Page 5 of Rio (Knight Empire #3)

She sits down again, her expression softening, like she didn’t expect this. She shrugs, and I sense that this doesn’t come as easy as her verbal left hooks. Being vulnerable is hard for her, like it is for me.

“My mom was a teacher by day, and in the evenings she helped out a small volunteer clinic. It was just a tiny operation in our neighborhood and it offered free legal support to the underserved. It was run by a retired judge and a few former law students who wanted to help the people no one else would. As I grew older, I would sometimes go along with her.”

“That’s where you got your love of the law?”

She nods. “My mom taught me that knowledge is power, and that fighting injustice wasn’t about shouting louder, it was about knowing the system better than the people who built it.” She gives me a bitter smile.

“And you push me away because?” This is what matters in this moment.

“You’re dangerous not just because of who you are, but because of how good you are at pretending to care.”

I take umbrage at her accusation, but I don’t want to get into an argument. She’s feisty and hot headed, and while I’m not one to back down from a confrontation, this moment is fragile. “You think I’m like the other rich people you don’t like?”

“I didn’t grow up disliking them for no reason. I wasn’t biased just because we were poor,” she shoots back. “I’d hear my mom and the judge talking about cases they were involved with, and it told me the rich cannot be trusted.”

“We’re not all like that,” I protest, wondering how I’ll ever convince her to give me a chance. She’s opinionated, and she’s already labeled me. The old man’s manipulation of Dani’s father hasn’t helped. If anything, I’m sure it’s only confirmed her bias.

“I heard about toxic waste being dumped near a school once. Children got sick, but officials said it was a coincidence. The legal clinic tried to file environmental claims but the multination corporation got away with it. They always do. A young boy died later, because he was so sick.” She looks away, as if the pain is still fresh and when her eyes meet mine again, there’s fire behind those rich, dark irises.

“I learned that corporate greed can kill, and no one will be held accountable unless someone fights tooth and nail.”

“And you’re that someone to hold people accountable.

” I look at her in admiration. This woman is a warrior.

I knew it from the day I met her. I just didn’t figure what type of warrior she was.

“Your mom must be so proud of you.” I beam at her, because in that moment, this stunning beauty with a razor-sharp mind and wit, and with a heart full of love and compassion, is exactly the type of woman I want.

Fate led her to sit next to me at an upscale bar, and now with Dex and Dani, fate has linked us together forever.

“She is.” There’s a soft smile on her lips as she peers down at her feet. “I bought her a nice apartment in a middle-class neighborhood. It’s near a library and a park. She misses the community of the favela, but she appreciates the quiet and the independence.”

She took care of her mom, like I have with Mama.

“She’s waiting for her grandkids now,” she says, a faraway look in her eyes. “But that’s not what she’s getting any time soon.”

I chuckle. “My mom says the same.”

She looks at me. It’s weird how we have some things eerily in common.

“I never knew my father,” she confesses, and that bombshell hits hard.

Another thing I wasn’t expecting. My mouth opens and I start to wonder if this is also a part of her having her guard up.

Her father’s absence must have affected her.

Maybe that’s why she’s wary of not just me, because I’m a Knight, but of all men. “I’m sorry.”

“I’m not. I didn’t know him, never met him.

He left before I was born. My mom says he vanished as soon as she got pregnant.

She’s never badmouthed him. She’s far too noble and classy for that.

” The defiance has gone, but her expression grows distant and somber, as if she’s trying to distance herself emotionally from it all.

Her voice turns softer, smaller, hurt leaching into it and softening the defiance, even as she tries to feign indifference.

My mind whirs with all these little jigsaw pieces, but instead of making a flat cardboard picture, I’m beginning to weave together a rich tapestry of Raquel’s life from the snippets she’s shared with me. It explains so much.

Yet again, we have something else in common.

Daddy issues. She never knew her father, but I know the asshole that is mine.

The asshole that turned up at our door one day, looking so different to how we'd usually see him. The asshole who had to tell us that he was a cheater, and a liar. The asshole who’d been keeping a dark and dirty secret.

“Was he rich?” I want to know.

She lets out a hard laugh. “No, he wasn’t.

