Dangerous Beauty: Part Four: Beautifully Broken (54 page)

“Listen to me when I’m trying to teach you something!”

“Teach me?” Kyle frowned, then he rolled his eyes when he saw the stern expression on her face.

Dammit.

Teach him
. She was always trying to teach him something. Not just her, either. It was something that she, his father, and Angelo had been doing to him since they all retired. Every chance they got, they were telling him and his brothers that they weren’t doing something right. They were backseat fucking driving instead of just trusting him, Nate, Lucca, Dante, Mickey, and Carter to run things the way they saw fit. It was frustrating … but Kyle knew there was nothing he could do about it. They were his parents, and Angelo was like a fatherly uncle. He couldn’t be disrespectful; he wouldn’t be. That would just get his ass kicked.

“And don’t roll your eyes, Kyle! That’s weakness.”

Weakness. Everything was weakness with Anastacia Stone. Carterina had tried to warn them of this so many years ago, but they hadn’t listened. Now they were experiencing it.

“Organization,” she lectured him, wagging her finger in his direction. “I know your father taught you this, because I taught him. You never, and I repeat never, do anything that can potentially compromise your family.”

Pressing his lips in a line, Kyle adjusted Cami in his arms and stepped closer to his step-mother. “I have not compromised this family, dear Mother.”

“Nonsense,” she objected, her frown deepening. “You compromised them the moment you became friendly with that secretary. A secretary that works closely with the boss of this organization. I have half the mind to go up there and handle her myself!”

“Ana,” Kyle chuckled. Jesus, the woman was so damn dramatic sometimes. “Aniyah Clark doesn’t need to be handled.” Silly woman. “She’s harmless.” Kyle had no doubt in his mind that the moment the woman left the organization, she’d lose all memory of her time at S.O.

Anastacia huffed. “Don’t be naïve, Kyle. She is a woman scorned. If you think that she wishes not to see harm done to you, then you are not truly thinking at all.”

Kyle frowned at the insult. “I am not naïve.” His eyes shot down to where the ever silent little two-year-old, Josef Salerno, stood, still holding tightly to her hand. “And stop this revenge talk, will you. You’ll frighten the children.”

Snorting, Anastacia rolled her eyes. “First of all, your sister is far too fascinated with her examination of your face to notice or take the time to understand anything coming out of mine, or your, mouth.”

Kyle blinked, noticing the two tiny hands cupping his face for the first time. He gazed into the toddler’s eyes only to find her own glued to his nose as she…
well,
Kyle didn’t know what the hell she was doing; but it was funny, so he laughed softly before bringing his attention back to his mother.

“… and JoJo,” she looked down at the quiet child, then released his hand and gave his ear a gentle tug.

Josef immediately looked in her direction.

“
In my pocket
,” the boy signed quickly, then he looked up to Kyle and signed it once more.

Softening his features, Kyle gave the toddler a nod of his head, then used his free hand to sign that all was well. Josef only signed with such urgency when he thought he was in trouble.

“He can’t hear us right now,” Anastacia continued. “The cacophony of the city causes him much discomfort. I saw him remove the device from his head when we first arrived.” Running her hand over her grandson’s head, she smiled faintly. “Nathan and Carter won’t be happy that he isn’t wearing it, but you know me. I can’t stomach forcing him to wear it.

“Hmm …” Kyle hummed, showing his agreement with a nod of his head.

He wasn’t much of an enforcer with JoJo either. He left that part to the boy’s parents. They were far better than Kyle at braving through the little—as Reanna often called it— ‘boo boo’ face the toddler pasted on his face every time they made him put the sound transmitter back on.

Kyle interrupted his sister’s investigation of his face by popping a kiss on her lips, then handing her back to his step-mother. Once she was safe in her mother’s arms, Kyle turned his attention to Josef, kneeling down to the boy’s level.

“Hi,” he mouthed the word.

“Hi,” the toddler replied in a soft voice, making Kyle smile.

