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CHAPTER SEVEN

GIA

If there is a past life, I must’ve pissed off someone powerful—being trapped with Royce Lynde is no coincidence.

I should have killed him the second he walked in on me last night.

The thought makes it harder to breathe as I stare at Bianca’s soft curls, wondering how the hell I’m going to get us out of here. After going to the washroom and splashing some cold water on my face, I head into Bianca’s room, peeking at her from the doorway. She’s still sleeping, her dark curls a wild mess, standing on end in every direction imaginable.

Somehow, I’m going to have to get her out of here and back home so we can return back to our normal lives.

I doubt that Royce is going to make it easy.

Heaven forbid he make anything in my life easy.

As I head down the stairs, the scent of bacon frying comes from the kitchen. My stomach growls, betraying my desire to just tell Royce off and then stay as far away from him as possible.

Rounding the corner into the kitchen, I roll my shoulders back, steeling myself. “What happened last night is never going to happen again.”

“Calm down. I didn’t even kiss you, even though we both know you wanted me to.”

His back is to me, his shirt off and a tattoo of a dying angel on his back. I step closer, all thoughts leaving my head at the sight of it.

There’s something about the way the angel’s face is inked that seems so familiar.

The wings of the angel look like they’re burned, shaded with black and grays that make it pop against his skin. Tears glisten on the angel’s cheeks as she rests on her knees, a knife plunged into her side, just below her ribs.

It’s then that I see why the angel looks so familiar.

“Why the hell is my face tattooed on your back?”

He shrugs, looking over his shoulder at me, his short beard unruly as lighter strands catch the sunlight streaming through the window. “Does it look like you? Never noticed before.”

“You’re impossible. You know damn well why that looks like me.” I plant my hands on my hips, standing there and waiting for another explanation.

My heart jumps in my chest. Maybe there is a possibility that he doesn’t hate me as much as he pretends he does. Maybe there is a world in which I survive living with him.

Royce gives me none, leaning over the pan and flipping the bacon. “There’s more over on the plate by the fridge if you’re hungry. Pancakes are staying warm in the oven.”

“Really, Royce? You’re just going to move past this like you didn’t barge your way into my room? Or like you’re not standing here pretending that you don’t know why you have my face on your damn back?”

Smirking, he shrugs and pulls the last of the bacon out of the pan, setting it on a paper-towel lined plate.

I don’t think anyone has ever gotten beneath my skin the way he does. My heart thuds as I wait for him to turn back around just so I can get another look at the angel. I want the proof that I meant something to him once upon a time.

“Fine, if you don’t want to talk about that, will you at least tell me what your long-term plan is for us? I have things I have to get back to in my normal life and keeping us here isn’t going to help your case against my brother.”

“I don’t give a damn what Noah thinks. He can burn in hell for all I care.”

I grab a plate from the stack, loading it with bacon while Royce takes the tray of pancakes out of the oven and sets it on a trivet, the melted chocolate smelling divine. “That still doesn’t tell me what you’re going to do with us.”

“I have some thoughts,” he says, tone taunting as his gaze drags up and down my body.

My core tightens as I fight the urge to look away, instead arching my brow and meeting his gaze. “Stop looking at me like a piece of meat. I’m trying to talk about what you’re going to do after taking your own daughter hostage.”

“Oh,” he says, his tone bitter as one eyebrow rises. He faces me, leaning back against the counter, his toned stomach on full display. “Bianca is my daughter when it suits you, but if you don’t want anything to do with me, then she’s not, right?”

“That’s not fair.”

“No, what isn’t fair is the fact that we have a child, but you thought you could make every single decision for the first year and a half of her life without me involved!” Royce’s voice climbs into a shout before his gaze darts to the stairs.

The first cry comes from the baby monitor app in my pocket and he’s taking off across the room before I have a chance to get to the stairs.

“I can get her.”

His shoulders tense up to his ears. “You’ve done enough.”

My appetite leaves as his footsteps sound from above.

