“Christian, what was that all about?” Mama Jo asked, her expression filled with concern. “I didn’t like that woman. She had mean eyes. Even when she was smiling. I felt like I was staring down the barrel of a gun with it cocked and ready. Did you notice that?”
“Well, Skye left with her so she must not have been that bad. I don’t know, Mama, I’m as lost as you about the whole thing.”
“I don’t buy it, son. Skye seemed off, like she was trying to hide something and if that isn’t enough to make you wonder, her boy was downright terrified. No, I don’t like it at all. I think something bad was going on between those two. Bad blood at the very least.”
He shrugged, feeling helpless. “Maybe, but there’s nothing I can do about it now. She’s gone. I’ll try to catch her on Monday or if not Monday, then Friday when she teaches her dance class.”
Mama Jo’s eyes narrowed with worry. “You can’t try to find her sooner?”
“Mama, we’re not even dating. We’re…” Not exactly friends but not attached, either. He finished with another shrug. “I don’t know what we are but I don’t have the right to go chasing after her when she plainly had the option to stay.”
“Oh, pooh on that. I seen the way you look at her and you never would’ve brought her here to meet your family if she was just a fly-by-night acquaintance. I may be old but I’m not stupid. You’re a good-looking man and I don’t doubt that you have your share of pretty ladies on your arm but you’ve never brought one home. That says plenty to me.”
He wasn’t going to argue. Mama Jo saw right through him and she was right anyway. Skye was special. “Be that as it may, she made her choice and I’ll just have to wait to figure things out. I have a business meeting tomorrow night anyway, maybe this is just as well. I don’t need to be distracted right now. I need to focus.”
“This about your nightclub?”
He nodded. “Best shot I’ve ever had to get the club up and running. I can feel it.”
Mama Jo drew a short breath as she regarded him with love. “I want you to be happy. I wish happiness for all my boys and I know you have your heart set on this club business. All I ask is that you’re plenty sure of what you’re going after and the reasons why. Fame and fortune never brought no one happiness and you know I’ve never understood your dream of owning a place where sin and vice go hand in hand but I never said nothing because you seemed set on it. But I seen the way you look at Skye and her boy. There might be a real future there.”
“Mama, it’s too soon to have that conversation.” But her words had already begun to worm their way into his brain, planting little seeds of doubt. He pushed them away. “I don’t know what’s going to happen with Skye—there’s stuff going on with her that’s not my place to share—but I’ve wanted to open a club since I was seventeen and I’m finally at a place in my life where I can make that happen. I’m not walking away from it.”
Mama Jo lifted her hands in surrender. “Not asking you to, son. Just talking out loud is all.”
He nodded but his thoughts were in a tangle. He needed to get his head on straight. Maybe the open road was a good idea after all. He could be home by midnight. As if sensing his thoughts, Mama Jo chuckled and raised on her toes to kiss his cheek. “It was great to see you. Take care, love, and don’t be a stranger. Drive safely and good luck with your meeting.”
He kissed her back and lifted her in a tight hug. One thing was for sure, he loved this little woman right in front of him. “Thanks for the hospitality, Mama. Hey, that reminds me, Thomas said something about you having tests? Is there something I should know about?”
“Only if it’s your interest to know just how quickly this old body is falling apart,” she teased. “Like I told your brother, they’re just routine tests. Blood work and whatnot.”
“Yeah, but what prompted the need for tests?”
She waved him off. “You’ve got enough on your plate you don’t need a spoonful of what’s going on with me. When there’s news to tell, rest assured I’ll be sharing it. Until then, mind your business.”
In other words, back off. He could read between the lines. “Promise you’ll let us know?” he pressed.
“As soon as there’s a need. Absolutely.”
That wasn’t exactly the assurance he was looking for but he’d take it. “All right, I’ll call in a few days.”
“Go on with you,” she said, shooing him off, then returning to her chair and tucking her legs under a lap blanket. “I’ll hear from you when I hear.”
He grinned and went to collect his stuff for the drive home.
He smiled nervously at the thought. Of course, Vivian’s strident voice cut into his thoughts as he entertained the burgeoning fantasy.
“She hates you. Have you forgotten that one simple fact? Of course you have, you doddering fool.”
He winced. He could rectify that. He would lavish her with gifts and whatever her heart desired. Eventually she would come to adore him.
A knock at his door caused him to straighten with anticipation. “Come in,” he commanded, turning to face Skye as she entered.
Her beautiful face was pale from her ordeal and he wished he hadn’t had to be so firm in his discipline but she’d broken a cardinal rule and he couldn’t let that slide, no matter his love for her. “Darling, you look ravishing,” he said warmly, his gaze sliding over each subtle curve of her lean body clad in a cream dress that had cost him a fortune. “That dress becomes you. I knew when I saw it I had to have it for you.”
She remained silent, her gaze bouncing away from him but not before he caught the burn of hatred.
“Are you in much pain, my love?” he inquired, searching her body for marks. He’d given specific instructions to his men not to leave marks.
