Chapter 22
DOMINIC
I’m pacing the entryway of the penthouse when the elevator dings and Sofia walks through it, face blotchy with tears. I barely have a chance to ask her what’s wrong before she throws herself into my arms.
It feels like coming home. We’ve never been like this before.
She’s never turned to me just for comfort.
I hold her loosely at first, afraid I might scare her off.
But as she clings to my shirt, I tighten my arms around her, gently rubbing her back while she sobs against me.
I don’t know what made her so upset, but I’m sure as hell going to find out, and punish whoever made her cry.
I lead her into the living room, where we sink onto the plush couch. I don’t spend much time in here, but Chiara insisted we needed a comfortable space to entertain guests.
When she finally sits up and wipes her face, I try to find out what’s wrong. She just shakes her head.
“I don’t want to get into it,” she says.
“Did something happen with your dad?”
She lets out a long, shuddering breath. I’ve hit the nail on the head.
“He doesn’t want to see me again,” she says. “He said as long as I’m associated with you, he wants nothing to do with me.”
I stiffen, anger surging through me.
“He what?” I say as calmly as I can manage. “You’re his daughter, how can he do that?”
She shakes her head. “I told you, Dominic, I don’t want to get into it. He’s just being a stubborn ass. He’ll change his mind once he calms down.”
I stand and look down at her. “What if he doesn’t? Sofia, I’m sorry, but that’s manipulative bullshit. I’m going to talk to him.”
“Dominic, stop!” she shouts, getting up and grabbing my arm. “You’re only going to make him angrier, and that’s the last thing I need. Please just leave it.”
“Sofia, he made you cry.”
She pulls me back down on the couch. “Lots of people have made me cry in my life, Dominic. He’s not the first one and he won’t be the last. If you go down there right now and shout at him, it’s going to prove to him that you’re exactly who he thinks you are.”
I clench my teeth. “I can’t stand for someone to hurt you,” I say quietly. “Not even your father.”
She smiles shyly and slides her hand into mine.
“That’s incredibly sweet,” she says. “And part of the reason I walked away. I’m not giving in to his ultimatum.
He’s a stubborn son of a bitch, but he won’t be able to stay mad once he knows there’s a little baby out there who shares his DNA.
We just have to give him a little time.”
“Okay,” I say reluctantly, even though I’m ready to go down there and tear his garage apart again for making Sofia so upset. “I’ll follow your lead.”
Now that she’s calmer, we decide to go upstairs and have dinner. I tell her I’ll call my chef, Julio, to make us something to eat, but she starts rifling through the refrigerator and pulling out ingredients.
“Have you ever cooked anything in your life?” she asks, smiling at me.
“No,” I admit. “Unless you count toast.”
She laughs. “I definitely do not. I’m going to teach you how to make a stir-fry. It literally could not be easier.”
I give her a skeptical look.
“A monkey could make this, Dominic,” she says seriously. “I think you can handle it. I’ll chop the vegetables because I don’t trust you with a knife.”
“Well, now, knife skills I have,” I tell her.
“Stabbing people and finely chopping vegetables are two completely different skillsets,” she deadpans.
“Fair.” I laugh, and go over to the stove.
This is definitely not rocket science. All I have to do is turn the dials, right? Although it takes me two tries to light the correct burner. Then, when I pull out a frying pan, she sighs and tells me it’s the wrong size. I didn’t even know frying pans had sizes.
Finally, she finishes and brings over the cut-up vegetables and chicken.
She adds a little oil to the pan to start cooking the chicken, then turns to the pantry for even more ingredients.
She moves so gracefully, so effortlessly, that I can’t help but watch.
I don’t often, if ever, pay attention to how my food gets made, so being part of the process fascinates me.
In no time, the food is cooked and she has me pull down plates so she can serve it up. She pulls out a stool at the kitchen island and sits down, gesturing for me to do the same.
“I usually eat in the dining room,” I tell her stiffly.
She smiles. “I know. It’s very weird. That table seats like twenty. Doesn’t it ever make you lonely?”
I shrug. “It never has,” I tell her honestly. “I’ve eaten in there my whole life.”
She stares at me slack-jawed. “You’ve lived here your whole life?”
