A Chance in the Night (8 page)

Vivian appeared in the foyer as she was leaving. “You think you’ve won this round, don’t you?” she asked.

“I’m sure I don’t know what you mean,” Skye retorted, moving toward the door, but Vivian prevented her from leaving by slapping the flat of her palm against the door. Skye regarded her coolly. “Please remove your hand.”

“This isn’t over…not by a long shot,” Vivian warned, her gaze boring into Skye’s. “You’re nothing but a whore whose only currency lies between her legs but even that will eventually lose its appeal and you’ll no longer have any leverage.”

“Vivian, if you hate me so much…why don’t you exert that considerable influence on Belleni and convince him to send me and Nico packing? I would gladly take my son and go.”

Vivian withdrew her hand. “You think I haven’t?” she asked, surprising Skye with her simple question. “But it doesn’t matter. What Belleni wants, he gets. And for the time being, he seems to want you. It’s a mystery I’ve tired of trying to unravel. It’s a waste of energy. Besides, this obsession can’t last forever.”

One can hope.
But something told her Belleni would never let her go. And that’s what scared her. “Vivian, we don’t have to be enemies,” she said.

At that Vivian’s mouth turned up in a smirk that was almost sad around the edges as she said, “No? Well, we sure as hell can’t be friends, so what does that leave?”

“Something in between? Two people with the same goal,” Skye offered, taking a chance on the glimmer of banked emotion in Vivian’s eyes. She didn’t know Vivian’s story but she suspected there was pain buried beneath those layers of ice. And she also suspected Belleni was at the root. Imagine that, the broker of emotional agony being at the epicenter of someone else’s tragedy. “I want to leave and you want me gone. We don’t have to be friends…but we can work together.”

Vivian’s mouth compressed into a tight line and she opened the door for her. “The car will take you back to your apartment,” she said stiffly.

“When can I see my son again?” she asked, not leaving until she got a date.

“When it is convenient for Belleni,” Vivian answered, dismissing her.

“Please, Vivian. This open-ended scheduling is cruel. Can’t you imagine how hard this is? To walk away each time from my son? He’s all I have to live for at this point.”

At that Vivian paused and regarded Skye with an expression she’d never seen before. A sliver of compassion perhaps? Skye couldn’t be sure.

“Such a flair for the dramatic,” Vivian murmured but the usual rancor coating her tone was notably absent. Seeming as if going against her better judgment she said, “Tomorrow. The car will drop him off at your apartment at 8:00 a.m. You must return him by five. Not a minute later or else I will show no mercy.”

Skye shuddered but accepted the offer. “Thank you, Vivian.”

Her face crinkled in raw disgust. “Oh, get out. Your groveling sickens me worse than your insolence.”

Skye didn’t hesitate, fearing that this odd show of kindness would dissipate like mist in a strong burst of sunshine.

“You’re trained, and I took a chance that you don’t have a record given your select clientele, though…” He paused with genuine concern, as if he hadn’t actually thought this part through all the way until that moment. She smiled and assured him she didn’t have a criminal record, and he continued with a relieved grin. “Oh, thank God. That would’ve been hard to explain. Anyway, you aren’t costing the state a dime, so yeah, you’re perfect. Don’t worry so much. You’ll be great.” He looked down at Nico. “Tell your mom she’s gonna be great so she’ll stop freaking out.”

Nico grinned up at her and gave her a thumbs-up. “You’re gonna be great, Mama,” he said, and a sweet smile lit up her face.

“If you say so,” she said, ruffling his hair. “Okay, you sit here with your coloring books and toys and I’ll see just how cut out I am to be an instructor.” She gave Christian a mock stern look as she warned over her shoulder, “If I crash and burn, this is all your fault.”

“I take full responsibility because I’m not worried,” he retorted, jerking his gaze sharply away from the view of her sculpted backside and pert behind. The long, clean lines of her body spoke of her background and the grace with which she carried herself further gave her away. Her hair was tucked into a bun but a few tendrils escaped, framing her bare, makeup-free face nicely, and he wondered if he’d ever seen a more beautiful woman in all his life.

