Chapter 16—Bobby
“What was that for?” Willow asks in that breathy way that only a person who was thoroughly kissed can after the mere parting of lips.
I watch her eyes flutter open before I push a piece of hair behind her ear. She wore it half down today, and I enjoy the feel of her soft strands in my hand.
“I was tired of her trying to get my attention. Now she can think whatever she wants, stop interrupting us, and get back to work.”
I continue to observe her as she takes in my words. Her shoulders tighten, and then she sits straight up, pulling her body away from me. “Right. The anniversary party.”
I’m about to correct whatever she’s thinking when I’m interrupted by a single word.
“Sir.”
I look behind me and see Marco. The way his jaw ticks tells me more than words ever will.
“Excuse me for a second.” The moment between us will have to wait.
I stand quickly and walk with Marco to the elevator.
I know not to talk out in the open when he’s like this.
Few might see it, but there are two sides to Marco.
The side of him as my second-in-command and traditional bodyguard.
And the other side, the one where he waits on the cusp of my word to go to war with whoever has offended him.
And by offending him, I mean someone hurting me or my family.
Marco’s loyalty is stronger than any other man I know, and I don’t doubt that if the Leone family was willing to add more men, he would be accepted quickly.
But we aren’t, and he’s never voiced a desire to be anything more than my second.
As the elevator doors close, I ask, “What is it?”
“Lily’s not talking.”
My thoughts have been on who could have gone to war with the famiglia, running through a million potential threats that could have occurred in the time I had lunch. This isn’t one of them.
“Come again?”
He looks over at me the second the doors open. “When has Lily ever not talked?”
His words ring true, and my heart beats in fear as I match pace with him as we exit.
“Mary called it in and is bringing them here now instead of taking them to their after-school programs.”
We push through the front doors just as Mary pulls up and parks right in front of us. I don’t think twice before I open the back seat and get in, while Marco gets in the passenger seat up front. Mary steps out, and I turn to the girls.
Neither is looking at me at first, until Ivy breaks and peeks up at me from under her eyelashes.
“Hey, little one.” I speak softly as I maneuver to look at them both. The SUV isn’t as big as my car, but my comfort is the last thing on my mind right now.
“Hi.”
“Want to tell me what’s going on?”
Ivy looks at Lily, who just keeps staring down at her lap. I glance at Marco and see he’s barely holding back his anger at the way she’s acting. Something definitely happened.
“Lily.” Marco calls her name and waits a beat, probably hoping she’ll look up at him.
But she doesn’t, so he continues speaking as if she did.
“Is there a dragon I need to destroy?” The way he says the last word, it’s all growly, like a true dragon would be.
But not even that gets a reaction from our sweet girl.
“What happened, Ivy?” I go with direct, hoping it will get me something. Anything.
“Lily… Lily was told to keep a secret.” She bites her bottom lip, looking at her sister with worried eyes as Lily finally reacts. But it’s just to glare out of the corner of her eye at Ivy.
“A secret, huh? Want to tell me what it is?”
Ivy shakes her head. “I promised not to say.”
I nod. “I get it. A sister’s promise is higher than any other promise. I know my sister would be pretty mad if I broke mine.”
“You have a sister?” Finally, Lily speaks. I hear Marco’s exhale of relief, matching my own.
“Yup. She’s younger than me, but very mean when she wants to be. She once tried to burn my pants.”
“Why?”
“Because I lied. And she wanted to teach me a lesson.”
The girls are silent until Ivy giggles. “Like the song. ‘Liar, liar, pants on fire.’”
I nod. “Yup, that’s the one. My mama was mad at her, but she was right to do so.”
“What did you lie about?” Lily asks, still engaged.
“I said I didn’t eat her Halloween candy.”
“But you did?” Ivy inquires.
“Yeah. But the worst part was, I didn’t know I was allergic to coconut until then. I had a Mounds bar and broke out in hives. Mama took me to the hospital, and then we came back to Milly burning my pants in the front yard.”
