Page 92 of The Disputed Legacy

“Can we not talk about punching me?” Maxim asked sarcastically. “Since Iamsupposed to have the respect of being the fucking boss around here.” He winced at Oscar.

“I’ve heard it before,” the boy confided knowingly.

I shook my head, unsure whether these introductions were going well or horribly.

“Um…” Lucy glanced at us all. “I’m Lucy. Damon’s wife.”

“What’s her name?” Oscar asked of the baby she held.

“This is Olivia,” Lucy replied with a smile. “And that’s Roarke. Over there,” she said, pointing at me, “is Isabella. And Aurora is sleeping.”

“She'd better be sleeping,” Katerina said.

As a group, we all moved further into the house. I held Willow’s hand and kept Oscar close too. The introductions were friendly enough, save for the mentions of how she’d punched Maxim, which I wasn’t going to hold against her at all. However, every now and then, I caught both Willow and Oscar glancingat all the guards positioned in the background. They’d always been brothers to me, more members of the family, but from an outsider’s perspective, they likely looked scary. Like an army waiting to strike.

They were.

But they wouldn’t harm Willow or Oscar.

They would kill to keep them safe because I’d chosen them to be mine.

Once I’d ensured that they’d met my brothers and their wives, I led them to the floor that housed my apartment. Oscar’s mouth hung open at the large space, and when I showed him a room with an attached bathroom that could be his, he was over the moon.

“Forme?”

I nodded, glad to be able to provide this for him. “Yep, it’s yours if you want it.”

He answered me with a tight hug and more thanks.

Willow still seemed shell shocked that I was a Mafia man. And she struggled to comprehend that this was my apartment.

“My home is your home,” I told them both, hoping Willow would believe me. She nodded slowly, too quiet for my liking.

“Maybe your mom can help you settle in.” I smiled at Oscar. “It is late, even though tomorrow is the weekend.”

She cleared her throat and frowned. “Yes. It is late for you.” She steered Oscar into the room and glanced at me with a nervous expression. “I’ll get him settled and tucked in bed, then come find you.”

I nodded, knowing she would. Because now that I had her here, there was no way she’d slip away from me.

Once Oscar was asleep, she owed me a few more details about who owned her.

And I owed her another promise that whoever he was, he wouldn’t be able to take her from me.

Ever.

35

WILLOW

Oscar was thrilled to be here, seeing it as nothing but a fancy place with all of Saul’s family around. I’d covered him from the question about Saul being in the Mafia, but I knew he’d noticed the guards. The armed men. He had to be wondering, but he wasn’t scared.

“Are you happy we are here?” he asked me after I helped him with his bath then got him into bed. It seemed that Saul had asked his “men” to get some of my things as well as Oscar’s because he had clothes waiting for him in this room.

“Happy?” I asked.

He nodded, frowning as he lay in the bed.

“I was scared,” I admitted honestly.