Kyle reached out to the boy, waving him over. “Come here …”

He was timid, as always, as he brought one of his tiny hands up to his head and began twisting his blond curls around his fingers. After only a few moments of hesitation, Josef nodded his head and scrambled over into Kyle’s arms. Kyle scooped the toddler up as he stood to his feet, chuckling happily and kissing little JoJo’s soft cheeks over and over again.

As he always did when picked up by someone, Josef clutched on to Kyle, throwing one of his arms around Kyles neck and the other around his arm as he rested his head on Kyle’s shoulder. It was the perfect hug from his sweet little Godson. Kyle reveled in it. He missed it. It had taken him so long to get Josef to come to him so freely like this, so Kyle never really took the time that he had the child in his arms for granted. After all, little Josef Salerno wasn’t the most ‘social’ of Carter and Nathan’s children. Not like his siblings.

He’d been around six or seven months old when he’d began to pull back, stay close to his parents and siblings and to his grandmother and Nathan’s father. Rarely did he interact with anyone else in the family, nor did he find interest in being in the same room when the family gathered together. He’d often crawl away or stay glued to his father’s side as he just watched. He always watched people, quite intently.

This was all around the time when the child’s hearing began deteriorating. In Kyle’s opinion, Josef’s anti-social behavior wasn’t really due to the hearing loss. He was just quiet. An observer. And he preferred the silence. The boy actually reminded Kyle of a young Mikilo. Mikilo had been the same growing up—and still was—quiet, anti-social, but more interactive with family and the few friends that he considered family.

As for the toddlers hearing? Well that was genetics. Nathan’s side of the family. Nathan had an Aunt that was hard of hearing; also, his Grandfather was deaf as well and had been his whole life.

JoJo’s hearing had been slowly deteriorating since birth. So slowly, that Nathan and Carter hadn’t even noticed until the toddler would stop responding when his name was called, and that hadn’t been until just about six months ago when the deterioration had accelerated quite rapidly until he was, in the words of the doctors, profoundly deaf. It had been a blow—one that both Nathan and Carter hadn’t known how to take. JoJo was so young and still learning how to speak. For a time, he’d been able to hear, been able to repeat words, but he had stopped talking completely once his hearing loss had reached a critical state.

It had been hard, even for Kyle, who hadn’t even been apart of the decision making process, to watch the intense amount of tension between Nathan and Carter as they sparred for weeks over whether or not it was a good decision to subject their—at the time— one-year-old son to a surgery that would afford him the ability to hear again. In the end, of course, they came to a mutual agreement that the surgery was a must and would benefit their son greatly. Even still though, every member of the family actively began learning how to communicate with JoJo. Not everyone was fluent yet, but a nice amount of the family—the Salerno men, and all adult members of the Stone blood line … this included Kyle— were fluent. And the children weren’t too far behind. Kyle enjoyed speaking ASL; he loved learning new languages, and he loved having the freedom to communicate with his Godson—who was also fluent after four months of learning— freely without any inhibitions. It had been that dedication to learning the language that had brought Josef closer to Kyle. They’d spent more time together, and Josef became more comfortable around him; so, of course, Kyle had no complaints about the learning experience. Being accepted in young JoJo’s inner circle of trust—as he and his brother’s often jokingly called it—was worth the countless hours he’d spent studying and mastering the language in effort to talk to him in the way he preferred.

“I’ll handle her.” Kyle held tight to little JoJo as he resumed the conversation of Aniyah Clark. He locked eyes with her. “We have measures in place for this kind of thing. I assure you, she will do nothing.” He smiled warmly. “But if, by chance, I feel she poses a threat to the organization …” he shrugged. “I’ll put a bullet in her head myself.”

Smiling brightly at his words, Anastacia chuckled and took a step toward him. “That’s my Ky-ky,” she cooed, reaching up to cup his face.

Leaning forward, Kyle accepted the soft kiss to his cheek from his step-mother, then laughed softly when she gave his ear a slight tug. “You learn so fast … and don’t think I didn’t hear you call me mom.”