She stiffened and slid her gaze to him. “What does it matter? I’m nothing but your possession, your plaything. As Vivian has informed me on numerous occasions, what I feel doesn’t matter.”
Vivian. He swallowed a beleaguered sigh. That woman sometimes made more trouble than she was worth. But there was no time for such a conversation at the moment. There was business to discuss. “Has Vivian briefed you on your role tonight?”
“Yes. I am your fiancée. I am to be charming, engaging, witty and complimentary as well as affectionate without being vulgar,” she said as if reciting a script without an ounce of passion.
“Yes, that’s right,” he said gruffly, gesturing for her to come toward him. Her gaze narrowed as if to say
screw yourself
and his temper flared at her insolence. “Do not push me, Skye,” he warned. “I can be a reasonable man but I can be pushed to terrible things.” He didn’t want this between them. He wanted her to come to him, laughing, her eyes full of genuine joy and adoration, like she once did. He had to remember to woo her with soft words. He swallowed his anger and affected a kind smile. “Come, darling. Let me see a preview of the woman I will marry.”
“It’s an act you demand of me,” she said, her tone deliberately cutting. “I would never be your wife willingly. I would rather die.”
“That could be arranged!” he shouted without warning, the anger slipping from his control with her words. But she didn’t back down or apologize, instead lifting her chin, daring him to strike her, knowing that if he did, she’d be useless to him tonight. He wouldn’t tolerate such a display from the woman of his heart. He crossed to her in a fluid movement that startled her and before she could get away, he gripped a handful of golden hair, mindless of the artful array of curls painstakingly created by the hairdresser he’d paid to pamper her for the evening, and jerked her to him. She yelped as he felt strands ripping from her scalp. “You will be the lady on my arm or you will be nothing,” he snarled, twisting harder until tears sprung to her eyes. “Your body will rot somewhere where no one will find you. Nico will be raised without you and I will never allow him to say your name. I will tell him that you abandoned him. He will grow to hate you for your abandonment. I will see to it!” He gave her a little shake and her cries mollified him only slightly. “Do you hear me?”
“Yes,” she gasped, clutching at his hand, begging him to turn her loose. “I’m sorry. I—I’ll be better,” she cried. “Please don’t take Nico from me. He’s all I have.”
Belleni loosened his grip and she sagged away from him but he caught her and pulled her close. “No, darling,” he corrected her softly, smoothing her hair as best he could. “You have me. And that’s all you’ll ever need.”
“Why do you hate me so much?” she asked pointedly, in spite of the catering people milling around. “What have I ever done to you, Vivian?” The catering people paused to stare at the two women, clearly becoming uncomfortable. “Should we…” one asked, gesturing for outside.
“No need,” Vivian answered. “Come, Skye, we can have this conversation upstairs while you have your hair and makeup repaired.”
She expected Skye to refuse but something of her spirit had flown and she simply nodded listlessly and followed Vivian.
As Skye sat in the chair at the bathroom vanity, Vivian dismissed the hairdresser and began repairing Skye’s hair herself, picking up the limp and bruised curls and giving them fresh bounce with a little spray here and there. The woman had been blessed with the hair of an angel, Vivian noted almost in a detached manner. “Why does one woman hate another? The answer is simple enough if you choose to look.” She pinned a curl. “A man, of course.”
“I don’t understand.”
She sighed. “Of course you don’t because you’ve always been a stupid girl. I told you I came to this country with Belleni. We started from nothing and uilt something lasting and strong. And together we built an empire. The women came and went but I was his rock, his true north. Until you came along.” She jabbed a pin into place a little too forcefully and Skye jumped as it dug into her skin. “And then, things changed. He wanted you and only you. He was different. I knew I’d lost him.”
“I’ve told you I don’t want him,” Skye said flatly.
“Well, it doesn’t matter because he wants you,” she retorted, a hint of the bitterness in her heart seeping through to her tone. She stepped away from Skye to observe her handiwork. Much better, she noted with a critical eye. “But I’ve come to a realization that if he is determined to have you, I no longer want him. I refuse to accept scraps. It is beneath me.” Skye said nothing and it was just as well. Vivian had shared enough. “There. Your hair at least is improved. Freshen your face and come downstairs soon. Do not sit up here and sulk.”
“I have no plans to sulk, Vivian,” Skye said quietly. “Belleni has made it quite clear as to my role and the consequences of any disobedience.”
Vivian wondered what Belleni told her. No matter. None of it mattered after tonight. “Yes, well, be quick about it. The guests should be here soon.”
Skye turned away, but not before Vivian caught the sheen of more tears. A tiny, almost nonexistent piece of Vivian took pause at that obvious show of defeat but her own heartache pulsed harder and deeper, shadowing anything else that might’ve claimed her notice.
Belleni had once told her that he’d never known a woman more single-minded in her focus, more vicious when crossed. He’d said it with admiration and desire.
Vivian toyed with a smile as she descended the stairs. Tonight, she would remind Belleni what he had obviously forgotten about the woman who had made everything in his life possible.
She would rejoice in the lesson. Even if it made her heart bleed.