Convenient Mafia Vows (Ruthless Billionaire Mafia Kings)

6. Caleb

6

CALEB

My smile fades when I see the kid with Victoria.

They look as if they’ve spent the day on the streets in puffer jackets and jeans, rosy-cheeked, and hair mussed up by the late-winter breeze. Victoria watches me wide-eyed, clearly uncertain how I’ll react to the news that she has a kid. Would I have signed up for this if I’d known in advance? The way my cock is aching at the sight of her, I think I already have my answer.

But this … changes things. The world of a mafia boss isn’t exactly the kind of world you want to bring a kid into. I want kids one day. One day when I’m ready to walk away from this life.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Murray.” Miss Ingram grabs my attention, and I can’t help smiling to myself. I can picture her face when she saw the dark-haired kid with the woman she fired yesterday. “If I’d known in advance… I’ll speak to Roxanne at the reception desk.”

“It’s fine, Lauren.”

I don’t take my eyes off Victoria. Something about the way she’s looking at me makes me want to do things to her that would traumatize the kid for life, not to mention get me arrested.

Victoria waits for the door to close behind Lauren before she says, “I’m so sorry. I didn’t have anyone to watch Abigail. Her dad has gone AWOL, and my best friend has an important meeting with an art gallery today that I couldn’t ask her to cancel because she’s waited so long for this opportunity and, well, I didn’t want to keep you waiting.” Her voice dips at the end like she’s burnt herself out getting this all off her chest.

But I’m still dwelling on the words her dad has gone AWOL .

What the actual fuck.

What kind of asshole does that to their woman and kid? You don’t impregnate a woman and then continue to live like a bachelor, especially a woman like Victoria. She deserves better. So does the kid.

“What’s his name?” My voice sounds husky even to my own ears. I clear my throat, grateful that at least my cock has responded badly to the news also.

“What?” Victoria furrows her brow. “Who?”

“Her dad.” My gaze flickers to the child who has Victoria’s hair and eyes and already promises to be a beauty when she’s older. “You said he’s gone AWOL.”

Victoria sucks on her bottom lip, and I have the overwhelming urge to take it between my teeth and stick my tongue in her mouth.

“Mason Callahan.”

I press the button on the landline handset, and Lauren answers before it even rings on her desk. “Are they ready to leave, Mr. Murray?”

“No, Lauren. I want you to find a guy called Mason Callahan for me.”

“Where is he?”

“If I knew the answer, I wouldn’t ask you to look for him.”

I end the call and walk around the desk to face Victoria. Before I can speak, her shoulders slump, and tears collect on her bottom lashes. “Thank you. I’m worried that he’s gotten himself into serious trouble.”

The prick doesn’t deserve her worry, but I keep this to myself. When I find him, I’ll pay him to disappear until this is all over. I can’t have him making this difficult for us, and it’s too late to start over, not when Olivia will go out of her way to prove that I’m not legally married.

“Does he know about us?”

She blinks back the tears like she doesn’t understand the question. “Us?”

“Us, Victoria. You and me. Our contract that you agreed to earlier. Are you still together?”

“Together?”

How else can I put it? “Do you live together? Is he going to sell his story to the press and try to swindle me for a couple million bucks?”

“I…” She shakes her head. “Mason wouldn’t do anything like that.”

“You’re sure about that, are you?” It comes across way harsher than I intended, and I instantly regret it when she backs away from me.

“It’s fine. I get it.”

Her tone is cold, and I want warm Victoria back. I want the woman in the black dress who kissed me with her eyes closed. The woman who appeared in my dream with her legs spread wide and her butt in the air, ripe and wet, just waiting for me to fuck her.

“You’ve changed your mind because you don’t want any trouble.” She swallows hard. “Maybe you should’ve thought about that before you got involved with Olivia Dragon-face and dragged me into it. I thought that you were a man of your word, Caleb Murray. I guess we were both wrong.”

The disappointment in her voice cuts straight through my chest and slices me open. No one ever questions my authenticity—I say I’m going to do something, I do it, no matter the consequences because I’m generally three steps ahead of everyone else, and the consequences are what I make them.