Kyle laughed a bit louder at that. “Well the first time was unintentional.”

She pursed her lips. “It shouldn’t be.”

“… But,” he said, cutting off what was sure to be a lecture about how much she wished he and Mickey would just call her mom. “The second time had been on purpose.”

That got her to soften back up a bit. She gave him a nod of her head. “As it should be,” she said softly. “I am your mother. Your loving, perfect …”

Kyle laughed.

“… step-mother that you love so much, so you should call me by my rightful name.”

“First of all,” Kyle chuckled. “I call you my mother on occasion.”

“Only when you’re startled or joking around. Not nearly often enough.”

“And Mikilo’s mother would have a fit if she found him calling another woman mother.” The most dramatic of fits, too. She’d cry and scream at him in Hindi for hours about how severely he’d broken her heart.

Groaning and rolling her eyes at the mention of Mickey’s mother, Anastacia gave a slight flick of her wrist. “Please spare me any talk of that woman, Kyle. She’s a—”

“But at least,” Kyle cut her off before she called Mickey’s mother a bitch. “But at least you have one step son that will welcome you as the mother he never had.”

To that, she smiled. A soft, small smile, but a smile nonetheless.

“I suppose I can’t be greedy then,” she conceded. “Besides, you are more than enough.”

“I’m your favorite,” Kyle finished for her. “And don’t worry,” he gave her a wink. “I won’t tell the biological ones that you love me more.”

“Why thank you,” she said drily as she took a step back toward Natalia’s stroller and grasped on to the handle bar. “Now,” she smirked, “are you going to tell me what has you sneaking around as if you do not want to be seen?”

Kyle’s eyes widened a bit, surprised at the abrupt change in subject. What?

“We saw you,” she motioned toward the doors with her head. “Outside. I was changing a couple of soiled diapers and my driver pointed you out.” She sighed, smiling as if he made her tired. “You had your men surrounding you, Kyle. Who are you hiding from?”

Looking up to the heavens with a silent groan, Kyle closed his eyes tightly. Dammit. He’d actually managed to forget about what had happened today for a brief, blissful moment. But now he remembered. He’d been on the run before his plan to stealthily walk to his office in effort to avoid family had been foiled by fucking Aniyah.

“Everyone,” he replied, his eyes scanning the area around him. After he assured himself that he was still safe, he brought his eyes back to Anastacia right before he mouthed,
“I fucked up …”

Chuckling softly at his pain, Anastacia shook her head. “So much so that you’re sneaking around here trying to hide from the boss of this organization, Kyle?”

“Yes,” he answered in a sharp whisper. “I just …” he let out a long breath as a frown fell over his face. “I need time to think before I see Nate or anybody else.”

“Nonsense, Kyle.” Anastacia waved off his worry. “You sound like your father, always making something out of nothing.”

“But you don’t even know the situation,” Kyle argued. “I actually messed up this time.”

“Mmmhmm,” she nodded, a hint of mirth still present in her tone. “I’m sure you did, mon amour. But you will fix it, yes…”

Nope.

Kyle shook his head. “I really think I did it this time, Ana.” He gave her a look that he was sure would convey the sheer intensity of his inner anguish. “I ruined the whole deal. I lost my temper and everything went to hell.”

“Kyle,” she chuckled, completely ignoring his anguish.

Kyle snapped back in offense. “I’m serious,” he said firmly. “I messed up everything.”

“Son, it isn’t possible for you to mess up this deal.”

Kyle’s frown deepened. It was, and he did.

“You didn’t,” she said, as if reading his mind. She adjusted Cami in her arms as the toddler rested her head on her shoulder and began to doze off. “You cannot fail. Not in this world, Kyle.”

“But I did,” Kyle persisted, adjusting the now snoozing Josef in his arms as well. “My job was to talk peace, to stick to my plan. But instead I lost my temper, assaulted David Mitchum, and took back territory that I hadn’t planned on taking back quite yet.”

She rolled her eyes in response to his words. “You’re being dramatic, Kyle.”

“I’m not—”