Ivy laughs, but Lily just gives a small smile before looking down again.
“Lily.”
This time, she looks up. Just a little. Her fine wisps of hair at the front of her hairline, matching the color of her mother’s and sister’s, tease her eyelashes. She and Ivy are the spitting image of Willow, and I can’t help but want to take on the world for them.
“If I tell you one of my secrets, will you tell me yours?” I ask.
Lily looks at her sister, then back at me and nods slowly.
“I have a crush on your mommy.”
“You do?” Her eyes go wide as she fully lifts her head to look at me.
I nod. “I do. It’s a big crush too.” I look at her, then at Ivy. “But I’m not ready for her to know. Do you think you can keep that a secret between us for now? I promise to tell her, and I don’t want you to hide things from her, but I think this is an okay secret to have. Don’t you?”
She and Ivy nod so fast, I almost fear they’ll get whiplash.
“Thank you. Now your turn.”
I wait patiently, noting Ivy nodding at Lily, giving her the encouragement to tell me.
“Mr. Weaver wants me to keep a secret. Told me not to tell anyone, not even Mommy.”
I tense up and hear the creaking from the front seat. Marco is either adjusting in his chair, or the armrest is getting a dent from the pressure he’s inflicting on it.
“What’s the secret?” I press gently.
“I asked him if I could pick the warm-ups like Ivy did.”
“Mr. Weaver is the PE teacher. I had to work for a month to become the student leader for my grade,” Ivy explains.
“Yeah, and I wanted to be the student leader for my grade.”
“Except they don’t do that for kindergartners,” Ivy says, once more interrupting to give me more details, which I appreciate.
“Right. I didn’t know that. He said I needed to talk to him at recess about it, so I went after lunch to see him, and he told me to come to his office.
He said that kindergartners don’t get picked because it wouldn’t be fair to everyone.
But if I wanted to help him at recess, I could be the student leader, and no one would know. ”
“What did he want you to help him with?”
Watching Lily shut down before my eyes has me fighting harder than anything in my life not to hit something.
“Lily.” I need to know. Even if it will be hard to hear, I have to know. The man’s dead already for making Lily keep a secret. Knowing more just tells me how much torture will be bestowed on him before his last breath.
“He said I could help pick up around his office, and then, if we finish that, we could watch TV together because he gets lonely.”
Yeah, nothing about that sounds good.
“And he asked you to keep that a secret?”
Lily nods.
“Did you stay and watch anything with him today?” Did he touch her already? Did he hurt my girl?
“No, Ivy was looking for me.”
I look at Ivy, who nods. “I wanted to play on the swings, and Lily likes to push. I asked her friend where she went, and they told me. When I showed up, Mr. Weaver had his hands on her shoulders, and I didn’t like it.
I took Lily out to play, but she didn’t want to, so we just sat on the benches.
I saw Mary sitting in the car and waved at her.
She came to the fence and asked what was wrong, since we never sit down, and I said Lily didn’t want to play.
The next thing I knew, we were being pulled out of class. ”
Mary is getting a raise. A giant one. She noticed right away that something was off and took action. Willow might be pissed to learn I had things changed in the school system to allow my team to collect the girls at any time, but once she learns why, I think her anger will be focused elsewhere.
Fuck. This is going to crush her. But unlike the dead PE teacher walking, I won’t keep this from her.
“Lily, I have one more question.”
She nods.
“Did he touch you anywhere else?” Say no. Dear God, say no.
“No. But… I think he wanted to. Mommy said that only certain people can touch certain places, and that cuddling isn’t something you do with anyone but during family girl night or movie night when I’m super tired and need Mommy to be my pillow.
I think Mr. Weaver wanted to cuddle, and I didn’t want to be mean, because that gets me in trouble, but I don’t want to cuddle with boys. Not even my giant. Sorry.”
“Smart, kid.” Marco nods with approval.
