by Zavi James
Dom and Franco trailed behind me as I wound my way through the halls to the bathroom. I didn’t mind Dom being by my side again, but Franco still barely spoke. The irritation rolled off him in waves, obviously unhappy to be tied to me in anyway shape or form. We both had some reprieve once we were separated by the door to the bathroom.
I stood in front of the mirrors and looked at myself. Things were changing. I was changing and this was fast becoming my truth. This woman who dressed in designer clothing, at a sip and see for her baby, lying to her friend about a potential engagement when it couldn’t have been further from the truth. I was this woman.
Tori would be okay. Tori would bounce back. Turning on the tap, I cupped my hands under the cold running water, engagement ring finally in its rightful place, and brought it up before catching a glimpse of my face in the mirror again. I couldn’t splash my face when I had a full face of make-up and a party to return to. Releasing the water back into the basin, I knocked the faucet off with my elbow and dried my hands.
Opening the door to the bathroom, Franco was the only one stood outside. “Where’s Dom?” I didn’t need Franco to answer, as I glanced down the corridor to see Dom with a familiar blonde. “Not today,” I muttered as I walked toward them. Amber had slipped to the back of my mind after that day in the hospital. Out of sight, out of mind, but today was proving to be a day that was testing me. “Amber,” I greeted her coldly. “If you wouldn’t mind. I need Dom.”
“They haven’t kicked you to the curb yet?” Amber asked, looking at me.
“I’m not a stray. They’re my family,” I reminded her.
“Funny way to treat your family.” She took a few steps to meet me in the middle of the hallway. When Dom followed her, I raised a hand to stop him. “No surprise really. Not after the way you treated your Daddy.”
My heart tugged painfully. Dad had been on my mind a lot recently. With both of my parents gone, Link had missed out on having any grandparents from my side of the family, and it weighed heavily on my heart.
“You knew nothing about my Dad.” Apart from she probably did. Most of the family probably knew how I’d fallen out with my father when he’d disapproved of Luc. He hadn’t been at our engagement party because I’d been too scared to tell him. A decision that had not gone unnoticed. “You have no right to mention him or any of my family. They aren’t anything to you.”
“You think you have the perfect little set up, don’t you?” Amber asked, arms folded across her chest.
“You tell me? It’s the set up you wanted, isn’t it?” The smirk she wore made me want to reach across the space and slap her. Whatever was going through her mind had overshadowed my jab at her.
“Do you think Luc would have gotten back together with you if you didn’t have his kid?” Amber asked. “You trapped him, Mia, that’s all. It won’t last. I know Luc better than you. He gets bored easily.” Her words cut through me. I often found myself wondering how things would have turned out if I wasn’t pregnant, but it was a waste of a life to live in ‘what ifs’. I wasn’t about to let Amber try and plant a seed of doubt in my head.
“Why don’t you just go back to whatever you were doing, Amber. Walk away with a shred of dignity, because this is just desperate.”
“You think you’re so much better than us. Just because you weren’t raised around all this. I’d watch your step, doll. You have no idea what you’ve gotten yourself into.”
A year ago, I would have agreed with her. A year ago, everything shocked me and made my stomach churn, but it had become familiar: the expectations, the names, the blood on Luc’s hands after a late night on the job. It had become my life.
Not wanting to waste any more time with Amber, I turned on my heel to walk back to Dom and Franco, ready to rejoin my family. Her nails sunk into the flesh of my forearm and I was forced to turn around. I was surprised to see Franco reacted quicker than Dom, taking steps toward us. “Don’t,” I ordered, more sharply that intended. He stopped in his tracks with Dom at his shoulder. I didn’t want them involved. Every encounter I’d had with Amber, someone else had swooped in to save the day. That couldn’t be the case any longer. There was nothing she could say or do that would send me running. “Do us all a favor, Amber, and let this go. We’re meant to be adults. Let’s start behaving like it.”
Amber leaned in, wicked glint in her eye, and when she spoke it was a whisper. The words were meant for only my ears. “If I were you, I’d watch my back, Mia, or you and your kid are going to end up just like your poor Daddy. The look on his face…”
The cold air rushed over the fresh cuts she’d left in my arm, causing them to sting as she stormed away from me. The shock slowly started to dissipate, and I rushed after her, hearing two sets of footsteps follow closely behind me until we stood outside, the dust from the car that had just pulled away settling.
“Mia, are you okay?” Dom asked, hand on my shoulder.
Had I heard her right? Had Amber just alluded to killing my Dad?
Chapter Forty Two
Lucas
“He looks more like you every day, Luc.”
I swelled with pride at Lydia’s words. “Just don’t say that in front of Mia.”
“Say what in front of, Mia?” She appeared at my elbow, making me jump. Dante might have had a point about fitting her with a bell.
“We were just saying how much Lincoln has taken after Luc,” Mom told her, and I groaned internally. The one sure fire way of tipping Mia into a mood was to remind her that her genetics hadn’t won out against my own. Nine months of growing him and Link had repaid her by starting to take after me.
She took Link into her arms again and immediately I caught the row of crescent marks down her forearm. “What the hell happened?”
