Chapter Six – Angela
Chapter Six
Angela
Rabbit and I both woke up late the next day and Mark was gone.
I couldn’t blame him, I’d dragged his business down long enough, I was sure he had a lot to catch up on—especially after last night.
Would the powers that be at the Fleur actually let him wheel and deal on their behalf?
Would he still want to, knowing that he couldn’t have me?
Rabbit sat on a barstool in the kitchen, kicking his legs against what was no doubt some endangered Brazilian hardwood, hunched over so far on his elbow his face was almost in his cereal milk.
“I can’t stop thinking about Grandma.”
“I know, baby,” I said, sitting beside him, stroking his back. I hadn’t bothered with the pretense of food.
“Like why’d they do that, Mom? Why would anyone want to hurt her?”
“They weren’t after her, Rabbit. They were after us.”
He swiveled his head to look at me. “Why?”
“Because.” I’d never told Rabbit anything about his father, ever—but I owed it to him now. If anything happened to me—if Gray did steal him away—he’d never hear the truth until it was too late. I reached out for his hands and he gave them to me, along with his full concentration.
“You know how I always told you your father died?”
His eyes widened and he nodded.
“He’s not dead. He’s been in prison this whole time. He killed a woman—he killed lots of women.”
I held his hands tighter as I watched the news rock him.
“But—why—why’d you lie? Why didn’t you ever tell me?”
“Because he’s a bad man, Rabbit. Some of his friends are the ones that killed Grandma.”
“Why?” he asked, his volume rising.
If I told him ‘they were looking for you’ he might feel responsible, and that wasn’t fair. My boy was only seven, almost eight, he shouldn’t have to carry that kind of burden.
“They were after us. Because they’re bad. They just wanted to hurt us, was all.”
His face was red, fresh tears started streaming from his eyes, and his lips peeled back as he tried to speak instead of sob. “Well it worked!” he shouted. I let go of his hands, and took him into my arms.
“I know, baby. I’m so, so sorry. I wanted to tell you earlier—but I was scared.”
“They—they took Grandma,” he said, shuddering into me.
“I know,” I said, rocking him. Mark appeared in the doorway across from us. He was dressed in a suit, but he looked worse for the wear. He jerked his head slightly, asking if he could talk to me, and I nodded, mouthing the word Later.
It took an hour for Rabbit to calm down again, and I didn’t begrudge him the time.
We made our way back to his room upstairs where Mark had somehow gotten a few toys and stuffed animals in for him.
Between spikes of extreme emotion, it was like he was catatonic, staring off into space and thinking Lord only knew what.
I used one of those gaps to excuse myself to the bathroom—running downstairs to get the silver that I’d showed Mark last night, because my son still needed his ‘vitamins.’
And Mark was there. Maybe he’d been lurking outside Rabbit’s room this whole time—or the entire mansion was littered with cameras. “Hey,” he said softly, like talking louder would make me run.
“Hey,” I said back.
“Where are you going with that?” His eyes flickered to the small bottle I held.
“To give Rabbit some.”
“I overheard, earlier. You’d really never told him before, had you?”
“No,” I said and shook my head.
He walked past me and sat down. “I had to move heaven and earth this morning to get that contract signed, you know. I pulled every favor I had, and burned all sorts of bridges. If I didn’t know the location of so many bodies, literally, I wouldn’t have had a chance in hell.
As of right now, most of the family thinks I’ve fallen for a stripper, and are expecting wedding invitations. ”
I gave him a weak smile in response. I didn’t want to encourage him—and I was so tired of this breaking feeling in my heart.
“So—when are you going to tell him about that?” he said, pointing at the silver in my hand.
“I don’t know. Not now, for sure.”
“You can’t hide it from him forever, Angie. He deserves to know.”
Just because we were close didn’t mean I wanted Mark’s parenting advice. “How old were you, when you got big?”
He looked taken aback, and then considered. “High school, I think.”
“Did knowing you could easily beat up people make you a nicer person?”
“No, but—”
“If I tell him about this,” I cut him off, shaking the bottle, “it’ll change the whole rest of his life. He’ll never get to be a normal boy.”
Mark didn’t look convinced. “I spent my whole childhood wishing I could be Superman. Knowing that I was one would’ve made me a different man.”
“Better? Or worse?” I pressed him.
“I don’t know,” he answered, honestly, I could tell it by his eyes. “But I would’ve liked to be the one making that choice.”
I rocked back on my heels. “He’s not ready for that, Mark.”
“And tonight? When some magician shows up, along with the vampires who’re taking a lot—and I mean a lot—of my money? What’s he going to think then?”
“I don’t know—we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
“In eight hours,” he pressed.
I finally broke. “Are you being a dick just to prove that you can?”
“No, I’m being a dick because I care. And because after tonight I won’t get to see you again—despite the fact that there are Fleur hotels in many, many other countries.
” He stood and crossed the distance between us to catch my chin in his hand.
“You’re not alone, Angela—and it doesn’t have to be like this. ”
I took his hand in both my own. “It does for right now, okay? Because if anything happened to you—”
“Unlike Rabbit, I’m a grown man. And you shouldn’t get to decide for me.” He stepped back, boring into me with his dark eyes.
I inhaled to fight him—and then realized he was right. He’d already done so much for me, risked so much—now that he knew, truly knew, what he was getting into, who was I to fight him?
Especially when I wanted to be with him so badly?
“Where are the other hotels?” I breathed out the words. Elation leapt into his eyes, then he tried to hide it, just as fast.
“Paris, London, Tokyo, Hong Kong.”
I tried to imagine Rabbit and I in any of those places, and I couldn’t—but I could imagine Mark there. And if he was there, maybe we could try.
He read my expression and rushed forward, engulfing me in his arms to spin us around.
“No guarantees,” I said, leaning into him with closed eyes, feeling the whirl. This was what it felt like to be loved.
“I don’t need them,” he said, landing us both and brushing hair out of my eyes. “I just need to know that you want to be with me.”
“I do.” For better or worse, for even if it got both of us killed. “But you have to wait till I feel safe—I don’t know how long it’ll take.”
“I don’t care—as long as you’re on the other side.”
He kissed me then, the kind of deep plunging kiss that made you a little faint, and anything else I might’ve said was gone.