Page 32 of Toxic Revenge, Part Two (Mafia Omegas #2)

Chapter

Thirty

MERCER

With Talia in my lap and my arms wrapped around her, I felt at peace.

I had her all to myself for now. Conrad and West were unpacking our things in Talia’s room. Lavinia had the foresight to have someone fetch clothing and toiletries from our house, which meant we wouldn’t be limited to borrowed sweats and generic bar soap anymore.

Talia had poked her head in to check on Violet and tried to go see Gears and Hawk, only to find Nico hadn’t finished grilling them yet. So we’d settled here, in the living room of her family home.

Our home for the foreseeable future.

The living room was full of antiques and high-end decor, with comfortable couches and loveseats like the one we sat on. There was no TV—apparently they had a different room for that—but various tables held art supplies and musical instruments. A grand piano took up one corner.

It was all screaming ‘rich people live here.’

Nothing like where I grew up.

The club warehouse was where I was most comfortable. I frequented seedy bars and decrepit buildings, run-down mechanic bays and parts shops. Here, it felt like I was one wrong move from shattering anything I touched.

Including Talia.

I tightened my grip on her. She trusted us despite our background, so it wasn’t fair to get up in my head about feeling out of place. Conrad and West were giving her enough trouble as it was.

My job was to be strong and make sure she was confident in how much we loved her and wanted her, even when my packmates pushed her away out of fear.

“You seem… off,” Talia murmured.

I almost cursed.

Hiding the insecurities from her was going to be impossible if she insisted on being that damn perceptive.

“New place, is all. Takes some getting used to.”

She shifted in my arms so she could look up at me. “I know the house and the family are all a bit much. You’re allowed to be overwhelmed.”

“I’m not overwhelmed.” My rebuttal came a little too quick. I cleared my throat. “I can handle it.”

Talia reached up and grabbed a strand of my hair, tugging and twirling it around her finger. Her thumb caressed my cheek and the overgrowth of stubble I hadn’t had time to tidy up yet.

“I don’t believe you.”

I closed my eyes. She had to believe me. If my omega believed me, it would be true. I’d stay strong forever if she thought I could.

As long as she needed me, I wouldn’t let the sting of my father’s betrayal catch up to me. I wouldn’t have time to wallow in the disappointment I felt over the club taking his side and not trusting me.

“Please don’t say that,” I whispered.

“We don’t have to talk about it,” Talia replied. “But I’m here for you if you want to.”

I exhaled shakily, pulling her until her breath warmed my neck and I could rest my chin on her head. “Can I ask about your childhood? It looks like your parents gave you a chance to try a lot of hobbies.”

Her fingers traced circles on my chest as she responded. “They did. Piano, ballet, painting, archery. I can speak three other languages conversationally.”

“Fuck, three ?”

“Italian, Ukrainian, and French. I’m not going to win any eloquence awards anytime soon, but I understand the basics and can speak enough for people to understand me. Helps out at the hospital sometimes.”

My mate was basically as educated as a foreign diplomat. I was from the bad side of town, and my main skill was simple motorcycle repairs.

This wasn’t helping me feel less overwhelmed, but it was an opportunity to tell her more about my father.

“Did you end up sticking with any of the hobbies?” I pressed her for more information instead of offering a tidbit from my childhood.

She shrugged. “Not really. My artistic skills are better than the average bear, but I don’t find painting or drawing as relaxing as some people do. I was always terrible at dance and musical instruments.”

“If you stopped doing all those hobbies, what do you do with your spare time, then?”

“What spare time?” Talia laughed. “For the last few years, it’s been nothing but work and Benjamin. That relationship was half my personality.”

She rubbed the top of her head up against my chin, but didn’t show any outward signs of distress. The memories of him were impacting her less. Was that a good thing? I should have asked Dr. Jalisco for more information on this type of trauma before leaving the Residence.

“When he’s gone, what will you do in your spare time?” I asked.

“I want to know about you.” She turned the question back around on me. “We don’t know enough about each other.”

That was my opening. I should take the chance to explain how much of myself I’d devoted to the club. How empty I felt without it.

I couldn’t find the words.

Instead, I lifted my hand, examining the numbers on my knuckles.

She reached out to caress them, then grabbed my hand and brought it to her lips for a light kiss. “Can I ask about these? What do the numbers mean?”

I swallowed dryly. The empty living room felt like a boundless cavern around us, a space that would amplify my words for all to hear. Those numbers and my love for the club; both were private. Only to be shared with the people closest to me.

I could ask to take the conversation back to her nest, but I had a feeling I would feel just as exposed there.

