“Sofi,” Reanna got her attention.
Sofia looked up at her.
“Don’t be rude, baby. Say hi, please.”
Nodding her head in immediate obedience, she looked over to Aniyah, giving her a sweet ‘hello’ before once again looking off as if uninterested with the entire situation.
“Hmm …” Reanna heard Aniyah say in response.
She looked up, finding the woman once again staring at her.
Shit.
“Do you have a moment, Reanna?”
Oh no … no moments. Reanna didn’t have any moments. This was too awkward for her taste. What the hell was she supposed to say to the woman? Dammit! She’d told Kyle to wait! Why the hell had he taken matters into his own hands without consulting her first.
“So I’m guessing that’s a no …”
“No!” Reanna blurted out. Noticing that she’d startled everyone, she quickly pulled herself together. “I mean, yes,” she chuckled nervously. “Yes, I can give you a second. Umm, Michele.” She turned to the man, motioning for him to come forward. “Can you please?”
“But Reanna,” Sofia whined, tugging at Reanna’s arm, suddenly seeming to tune in to what was going on. “I don’t want you to. I want us to go see papa now.”
Sighing, Reanna attempted to break free of the hold she had on her arm. “Sofia honey, it’s just for a second,” Reanna assured. “We’ll go find papa afterward I promise, okay?”
Holding her tighter, the child refused to let go. “But Reanna …”
Reanna shook her head. “In a minute Sofia.”
“Reanna …”
“Sofi—”
“No!” she snapped.
Shocked, Reanna’s eyes widened. “No?”
“No!” This time she stamped her little foot right as she shot a furious glare in Aniyah’s direction. “Go away!” She screamed the words.
“Sofia Nicole,” Reanna reprimanded sharply.
She was floored. Floored. This was not her Sofia. The child was fuming. That quick! Only moments ago she’d been so quiet, uninterested and now …
“What has gotten into you, young lady!”
“I want us to go, Reanna!” she cried, her face now crimson as tears began streaming from her eyes. “I want us to go see papa now.”
The tears in her eyes were enough to make Reanna pause for a moment, now more concerned than shocked. Why was she so upset? “Sofia—”
“I don’t want you to talk to her! I wanna go now,” she cried. “I wanna go to Papa!”
And that was all Reanna could take.
Pulling her arm free, Reanna leaned forward and lifted Sofia into her arms. She immediately clung to Reanna, crying so hard, too hard; it was breaking Reanna’s heart and worrying her sick all at the same time. She couldn’t figure out what was wrong.
“Sofi,” she comforted, holding her tight. “Baby, tell me what it is.”
Her father. She hadn’t seen him all day, but Reanna had never seen her react like this after not seeing Kyle for too long. Pouting, yes, but never a full on tantrum. She was normally so patient, not one for tantrums. Something was wrong. Sofia’s arms were wrapped around her so tightly she could barely catch her breath.
“Baby,” she whispered once Sofia sobs became soft whimpers.
From in front of her, she heard Aleksandr telling Aniyah to leave because she was upsetting Sofia, to which Maksim voiced his agreement.
“Boys,” Reanna chided them, motioning for Aleksandr to come stand beside her. “Don’t be rude, please. Come over here, we’re about to go.” She looked up at Aniyah. “I’m sorry, Aniyah,” she apologized, shaking her head back and forth. “I know you wanted to talk, but I …” She shrugged her shoulders sadly.
She had wanted to talk, too, wanted to apologize, but that was pretty much impossible right now.
“I only have now for you to explain yourself, Reanna,” Aniyah replied coldly. It was as if she didn’t even see that Reanna was trying to comfort an upset child. “If we don’t talk now, we don’t talk at all.”
What? Reanna thought, a frown falling over her face. Was she serious?
Could she not see that Reanna was occupied? And what the hell had she meant she only had now for Reanna to explain herself? Like Reanna was begging for her time? Honestly, she’d be just fine not talking about it at all. What the hell was there to say? It wasn’t like they could still be friends after this, and Reanna just had to accept that. She felt bad for betraying her, yes, but really, would talking about it and trying to salvage the relationship really be in either of their best interest? She and Kyle were getting married for goodness sake.
