Page 16

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

GIA

Conversations about my imminent death don’t seem to sit well with Royce. He walked out after we settled Bianca into bed and he hasn’t been home since, leaving me wondering if he’s hunting down everyone who poses a threat to his family and hunting him down.

Or perhaps he’s out thinking of another way to piss me off for the hell of it.

He wouldn’t do that with Bianca’s life at risk.

The stairs creak beneath my feet, sleep still clawing at me even though I’ve been tossing and turning for hours, wondering if Royce is dead on the side of the road somewhere.

I don’t know if we’re ever going to be able to get along, but I’m exhausted. Fighting all the time is taking its toll on me.

We made progress today. Good progress. He still cares about me. I still care about him.

Even if admitting it is one of the hardest things I’ve had to do.

Though I don’t think it can be as hard as living life without him or without Bianca.

There’s nothing I would love more than to stop fighting with him and to just figure out how to finally get along. How to raise our baby together, in a world where she’s loved by both her parents.

We’ve had conversations circling it, and it never seems to be enough.

Probably because we both want more from each other.

I run my fingers along the polished wood railing, my foot skating over the bottom step and hitting the floor.

“Shit.” I catch myself at the last second, but as I spin, there’s a dim orange glow coming from outside near the dock.

Looks like Royce is home.

What I don’t know is why he’s standing outside near a fire, the lit end of a cigarette glowing against the dark forest and riverbank that surrounds him.

He doesn’t look like he wants anyone to stand with him, but there’s a little voice in the back of my mind telling me I should go out there.

When we used to be together, it wasn’t uncommon for him to need some time to himself. We’d be at a lake enjoying a long weekend, and then he would go off and I would find him sitting by the fire and just staring at it.

Back then, he used to say that it calmed him when his mind was at war with itself.

Setting the baby monitor to the side, I grab a pair of his heavy leather boots, stuffing my feet inside before opening the closet and finding a corduroy jacket.

I pull it on, zipping it up and shoving the sleeves up past my wrists.

After turning up the volume on the baby monitor, I stuff that in my pocket and head outside.

There’s something not right about the way Royce holds himself.

It’s like he’s tense and waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“Royce!”

Not a single flinch comes from his direction. It’s like he’s in another world, not paying attention to anything around him.

It sends a chill down my spine.

Whatever has him spaced out has to be bad.

“Royce,” I say, tone a little softer as I get closer to him, hoping it draws him from the trance he’s in.

He glances at me over his shoulder, shifting to the side and looking back down at the fire.

I hurry closer to him. “Come back inside. It’s cold out here and it’s probably going to start snowing soon.”

There’s nothing but silence to meet my words, his shoulders tensing. He takes another drag of the cigarette between his lips, taking a couple steps to the other side of the fire, still ignoring me.

This man is going to be the death of me.

Hell, that’s only if I don’t kill him first for ignoring me like this.

He’s a ghost of the person he normally is. There’s no light in his eyes as he watches me over the top of the fire, and the cruel tilt to his mouth is one I don’t recognize.

Right now, I should be running for the hills. I should go back inside and pretend that I didn’t come out here in the first place. It would be easier for both of us.

But instead, I get closer, rounding the barrel containing the fire and standing beside him.

He takes the cigarette from his lips, flicking the ash into the fire before he turns to face me. “You should be inside. It’s the middle of the night.”

“You should be inside.” I grimace, wishing that I was wearing more than just one of his shirts beneath his jacket. The cold wind has smoke curling in the air and goosebumps forming on my legs.

Royce rolls his eyes. “I don’t have time to deal with this right now, Gia.”

“What’re you doing out here?” I tuck my hands in my pockets to keep them warm.

Even the warmth coming from the fire isn’t enough to heat me through. I step closer to it, and it’s only when I do that I see the dark shirt and jeans burning.

My heart plummets to my feet as I look at him. “What happened?”

He takes another draw of the cigarette before holding it out to me.

I stopped smoking a couple months before finding out I was pregnant with Bianca, but with all the stress happening right now, it’s calling my name.

With pinched fingers, I take it, my inhale long and slow before I hand it back to him. I blow out the smoke in rings, shaking my head when he offers it to me again.

“I still don’t smoke.” I look at the fire as the flames climb higher. “You know, whatever’s going on, you can talk to me about it. I know it’s been a long time since we last really got along with each other well.”

He snorts, eyeing me. “Yeah, I guess you could say that. I don’t think you gave up all hope on us, though. Not if I’m the one who gets Bianca in your will.”

The corner of my mouth twitches. “That’s what you’re out here thinking about?”

There’s no way I’m going to tell him that even when I hated him, I regretted some of the decisions I made.

Like not holding on to him tighter.

Or not chasing him down and making him see that we were the perfect match for each other, even if we did have our problems.

“Partially.”