So, I whispered my answer to her.

“They’re symbols of what I survived. My father isn’t a kind man, and he never liked me. Each number is an age when he nearly broke me down and either killed me, or made me into the cruel man he wanted me to be. An age when I resisted and lived.”

She kissed each number on the hand she held.

“The Alpha Chariots were all I had,” I continued, the words flowing out like water from a broken dam.

“I wanted to tear down my father’s legacy and prove I could do better than him.

I wanted to keep them safe from his greed and selfishness.

But in the end, I lost. They all trust him to lead over me because he always told them I was nothing.

I was trying to keep the one bright part of my childhood from blowing up, and they would rather burn than believe in me. ”

Closing my eyes, I tried to ignore the stinging sensation of coming tears. I’d told her my feelings, but I couldn’t cry. As her alpha and as the pack lead, I couldn’t afford to break down. I would stay strong for all of them.

Then her fingers brushed my lips and I snapped my eyes open again. She was staring at me with glistening hazelnut eyes, her nose red at the tip.

Was she crying for me?

Fuck me, I never should have said anything. What kind of alpha was I if I made my omega cry?

“Hey, hey,” I murmured, cupping her cheek. “It’s fine. I have you now.”

“I believe in you.” Talia sniffled as she said it. “It’s ridiculous that they didn’t.”

It made sense that they didn’t, on some level. Pops always said I was too merciful, too kind, too dumb to run the business side. I’d never been given much freedom to show them he was wrong, but I’d tried to in any way I could.

Stupidly, I’d thought the club members were watching and seeing the flaws in his logic.

Turned out only Gears and Hawk were observant enough to catch on.

“Not their fault. Pops?—”

“No, it is their fault,” she said vehemently. “They’re all idiots for not seeing it. You care about everyone, Mercer, but you can do what needs to be done. Even my fathers can see that, and they’ve barely spent any time with you. How can the people you grew up around be so fucking blind?”

She surged up and claimed my lips in a kiss. Her frustration came through in the intensity of it, in how she wrapped her arms around me and held me so tightly it almost hurt.

I was weak to her kiss. By the time she pulled back, I was falling to pieces, tears streaming down my face.

Shit.

I couldn’t even try to rub them away. Talia saw them before I could, and kissed me again, softer this time.

“I promise you’ll be appreciated here, Mercer. The betrayal might not hurt any less, but you’ll have our confidence, always. You can build something better than what you had before, with people who want you to lead them because you’re a good leader.”

She was an angel, truly. Benjamin hadn’t taken care of her light and had tried his best to extinguish it, but I would nurture it like the miracle it was.

My omega shouldn’t have to take care of me like this. It was my job to make her feel better, not the other way around.

Yet, she didn’t want a tough, unemotional version of me. She wanted everything. Every experience that had shaped me into the man she met at that bar however many weeks ago. Even the ones that threatened to break me when I remembered them.

“I love you so fucking much.” I kissed each cheek in turn, then her lips. “That isn’t something I like to talk about, but you… You made it tolerable. And now you know how much it hurt to hear they were hunting us down like dogs.”

“We’ll hunt down Grave so he can be the dog this time,” she promised. “My fathers will get it done as soon as we say the word.”

Laughing, I shifted her off my lap and stood to stretch. I wiped at my puffy eyes and then reached overhead until my back cracked satisfyingly. “We might still need him out in the world, sweetheart. Finding Benjamin is more important than my revenge. I can wait.”

She sighed. “Everything loops back to Benjamin, doesn’t it?”

“Only until we find him and lock him up so he can’t hurt you. Then, you can forget about him forever.”

“There might be something more we need to do, beyond locking him up,” Talia said.

I recalled Mira’s offhand mention of killing Benjamin, and Talia’s deflection. I wanted to ask, but that was more of a pack conversation.

“Talk to us about it tonight, sweetheart.” Offering Talia a hand, I helped her to her feet. “I want to hear you play the piano. How bad were you really at the instruments?”

Her cringe told me all I needed to know. “Your ears might bleed.”

“Show me anyway?”

She stepped over to the grand piano, lifting the keyboard cover. “How about this—I’ll play, and then you have to try. That’ll show you how damn difficult it is.”

“Deal.”

I sat down on the bench beside her, so close that our thighs touched. Her fingers were clumsy on the keys, creating a cacophony of noise that drew her sisters into the room to watch.

When she tried to teach me, I wasn’t much better, but by then everyone was gathered around the grand piano, laughing at our attempts.

The cold living room was warmer than I’d thought it could be, after all.