That’s not where my mistrust comes from.

He was like us. He just didn’t want to accept responsibility.

” Her eyes lock with mine. “I don’t hate you because my father let me down.

” She pauses abruptly. “Did yours let you down?” Her tone changes, like she’s remembered something.

I’m sure she knows our family history. I’m sure Dani would have told her.

"He did, but I expect you already know that."

"I want to hear it from you."

"The old man let us all down. Not just my mom and brothers, but Dex's mom and his brothers.”

She sits taller, leaning forward, looking eager.

"I grew up believing my father was a man of honor until we discovered the truth about him living a double life."

"It must have been devastating for you all." Her eyes soften, like she feels the hurt, too.

"It was. That betrayal wrecked my sense of trust, especially in the old man. After Aurora, his wife, Dex's mom, died by suicide, my mom fell apart. I think she felt partly to blame, but she had no idea that he was married. It was a shock to her."

Raquel shakes her head. "She wasn't to blame."

"Overnight he went from being this happy, smiling, wonderful man—"

"Paul Knight, happy?”

“Crazy, right? You can’t imagine Paul Knight ever being happy, genuinely happy.”

“Or laughing, or being wonderful.”

“These aren’t words I’d ever use now.” I breathe in deeply, like I need the extra oxygen to survive the retelling of that terrible time in our lives.

“He was no longer the Papa we were used to. I was ten years old, so I didn’t understand why Mama banished us all upstairs, and he and Mama talked for hours.

I didn't know then why Mama looked so sad, why her face was so blotchy, her eyes so red.

She told me to keep Matteo and Enzo busy.

She never shouted, neither did the old man, but that day, their voices were loud, and angry.

I knew something was very wrong. He left, without so much as playing with us, without talking to us, without hugging us. He was a changed man that day."

She blows out a sigh. "Your poor mom."

"My mom is the center of my world. She's the reason I still believe in integrity, and loyalty.

I saw her pain that day, saw the way her hands shook, how she tried not to cry in front of us.

It etched something permanent in me, and from that day forward, I made a silent vow that no one would ever hurt her again. "

Raquel slumps back. I think I might have heard a "Wow," from her. Or maybe that was wishful thinking.

"My mom is too good for the world she got thrown into. Later, she told me, not the others, because they were so young, that we wouldn't be seeing Papa much anymore."

"Rio." Raquel looks like she wants to come over and give me a hug, but we're not those people yet. We don't have that easy going familiarity around one another. "I'm so sorry."

"It's not anything you have to be sorry about."

"Did your mom tell you about Jett and the others?"

"Not directly, but I found out by listening to her talking to her friends on the phone, and when they came to the house. Mama thought we were sleeping, but I was wide awake, and sitting on the stairs and listening. That’s when I discovered that Papa had another family.

A wife, and three young sons in the US. He and Mama were never together after that.

He moved us to the US after that, and put us up in a house in Manhattan.

It was tough for her to leave her friends and family in Italy, the only country she’d ever lived in.

He must have threatened her, or made her an offer she couldn’t refuse.

She stayed with us until we were able to stand on our two feet, then she returned to Italy and lives in Soave now. We visit her as often as we can.”

"How did they meet?"

"She was a shop assistant, working in a haute couture boutique. He was shopping for clothes. He wined and dined her, charmed her, but didn't tell her he was married or that he had children. He cheated on them both. Dex and I are only a year apart in age. He was having babies with both women."

"Ugh." Raquel looks horrified.

I nod.

The old man is the scum of the earth.

A most despicable man.

And, unfortunately my father.

“I’m not a playboy. I don’t have a woman in every city. I don’t screw women for pleasure. I like giving them pleasure, and receiving it from them. I guard my heart with steel walls, and I don’t trust easily. I keep my emotions under lock and key, even when it costs me the very thing I want.”

“What’s that?”

“Real connection.”

She stares at me, wide-eyed, like she can’t believe I’ve just said all that.

Hell, I can’t believe it either. I don’t have out pieces of myself.

I don’t let women peek behind the armor, yet here I am, laying down my cards for her, and I don’t know if it’s because I want her to understand me, or because some part of me wants her to break through those walls.