He listened as she introduced herself, garnering a few interested looks when she shared her background with the New York City Ballet and when she lifted and executed a perfect pirouette with the grace of an angel lighting on earth, the few reluctant stragglers grudgingly came to attention.

“How many of you have ever thought about becoming a dancer?” A few shy hands went up. She nodded with a smile. “Well, even if you’re not planning to become a professional dancer, dance is good for posture, coordination and staying in shape. I’m going to teach you some basics today. How does that sound?”

The girls nodded and clapped their hands, totally won over, just as Christian knew they would be. He leaned over to whisper to Nico, “Do you enjoy watching your mom dance?” he asked.

Nico nodded. “Sometimes she dances in the living room and it’s funny. I like when she does that spinning thing. ’Cept one time she was doing that and bonked her toe on one of my toys,” he confided with a giggle. “I wasn’t supposed to leave it out. I got in trouble.”

“One can never underestimate the importance of putting away one’s toys,” Christian agreed solemnly. “Especially if one’s mom has a tendency to dance in the living room without warning.”

Nico let another small giggle escape before saying, “I like you. You’re a lot nicer than that other guy who lives with the scary lady in the big house.”

Huh? “Other guy? Who might that be? A friend of your mommy’s?”

“I dunno. But I live with him now. I don’t like it. I like my room at Mama’s better.”

“You don’t live with your mom?” he asked, confused.

Nico shook his head, tucking his lip under his teeth. “No. Mama said I used to live with her but then I had to move when I was little. But I get to visit her. It’s fun when I visit because we go places like the park and stuff.”

“What’s with the scary lady? Is that the man’s wife?” he asked, trying to unravel the mystery.

“I don’t think so but she’s always around. She pinches me and squeezes my arm real hard when I make her mad. She gives me looks like this—” Nico illustrated by narrowing his little stare in the meanest way possible for a four-year-old, which Christian found quite impressive. “And calls me a ‘little bastard.’”

Christian’s temper flared. Adults who called kids names and hurt them were lower than scum in his book. What did this little kid ever do to this woman to deserve that kind of treatment and why the hell did Skye let this woman around her son if she was so mean to him? Of course, Nico didn’t have the answers so Christian kept his questions to himself for the time being. Instead he agreed with Nico with mock seriousness, saying, “That is pretty scary. She better be careful or her face will freeze that way.”

“Really?” Hope lit up Nico’s expression causing Christian to chuckle. “If that happened I’d laugh a lot. She deserves it. She makes my mama sad.”

“How does she make her sad?” he asked.

Nico shrugged. “She calls Mama bad names.”

“Bad names? Like what?”

Nico bit his lip, plainly caught between wanting to tell but not sure if he should. Christian didn’t want to put the kid in a bad spot so he said, “Don’t worry about it. She’s not here right now so we don’t have to talk about her anymore. Okay?”

Nico looked relieved. “Okay,” he agreed with a grin. “So, do you have little kids, too?”

“Nope,” Christian answered. “Maybe someday, though.” Funny, he’d never really thought about it, having kids and settling down. Probably because he’d been so single-mindedly focused on getting his club off the ground, the thought of a wife and kids wasn’t even a blip on his radar. And because of that, he was ultracareful in the love department. He didn’t want any accidental babies popping up on his doorstep. “You close to your dad?” he asked.

Nico shook his head but he didn’t look sad about it as he answered, “I don’t have a dad.”

Hmm…no dad. Everyone had a father. Another interesting piece of the puzzle. So if the man Nico was referring to earlier wasn’t his father, who was he? For that matter, who was the scary woman?

Christian mulled the information over in his head. His gaze skipped to Skye who was showing the girls some simple stretches and when she flashed him a quick smile filled with joy and elation, he stuffed down the troubling question for later and simply returned the smile. It could wait.

“Everything okay?” Christian asked when he saw her frown.