“What else?” I shift closer to the fire, trying to get warmer as the wind picks up. “You wouldn’t be out here looking like this if there wasn’t something bothering you. So, either you tell me what’s going on, or I stand out here and ruin the rest of your night.”

“You’d get too cold, and you’d run back inside long before that ever happened.”

“Well now, that almost sounds like you want to spend time with me.” I lean closer to him, nudging him with my elbow. “Come on, what the hell is going on out here? You’re scaring me.”

He sighs, flicking the cigarette into the fire before running a hand down his groomed beard, making the light strands shine brighter. “There was a problem, and I took care of it.”

“What kind of problem?”

My pulse pounds in my ears as a muscle tics in his cheek. His eyes squeeze shut for a moment like he’s exhausted with me before he makes a strangled noise in the back of his throat.

“It would probably be better to let you know what’s been going on, but then you’re going to stand here and see me for everything I am, and once you get a good look, it’s going to ruin the progress we’ve made.”

“I knew who you were and what you did back when we were in love with each other. It didn’t deter me then.”

“We didn’t have a daughter to protect then.” He clears his throat. “We have to think about Bianca. If I tell you what happened, then we could both go to jail for it.”

“Simple solution, then. You’re not going to get caught.” I give him a crooked smile, nudging him again until he returns it. “Come on. I’m a big girl. I can handle hard things.”

“Two men got close to the house while you and Bianca were sleeping.” Royce clears his throat, glaring at the fire like the weight of his stare could extinguish it.

I shift and when I glance at the fire, I once again see the clothing burning. When Royce shifts, it’s easy to see that he’s not in the same clothing he wore earlier today.

No, that’s in the fire with blood all over it.

“You took care of them?” I ask, throat thick and words choked.

The thought of someone getting close enough to get inside has my stomach turning. There’s no way they should have been able to get close to the house without the alarms going off.

Royce nods. “They’re not going to be a problem anymore.”

“Who was it?”

“Look, that’s not important. They’re not going to be a threat to you or Bianca anymore.”

In that moment, I could rip his head from his shoulders and kick it to the other side of the country.

Royce may be the single most irritating person I have ever met.

I scowl hands clenching into fists as I try to keep my temper in check. “You’re kidding, right? You’re in the middle of a war with my brother and you say that there’s no threat to me, or the child that’s the only positive tie between both families?”

“Fine, there’s a threat to you. Is that what you want to hear? Do you want me to tell you that it’s likely that Bianca might be taken from us? That something might happen to her? That I may not be enough to stop it?”

My mouth goes dry, the blood rushing to my head. “I don’t see why you think you have to take on the world alone.”

“Because you can’t handle yourself.”

I see red. If he wants to think that I can’t handle myself, then I’ll prove to him that I can. That we can be partners in everything that’s to come.

I lunge before he has the chance to stop me. My fist slams into his stomach hard, knocking the air from him as he stumbles backward. I stay loose and on my toes, getting out of his range. “You think I can’t handle myself?”

Royce chuckles. “Cute.”

“You think that’s fucking cute?” I pace to the side, waiting for an opening.

“What are you trying to accomplish here?”

“You think I can’t handle myself.” I lunge, twisting behind him and kicking the back of his knee, sending him to the ground.

“Fucking hell, Gia, stop this shit.” Royce springs to his feet and moves quicker than I thought a man of his size could move, his hand wrapping around my wrist.

I don’t hesitate. I headbutt him in the nose, trying to ignore the pain radiating through my own head as I stumble back from him. As blood trickles down his face, I send him to the ground once more, getting on top of him, one hand on his throat and a knee on the middle of his chest.

Leaning in, I smirk. “I told you that I can handle myself.”

He winces, a red tinge flooding his cheeks. “Enough, Gia. We’re not going to spend the rest of the night talking about this.”

“Of course not, because when you decide we’re done with something, it means that both of us have to be done.” I stand and toss my hands in the air before striding away from him and toward the house.

Footsteps crunch behind me before he falls into step beside me. “Gia, you don’t get to walk away from me all pissed off when I’m trying to protect you. You sure as fuck don’t get to walk away after attacking me like a fucking psycho either.”

“Protect me from what, exactly?” I whirl around, hands landing on my hips. “I’ve killed people before, Royce. I’ve done whatever the hell I had to do to get by. So, whatever it is you think you’re protecting by keeping me out of the loop, just know that I killed it years ago. Any shred of innocence I had was dead long before you ever came into my life.”

“This is different.”

“No, it’s not.” I move to the side, using him as a shield from the icy wind. “I was raised in the world you keep trying to protect me from. There is nothing you’re going to tell me that’s going to faze me. You think that would’ve been made clear when my damn knee was on your chest.”

