Chapter Twenty-Four
REX OPENED THE door of his house and stepped inside. It should not have felt so strange to walk into his own home, but it did. He hadn’t lived there for most of the last five years. Rex had bought it initially, trying to distance himself from the family by moving out of their family home. He probably would have stayed in his own house even after finishing college, but one night of drunken confessions with Tommy after Stella and Damien had come along had led to them both realizing that they had no real interest in keeping the old family business going.
Now, here they were five years later, and they were only marginally closer to actually getting there. Rex had let all kinds of hope of a normal job in investing and, maybe someday, a family bubble up inside him. The last two weeks had ruthlessly crushed those hopes. He’d had to buy the woman of his dreams from an auction, kidnapped her family, had his cousin stolen, and had vast amounts of money stolen in some kind of cyber-attack on his actual family. He didn’t dare bring that to the kind of family he hoped for.
That was what Ari deserved, too. A real family. She already had people depending on her and had stepped up in a way most people never would or could. Just thinking about her made his chest ache a little. The next two years would be hard for him. She would be right there. As close as she could get and just as far out of reach as ever.
Moving back to the house he’d bought and rarely used was the best way he could think of to protect her. Sure, there were other bedrooms in the family house. It was a three-story monstrosity with room for half an army. It was meant to be lived in by generations of family and those who served them. He couldn’t do that, though. He knew himself well. He should, he’d spent years figuring it out after watching his sister walk out.
What would Kayla think of his decision to stay away from Ari? Would she even believe he knew how to love someone? He did. He loved Ari. He was pretty sure he’d loved her from the moment she’d looked into his eyes from that stage, but it was hard to pinpoint. Since then, there had been a thousand moments that had made it bigger. Those were memories he would treasure in the years to come. Maybe someday someone would come along and make them less painful, but it was unlikely. He’d never be able to protect and care for a family the way they deserved. That was one certainty his father had never been able to shake through all the trainings and beatings to toughen him up. Losing Kayla and watching his mother and aunt stop caring about anyone or anything over the years had shown him the ugly truth. What they did might have been necessary in some ways, but Rex knew there were places in the world that people figured it out on their own.
Rex heard a noise behind him and had the gun drawn from his holster before he even turned around. No one was there, but a white envelope was sitting on the floor beside the door. Rex stayed frozen with his weapon trained on the door for thirty seconds. He listened intently but heard nothing else. He kept the gun in his hand and edged close to the door. Reaching out with the toe of his shoe, he nudged the envelope, but nothing happened. He put the weapon away and reached down to pick it up. Flicking it open, he found two folded sheets of paper. The first was just a few words:
You might need this.
Typed out. There was no handwriting to check, so he had no clues who it had come from. The second sheet of paper took a little longer to decipher. When he finally figured out what it was, he whipped the door open. Ari stood on the step, shivering in the frosty night air.
“How long were you planning to stand there?” he demanded.
She didn’t answer, just pushed past him to get to the warmth. When she turned around and realized he actually wanted an answer, she just shrugged. “At least a few more minutes. Liesel said you might need some processing time.”
“Liesel did this?” he asked, waving the paper.
Another shrug. “I guess so. She handed it to me, and Tommy basically pushed me out the door to test drive my new car.”
“He let you out of the house alone?”
“Apparently the car is the safest there is and comes with a GPS tracker that he assured me he would watch to make sure I got here.”
Rex snorted. That was just like his cousin. Then he turned back to the paper in his hands. What did it mean? It was a paystub from Gemini corporation. That was the name of one of many shell corporations Liesel used to push their funds around to make them legal. This particular pay stub had his name on it and made it look like he collected a regular salary. Which was ridiculous; there was no salary with a pay stub for a crime boss. Why would he need this? They didn’t do anything on the books… unless?
“Do you know what this is?”
She shook her head. “No, I just wanted to talk to you.”
“About what?”
Ari shifted her feet, looking distinctly uncomfortable. “I don’t want you to leave your family. Not for me, for us. You’ve already done so much for me…” She trailed off, biting her lip and all he wanted to do was kiss that lip. He resisted that temptation, though. Was she trying to tell him she wanted to leave, or that she wanted him there? How did he ask that without putting pressure on her? When he didn’t answer her, she kept going. “If it’s the room, then I don’t mind us moving somewhere else in the house. It would be better if the kids had their own rooms, anyway. I mean for the custody stuff.”
Ari looked down at the floor, refusing to meet his gaze now. Rex let her for the moment as he tried to figure out what was going on. Why had Tommy let her come over here? He knew why Rex was staying away. It was too dangerous for her to be a part of his life. And what was Liesel trying to tell him? Thoughts teased him. He couldn’t be a part of Ari’s life because it was too dangerous, and he was not what anyone would consider a family man. She had kids to take care of.
Rex hated that she had to do it alone, though. She wouldn’t really be alone. Tommy and Liesel would probably do anything for her now since she’d helped save Stella. Even…what if? He pulled out his phone and dialed Liesel.
“What?”
“What is this?”
“It’s your salary as the chief financial officer of Gemini Inc.,” Liesel rattled off, sounding bored.
“When did I get a job?”
“You’ve always had one,” she answered.
“Who knows about this?”
“The IRS, the feds, the department of family services…” she trailed off.
“What makes you think they needed to know?”
There was silence at the other end of the line for a long minute before she said, “Did you call me to ask stupid questions instead of dealing with your girlfriend?”
Rex felt like all the air was sucked out of his lungs. “Are you meddling?”
“Wouldn’t dream of it. I need you to manage all the money I make as the chief executive officer.”
“Thanks,” he said dryly. He hung up without waiting for an answer. Liesel and Tommy were handing him a ticket to what he wanted. Wanted so badly he’d been willing to walk away to do what was right. But how did Ari feel about all of this? Would she even want to be with him? Why would she? Still, she was here. She’d come to find him. It would have been just as easy to ask Tommy for a new room and have him do the talking.