So adjusting her baby in her arms, Reanna took in a deep breath. “Fine then,” she nodded, resolving to her decision. “We don’t talk at all.”
Aniyah’s brows rose, that fiery anger once again brightening her dark eyes. “Excuse me? What the fuck do you mean we don’t talk at all?”
Reanna gasped. “Hey!” she snapped at the woman. “Watch your mouth in front of the kids.”
“I don’t have any kids,” she shot back. “So I say what I want!”
Glaring, Reanna huffed.
That was it.
Now she was pissed off. Patience non-existent! Not while Sofia was upset. “What do you want from me, Aniyah!” she yelled, uncaring of the people surely looking at them as they made their way down the large, crowded sidewalk. “An apology? Fine! I’m sorry. But I can’t change what happened. I messed up, ruined our friendship, and betrayed your trust, I understand that, and I accept that I have to deal with that guilt. But I’m not going to stand here with you and argue back and forth about things I can’t and wouldn’t change. It is what it is, and frankly, I have too much going on in my life right now to deal with it. I’m sorry; honestly, I never meant to hurt you, but I need to go. Michele!”
Obviously seeing that her patience was all but gone, Michele came forward swiftly. “Yes ma’am.”
Reanna motioned in Aniyah’s direction. “Just … figure out a way to move her so we can go please, now.”
Michele did exactly as Reanna asked with a quickness, it almost made her feel bad for yelling at him. But he hadn’t looked upset. He actually looked … amused, or maybe it was proud, like he was happy to hear her order him around, or perhaps just order him to move Aniyah. Whatever it was, it had worked in Reanna’s favor. The security surrounded her and the children and they once again began their journey to the Salerno Organization building.
~*~
There was too much shit going on in Kyle’s head.
Too much making him tense, too much making him hesitant to speak to his own damn brothers, and he could tell they noticed it, too. He noticed how he kept his distance, noticed how little he’d said to them when they’d come over and greeted the family. He’d even stepped away from them all, just because he hadn’t been able to handle the thought of them asking him ‘what the hell was wrong with him’, and him having to reply with a lie.
He wasn’t ready.
Wasn’t ready to tell them how badly he’d failed today. Wasn’t ready to hear them try to brainstorm a way to fix his fuck-up, and he damn sure wasn’t ready to see that look of disappointment, or ‘I told you so’ in their eyes when they found out how badly he’d screwed-up the peace deal that had been his idea to begin with.
They never even would have wasted all of this fucking time trying to achieve what was beginning to look impossible had Kyle not opened his big fucking mouth.
What now?
That was the question going through his head on a constant loop. What the hell was he going to do now?
Would he apologize?
Offer them the territory in order to save face, save the deal? Or would he just give up?
Let Nathan come to his rescue, same as he’d been doing since they were kids. Kyle couldn’t really envision himself doing any of that. He couldn’t see himself giving in and allowing Nathan to fix his mistakes. He couldn’t see himself failing after all
the work he’d done, all the time put into the negotiations, all of the late nights in his office when he could have been home with his daughter.
Too much had been sacrificed already for this deal. So was failure really an option.
The words of his step-mother just kept flashing through his head. She’d said that it wasn’t possible for him to fail. That he had yet to discover how powerful he was.
But how?
Yes, Kyle understood now that he was a direct descendent of a key figure in the criminal underworld, but even still, he didn’t know anything about Alexis Stone. He didn’t even know if he was anything like the man that was said to have been a stoic, quiet and calculated, cold, heartless—beside his whole-hearted, unrelenting love for his daughter—
and ruthless—
Wait a minute. Kyle frowned, pretty sure that he’d been characterized with more than a few of those words in the past.
“Look at this, brother.”
The abrupt sound of Mickey’s voice near him startled the hell out of Kyle, nearly making him jump out of his skin.
