Chapter Twenty Two
Carly
After Vince leaves to go take care of his father’s burial arrangements, I wander around the house for a little bit. This place is seriously massive. I’m trying to find the library, but no one gave me a tour. They really need to design maps to hand out to visitors.
Finally, by a stroke of pure luck, I find the room with all the books.
Mateo glances up from his phone, but remains seated on the fancy couch. “Took you long enough.”
I laugh shortly, closing the door behind me and stepping inside. “Your house is a labyrinth. You could have mentioned where the library was located; I could’ve met you much faster.”
“I think I aged three years waiting,” he says, dryly.
“Yeah, well, I think I’ve aged three years since the plane landed in Chicago yesterday.”
He finishes whatever he’s doing on his phone, then slides it into his pocket, crosses his arms, and stares at me. “So, how’s he doing?”
“How do you think he’s doing?” I return, approaching a shelf of books and running my fingers along the spines. “He’s a mess. He’s hurt. He’s scared. Is the baby his?”
I’m not even sure I expect him to answer, but he surprises me by being forthright. “Biologically, yes.”
I sigh heavily, rolling out the tension in my shoulders. “You could have prepared me for that. That was an unpleasant surprise.”
“No, I had to leave a surprise or two on the table. He might’ve suspected something if you were too well prepared.”
“Yeah, but a rape baby is sort of a big deal. A dealbreaker, some might say.”
He shrugs, like he couldn’t care less. For all the trouble he’s gone to, you’d think he must care, but he doesn’t seem to as he says, “Then break the deal. You only have to last the rest of this week. I know we discussed a full year, but you’ve done well; I’ll let you out early for good behavior. As soon as Mia’s satisfied that he’s happily moved on, your job is done and you’re free to go. If you leave him as soon as you board the plane back, I’ll still be satisfied.”
I pause, dropping my hand. “And Vince?”
“You know what happens to Vince if you walk away,” he says, simply. “It’s not your problem, though. Not mine either. I couldn’t care less. Survive Easter, that’s all I ask.”
“Demand,” I mutter. “I don’t recall you ever asking for anything.”
“Well, I’m unlikely to start now then, don’t you think?” He rises, walking in my direction. I automatically drift away, creating distance. This man’s vibe is as unapologetically predatory as it was the first time I met him, and I don’t need a mess like him in my life.
He smiles slowly, liking how I retreat. I don’t feel like playing games with him, so I stop moving backward and let him box me in. I turn my face, but remain where I am, letting him get as close as he wants to. He should know I’m accustomed to men making me uncomfortable. I made a fucking career out of it. He might have his own intimidating skill set, but he doesn’t have anything I haven’t seen before.
“How’s Laurel?” he asks, smoothly.
My stomach twists. It’s like he heard me goading him in my mind.
Fine, he has the ability to make me intensely uncomfortable. Does he want a fucking trophy?
“Look, I’m doing exactly what you told me to do,” I say, meeting his gaze. “I’ve done everything you demanded, every single step of the way. I changed my fucking shampoo because you told me to. You don’t have to do this. You don’t have to check in on me. We had an agreement and I’m doing my part. Nothing has changed; I’m just… struggling a bit with the baby situation. I really care about Vince, but I’m also… I’m not that woman.”
Mateo rolls his eyes, literally saying, “Ugh. I’ve learned any woman too caught up on not being a certain kind of woman probably is that woman, she just lives deep in denial.”
“I don’t like that he hurt your wife. I’m sorry if that offends you.”
“I don’t like that he hurt my wife either, but these are the cards we have. I can’t reshuffle the deck; I can only play the cards that have already been dealt.”
“Yeah, well, you’re rigging the whole game,” I mutter.
“That’s why I’ll win,” he replies, obviously unbothered by ethics.
“It’s just a difficult thing to accept.”
“Well, he needs you to accept it. What is it you need to get there? You need to see Mia’s okay? She is. Spend the day with her. She adores Dominic. Mia doesn’t need you to punish Vince on her behalf. I understand thinking she might, but that’s not Mia. She goes out of her way to protect people from punishment. She wants Vince to be happy. You convince her he is and she’ll be thrilled. Let me worry about my wife, you worry about containing the loose cannon.”
“I’m also worried… what if he finds out the whole truth? What if he finds out you sent me? He’ll hate me.”
“Yes, well, I told you not to admit as much as you did. That was poor judgment.”
“That’s not helpful.”
“If he finds out, it’s because you’re a shitty liar. Don’t tell me you fucked for pay more than two years and didn’t learn how to lie to men, Madison. I won’t believe that.”