“Okay, thank you for sharing your secret. I think you should tell your mom, though.”
“Do you think she’ll be mad?” Lily asks, with more worry than she should.
“Never. Come on. I just left her upstairs eating french fries.”
“French fries? Do you think she’ll share?”
How did I know that food would bring out the smiling Lily again?
“If she doesn’t, I’ll order you some.”
“Yippee!” both girls cry out as they bounce out the car door that Marco has opened for us. We walk as a unit, with Mary behind us, toward the elevators.
“Boss,” Marco starts. The part about him handling it goes unspoken. It’s an ask and a plea all in one. I nod, and he veers off.
“Where’s my giant going?” Lily asks as we enter the elevator.
“To slay one of many dragons,” I say with a smile as I let her grab my hand and we ride up the elevator together, knowing that this dragon won’t see another tomorrow.
I’m exhausted when I get home. It’s only ten, but it’s been a long-ass day.
The venue shift was a mess, but so was dealing with everyone who came.
It was more than a family event, which made it a famiglia event.
Also known as a dog and pony show. Sure, everyone was there for Dad, and they bid high enough that the charity Mama picked will be more than happy to take the money and look the other way regarding where it came from.
But it also meant I couldn’t fully relax.
The Leones might run the famiglia, but my brothers and I learned long ago that our guard always needs to be up, even among friends.
After all, the Maranzettis were our friends until they weren’t.
I make it as far as my couch before I hear the elevator doors open. I turn just in time to see Willow stepping out and entering my home.
“Willow. Is everything all right? Are the girls okay?”
She doesn’t say anything, just stands at the entrance to my space for a moment.
I clear my throat. “Did I overstep again? I thought you wouldn’t have minded that I sent up princess costumes for the school event tonight.”
“We didn’t go. Not to the school. Didn’t seem right after….”
I nod. I understand. “Hopefully, the neighbors gave you some candy at least. If not, I’m sure I can get you some to give to the girls so they don’t miss out on Halloween.” No one should miss out on free candy, especially a child.
At the mention of me wanting to do more, she moves. There’s determination in her stride as she gets closer.
She’s changed since I last saw her. When I brought the girls to her, she was surprised but happy to see them.
Until she realized the time and questioned why they were out of school.
I told her that the girls had something to tell her and that Mary would take them home.
She was so focused on them that worry overtook questions about work.
If she had voiced them, I would have told her to ignore the job and focus on her daughters instead.
But that was hours ago.
“I don’t need to know everything. I don’t even think I want to. I keep my head down enough to go unnoticed, but that doesn’t mean I don’t hear things. That I don’t know things.”
She’s a foot away from me, and I swallow the emotion that’s bubbling to the surface. If she’s saying what I think she is, I have feelings—very strong feelings—on what she’ll say next.
“I’m asking you, as a mother, to please take care of this. Please make this go away for my daughters, and for me.”
I scan her eyes. Ones she lays open for me to read at will.
She’s not saying anything outright, but I know what she wants.
What she needs. As a person, it’s hard to stomach the thought of anyone hurting a child.
As a parent? I can only imagine so much of what she’s feeling.
I’m sure it’s at least double what I am.
I might not have been there when Lily and Ivy took their first breaths or steps in this world. But I plan to make sure they keep going forward and don’t fall to any demons out there. Including a teacher who preys on the children at his school.
I would have done this for anyone.
But for her? Her girls?
I would burn the world for them.
“It’s already taken care of.”
I speak softly and wait for her next move.
Either it was just talk and she didn’t mean to cause true harm, or she did.
Only her next actions will tell me how she feels about me confirming the rumors she’s heard.
The connections she’s put together about what my family, the House of Leone, can do will determine what will become of us going forward.
She takes a step forward, closing the gap, and wraps her arms around me, holding me close as she burrows into me.
Mine.
“Thank you.”
I wrap my arms around her with a silent promise: Always.