“Nothing,” she shot back quickly.
“Mia.”
“Not now,” she hissed before walking away, holding Link tight against her, marks hidden by the way she angled her arm.
“Excuse me,” I said, leaving Lydia, Mom and a few of the others. As I broke away from the circle, Dom walked toward me. I caught his arm and marched us toward the wall. “What happened?” I asked him. He was a safer bet than Mia. She wasn’t willing to discuss it here and I wouldn’t be forgiven if I caused a scene. “She’s got marks down her arm. I sent you with her because I thought I could trust you.”
Dom looked pale. “She had a run in with Amber.”
“I’m sorry?”
“Amber was here. I was trying to get rid of her before she saw Mia but that didn’t happen,” he explained.
“Where is she?”
“She’s left. We were going to step in, but Mia told us not to.”
“You don’t answer to Mia. You answer to me,” I reminded him. “The next time you listen to her and whatever ridiculous request she has, you’ll be looking for another job.”
“Amber didn’t need any more ammunition. She’d have had a field day if we’d stepped in when Mia told us not to. We’d have done something if it went any further,” Dom tried to reason.
“I don’t want to hear it, Dom. Get out of my sight.”
He muttered something under his breath as he left. I spent the rest of the morning and into the afternoon watching Mia and Link like a hawk. She had slipped back into her jacket and relaxed back into the setting somewhat, but seemed more reluctant to let go of our boy than she had been originally. It was late into the afternoon, later than we’d expected, when the last of the guests left us.
“Thank you so much,” Mia said to the venue owner who had stopped in to check everything had gone to plan. “We’ll be sure to use you again.”
Franco and Dante helped us to carry everything to the car and Mia buckled Link into his seat before climbing in herself. We were only five minutes into the journey before she said, “Say whatever you want to say, Lucas.”
“You have Franco for a reason, Mia.” My temper matched hers. “And a reminder that Dom works for me.”
“He
works for us,” she interjected.
“No! He works for me when it comes to looking after you. You don’t get to tell him to step back and shirk his duties. Look what happened!” Her hand covered the space where the crescent marks would be under her jacket. “What did Amber say to you?” I asked. My question was met with silence. “Mia, I’m not in the habit of asking twice.”
“I think she might have killed my Dad.” That sentence caused a vacuum in the car. Of all the things I expected her to say that wasn’t it.
“What?” I asked her eventually. “Xavier was behind your Dad’s murder.”
“I’m not so sure. She made it sound like she had something to do with it.”
“She’ll have been wanting to get a rise out of you.”
“You’re sure of that?” Mia asked.
The honest answer was no. Amber wasn’t part of the family, but I knew she could be ruthless. I’d known her long enough to know how she ticked, observed how she worked, but in all that time I’d never known her to be fatal. That didn’t mean she wasn’t capable of it.
“She threatened me and Link,” Mia admitted quietly.
That pulled me out of my tangle of thoughts. “What?”
“Maybe she was trying to get a rise out of me, Luc, but I’m not taking a chance when it comes to Link.”
My grip tightened on the steering wheel. “I’ll sort it.”
“I don’t want you to.”
The car swerved slightly. “I’m sorry. Are you expecting us to do nothing about that threat?”
“I’m expecting you to do nothing about it,” Mia corrected me. “I want you to leave it with me.”
“No. No. Absolutely not,” I objected.
“Luc.” Mia was completely calm as we pulled into the drive. We got out, Mia pulling Link from the car as she said, “This technically doesn’t have to do with you.”
“I dare you to repeat that.”
“It doesn’t. Amber’s issue is with me.”
“If anyone has an issue with you it’s immediately my problem.” There would never be a time that I wasn’t in her corner.
“Let me deal with this,” she said, following me into the house.
“Mia, if what she said is true, I’m not having you up against her.”
“You don’t think I’m capable.”
We’d waded into dangerous territory. Mia’s fire burned behind closed doors but when it was sparked it was uncontrollable. I didn’t think she was incapable, but I didn’t know if it would be a match for what someone like Amber could unleash. “You’re asking me to risk you and I’m not willing to do that. I’m never going to be willing to do that.”
“Because you think I’m incapable.”
“Because I love you! You’re insane if you think I’m going to let you go and do something idiotic because what, Mia? Because of a need to prove yourself? To who?”
“To everyone, Luc!” Link began to cry in her arms at the raised voices and Mia rocked him gently to try and calm him down. “To everyone,” she repeated, softer this time. “To myself. I want to feel in control of my life again.”
“I can’t risk it, Mia.”
“What if I told you what I wanted? You’d know every step, you’d be right beside me, but you’d let me handle it.”
I took in a deep breath and ran a hand down my face. Mia had a rebellious spirit and had proven herself to be resourceful. If I didn’t agree, she would most likely find a way to go out and do it without me. If I agreed to what she was asking, at least I could step in if anything went wrong.
“I’m not happy about this,” I told her.
“But you’ll let me handle it?”