My jaw locks. “Carly. You know my name is Carly.”
He catches my jaw in his hand and jerks my gaze to his. There’s a threat lurking in the depths of his brown eyes, promising horrors I can’t imagine should I be unwise enough to let him down. “I don’t give a fuck what your name is. Do the job I paid you to do, and do it well.”
He releases my jaw. I try to back up, but I’m right against the bookcase. My heart hammers in my chest. I swallow, nodding my head.
Apparently done talking to me, Mateo finally takes a step back. I should be able to breathe a little easier with him out of my personal space, but I can’t. He still holds too much over my head. This man is a threat whether he stands right in front of me or resides 900 miles away. At least when he’s 900 miles away, though, I have a more convincing illusion of safety.
He doesn’t say another word, simply departs the room. I lean back against the bookshelf and sigh. I fucking hate mob families. They do not play by the rules. They take advantage of people in vulnerable situations—and if you’re not in a vulnerable position and they need you for something, they put you in one.
I draw my phone out of my pocket, opening the chain message between me and Vince. He texted me this morning after he left with Alec. I think he’s relieved that after dinner, the Dominic reveal, and the rest of the painfully uncomfortable evening, I let him fuck me. Actually, let him is inaccurate—I’m the one who initiated. It’s the easiest way to shut a man up, to be honest. I don’t know how to process any of this. I’ve had some dysfunction in my life, but nothing like this. This is some next level fuckery, right here.
I really do love Vince, and that’s why this is all so hard. I didn’t have to. I didn’t intend to, going into it. Mateo told me I had to occupy Vince for one year. I’ve done worse for longer to keep Laurel safe and happy—one year and one client was practically a vacation.
But then I actually liked him. I came to value the life we started piecing together and regret the foundation of lies I had to build it all on. I know the truth would ruin everything, though—I know that. Mateo doesn’t have to tell me that (he did anyway, of course). He doesn’t trust me, so he threatens me. He’s happy with the work I’ve done, he’s happy with how effectively I’ve wrangled Vince. He doesn’t give a damn about our relationship, only the illusion of it, only how it looks to his wife. He only requires Vince to be as happy as is necessary to leave Mia alone, and only for long enough that Mia is convinced. He’s already told me I’m Vince’s last chance. As if I needed more responsibility on my shoulders, now I know if I can’t deal with Vince’s past, he doesn’t get a future.
But I hate lying to him. I wish we could have remained in Connecticut, cuddling on the couch and strolling through town on our way to get milkshakes. I love that life with him. I love normalcy.
I think I hate his family, though.
I definitely hate what he did to create Dominic. I’ve made so much progress with him, though. Unless he’s a far better liar than I think he is, he really has let go of so much bitterness toward Mia.
He just let it go a little too late. Now she has his baby, and I have no idea how I’m going to navigate him around this iceberg. Mateo should have told me so I could have put down some groundwork on this front. I’ve done the opposite of that. I had no clue he had some illegitimate child out there—I’ve been gearing his ass up for fatherhood!
Would not have started laying that groundwork if I’d known about all this. I’ve probably made a bigger mess for myself to clean up.
I’m feeling calmer now, so I leave the library. I have no idea where Mia is though, so much as I hate to, I scroll to Boss Man in my contacts and ask him where I can find Mia. I would like to take him up on that offer to spend some time with her today, just to see for myself that she’s all right. I’ve only seen her around him, and she defers to him on everything. I’m not sure she breathes without his permission.
“Playroom,” he sends back. The bubbles appear and he sends me directions from the library, realizing I have no idea where the playroom is.
I go back to my inbox and delete the message. Don’t want to get caught in that lie again.
Poor Vince. His family is fucking crazy. I wish I didn’t have to be a part of it, but I have no way out. I tried. I told him part of the truth to see how he would react, and he reacted poorly. Mateo told me he would. He gave me permission to test it out with half of the truth, obviously leaving out any involvement with him. He assured me he was Vince’s dealbreaker. If I told Vince I had any link to Mateo, I would never be effective again. Vince would write me off. And if I made myself ineffective, Mateo would be greatly displeased. Mateo Morelli is not a man you want to displease.
I find the playroom and wander inside. Two attractive blonde women sit on colorful mats with their legs spread in a V, babies propped up in their laps while they chat. Mia is talking, while the one I don’t recognize jots something down on a notepad beside her.
The other blonde responds, “I feel like we need four days at Magic Kingdom. The first day is just for me. It doesn’t even matter what the kids want to do, I have a whole day’s worth of activities that I want to do.”
