Page 88 of Villainous Kingpin

“Always so positive,” she muttered, her lips curving a tiny bit. It was only then that she noticed Bianca was in the room as well.

“How about I bring you some lemonade and cookies?” Bianca offered, always eager to feed everyone.

Wynter shook her head, “No, thank you. But could I talk to my uncle please?”

“Sure, I’ll go get him.”

Once Bianca left us, I locked eyes with Wyn. “You can stay at my place for as long as you need to.”

She shifted on the bed, then sat up, pulling her knees to her chest. “Thank you. I just need a week for the rest of the bruises to fade.”

“You need to think about taking time to recover mentally too, Wyn. Your mother will understand if you explain.” She shook her head vigorously. “There is always the next Olympics.”

“No, no, no,” she protested softly. “I can’t keep hiding. You know it’s exactly what I’ve been doing.”

I didn’t give a fuck. She should hide for as long as she wanted to. It didn’t make her a coward, not after everything that happened.

“Jesus, you gave me a scare.” Brennan’s voice came from behind me and he came around to the other side of the bed to sit. The dude was so large, Wynter almost rolled into him.

“Come home with me,” Brennan demanded softly, but Wynter shook her head. “I’ll talk to your mom and you can stay in New York if you wish. In another two months, we’ll visit your granddad. You can beat him at poker or chess. Davina’s grandpa will come. It will be good.”

Red blotches of agitation traveled up Wynter’s delicate throat. “No, I’ll go to California. I’ll finish what I started. I can’t go back to New York. Not for a while. I’ll meet you in Ireland. But please let Ivy and Juliette come with me.” Brennan nodded his agreement. “And you come visit with Davina too.”

Fuck, if it didn’t sound like she was saying goodbye. At least to the East Coast.

“I’m sorry, Wyn.” Brennan cupped her chin. “I’ve always just wanted to protect you. Both you and your mother. It seemed I failed with both of you.”

He tucked her curls behind her ear, the move almost father-like. He probably was her father since she never had one.

Wynter took his big hand into her small one and squeezed. “You didn’t. It’s not your job to protect us.”

“Yes, it is,” he disagreed with a grumble.

Wynter shook her head. “I know what happened with the DiLustros,” she whispered her admission so softly, you could barely hear it.

“How?” Honestly, I couldn’t believe he was able to keep such a big secret from her for so long.

“It doesn’t matter. The bottom line is thatyoushould have told me. I shouldn’t be blindsided by someone else about things that concern me. Whose granddaughter I am, my connections to the Russians, about the DiLustros and what they did to my mother.”

A growl vibrated deep in Liam. The history and feedback I got was that Liam lost his shit when Aisling was shot. He was known to be a fair man but during that time, he killed anyone connected to Gio DiLustro.

“That bastard destroyed her,” Liam hissed. “If they knew about you and Jules, you’d have been a target. I wanted both of you to have a normal childhood, away from the underworld. It was what my sister wanted. I had to protect you and Jules to keep history from repeating.”

“Maybe when we were kids. Not anymore. Make us stronger, not blind and dependent on someone else to save us.”

Wynter might have Irish in her, but I could honestly say she didn’t inherit a single feature from them. Maybe recklessness. But then, even that could be the Russian side of her.

“Some habits are hard to break,” he said darkly.

She met his eyes with the stubbornness I have come to know well. “Well break them. Otherwise, you’ll lose us all.”

CHAPTER33

Basilio

Four fucking weeks.

I’ve looked for her everywhere. I even had men watching Brennan’s house. Her Jeep was there. Her friends were there. Wynter wasn’t.