“Yes. My grandparents purchased the lot decades ago and my father commissioned the building.”
“So, when you said you own the building…”
“I inherited it. I mean, technically Chiara also owns half, but she doesn’t care about that. As long as I let her design the apartments, she doesn’t fuss over the real estate.”
Sofia nods, digesting this information.
“What’s your net worth?” she asks a minute later.
I throw my head back and laugh. I never quite know where her brain is going to take her.
“Do you want the Fortune 500 answer or the real answer?”
“The real one.”
“At least ten billion,” I say as she lets out a startled choke. “I haven’t looked at the books in a while. This building alone is worth nearly a billion now. My grandfather got the land for a steal, and it’s accrued a lot of equity since.”
“That’s… a lot of money,” she manages.
“Which is why I’m very careful about who I let into my circle. Some people are so greedy and power-hungry, they aren’t trustworthy.”
She nods. “And some people barely make ends meet and have to use dirty loan sharks just to survive…” she trails off.
After that, we eat in silence. I think I’ve overwhelmed her, and after the emotional turmoil of the night, she probably needs the quiet.
Things thaw a lot between us after that.
She actually agrees to ride to work with me the next morning, and we have dinner together again the next night.
She tells me all about her childhood, and about her mom, who died when she was nineteen.
She and her father were always somewhat close, she says, but after they lost her mom, she felt the burden of caring for him.
It’s more than any child should have to carry, especially when her own life was just beginning.
The following day, Rafe comes into my office with a file in his hands.
“You’re not going to like this,” he tells me gravely. “We’ve analyzed the footage of the garage attack and—”
“It’s Calderone, isn’t it?” I scoff.
He frowns. “It’s worse than that,” he says grimly. “Whoever trashed the garage had internal information about our security. They made sure to cut the feed and they waited until there was a change in the security team.”
“Fuck,” I breathe.
“Also, we’ve confirmed the same with Sofia’s apartment. There was no video footage from any of the doorbell cameras we were given access to, and the security cameras were just as useless.”
“What the hell is going on?” I groan. “How is he doing this?”
“You know how, Dominic,” he says quietly. “Someone on your team is leaking information to him.”
“No.” I shake my head. “That isn’t possible. Everyone on my team has been thoroughly vetted. There’s no way we would miss something like that.”
“Unless it’s someone who turned later. Or someone in the family.”
I stare at him harshly. “That’s a big accusation to make,” I tell him. “Do you have any evidence to back it up?”
“Nothing concrete, but you have to admit, Dominic, this is more than just luck. How else would Calderone have gotten in on the Ardent deal? How did his men attack our building? How did they manage to get to Sofia and Marco without leaving any evidence?”
I pinch the bridge of my nose and let out a long breath.
“We need to smoke them out,” I tell him. “As soon as possible. And we need to start enacting our strategy against Calderone.”
He nods. “I’ll send out some guys,” he says. “We’ll rile up a few of their lesser businesses.”
“Keep it quiet,” I say. “Until we plug the leak, all our movements are going to be need-to-know.”
Sofia pops her head in then. Either she’d been listening, or her timing is impeccable. I’d bet she was listening.
“Are you telling me you can’t even trust the people closest to you?” she asks, her face pale. “Is my father in danger?”
Rafe sighs and looks at me to answer.
“I can’t guarantee anything,” I tell her honestly. “We’ll do whatever it takes to keep him safe. That’s the best I can offer.”
She shakes her head. “Please, Dominic. I have no idea what’s going on with him now, so I have to at least know he’s not going to get hurt.”
I stand and walk over to her, resting my hand on her arm. Rafe coughs uncomfortably, but I ignore him.
“You have my word that our security around him is as tight as it can possibly be. Without his cooperation, we’re doing the best we can do.”
She nods and looks down at her shoes.
“He’s going to come around, Sofia,” I remind her. “He has to.”
“I hope you’re right.”
I squeeze her arm gently, and she surprises me by stretching up to press a quick kiss to my cheek. Then she turns abruptly and heads back to her desk.
Rafe whistles lowly. “Seems like things between you two have gotten better.”
I smile wryly. “Seems like they have.”