“Yeah,” she assured him with a bright smile to chase away the shadows that might be lurking in her gaze. “So I cleared my schedule for today…what do you say we put together a picnic and claim a spot in the park?”

He checked his watch. “Sure. I got some time. There’s a little market not far from here we could pick up a few things. We don’t even need to take a cab. We can walk.”

“Perfect.” She clasped Nico’s hand and they set off at a leisurely pace. After a few minutes, she said, “You know it was so great to work with the kids. I never considered teaching dance before but I think I might actually be good at it.” She risked a look his way, curious if he agreed.

“You looked like a natural to me,” he said. “Tell me why you don’t dance professionally any longer?”

She knew this question was bound to pop up sooner or later but she’d hoped that maybe more time would pass before it did. It was difficult to talk about her time before Belleni came into her life, when dancing was everything. But she felt she owed Christian something for the gift he’d given her. She drew a deep breath before beginning.

“As I told you previously, I came to New York to dance with the New York City Ballet. At first I was doing very well. I managed to catch the eye of the choreographer and in spite of the fact that some of the other girls had better dance credits under their belt, I was starting to land bigger roles. Then I was cast as one of the Auroras in
Sleeping Beauty
and I thought for sure I’d died and gone to heaven. It was a major deal. Then, one day in rehearsal when I went to do a grand jeté somehow I landed wrong and tore my ACL. The surgeon said it was the worst tear he’d ever seen and even though I had surgery to repair it and followed up with physical therapy, it remained weak. The verdict was clear—my professional dancing career was over.”

She finished with a halting breath, the loss of her career still a sore spot with her even though it’d been five years since that awful day. She could tell he was doing the math, speculating on what happened next in her life. She’d have to explain Nico somehow but she wasn’t quite ready so she quickly put the spotlight on him. “So, you’re a bartender at Martini…how’d you end up there?” she asked.

He caught her not-so-subtle deflection but decided to follow her lead for which she was grateful. He smiled. “Would you believe I came to New York to be a bartender?”

She didn’t want to offend him but her hesitation gave her away. It was hard for her to imagine wanting to become a bartender. To her it seemed a job you fell into due to circumstance rather than seeking it out. Sort of like what happened to her with her current profession. “Why?” she asked tentatively, cringing at the bald question. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that…”

“No, it’s okay,” he assured her, sealing her belief that he was quite possibly not only the most good-looking but nicest guy she’d met in a long time. “I wanted to become a bartender because I wanted to know everything about how a club works and the bartender is a good place to start. I plan to own my own club someday soon and because of my bartending experience I know what it’s like behind the bar. I know what to look for if an employee is dipping into the till and I know what to avoid in personality types for management. It’s been an educational experience that was exactly what I was looking for. With that said, I’m ready to make the transition from employee to boss.”

She arched her brow. “Really? That’s pretty ambitious in this town. I mean, you have to know that start-up businesses, particularly restaurants or bars, have a fifty-fifty shot of failing in the first year.” Oh, God, what a downer. She nearly clapped her hand over her mouth in dismay. “I’m sorry. That was so rude of me. I just meant to say…well, actually there’s no other way to say it. But I hope you know I mean it in the nicest way possible.”

“Trust me, I know the statistics. My business partner and I are well aware of the risks. That’s why we’ve set away two years’ worth of payroll in the bank.”

“Two years?” she murmured. “That’s a lot of money.”

“Yeah, it is. But with two years’ payroll we won’t have to stress about the bottom line so much as building a solid reputation. The money will come in time. I have faith.”

Faith…she knew all about that word. She also knew that after faith failed, came misery and disillusion but she wisely kept that to herself. No sense in raining on his parade when they barely knew one another. She kind of liked the idea of seeing him again, crazy as it seemed, and she didn’t want to run him off with her cynicism. “I hope it works out for you,” she said, truly meaning it. “Following a dream is a ride worth taking.”

Amiable silence stretched between them and Skye basked in the happy moment to insulate her against the bad times that were surely on the horizon.

After the market they made the trek to the sun-dappled park and after convincing Nico to eat a few bites, the boy dashed off to the play structure that was within her vision, leaving her alone with Christian.