She goes to walk away, and I grab her arm, but she flinches away from me as if stung, staring at her arm still clad in the puffer jacket. “Wait. Look, I wasn’t expecting you to show up with a kid. I don’t want her to be involved in this. It’s, well, let’s just say that this is no environment for a kid.”

“Too late, Caleb. She just got kicked out of kindergarten, and I need the money to send her to a different school.”

“She got kicked out of kindergarten?” I’m waiting for the punchline that doesn’t come. “How is that even possible?”

“Why do you care?” She sucks in a deep breath and releases it slowly. “Don’t worry about it. It’s not your problem.”

She’s right, it isn’t my problem, so, why am I so reluctant to let her go?

“I want to help,” I find myself saying.

I’m so close to her that I can smell the sweet lime and coconut scent of her shampoo. Without realizing what I’m doing, I take a lock of her hair and rub it between my fingers, stopping myself before I raise it to my nose like some kind of pervert with a hair fetish.

“How much do you need?” My voice is husky again.

“I don’t need anything from you, Mr. Murray.”

She straightens her spine, and I catch a glimpse of the fighter in her. Not the woman who jumped into a fight to save her loser brother, but the woman who is determined to succeed no matter what life throws at her. And it’s obvious it’s throwing some stinking shit her way right now, shit that I have no intentions of adding to.

“I’ll find another way to fund Abigail’s education.”

She tries to sidestep around me, and I block her path, backing her up against the wall.

Instinct kicks in, and I place my hands on the wall either side of her head, my face so close to hers that I can feel her warm breath on my cheek. She doesn’t fight it. Instead, her eyes lock onto mine, and I’m reminded again of Sandy’s eyes with the green and amber flecks sparking out from dilated pupils.

Sandy …

The name is on the tip of my tongue, and I swallow it before it can escape. I don’t know why, but I don’t want Victoria to know about Sandy. She’s already met Olivia, and I’ve already slid a few feet down the slippery slope in her estimation without calling her by another woman’s name.

“Stay.” My lips caress hers.

“Why?”

“Because we have an agreement.”

She lowers her eyes, and I realize that I’m losing her.

“And because I want you to stay.”

She peers directly into my eyes again. “Even with Abigail,” she whispers.

“Even with Abigail.”

I must be crazy, but my lips are on hers, and she’s kissing me back. I pin her to the wall with my body, raising her arms above her head with one hand, and unzipping the coat with the other.

“Stop.” She twists her mouth away from me. “Abigail.”

Fuck! I’d gotten so carried away that I’d forgotten all about the kid.

I pull away, my pants stretching over the bulge in my boxers which, thankfully, is covered by my jacket.

When I turn around, I find the kid, Abigail, sitting on one of the sofas with my tablet in her lap, the glare of the screen reflecting off her cheeks. “What are you doing?” I cross the room in three strides, panic coursing through my veins. The damage she could do if she hit the wrong key…

“Abigail?” I can hear the horror in Victoria’s voice even though she’s behind me, and I can’t see her. “Where did you find the tablet?”

“On the desk.” The kid glances at my desk like I’d left it sitting there so she could play with it. “I’m playing Solitaire.”

Fucking Solitaire? How does she even know what Solitaire is? What do they teach kids at kindergarten these days?

Victoria reaches the sofa before I do. Sitting beside Abigail, she studies the screen, a smile lighting up her face. “Are you winning?”

“Sure. I win every time.”

“You do, huh?” Victoria peers up at me. “She’s only playing a game. No harm done.”

“Did you touch anything else?” I ask Abigail.

“Nope.”

Then it dawns on me that the tablet was locked when she picked it up. It’s always locked. “How did you unlock it?”

“I figured out your pin while you were kissing.” She barely even glances up from the screen.

Victoria sucks hard on her bottom lip to suppress the chuckle threatening to explode.

“How did you figure out my pin, Abigail?” She’s like a mini version of Victoria sitting beside her, too young to even know how to switch on a tablet.

“Easy. It’s the street number of the hotel.”

“You worked that out all by yourself?”

Victoria’s head moves from side to side following the conversation as though she’s watching a tennis match.

“Yes.” Abigail doesn’t even glance up from the game she’s playing.

Something about the kid has piqued my curiosity. She’s been kicked out of kindergarten, I assumed for being naughty, and here she is playing Solitaire on my tablet which she hacked into while I was thinking about bending her mom over and screwing her from behind. “Can I see?”