I should be up there right now. I should be the one taking care of her, not him. He doesn’t know what Bianca likes when she’s upset.

What if he doesn’t even know how to change a diaper?

And she’ll have to be dressed. Does he have any idea what a baby should be wearing this time of year?

I start to head toward the stairs when Royce appears at the top with Bianca in his arms. She’s in a little pair of leggings and a long-sleeve onesie, her hair pulled back into two little pigtails.

My foot hovers above the bottom step before I move out of the way. “I was just coming to see if you needed help.”

“I’m capable of taking care of a baby. Dean has one and I watch her at least once a week.”

Bianca smacks her hands together, grinning up at Royce as he brings her into the kitchen and sets her down in the high chair I brought with us. Royce grins and gets her a pancake as I stand there shell-shocked, not knowing what I should be doing right now.

It feels like he’s taking my place in her life, and I don’t like it at all. For so long, I’ve been the person she relies on. Now, Bianca is grinning and smiling at him like he’s the best thing in the world.

While I know it won’t last forever and sooner or later, she’s going to throw a massive tantrum that will have him running for the hills, right now, it stings.

I glare daggers at Royce’s back as he cuts up her pancake into tiny pieces, putting it on her tray. He seems to think that he can just show up and slot himself into our lives as if he was meant to be here the entire time.

Royce undoes one of the pigtails on top of her head before scraping it back again and aligning it with the other one.

With a sigh, I go to grab my plate of food and sit down at the island, watching him take another look at the pigtails. “How did you learn to do hair?”

“There were six of us kids. If Skyla and Ellie weren’t around, someone had to do Summer and Jade’s hair, and it wasn’t going to be Aiden.”

We eat in silence after that, Royce on the other side of the kitchen, leaning against the counter with his plate in his hand.

As soon as Bianca is done with her food, I put my plate and fork in the dishwasher before hurrying over to her. Guilt claws at me as Royce makes a noise in the back of his throat.

I stuff down the tight knot in my stomach. Bianca is my daughter and if he wants to be part of her life, he’s going to have to earn it.

Well, that’s if I’m willing to let him.

I still don’t know what role he’s going to play now that he knows about her. Over the last eighteen months since she was born, the thought I’ve given to playing happy little family has been minimal.

I still don’t think we’re ever going to be a happy family, but maybe Bianca deserves to know her father.

Provided he stops threatening me at every turn. If he doesn’t, I have no intention of keeping him in her life.

But I still don’t know how to get both of us out of here without him catching us.

“You don’t have to hurry out of here like I’m going to corrupt Bianca just by being around her,” Royce says, his tone dull and lifeless.

Dishes clatter in the rack as he opens the dishwasher and puts everything else in.

“I don’t think you’re going to corrupt her.” The words immediately feel like a lie. I’ll say whatever I have to if it means getting on his good side.

“What I fail to see is why you’re willing to have her around men like your brother, but I’m terrible. I’m enemy number one because I didn’t stay when you lied to me, even though you know damn well those men have been lying to you from day one.”

“At least I’ve known who they are from the beginning. I thought you were one thing, and you turned out to be a whole other kind of breed.” I balance Bianca on my hip, holding her as she squirms to get down.

He scoffs and shakes his head. “You knew who I was. I told you about what my family does and the shit they run, and you chose to stay. You think at that point you would’ve said that Noah is your brother or come clean about everything else you were hiding.”

“Look, we’re not going to stand here and go around and around in circles.” I bounce Bianca, trying to keep her from bursting into tears when I don’t let her down. “Right now, you need to figure out what your plan with us is, because once Noah figures out you have us, he’s going to come after you.”

Royce gives me a smile that doesn’t quite meet the soulless gaze he has. The tone of the room shifts, the Royce I know disappearing into the man who kills people without a second thought. “I’d like to see him try and put a finger on my daughter.”

“ My daughter.”

“Whether you like it or not, she’s mine too.” He keeps his tone low, blowing out his cheeks and making a face as Bianca’s bottom lip starts to quiver. That cold gaze turns to me, making my stomach do a flip.