His eyebrow arches, a dark look in his eyes as he looms over me. “And what if I told you that it was your sister I killed? Maybe your mother? Would you still be acting like this then?”

I waver, and for a moment I start to wonder if one of them was sent here to attack us.

Zoe would never. She might stand by Noah’s side, but when it comes down to it, she and I have been close since we were young. We used to lean on each other all the time.

Mom, though, I don’t know.

I hate that I would even think that she’s capable of coming after me and my daughter, but at the end of the day, she does whatever she needs to. She stays in the good graces of the Rinaldo family and the life they provide for her.

Royce smirks, taking my chin and forcing me to look at him. “You can’t have it both ways, Gia. Either you want to know the truth and you’re prepared to handle whatever I tell you, or you’re not.”

“Tell me.”

“Noah sent Jon Hayes and Marcus Daly after you.” His tone is solemn, his gaze boring into mine as he holds me in place. “From what I saw the week before I took you, those men spend an awful lot of time coming and going from your apartment.”

Heat floods through me as I realize exactly what his problem is.

I smirk, pulling away from him. “Jealous, Royce?”

He scoffs, looking too confident with himself as he pulls out his pack of cigarettes and shakes out another. “I don’t think so. You’re loud. If there was anything worth being jealous over, I would’ve heard it.”

My mouth drops open, even as I press my thighs together. “You’re horrible. You know that?”

“Maybe.” He tucks the carton away and pulls out a lighter, cupping one hand around the cigarette against the wind.

I’m tempted to pull the cigarette from him and stomp it out the second he has it lit. Just to annoy him.

And then the other part of me wants to drag him back to bed where he could help me warm up. Maybe spend the rest of the night in bed, showing him exactly how loud I can be if he knows what I’m doing.

Royce chuckles, his lips ghosting over the shell of my ear. “You know, if you don’t get that look off your face, I’m going to abandon the dead bodies to spend more time with you.”

“And just like that, the mood was killed.” I pat his chest. “Thank you for that.”

He drags my earlobe between his teeth, holding the cigarette far away. “Says the woman who walked out here without pants. Were you hoping I was going to talk about my problems and then fuck you up against the tree, Gia?”

“As tempting as that is, don’t you remember the bark burns I had on my ass from the last time you did that?”

His eyes sparkle with amusement as he flicks the cigarette. “Maybe.”

“Either way, not happening.”

“That’s fine. I still have the bodies to deal with.”

I raise my eyebrows. “You haven’t gotten rid of them yet? You burned a set of clothing and now you’re about to go get another set dirty?”

“They’re mostly wrapped in a tarp now. Dirt on my clothing makes doing yard work and not burying bodies believable.” He puts out the cigarette and tucks his hands into my pockets.

“Want some help?”

“No.” Royce nods to the house. “You would be better off in there with Matt and Bianca. The more you can claim you didn’t know about all of this, the better.”

I give him a flat look. “You told me their names and that you killed them.”

“And you’re still not going to come out and help me. I can handle this without you. I’ve been doing it since I was old enough to kill.”

“You don’t have to do it on your own.”

“You’re not wearing pants!”

I look down at my legs, but they’ve gone numb to the cold already. “It’s fine. My not wearing pants hasn’t been a problem for you before.”

He scrubs a hand over his jaw. “If I don’t let you come with me, you’re probably going to come out and try to find me, aren’t you?”

“I’m glad you know me so well.”

“Go put on pants. I’ll wait here.”

I eye him, but it looks like he’s telling the truth. There’s no crinkle at the corner of his eyes or twitch in his upper lip.

Maybe he realizes that I need this.

I have to see the men I allowed into my home. The pair who were sworn to protect me and my daughter.

I need to see for myself that they’re dead.

Hurrying into the house, I take the stairs two at a time to the bedroom.

As I tug on a pair of fleece-lined leggings, I hop around the room, trying to pull them all the way up.

Once they’re on, I run down the stairs and out the door, barely looking at Matt as I pass him on the couch. Nothing matters more at this moment than seeing those men. Knowing that they can never hurt Bianca.

Knowing that they won’t be able to betray her the way my family has betrayed me.

When I get back outside, the wind is dying down and Royce is still standing beneath the stars, looking more handsome than he did the day he left.

He glances at me, a look in his eyes like he thinks this is a bad idea, even if he’s not willing to say anything. Royce rubs a gloved hand over his jaw. “Gia?—”

“Whatever you’re about to say, don’t. Please. Not tonight. I need to see them. You know I do. It’s not like this is the first time I’ve seen a body.”

“I know.” Royce looks down at me as I join him, a thin shred of warmth in his eyes that gives me a little sliver of hope for our future. “I know I need to take you out there, but I wish you wouldn’t go. I wish I could protect you more.”

“There’s no more protecting me.” I tuck my hands into the pockets of my jacket, the air still cold. “Take me to the bodies.”