wasn’t me, I am a twin you know, people get us mixed up all the time—”
“But we’re fraternal, and I didn’t do anything, Aleksandr,” Maksim said for— Reanna believed— the tenth time since Aleksandr had begun telling the story. “We aren’t even in the same class.”
“Which is a travesty in and of itself, Maksi!” With a dramatic groan, Aleksandr brought his palms up to cover his little face, shaking his head as if in intense distress. “Jeez,” he grunted, dropping his arms in frustration. “Separating us ‘cause we are brothers is not right. The separation has obviously had a negative effect on my behavior.”
“So you admit it then?” Reanna asked him. She hadn’t missed his subtle confession hidden within his over-dramatic expression of outrage. “It was you?”
“I don’t know, Zia.” He shook his head and shrugged his little shoulders. “I don’t know. It maybe could have been me. I don’t ‘member now. It’s been a long time.”
“It’s only been an hour now, Sandr,” Sofia said, a light giggle in her voice. “You have a good memory when it comes to everything except the stuff that gets you in trouble.”
“Well, I don’t know about that, Sofi,” Aleksandr replied, his nostrils flaring a bit at her accusation. “I think problems ‘membering stuff may run in the Stone family bloodline. Remember the great ‘Missing cookies’ mystery?”
Reanna hadn’t been sure, but she could have sworn she’d felt Sofia tense a bit at her side. She would have looked to her left to see the expression on her face, but she instead chose to keep her eyes on Aleksandr, who was still walking backwards in front of her. She knew he was safe and that they were literally surrounded by security men that were both protecting them and creating an exceptionally clear path for them to walk on the crowded side walk, but even still. She couldn’t help but be a little over protective of the kids in settings like this. She liked to keep them close to her.
“All the cookies just … gone,” Aleksandr animated his words by opening his arms wide. “And where did they go?” he asked, still staring directly at Sofia. He shrugged. “None of us could ‘member at the time. Even when the adults kept asking us over and over, who did this. I couldn’t ‘member, Maksi couldn’t, and if I’m ‘membering correctly …” He smiled. It was a mischievous, wicked little smile that showcased every single feature that the boy got from his mother. He looked exactly like her. Except for the deep dimples of course. Those he got from Nathan. “You couldn’t either,” he shrugged again. “We saw someone, one hungry person, eating all the cookies that were supposed to be for after dinner, but we couldn’t ‘member who the ‘Cookie Monster’ was—”
“Okay we get it, Sandr!” Sofia … snapped?
Yeah, Reanna was pretty sure Sofia had just snapped at Aleksandr. Not only that, but she was even more sure that Aleksandr had just threatened Sofia. The clue had been in his use of the famous name Cookie Monster. Carter often referred to Sofia as a cookie monster because of the intensity of the child’s insatiable sweet tooth. Seriously, Sofia’s obsession with sweets rivaled Reanna’s own, and … Reanna supposed she was a bit … responsible for that. All of the sweet cheat treats she’d shared with her baby over the years only served in creating a miniature, candy-loving monster.
“I get it,” Sofia grumbled, obviously attempting to hide a pout. “You forgot.” She shrugged. “I suppose anyone can have a lapse in memory at any given time.”
“Especially in situations where emotions are through the roof,” Aleksandr
added. “Sofia is right. I couldn’t possibly remember if I committed this horrid act against my teacher. In my head, I, Aleksandr Alexis Salerno, would never, could never ever, do something so mean, but the teacher swears it was me. It’s all too confusing, Zia!”
Yeah, sure it was, Reanna thought, unable to stop herself from rolling her eyes and chuckling at the child once again.
“Will you just give it a rest, Sandr,” Maksim spoke up, seeming just as amused as Reanna was by Aleksandr’s antics. “You did it. We all know you did it. You even know you did it, too. Now just … stop practicing your lies on us and leave Sofi alone.”
The little munchkin gasp that escaped Aleksandr’s lips as he stared, wounded, at his brother was both funny and highly adorable.
“Leave Sofi alone?” he placed a horrified hand to his chest, shaking his head back and forth. “Leave Sofi alone? I hate to break it to you Maksi, but Sofi isn’t the one facing sudden death!”
Okay. Now, here was her little Aleksandr. Reanna was beginning to think he would never snap out of his ‘forgetful, good boy’ act. The boy was nothing if not committed whenever he was in survival mode and trying to escape punishment.
“You’re being dramatic, Sandr.”
“I am not being dramatic, Maksi.” He threw his hands up. “Carter’s gonna kill me for this!”
“Kill you for what you did?” Maksim asked, his adorable deep dimple showing with his smile. “Or kill you for calling her by her first name?”
“Both. Ugh!” With a loud frustrated groan, little Aleksandr turned away from them.
Now Reanna couldn’t fight it. She smiled, only because she could get away with it while the precious, charismatic little Aleksandr had his back turned to them. She felt like a meanie; even though she felt badly for him and she didn’t like the thought of him getting into any trouble, she couldn’t help but enjoy watching him act silly like this. It was funny, fascinating, and scary all at the same time. Watching the kids interact with one another; listening to the stories they’d tell her, the beauty of their wild imaginations ... Reanna had never come in contact with children that possessed such IQ’s as the little genius’ did in this family. She was pretty sure she’d never get tired of watching them just … be, and play, and talk, and grow. They were all growing so fast. Too fast.
Dangerous Beauty: Part Four: Beautifully Broken Page 41