His eyes shot up from the floor, where he hadn’t even known they’d fallen, just as the man approached him with JoJo in his arms, the child looking quite happy despite the fact that his hearing device was now back on his head.
Nathan and Anastacia had probably gotten into quite the tiff about Josef not having it on. Kyle was glad he’d missed that.
“Look whose letting me hold him,” Mickey chuckled as he walked over to stand beside Kyle. “He gave me a kiss too.” He kissed the toddler on his cheeks until he giggled. “He usually only lets me hold him while he’s sleeping.”
Sighing, Kyle smiled at the child. “He is very particular.”
“And cute as hell.” Mickey blew a raspberry on the child’s cheek right before he rested his head to his shoulder.
Chuckling softly, Kyle ran his hand over his face, then turned his eyes back ahead.
“He was upset,” Mickey spoke again. “Nate—”
“Made him put his hearing device back on,” Kyle nodded, finishing his brother’s sentence.
“Yeah,” Mickey replied. “I feel for him.”
Kyle looked over to his brother, nodding his head once again.
“The world is too loud sometimes. Too much stuff going on, never really a …” He frowned, clearing his throat. “Never really a moment of peace.”
“Hmm …” Kyle hummed in response.
It was his way of showing that he agreed with his brother, agreed with what he’d said. Peace, at most times, seemed to be something that just … didn’t exist. Both in business, and even in one’s personal life. If it wasn’t one thing, it always seemed to be another.
“So are you going to tell us? What’s going on with you?”
Did Kyle tense at the question? Absolutely he did. But only because it’d been so abrupt; he hadn’t been expecting it.
Managing to keep his cool, he looked over at his brother. “Tell you what?” he asked, as if he hadn’t known the answer to his own question. He did know, he just still wasn’t ready to talk about it. Not even with Mickey.
Mickey raised a brow, then rolled his eyes. “You’re tense brother. And you have the soldiers afraid to talk about something that happened today.”
“Yeah, well,” Kyle shrugged. “Maybe I’m not ready to say anything yet.”
“Why not, Kyle?” Mickey asked, his tone seeming oddly soft.
Kyle also detected a bit of concern in it, perhaps a little fear too. It was an interesting mix of emotions for Mickey.
“You know whatever it is … Nate can help—”
“And when are you all going to tell me what’s going on with you today?” Kyle asked, cutting off his brother with an abrupt question of his own.
Just as Kyle knew it would, the question caught Mickey off guard. His eyes widened for a second; his mouth even dropped with a slight intake of breath. All of those were things Mickey did when he was hiding something, and Kyle wasn’t even surprised.
He’d pushed it out of his mind all day, deciding to focus on work rather than family matters, but unfortunately, that hadn’t stopped his annoying ass, overactive mind from going to work on what it was that they were hiding. It had been Nathan’s ‘It’s nothing, brother’ comment earlier when he’d left Kyle’s office that had started the wheels turning in Kyle’s head; and the fucking wheels continued to turn all damn day no matter how many times Kyle attempted to make them stop. He’d noticed the way his family was handling him with kid gloves, noticed the difference in their tones’ when they spoke to him, and he knew that it wasn’t just because they were happy about his newest life decision either. That was the downfall of knowing his brothers so well. He could tell when something was really wrong. Something bad, and that was just judging by how long it was taking them to tell him.
“So here’s the deal, little brother,” Kyle killed the silence, looking back over to Mickey. “You tell me what you four are so hesitant to tell me, and I’ll tell you what me and the soldiers are hiding. Deal?”
With those words, Kyle waited for what he knew wasn’t going to come. The truth. A lie wouldn’t come either. Usually when there was some big news that his brothers felt needed to be delivered to him gently, they told him together. They were secretive, they met about it behind his back, threatened to kill Mickey if he said anything before they were all ready, then eventually told Kyle the news and watched for the reaction that ‘old Kyle’ would have given them back in his younger, less mentally stable days.
He still wasn’t all the way mentally stable, but still; he was better now than he was back then.
