Dangerous Beauty: Part Four: Beautifully Broken (13 page)

“They will not pay it back.” The old man had done retired and lost his mind. “What you’re telling me to do is impossible.”

“Don’t tell me what’s impossible, Kyle. I know what the fuck is impossible and this … Is. Not. Impossible.”

“But I can’t make peace by threatening them.”

Cesare chuckled. “I didn’t tell you to threaten them, Kyle. I simply said do not, under any circumstances, give them territory or money.”

Kyle shook his head, stunned by his father’s words. “Then how the fuck, Cesare? How the fuck …”

Though he didn’t complete the question, Kyle was sure his father knew what he was asking.

Like the true asshole he was, Cesare shrugged. “I don’t know,” he said, a smug smile in his eyes. “I’m not the consigliere, you are.”

What?

“It’s your job to protect your Don, ensure he gets the respect he deserves, Kyle.” He chuckled. “You know if you pull this off the way I know you can, Nathan will hand you a key to the fucking City.”

Kyle blinked. “So that’s it?” he asked, disbelieving that his father had just left him hanging. “You’re not going to give me anything?”

Cesare gave a wave of his hand. “Trust me, son. Remember what I said, and move forward as you see fit. You will thank me for letting you do this on your own. This will be an accomplishment that you will be proud of.” He then clapped his hands once. “All right, let’s move on …”

Kyle continued to stare silently, his jaw still slightly dropped.

“Now, tell me what’s going on, son,” his father continued. “Sofia said you’re not sleeping well.”

Huh?
“Excuse me, Sofia said what?”

Cesare raised his hands in surrender. “And before you go getting upset with the child for saying something, remember that Anastacia and I are her grandparents, and she wouldn’t have said anything if she weren’t worried for you.”

What the hell was going on? Had he been betrayed … by his own daughter?

Kyle was speechless. Literally. He didn’t know what the fuck to say.

Sighing, his father stood up from his seat and came around the large desk, walking over to Kyle and taking the seat directly across from him.

Kyle looked over at him, knowing what was coming. It was a fucking ambush.

“Sofia says you’re having night terrors.”

Noting the concern in his father’s eyes, Kyle leaned back in his seat, frustrated. He sat the transcripts in his lap, and then ran his hands through his hair. What the fuck was he going to say? The last thing he wanted to do was tell his father that he’d been dreaming about his mother. If he did, then it would open the subject up for discussion, and Kyle did not want to discuss it … at least not with his father. The man still blamed himself, and Kyle hated watching his father suffer at the memories of what he couldn’t protect him from.

“Sofia is a five-year-old child, Pop.” He sighed, shaking his head. “She doesn’t know what she’s saying.”

His father shook his head in return. “She’s a smart child, Kyle,” he argued. “I know she’s not mistaken, so you may as well not waste your time denying it.”

“I’m fine,” he lied. “I’m not having nightmares.”

That was an even bigger lie.

Don’t get him wrong, he would talk about it with his father, when the time was right, but right now, Kyle wanted to make sense of the dreams himself. He wanted to really figure out if they were dreams … or memories.

So, being the ever
smooth operator
he was, Kyle decided to let his father torture him about something other than his dreams.

“I’ve … uhh,” he started, then hesitated, suddenly regretting his decision to deter the conversation. Maybe he had time to put the focus back on the dreams.

“You’ve … what, son?”

Kyle looked up from his thoughts when his father said the words, and paused at the even deeper concern he saw in his eyes.

Dammit.

No, there was no way he could discuss those dreams with his father, at least not tonight. Taking a deep breath, Kyle moved forward with his original plan. His father seemed in good spirits tonight, there was no need to tamper with old wounds.

“It’s … a woman,” Kyle confessed. It wasn’t as if it weren’t true. Kyle had been sleep deprived this week because of a woman … two women actually, just for very different reasons. Aniyah, because he didn’t want her, he wanted Reanna; and Reanna, because he didn’t have her, and he wanted her more and more with each passing second.