Suddenly her nerves jumped and she almost hopped to her feet to follow her son. It seemed safer over there than sitting so close to Christian, eating out-of-season, exorbitantly priced grapes.

“Why doesn’t Nico live with you?” he asked, startling her with his frank question.

She stalled and her brain blanked when she searched for a plausible reason. As the silence stretching between them became awkward, he must’ve realized an answer wasn’t forthcoming and he looked away. “You must have your reasons,” he said. “But I gotta tell you it doesn’t sound like Nico is in a great environment. Whoever the mean, scary lady is…she’s abusive to him.”

Skye choked down the rising lump in her throat but held her composure by the thinnest thread. He had no idea how it ripped her heart from her chest to know she couldn’t keep her baby safe—that every night her son wet the bed because he was terrified of his surroundings. “Do you always butt your nose into other people’s business or is this something you save for me?” she asked coolly, masking her pain with ice.

“Good question,” he said, as if to himself. The furrow in his brow told her he was just as perplexed as she was prickly about the situation. He shook his head. “You’re right it’s none of my business how you choose to raise your son. I just thought…I don’t know, that maybe you cared.”

“I do care,” she said, heat rising in her cheeks. Hating the idea that he thought she might be flippant about her son’s welfare, she admitted in a tight voice, “But maybe my hands are tied,” before she could stop herself.

“What do you mean?” he asked, those intense blue eyes burning into hers, searching for the source of her outburst.

She collected herself quickly, forcing a smile but it felt brittle and she doubted it came off as sincere. “How did we get here? We were having a nice afternoon. Let’s go back to that,” she suggested.

“Excellent advice even if it’s improbable,” he muttered, the threat of a dark scowl hovering in his expression. “You have a choice, Skye. If not for yourself, for your son.”

Skye wiped the sticky grape juice from her fingers, her temper rising at his judgment but she wasn’t about to make a scene here in the park. Aside from the fact that Nico might hear her, she had to be careful not to draw attention to herself. Belleni had eyes everywhere. She would never presume that she was safe from his prying influence anywhere in the city. “You have no right to judge me,” she said quietly, though she fairly vibrated with anger and hurt. “I appreciate the opportunity to work with the children but I think we should end our acquaintance.”

She rose from the grass, intending to walk away and collect her son but Christian jumped up and caught her hand, the contact sizzling up her arm. She gasped. “What are you doing?” she demanded in a harsh whisper.

“I don’t know,” Christian admitted, and looking as if he didn’t much like it, either. “I’m sorry. Don’t stop working with the kids because I can’t keep my feelings to myself.”

Skye edged her tongue along her bottom lip, catching the residual sweetness from the grapes and his gaze followed the movement. His stare widened ever so slightly as if he were trying to hide his reaction but Skye was sensitive to body language and she picked it up quite readily. Of course, she wasn’t accustomed to her own body reacting in kind. She looked away, if only to catch her breath without being too obvious. She shrugged. “I guess I could continue for a while,” she said, looking back at him, gauging his expression. Aside from the delicious rush of pheromones there was also the tension from walking a dangerous line. What if Belleni caught them here at the park? He was notoriously territorial when it suited him and lately it seemed to suit him a lot when it came to Skye. Discomfited with the thought of being spied upon, she put some distance between herself and Christian. “But if I do, we need to keep our distance. I’m not looking for a boyfriend of any kind.”

“And I’m not looking for a girlfriend,” he countered. “So we’re on the same page.”

“Right. Good.” At least it ought to be. So why did his declaration send a sharp pain right into her chest bone? Maybe because it would’ve been nice to be able to pretend she was a normal girl even when he knew she wasn’t. “Glad we’re both clear in our expectations.”

They broke eye contact, each retreating into the privacy of their thoughts and Skye secretly lamented the change between them. For a moment she’d almost remembered what it felt like to be a woman free to flirt with the possibility of something bigger than herself, something that made her heart sing like her feet used to dance.

The loss of it was what hurt the most.