Her attempt at tears ends in a second, a bubbly little giggle filling the room.

Of course he’s able to make her laugh and smile.

He’s always been good at charming everyone around him, and it seems like a baby is no exception.

After making another face at her, his attention drifts back to me, a small line appearing between his eyebrows as a hand smooths over his beard. “Eventually, we will need to talk about what life is going to look like after all of this is over.”

“Life can go right back to the way it was,” I say, itching for another argument with him.

One of these days I know I’m going to push it too far. I know I am. He’s going to snap and it’s going to be my fault, but there’s something attractive about the way he takes control back from me every time I reach for it.

The hair on the back of my neck stands as he approaches me like a predator stalking its prey. “Let’s get one thing straight. You would have to be insane if you think that I’m just going to crawl back into some hole, pretending my daughter doesn’t exist. It’s not going to happen.”

“You don’t get to decide that.” I wipe some of the leftover chocolate from the corner of Bianca’s mouth, dragging my thumb across my jeans. “You’re not even on her birth certificate.”

If looks could kill, I think I would be dead several times over.

“It’s one thing to not fucking tell me about her, but you left my name off the birth certificate too?” His body seems to vibrate with anger as he takes a step back from me.

“What else was I supposed to do? You think Noah would’ve been happy to find out that I had a baby with you? How the hell would I provide for her if he knew that?”

“Oh, so not only are you related to him, but you’ve been taking his money to care for her instead of asking me. Instead of telling me we had a child. Did you think that I wouldn’t agree to keep it a secret from him?”

Tears well in Bianca’s eyes and she lets out a wordless scream, trying to throw herself at the floor.

Sighing, I put her down, watching as she takes off toddling into the living room. “Your job is dangerous. I didn’t want her around that, even if it was going to be a secret and nobody was ever going to find out. You have to understand that I’m always going to do what’s best for her, even if you don’t like it.”

“Noah’s job is no more dangerous than my own, and I have several businesses not connected to my family.”

“Speaking of jobs, I need my painting supplies,” I say, continuing on as if I didn’t hear him. I don’t know what else to say to him or how else to explain what I was thinking at the time. “I have to keep earning money and I can’t do that without them.”

“And what exactly are you going to do to get them?” He leans closer to me, thin amusement clear in his voice. “You can’t go in or out of this house, Gia. And what the hell makes you think I’d allow you to work?”

I roll my eyes up, staring at the ceiling. “You’re so difficult. I wish we’d never met.”

“Great, so now you’re just going to ignore the problem and hope it goes away, right? I mean, why not? You’ve been doing that this entire time by just pretending that I don’t exist. May as well keep it up, Gia.”

The look of disgust in his eyes is one I don’t think I’ve seen from him before. It’s like a punch straight to the gut as he shakes his head.

“You’re no better than the rest of us,” he says, his words clipped. “You think that forging paintings is any less dangerous than what I do?”

“I’m not the one going out and killing people.”

“No.” He lets out a dark laugh, his hands tucking into the pockets of his sweatpants. “But you are the one who’s giving people a reason to kill you. At least my enemies are already dead.”

I bite the inside of my cheek, hating that he’s right.

Over the last several months, I’ve spent a lot of time trying to justify what I do and why I do it, but more often, I’m wondering when it’s going to put Bianca in danger.

Royce glances down the hallway as Bianca comes back toward us. “You’re going to be here for the foreseeable future.”

“You can’t just keep us here forever. You know that. I know that.”

“I never said forever.” He heads for the stairs, looking like the morning has taken ten years off his life. “Things wouldn’t be this way if you hadn’t lied to me, Gia. You’ve got nobody to blame but yourself.”

He cuts up another pancake for Bianca, like he’s always been here, like he belongs.

A vise wraps around my chest, squeezing it tight. He isn’t just integrating himself into her life—he’s pushing me out, and I can’t let that happen. Not this time.