Okay, maybe the reasons weren’t that different.

“A woman?” his father asked in disbelief.

His disbelief was understandable; Kyle didn’t talk about his love life much … actually, he didn’t talk about it at all. He kept his private life very private, even when it came to his family. Kyle didn’t even think his father knew he was seeing anyone.

Nodding his head, Kyle sat back in his seat. “Yes, a woman …” He cleared his throat.

“The secretary?” his father asked.

Kyle frowned. “Yes … and how did you know that?” He hadn’t remembered telling his father about Aniyah.

His father smirked, a smug smile in his eyes. “I know everything about you, Kyle. Even the shit you don’t want me to know. I’m your father …”

Kyle’s lips pressed into a line. Okay, maybe he wasn’t too good at keeping his private life private after all.

“What about the girl, son?” Cesare continued. “You’ve been with her for a while. Do you think you’re finally ready?”

A brightness entered his father’s eyes when he asked the confusing question.

“Ready for what?” Kyle asked, slightly cocking his head to the side.

Cesare chuckled, reaching over to slap Kyle’s leg. “Ready for what … To settle down, boy! What do you think? Anastacia and I didn’t buy this mansion for just she, Cami, and I. We want more grandchildren.”

When Kyle’s eyes widened slightly at the mention of more children, Cesare rolled his eyes, then continued to ramble.

“We figured you were our only hope for more since Nathan and Carter already have four, Gabriel’s unwed, and your brother’s still fucking around with that chef every now and then. We’ve been waiting for you to bring her by, but you’ve barely said three words about the girl, and Sofia said she doesn’t even know her.” He frowned. “That surprises me, too, son. If you’re in love with the woman, you may want to introduce her to Sofia.” He smiled. “To see how the two interact with each other, eh? After all, she will be the child’s mother once you marry her—”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Kyle exclaimed, waving his hands in effort to stop his crazy father’s babbling. “Calm the hell down, Pop. Let me get word in, will ya?”

The man was cackling on and on, and Kyle had no damn idea what the oldie was taking about in the first place! Who in fiery hell said he was in love with Aniyah? He didn’t love that woman … hell, as of late he couldn’t even fucking stand to be around her. She’d been getting on his fucking nerves, calling him all hours of the goddamn day. And demanding shit that he just couldn’t give to her; time, attention … more than what he’d already given. She’d made the mistake of trying to turn their easy, limited relationship into something more than what it was. Now Kyle couldn’t stomach being around her.

“I am not in love with Aniyah, Pop.” Far from it. “I haven’t even talked to her in weeks.”

Jesus! The old man and his wife were insane when it came to the possibility of having more grandchildren to run around their oversized mansion—

His brief thoughts ended with an abrupt shout when his father, full force, smacked him across his head.

Looking up, Kyle held the back of his head and stared up at his father in outrage.
What the fuck?
When the hell had the old motherfucker gotten out of his chair?

Kyle huffed. That son of a bitch. “What in all the fucking hell— Wait!”

Again!

The motherfucker reared back and smacked Kyle again, then again, and again … Kyle had to jump up from his seat and run to the opposite side of the damn office. Once he got away, he whipped around and pinned the old man with a glare.

“What the fuck, Cesare?”

Straightening himself, Cesare smiled. “Is everything all right, son?”

Kyle blinked. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” he shouted. “Have you lost your mind?” Was the man teetering on the edge of insanity? Did he forget to take his meds? Was he having a ‘senior moment’?

His head cocked to the side. “Oh,” he chuckled, “did I hurt you?”

Violently raking his fingers through his hair, Kyle growled. “Yes!” he shot through clenched teeth. His head was fucking pounding.

“I apologize. I didn’t mean to hurt you, just teach you.”

Teach me?
“Teach me what?” What the hell could spontaneously beating the shit out of him teach him?