“Ari?” he asked, trying to keep a tight rein on the desire that he wanted to let flood his voice. This had to come from her first.
“Why do you care where I’m sleeping?”
She gaped at him, then spun on her heel and headed back out the door. Rex reached out on instinct, grabbing her arm, and dragging her back to him. She put up a token resistance, but Rex knew this wasn’t all she had. Hell, she’d fought him more the night he’d caught her trying to escape. He brought his mouth right next to her ear and whispered, “Answer me.”
A shudder ran through her body. Triumph flared in him, but quickly died, too. Desire wasn’t enough. There had to be more. This was too much to go after for her to decide later she didn’t really want him. She kept her mouth stubbornly closed, though.
It went against every single self-preservation instinct he had, but Rex forced himself to say it first. “I didn’t really want to leave, Ari. If I had my way, I’d never leave you again. You mean too much to me to ignore what you want though.”
It was out now. The woman in his arms froze for an instant before tugging her arm free. Damn it. Shit. She didn’t feel it. She just felt bad. She didn’t want him. Couldn’t…would never. He was a criminal, and she was so much better—
He didn’t get to finish that thought because she launched herself into his arms.
Ari shuddered when Rex’s arms came around to catch her. She buried her face in the side of his neck and inhaled. In a very short time, she’d come to associate the smell that was uniquely Rex with safety and comfort. Which should be absolutely ridiculous. She’d spent her entire life around dangerous men. The idea that she wanted to continue to do so now, voluntarily, should be ludicrous. It wasn’t, though. This man was more. He was brave and loyal. He’d cared for her when she’d only been a nameless girl on a stage. He and his family were giving her back all the dreams she’d thought were lost to her.
Finally she leaned back and stared into his eyes and said, “Rex, I love you.”
“Ari—”
“Please don’t tell me I don’t know you. Or that I’m too young to know what love is. I’ve never been in love before, but I’ve seen enough of what it’s not to know that what I feel right now is special.”
Rex waited and then asked, smiling, “Am I allowed to talk now?”
She gave him a sheepish smile and a nod.
“I’ve loved you since I laid on eyes on you. Even when I thought it was wrong on every level to love you and want you, I did it anyway. And every day since then the things you’ve done and said have shown me how right I was.”
“You loved me when you spanked me?” she asked teasingly.
His face turned serious. “You know as well as I do that if I hadn’t felt something, I would have done a lot worse to someone who disobeyed a direct order.”
She studied him for a few seconds before saying, “No, I don’t think that’s true. You’re a Nardone, and you always will be, but you’d never hurt someone without getting the story. If so, you wouldn’t have brought in Jordan, you’d have taken retribution. If you were the person you seem to think you are, you would have brought my brother and sister to me and left my mother to die.”
Rex stared at her in stunned silence. Had he never realized that his actions didn’t match the persona he presented?
“I’ve wanted out for years,” he finally said quietly. “Pretty much ever since my sister walked out. Her leaving made me take a hard look around, even though I was younger. Listening to my mother beg my father and my uncle not to kill her scared me. All I could think was, ‘Is that really all it takes to lose their love?’ I decided then and there I didn’t want that life.”
He put her down on the floor, but he didn’t let her go. He just kept talking. “At first I told my father what I was thinking. I don’t know why. Maybe I thought he’d leave me alone like he was doing with Kayla? That wasn’t an option for me as his son, though. I was expected to take my place in the family. He spent months hurting me and forcing me to step up in business and take part in the beat downs. If I didn’t do enough, then he’d do it to me later.”
Ari gazed at him wide-eyed, but she didn’t interrupt him.
“It didn’t take me long to start playing the loyal son again. In my senior year, I begged him to let me go to college for accounting and finance. I said it made sense for me to be able to do the books myself. Sold it as being better able to outsmart the IRS and such. He lapped it right up. Took me right to Tommy’s dad, who agreed. I got a job while I was gone and did some street fighting to get money. That’s how I bought this house. I wanted something that was only mine. You know?” he asked, looking at her. Begging her with his eyes to understand.
“I know. I really do.”
“So what do we do about us?” he asked, his voice soft.
“Do you want there to be an us? I mean,” Ari sighed. “I don’t really come unattached. I’ve got kids to raise and plans for school.”
Rex leaned over and kissed her. Gently at first, then deeper. She opened to him and let out a breathy little moan.
“If you’ll have me, I’ll be right by your side through all of it. I know I’m not the ideal partner with my family—”
Ari stretched up to kiss him and shut him up. “You are amazing. Your family is amazing. I couldn’t ask for a better support system to get through all this and learn to be a parent instead of sister.”
“Then I guess we should go home,” Rex said.
Ari’s heart and mind felt lighter than they had in years. No, they didn’t have it all figured out. Not by a long shot, but she wasn’t going to give up a chance at love if she could have it all. She knew without being told that there would be bumps in the road and challenges. What relationships didn’t have that in the best of circumstances? And theirs certainly didn’t qualify as the best… maybe somewhere around moderate. She looked at Rex as he drove her new car, because of course he’d insisted, and couldn’t stop the smile on her face. Whatever it brought them, she was glad that he would be by her side, so she told him that.
“For as long as you’ll let me, Ari,” he said, kissing her knuckles before turning his attention back to the road.
And really, what more could you ask for?
They think they’re safe, but each day I get closer to my ultimate goal. While they’re distracted, I’ll pull even more strings, weakening them until they have no resources left with which to fight me. I wonder what they’ll say when they realize what I’ve done and who it is that will finally be their downfall. Not that I care. I’m taking what they have and making it mine and there is nothing any of them can do about it.