Chapter 29 #2
"Caden," I groan, sick of everyone trying to keep Achilles out. "They're just getting to know each other."
"He's collecting information to turn it into a mind-fuck. I know guys like him."
"Right. Because like recognizes like," I throw back.
Billie explodes into a laugh. "You deserved that."
The issue is, Achilles doesn't even blink at the accusations.
"Deny it," I order him as I kick him under the table.
"Why?" he asks, clueless to my demand. "He's right."
It's Caden's turn to laugh. "Never mind, I like him."
"I don't," I say sternly. "Achilles, this isn't a clinical trial for your weird obsessions or to bring back to an SFU professor. This is a birthday lunch. Don't make a case out of everyone."
"Not everyone." He shrugs. "Just him." And by him, he means Caden.
"Wait." Nate's voice rings out at the end of the table. He was busy trying to get Livie to eat peas until now, but clearly, he's always paying attention. "So, I'm not an interesting case, but he is? That weirdo?"
"Don't call my brother a weirdo," Kay calls out without an ounce of fear for the mafia man as she walks back in holding boxes of pizza.
"Little Sunflower." Nate chuckles. "Have you ever met your brother?"
My eyes light up when I see the name of the place she ordered from on the box. It's my favorite on the North Shore. We're eating in their Stoneview mansion, but no one can get us to eat stupid fancy food, and that puts a smile on my face.
"Fuck yes," I exclaim. "I haven't had Caprinos in forever."
"Bad word!" Lia shouts.
She then proceeds to shriek as she runs to the first box her mom puts on the table, and Livie attempts to leave her dad's lap, but he holds her back.
"Finish your peas, and then you can have unlimited pizza."
She shifts until she's kneeling on his thighs, facing him, and puts her palms on his cheeks before planting her forehead against his. As usual, she doesn't say a word, but she doesn't need to.
Nate throws his head back. "Livie… Fine. Go have as much pizza as you want, sweetie."
She giggles as she jumps off his lap, and Kay throws a garlic bread roll at him from where she's standing, which he catches easily with a dumb, wide smile on his face.
"Nate," she hisses. "She hasn't eaten a vegetable in a week. What are you doing?"
"You didn't see the look in her eyes."
"She's manipulating you. Stop falling for it. Every fuc—"
"Bad word," he says pointedly as he waves his finger at her.
"Oh, you'll hear some effing bad words later. You just effing wait. I'm going to shoot your effing head off."
His smug grin doesn't help her attitude.
We all laugh at her as she tries to stop Livie from grabbing five slices at the same time. And that's when it hits me. Achilles is laughing. Genuinely laughing.
It sounds gorgeous, and my heart melts in my chest. I'm falling in love all over again, with a new man who I didn't know could feel joy that deeply.
I don't say anything; I just hold his hand under the table as the pizza is being passed around.
He grips it back tightly, and I could die from happiness.
Lunch goes without any more trouble. I'm having too much of a good, stressless time to realize how quickly the afternoon is passing.
Candles are blown out, cake is eaten. Caden and Billie leave so they can spend the night at her dad and stepmom's house on the North Shore before heading back to New York tomorrow, where they live.
Once Nate takes the girls for bath time, the sun having already set, it's time for me to go back to my new life.
"Thank you for today, Kay," I say as we stand up.
Achilles, Caden, and Nate weirdly got along the whole afternoon. Triple the psychos, triple the covert insanity. Lia and Livie warmed up to him, and he was so good with them it made me want to meet Sophie and see what he's like with his own little sister.
"It was a lovely afternoon," Achilles says politely to Kayla.
I walk toward her for a hug, but she stops us with a cold voice and a deadly look.
"Sit back down."
My head jerks back, a confused scoff leaving me. "What?"
But Achilles gets it right away, putting a hand on my shoulder.
"I don't need a treat-my-daughter-right talk, Kayla. I get it. You're all dangerous in this household. I would care if I was planning on treating Nyx in any way that would hurt her, but I don't."
He takes a step toward the door, my hand now in his, but Kay's voice stops us again. There's something in it that comes from years of being a leader, and that commands a room.
"I said, sit back down."
This time when we turn our heads toward her, there's a gun on the table.
"Holy shit, Kay," I gasp. "What are you doing?" I sound like a kid being embarrassed by her mom, and honestly, it's kind of the North Shore version of that.
"It's alright," Achilles says to me. "You want to talk? Let's talk."
She sits at one end of the table, so he goes sit back at the other, and I'm in the middle like a damsel in distress. I'm always the fucking damsel in distress.
"Here's the thing," she starts. "I'm a busy woman, and I won't always have time to check on your behavior, which I know hasn't always been the best when it comes to Nyx."
"Don't you think this is a bit over the top?"
Ignoring me, she stares at Achilles as she keeps going.
"Do you know how I used to test people who would want to join the Kings?
They would share a secret. Something real, something I could hold over them.
It wasn't everything, but it gave me something to work with at first while I decided if they could fight by my side. "
One of her hands comes to rest on the gun without her picking it up.
"I want Nyx to have something over you, should you decide to stab her in the back. Because that's how you Stoneview kids do it, isn't it? Never really brave enough to confront someone, always making sure they're looking away while you bring them down."
"I know plenty of his secrets," I tell her while Achilles stays silent.
"I'm sure you do." She smiles warmly at me. "Whatever he wanted to share, he did. He felt safe. You're in love after all, right?"
Her black hair is shorter than it used to be, not going past her shoulders, and it gives her a more housewife look than the wild card we used to call the ruthless King. It doesn't mean she's any less dangerous, though.
Achilles chuckles, smiling to himself.
"You're good, Kayla, you know?" He looks around. "You hide in your Stoneview mansion, with your mafia husband, giving the impression of a retired gangster. But the things I found out about you could make any man cry for his life."
She cocks an eyebrow at him, the tattoo that says ‘Hell’ at her hairline shifting.
"I'm grateful that Nyx has someone like you in her corner," he finally says, and my mouth drops open.
What?
"You want me to give my most sacred secret to Nyx? I'll give it happily. I trust her with my life, and if that's what it takes for the person she trusts the most to trust me, then why wouldn't I?"
His eyes stay on Kay, seemingly unaffected, but I watch his Adam's apple moving as he gulps.
"I have a baby sister, Sophie. She's hiding with my mother from my abusive father in the South of France. I won't tell you where. That would be putting her safety at risk, and I can't do that, not even under torture."
Kay stays silent, sensing there's more to come. I know there's more to come because I was already aware of that secret.
He licks his lips, preparing for whatever he's about to drop, and his gorgeous gray gaze finally lands on me.
"Sophie isn't my sister. She's my daughter."