I skirt around the sofas and sit on the other side of her so that she’s squashed between me and Victoria. She’s already close to completing the game, but a quick glance tells me that she has missed a card.

“There.” I point to the eight of hearts. “This card can be moved.”

“Not yet.” Abigail continues to flick through the deck on the screen until she comes across the card she’s obviously been waiting for. One move, and I can see that the game is wide open for her to clear up.

“How did you do that?”

“I watch the cards.”

“You watch the cards?”

If she’s telling the truth, the kid is a genius. The kind of client we look out for in the casinos and try to curb before they clean out the banker. The kind of person we could always use on our side.

“Did you know she could do this?” I lean forward and address Victoria while Abigail starts another game.

“Abigail is very bright.” Victoria keeps her voice low and her eyes on the tablet. “She was suspended from kindergarten for dismantling an expensive projector.”

“It was broken,” Abigail interjects.

“The head teacher suggested that the Lutheran Prep Academy would be better suited to her … talents.”

“How old is she?” I ask.

“I’m five.” Abigail peers up at me, and I get the feeling that she’s sizing me up and deciding whether to trust me or not.

“I’m impressed, Abigail. Who taught you to hack into computer equipment?”

“No one. I taught myself.”

“She watches YouTube videos,” Victoria says.

“I’ll pay for her to get into the Academy.” I’m not just doing this for Victoria now. With the right tuition, the kid would be an asset to the Murray family business when she’s older, and there are way too many shysters out there who would exploit her if they knew what she could do. “A talent like this needs nurturing.”

“Whoa.” Victoria is on her feet in an instant. “What’s going on here?”

“Nothing.” I stand up; it’s a tough habit to break, needing to be the one doing the intimidating. “The kid— Abigail ,” I correct myself, “needs someone looking out for her.”

“You think I don’t know that?”

“That’s not what I said.”

“It’s how it sounded.” Victoria’s hands are balled into fists. “When we walked in here, you were worried about Mason ruining your scheme to get your ex off your back, and now you’re acting all protective like we haven’t done alright without you so far.”

“What’s wrong with wanting to protect you?” I don’t understand how Victoria is twisting this around and acting like I’m the monster here when the kid’s dad has vanished like a genie in a bottle as soon as the going gets tough. “I take care of what’s mine, Victoria.”

“Why?” Her cheeks are flushed, and it isn’t just because she’s still wearing her coat. She lowers her voice and turns away from Abigail so that she can’t hear what’s being said. “Why do you want to protect her? What’s in it for you, huh?” She doesn’t add that Abigail isn’t mine—she doesn’t need to.

“I get my ex off my back as you so rightly pointed out.”

Victoria shakes her head. “There’s more to it than you’re letting on.” She glances at Abigail, and her expression immediately softens. “She has me to look out for her. The deal is off. Come on, Abigail. We’re leaving.” She holds out her hand for the kid to take.

“Can we get ice cream now?”

“Don’t leave, Victoria.” What am I doing? There must be an easier way to stop Olivia, but short of forcing her upon one of my brothers, I can’t think of anything else right now. “Look, don’t get me wrong, her talents in a casino… Hell, I could make a fuck-load of money out of her. But that’s not what’s going on here.”

“You cussed,” Abigail pipes up. “You need to put money in the cussing jar.”

“The cussing jar?” I can’t help smiling even if it isn’t reciprocated by Victoria. “Please don’t back out now. I want to help you. Both of you.”

“You think you can get Abigail into the Academy?”

“I know I can.” Say it with confidence; it works every time.

“And you’ll find my brother too?”

“Your brother?” It’s my turn to be confused.

“Mason. Abigail’s dad.”

Mason Callahan . I was so taken aback when Victoria walked in with Abigail that I didn’t even register the name when she said it. The brother who got into a sidewalk brawl is Abigail’s father. I don’t know how that happened, or where her mom is, but I’m guessing Victoria is the one who cares for her much of the time as well as working God knows how many jobs to pay the bills.

And suddenly, I realize that I’m not even fazed by the kid’s presence in this relationship. Fake relationship I remind myself.

“Yes, I’ll find Mason. Now, who wants ice cream?”