Mia grins, stacking bold-colored, plastic blocks in front of the baby between her legs. “Fine by me. I’m down for whatever. Rosalie has already decided she wants to permanently relocate, and she’s never even been there yet.”
“I can’t believe Mateo doesn’t want to go.”
“Oh, he’ll go,” Mia assures her. “I don’t know exactly how I’m going to accomplish it, but he’s going with us.”
I feel like I’m eavesdropping, so I call out, “Hey, ladies.”
Mia looks back over her shoulder and the other one looks up. “Oh, hey Carly,” Mia says, starting to push up off the floor.
“No, stay, you’re good.” I move closer. “I’m a little bored though. Vince is out. Room for one more playmate?”
“Sure, have a seat.”
“Who is that?” demands a tiny brunette, standing on a second floor balcony of a play building that exists in this room.
“My friend, Carly,” Mia calls back.
“Okay.”
Apparently she just needed to know. Now she’s dismissed me and she heads inside the building.
“Wow. This playroom is… wow.”
Mia nods. “Isn’t it?” Indicating the blonde woman across from her with the tiny baby on the ground between her legs, Mia says, “This is Adrian’s wife, Elise.”
“Hi,” Elise says, putting her Aladdin pen down on the notebook and uncapping a bottled water to take a sip.
I look at the baby on the ground in front of her. She’s fast asleep, and boy, is she small. “That is a tiny baby.”
Elise nods. “She was a little early.”
“She just couldn’t wait to meet us,” Mia jokes.
“Yeah, who could?” I shoot back.
Mia smiles. “Probably a different experience for you. If you’re not one of us, it can be a lot to take in.”
“Also helps if your spouse isn’t Mateo’s bitter enemy,” Elise volunteers. “You drew the shortest straw in existence. Mateo hates Vince more than anyone.”
My gaze drifts to Dom. Now that there’s a new person around, he scoots over Mia’s leg and crashes to the soft mat before grinning up at me. I scoot down on my belly so we’re face-to-face. “Hey, cutie. Long time, no see.”
“You like kids, I take it?” Mia asks.
“I do. Big fan of kids.”
“Have you ever been to Disney World?” Elise asks.
I raise my eyebrows. “Me? No. Can’t say I have.”
“We’re planning our first trip this fall. I’m grilling everyone I know for their top to-do list items, but pretty much everyone I know lives here, and none of us have ever gone.”
“Ethan and Willow should’ve had Justine sooner,” Mia says, crawling forward and impressing me with her flexibility as she grabs the notebook and draws it to her, while still in a V. She basically did the splits to grab a notebook.
I bet Mateo is very sexually demanding.
“I know,” Elise agrees. “We could’ve forced them to go with us.”
Mia grins. “Ethan would’ve been so mad.”
“That’s okay. We could’ve just had Mateo hand down the summons. I’m pretty sure Ethan and Adrian secretly love to be mad at Mateo.”
“It’s the basis of their whole friendship,” Mia agrees.
“Nothing brings two people together like a common enemy,” Elise states.
“Is it weird being married to the communal villain?” I ask Mia, as Dom grabs a fistful of my hair and yanks it.
“Dom,” Mia says, dropping the notebook and untangling her baby’s fingers from my hair. “Sorry about that. I guess he didn’t appreciate you calling Daddy a villain.”
I snort, smiling up at her. “No biggie. I’m no stranger to hair-pulling.”
That seems to surprise her. “Really?”
Another small child I hadn’t noticed walks up from behind me, holding up a giant piece of construction paper as he heads past us toward the miniature city. “Rosie, I make picture for you.”
“Wow, you guys have a lot of kids in here, don’t you?”
Mia nods. “A few. We have two older girls, too, but they’ve pretty much outgrown the playroom.”
“You’re basically my age,” I state. “Did you start having babies when you were 12?”
“Step-daughters,” she explains. Then, patting her flat belly, she says, “I have another baby on the way, too.”
“Holy crap. You don’t get a break, do you?”
“Do you and Vince want kids?” Elise asks.
I glance at Mia, feeling a little awkward about answering that question in front of her when she’s the mother to Vince’s existing child. She seems mildly curious as she traps Dom back in her lap, absently bending to kiss the top of his head.
“Um, yeah, we talked about it.”
“He didn’t want kids when we were together,” Mia volunteers.
“Vince is a great guy, but he requires a little handling. A little coaching. Sometimes he’s not sure what he wants until you tell him.”
Elise grins, pointing at Carly. “I like her. Can we trade Meg and keep Carly?”
Mia rolls her eyes. “That’s not very nice.”
“I was going for truthful,” Elise says, innocently.