Page 30

And Lucia was still hiding. He wasn’t going to let her hide forever. The power her father once had was dying, piece by piece. First with her hair, and he was going to make sure her father never had control of anything again.
Chapter Six
Lucia sat at the table, looking through catalogs at the variety of different courses available. Boone had brought them home with him just yesterday. There were a couple of colleges around the main city, each one offering the same, or similar courses. She had no idea what to learn, as it was all so exciting. Each time she looked at one course, a second, third, or fourth appealed to her as much as the last one.
Getting to her feet, she made her way into the kitchen and started to pour herself another mug of coffee. In moments like this, she realized how free she was becoming. There was no one to order her out of the kitchen, or to take the coffee away from her.
Frank, the bodyguard, was out in the hallway, lurking, doing his job. She leaned around the side of the kitchen. “Do you want a drink?” Lucia asked him.
Boone had told her she could talk to her guards, get to know them, if she would like. Frank was one of four men that seemed to be on rotation in taking care of her. He was in his late forties, happily married, with four children. His children meant the world to him, and she had already seen their pictures dozens of times, but she never got bored.
This was a new experience to her, being around a man who was happily married, who was content with his wife and his life. The men in her world—her father and brothers—were constantly flaunting mistresses and flirting with women that worked in the house. Her mother didn’t seem to mind, unless that woman thought she was going to knock her mother out of her place. That was never going to happen.
“Love a coffee. Milk, two sugars. Thanks.”
She nodded.
It was strange, but thinking about Frank reminded her of a time when she was about ten years old. Her father had been sleeping with one of the serving girls. She’d been a beautiful girl as well, with blonde hair, blue eyes, and large breasts. Lucia hadn’t known what they were at the time. Just that her brothers would hold their large hands out in front of their chest, and make suckling noises.
The serving girl was a sweet girl, at least as far as she remembered. Penny was her name. Penny, the pretty serving girl, and Lucia’s father had taken to her so quickly. She didn’t know what happened, but her mother had gotten really upset by Penny serving them, or more importantly, serving her father. Something escalated, Penny snapped at Lucia’s mother, and because of that, her dad had no choice but to react.
Fucking the help was one thing, having a favorite was another, but ... speaking to his wife with disrespect, that was not allowed. Right there at the table, Lucia watched as her father choked the life out of the girl. It was the first time she had seen her father defend her mother, or even take her side. She’d been so shocked, she’d not been able to eat, but she had seen the pride in her mother’s eyes. Killing that girl, her father’s favorite, had meant something to her mother.
It hadn’t lasted long. Within a few days, her mother was sporting bruises and the inability to walk without a limp.
Again, Lucia didn’t know what had happened, but she pulled out of the memory and got Frank a drink. She carried it over to him, and he took a sip, trying it, and then he winked at her. “Perfect.”
“Thank you. How’s Amy?” she asked.
Amy was Frank’s wife. Lucia hadn’t met the woman, but Frank talked about her constantly.
“She is a demanding woman.”
He pulled out his cell phone, and like so many other times before, she saw a picture of her pouting at him.
“Why does she look sad?”
“Oh, sweetheart, she’s not sad. Look at her eyes. That was this morning, she didn’t want me to leave for work, but she kissed me, told me she loved me, and then she let me take this picture of her.”
“She’s beautiful,” Lucia said.
“Yeah, and look at this, this is one she got of the boys yesterday, and showed it to me.”
Lucia looked to see his sons, all four boys.
“Wow, they do look like a handful,” she said.
“They are. A very big handful. My wife would like to have one girl. So, we’re trying for our fifth.” Frank shook his head. “I cannot even believe I am a married man with four kids, working on our fifth.”
“You can’t?” Lucia asked.
“Yeah, there was a time, many years ago, that I wouldn’t have anything to do with a woman, unless there was cash involved.”
It took her a second to realize what he meant. “Oh,” Lucia said.
“Yeah, I was that kind of guy. I paid for a woman’s company, but it’s all good. Of course it is all good. I met Amy, and that was that. The moment I saw her, she was a firecracker, and growling at me for walking into her. I hadn’t seen her. The truth is, I’d been on my way to see another woman, and instead ended up taking Amy out to dinner.”
“Wow,” Lucia said.