“Nothing?” Kyle asked his silent brother. He smiled at the nervous look on Mickey’s face, then gave his shoulder a light pat on his shoulder. “It’s alright, Little Brother,” he chuckled softly. “I’ll wait for the last minute meeting .” The meeting where his brothers would send what was left of his ‘newly engaged’ good mood crashing straight into hell. But luckily for Kyle, he would have the fix for that waiting for him at home tonight.
His family.
His lovely Sofia and his beautiful soon-to-be wife … and dinner, if he was lucky—
“It’s Abrielle, Kyle.”
The words seemed to come out like vomit. Quick, unpleasant, and painfully abrupt. Kyle’s entire body just froze as a blank expression immediately fell over his face.
“I’m sorry, brother,” Mickey shook his head. So much distress. More distress than he’d ever seen mask Mickey’s face before. “I didn’t mean to tell you. I just …” His features tightened as his blue eyes fell to the floor, and he sighed heavily. “Oh God, they’re going to kill me. I’m so sorry, Kyle …”
Wait. What the fuck was happening? What was he saying? Kyle wasn’t even comprehending it, which didn’t make much sense because, according to his IQ, he was a fucking genius.
Abrielle. His birth mother? What about her?
Kyle opened his mouth, seeking clarification, but his attempt was all but foiled when a sweet sound penetrated his ears, yanking him back into his present reality.
“Papa!”
Papa …
“Papa! Papa!”
His head immediately turned in the direction of her voice.
“Sofia.” He was already to his feet walking in her direction before it’d even registered to him that he was.
His bambina.
“Papa!”
She was screaming his name, running to him with the biggest smile on her perfect little face.
“Mi sei mancato, papa! Mi sei mancato!”
The answering smile to her words was immediate as Kyle jogged forward, closing the bit of distance left between them, and scooped his little girl into his arms.
“Oh, vieni qui la mia bambina,” Kyle laughed happily, hugging his daughter tightly. “I missed you too, lady bug. Papa missed you so much.”
He kissed his bambina over and over again, reveling in the musical sound of her little munchkin laugh
ter, melting at the sight of her smile, and resting in the peace that only being in the presence of his little girl could bring him. Nothing else mattered in this moment, nothing else was even on his mind, only his little girl … well, his little girl and the beautiful woman that he knew wasn’t too far behind her.
“Papa, you’re being silly,” Sofia giggled, pushing against Kyle’s cheek when he blew a raspberry against her neck. “That tickles.”
“I know it tickles, bambina. That’s the point.” Kyle pinched her sides, making her laugh loud. “Papa hasn’t been able to torture you with tickles and yucky kisses all weekend. We have a lot to catch up on.”
“But you can’t tickle me all day, Papa!”
Kyle frowned playfully, shaking his head back and forth. “I’m your father, Sofia. And as your father, I reserve the right to torture you anytime I want.”
She laughed again, shaking her own head in response to his teasing.
Kyle kissed her cheeks once more, deciding to save his torturing for later. “So how was your trip, bambina? You’ve grown.” He brought his hand up and ran his fingers over her long ponytail. “And you cut your hair…”
It wasn’t much of a difference, just a couple of inches, barely noticeable, but noticeable at the same time.
“Nonna and I went to the princess spa in Florida, Papa” she chirped, her eyes bright with excitement at the memory. “I got my hair done and my nails …” She lifted her fingers, wiggling them to show off her sparkly purple nail polish. “And my toes, but I can show you that at home when I don’t have on my shoes.
Kyle chuckled. “It’s very pretty, bambina.”
“…It was fun, Papa. Then they did my make up and gave me my own Princess dress!” She grinned wide. “I got to wear it the whole day and everyone was telling me how pretty I was.”
“Mmmhmm,” Kyle kissed her cheeks once more. “I’m sure you were stunning, my little lady bug.”
“I brought you a picture of it for your office in my backpack, Papa.”
Dangerous Beauty: Part Four: Beautifully Broken Page 43