“I’ll let you handle it.” Part of me was curious. Part of me was desperate to see what Mia planned. This was the first time she’d actively wanted to play a part in fixing a problem we’d encountered, and it was all down to Link. If our son had been left out of the equation, I would have placed money on Mia being happy to leave it in my hands, but her protective instinct was unshakeable when it came to Link.
She reached up and kissed my cheek. “Let me put Link down and then we can talk about this.”
For the first time since we’d met, I wondered just how much I’d managed to corrupt her, and I was excited to find out.
Chapter Forty Three
Lucas
“Mia, you need to sleep,” I said to her quietly. She was sitting on the sofa in the living room, feet curled up underneath her, fresh mug of coffee on the table. In front of the dying fire, Dante was on his back, fast asleep with Cerb curled up next to him. Mom had gone up to bed earlier in the evening and I’d just put Link down following a feed after a busy Christmas day.
“I’m not tired,” she replied, not looking up from the papers in her hands. I reached down and took them from her and Mia finally looked up at me. “What are you doing?”
“One day off, Mia. You promised.”
“I know. I know but I just want everything to be perfect.”
“It will be,” I reassured her.
“It needs to be.”
Since the sip and see and her run in with Amber, Mia had picked up the pace. Franco had taken up a permanent post outside our residence, turning up when I left for work and leaving as I arrived home. Mia made him work for his paycheck, filling her calendar with a range of appointments from Christmas shopping with Tori to brunches with Katia and Rosalie and decorating the house until it looked straight out of a Hallmark movie for any of the guests she invited over. It was almost as if Amber’s threat had brought everything into focus for her and Mia was hell bent on reaching our goal.
“Did Link go down okay?” she asked, jamming the heels of her hands into her eyes and rubbing them.
“No complaint.”
Link had been alert and attentive for most of the day. Mom had fussed over him at every chance and Dante had spoiled his Godson with a sack of gifts that Link couldn’t quite show his appreciation for. By the end of the day, he had fussed so badly that Mia looked at her wit’s end and I had taken over to give her some breathing space. Link had settled and stayed with me all the way up until I placed him in his crib.
“Thank you.” Mia looked up at me and I took her hands in mine, tugging her to her feet. “What are you doing?” She resisted and I pulled harder until she stood up and wrapped her arms around my middle. I kissed the top of her head gently and she buried her face in my chest. Mia had a lot on her plate, and I was beginning to worry just how well she was balancing it all.
“I have something for you,” I murmured against her hair.
“What is it?” Her words were muffled against my shirt.
“It’s a surprise. Come with me.” I took her hand into mine and Mia followed me, her footsteps heavy with fatigue that slowed her down. If I could have taken her away from everything, made her brain stop ticking over every single move, I would have done so in a heartbeat.
“Why are we going to the garage?” she asked, cottoning on to where we were headed.
“You’ll see.”
When we reached the garage, I flipped the light on with my free hand and Mia blinked from how harsh it was before she registered what was in front of her. Sticking out like a sore thumb amidst my bike, the Maserati and the Range Rover—all in black—stood a bright red Ferrari with a large bow on the hood.
“What is that?” Her eyes were wide as they drank in the latest addition.
“What does it look like?”
She left my side, taking tentative steps toward the car, fingers brushing over the hood before she spun around to look at me. “This looks suspiciously like a Christmas present.” Another ridiculous notion Mia had tried to impart on me was that she did not require a Christmas present, considering we’d not long moved into the house.
“I was going to hold off until tomorrow, so it didn’t count.”
She checked her watch. “It’s still Christmas day.”
“I always had trouble following the rules and you looked lik
e you needed something to cheer you up.”
Mia bit her lip and turned around to look at the car again and I joined her, arms wrapping around her middle. “Thank you,” she whispered.
“No need to thank me, love.” I kissed her head and pulled her tight against me. “Next time you want to run you can take your own car instead of stealing mine.” That earned me an elbow to the ribs. “Still vicious.”
“Learned from the best.”
“How about we take this for a spin tomorrow morning before everything kicks off?”
She nodded her head at the suggestion before turning around in my arms and planting a kiss on my lips. I pinned her frame between the car and my body, deepening the kiss, wanting all of her again.
Mia broke away, breathing heavily. “Not now.” Her hands were splayed on my chest in a feeble attempt to hold me back.
“Why not?” My lips found the crook of her neck and nipped gently at the skin, eliciting a small gasp from her. I’d patiently waited as medical advice dictated, but having Mia home and not having her in the most primal way was beginning to push me to the edge.
“Because,” she said, nudging my head away with her own. “Your Mom and Dante are both here.”
“So?”
She pushed me away from her with a little more force and I took half a step back, hands still on her. “So,” she answered. “We are not about to have sex with them both under the same roof.”
I rolled my eyes but there was no way I was going to convince her. “Fine, but you’re mine the moment everyone leaves tomorrow.”
The blush colored her cheeks before we left the garage to retire to the bedroom. Mia crawled into bed beside me, molding herself to my side. Since she had come back, I hadn’t taken for granted the quiet moments like this. Something so simple that had been overlooked the first time we were together, but I had craved so desperately when she left.