He clasped his hands in front of him and shrugged. “Just a small lesson on how much it hurts …”

Kyle’s frown of confusion only deepened at that. He was lost. “What hurts?”

That’s when the smile disappeared from his father’s face, and his expression once again became serious. “Losing the woman your heart truly desires,” he answered, never taking his eyes from Kyle. “Actually, take that and multiply it by ten.”

Kyle paused for a moment, still confused by his father’s point. He’d told him he didn’t love, Aniyah. “Pop, I said I’m not—”

“I am not talking about the damn secretary, Kyle,” Cesare interjected. He crossed the room and stood directly in front of Kyle, prompting him to take a step back. “You think I’m stupid?” He lightly slapped his head once more. “I’m your father, Kyle!” he yelled, then pressed his finger to Kyle’s heart. “I know everything about you. Even what
you
do not
know about yourself.”

After staring him down for a long, silent moment, Cesare turned away from Kyle, walking back to his seat.

“You cannot even deny it, though your eyes tell me you wish you could. You are in love with a woman that you will not allow yourself to have. This is why you suffer …”

Kyle shook his head. “But there has to be some other explanation than that,” Kyle argued in obvious denial.

Cesare nodded. “Then tell me how you feel about her, Kyle.”

Kyle flinched in disgust at the command. “How I feel?” Fuck no. Kyle didn’t discuss feelings; it was a waste of time. Instead, he kept them buried, just like any other self-respecting man would.

“Do as I say, son,” his father ordered, narrowing his eyes on him. “I’ll get the truth out of you one way or the other …”

Kyle rolled his eyes. Fine. If talking about his fucked up feelings could get his father to be a little less violent then so be it. “My feelings don’t make any sense to me. I don’t know what it is about her, I just …” His features tightened as he shook his head back and forth. “I can’t stop thinking about her. I can’t eat, sleep … sometimes I feel like I’m suffocating when she’s not around. It’s fucking confusing. I don’t understand how she has this much power over me.”

He looked to his father to gauge his reaction to his words and was met with the man’s deadpan expression.

“Kyle—”

He cut off his father with a swipe of his hand. “No, Pop. Love is a …
huge
word. I’m not ready for it.”

“Son, you are both in love, and you are ready for it. More than ready.”

Kyle sighed, and tried to appeal to his father. “Pop, while I’m not dismissing the possibility of love developing between us, do you not think that saying that I love Reanna is a bit much? I mean, I’ve never even kissed the woman before.”

“I fell in love with Ana before I even kissed her cheek, Kyle.” He shook his head. “A kiss has nothing to do with it. You can kiss anyone.”

“But—”

Cesare gave a wave of his hand, cutting Kyle off. “But nothing, boy. You love her. Listen to me, you know I’m right.”

Kyle frowned. So what if the old bastard was right? Just because Kyle may have been in love with Reanna didn’t mean he should be.

His features tightened once again as he looked away from his father. “Loving that woman is wrong,” he said softly.

“Loving that woman is wrong,” Cesare repeated, sitting back in his seat. “The same words I spoke when I fell in love with my wife thirty years ago …”

“But not the same situation, Pop,” Kyle argued. “Reanna is innocent.”

Cesare nodded in agreement. “But Reanna also
knows
who you are. Yet she still loves you.”

Kyle shook his head. “She’s just caught up in the excitement of the thought. It’ll fade.” Women enjoyed the idea of being with the bad guy, but reality was never as good as the fantasy. Reanna was too good for him. She deserved a normal life, a normal love … an uncomplicated love.

“It’ll fade and what?” Cesare asked. “You’ll just let her go … be with another man.” He laughed as if just the thought was ridiculous. “Let the sweet girl go be with a man that can give her a nice bullshit life.”

Kyle frowned. “It’d be better than the life I would give her.”

“Wrong, son,” he argued. “This world is not a fucking Disney movie, Kyle. And trust me when I say that this girl knows it. You’re not even giving her a chance to show you that.”