Nine #2
His grip loosens. The corner of his mouth twitches, and a low, satisfied breath escapes his throat. He lowers his face to kiss me, but I whip my head to the side. “Don’t. I don’t want this.”
He halts his advance but stays looming over me, breathing heavily. A small voice makes us both go still.
“Mama!”
He recovers faster than I do, jumping off me like he’s been electrocuted.
Aurora stands a few steps away, clutching her new teddy bear, almost as big as she is.
Maxim runs a hand through his hair and mutters a curse under his breath.
I sit up quickly, trying to fix my torn shirt.
Aurora drags the oversized bear toward me, her steps cautious as she passes Maxim, stealing a sideways glance at him.
Broken glass litters part of the floor a few feet away, but at least she’s still wearing her adorable bear-shaped slippers.
I open my arms and hug her. “Why are you awake, sweetie?”
She buries her face in my chest. “I want milk.”
I stand to head for the kitchen, but Aurora squirms in my arms. “My bear, Mama.”
I reach for the bear, but Maxim bends down first, grabbing it with a scowl. “I’m gonna shove this bear up Enrico’s ass.”
Aurora turns her head in my chest, peeking at Maxim, and asks softly, “Where’s Enrico?”
Maxim squeezes the poor bear so hard his knuckles turn white. He tosses it to the corner and turns to me. “Go get her another toy. I’ll make her some warm milk.”
As stunned as I am, I head upstairs. I lay Aurora down in her bed and tuck a blonde Barbie doll beside her.
A few minutes later, her breathing deepens, and she’s fast asleep.
I pull off my torn shirt, about to slip on a new one, when Maxim walks in with a glass of milk.
I freeze like an idiot, shirt in hand, as his hungry gaze roams over my breasts and bra.
Snapping out of it, I shoot him a glare and yank the new shirt on.
He looks at Aurora. “Wasn’t she hungry?”
I keep my voice low. “No, sometimes she wakes up and just needs comforting.”
He nods, staring at her for a long moment. “I gave you my card for exactly what I said. To help,” he says without breaking his gaze. Then, without so much as a glance at me, he walks out. A few minutes later, I hear the sound of him smashing the stage downstairs again.
***
As I head downstairs, I expect to see Maxim, but instead, a few burly men are cleaning up the mess he made last night. Both stages are smashed to pieces, and the stripper poles are gone.
I go to the kitchen, spread a blanket in the corner, and sit Aurora down.
The high dining chairs aren’t safe for her.
I hand her the Barbie doll and a few banana slices, asking her to “feed” her doll while I prepare breakfast. I heat up milk and fry some pancakes, then set the table.
I scoop her into my lap, but as usual, she fusses and squirms, making a scene about eating.
I’m chewing a bite of pancake when Maxim walks in, carrying a child’s high chair. He pauses for a split second when he sees us, then, moving with that same quiet confidence, strides over, pulls out a dining chair, and sets the baby chair in its place. I swallow my bite, staring in disbelief.
The chair’s backrest is shaped like a bear, complete with cute little ears. Aurora clings to me shyly, but then her eyes light up and she reaches out excitedly. “Mama, bear!”
Maxim cracks a faint smile at her enthusiasm, pulls out another chair, and sits at the table. Without hesitation, he drags the pancake plate toward himself and starts eating. Aurora tugs herself toward the blue high chair, chirping, “Mr. Bear!”
“Put her in it,” Maxim says, cool as ever.
I settle Aurora in the high chair and place a pancake plate on its little tray before returning to my seat.
“There’s an album on the foyer table,” he says. “Flip through it and mark whatever designs you like.”
“What album?”
“Some designs for a kid’s room. You can have any room upstairs, except mine.”
He talks so casually, eating breakfast like we’ve been married for years. I snatch the plate from him with a glare. He leans back in his chair, wiping the corner of his mouth with a napkin while chewing his bite.
“We’re not staying here, Maxim.”
He rests his forearm on the table, his expression unreadable. “Don’t you like the house? I can get another one.”
“I don’t like living with you. I don’t want you in my daughter’s life.”
His hand curls slightly into a fist, but he keeps his cool. “Why?”
“Why? What makes you any different from my father? He exploits women, and so do you.”
“Your father kidnaps helpless teenage girls and sells them to psychos for top dollar. I hire grown women who apply for the job and pay them good money. How are we anything alike?”
I scoff. “You think I’m stupid? You expect me to believe those women are selling themselves in your club by choice?”
The corner of his mouth twitches, his tone mocking. “Poor little Ava Wilson. If you’d spent less time in the sugarcoated, religious world of some nun and more in the real one, you’d know prostitution’s been a job for women forever. In some countries, it’s even legal.”
“Why would any woman do that?” I ask, genuinely curious. Sister Maria always said a woman would rather die than let her body be used for a man’s lust.
“Poverty, ambition, desire, desperation. I don’t know, and I don’t give a fuck why they do it. I’m their boss, not their daddy.”
I flinch at his crude words in front of Aurora and glance at her.
She’s still lost in her own world. I shoot Maxim a skeptical look, and he reads my thoughts immediately.
“You can walk into the club anytime you want, talk to any girl you like. I don’t force anyone to get under me or under any other man.
But let’s be real, I don’t need to. Half the women in this city would sell their souls to the devil for a night with me. ”
A chill crawls over my skin. He’s unbelievably full of himself, but he’s not wrong. The man’s a walking bundle of charm, money, and raw testosterone, strutting around like he owns the place.
I try a different approach. “In your world, Aurora’s always in danger.”
To my surprise, he bursts out laughing and mocks me. “Look who’s talking. Tell me, Ava, where would you and Aurora be right now if it weren’t for me?”
My breath catches and I drop my gaze. He’s got a point. I hear him again. “Care to share your brilliant plan for keeping the little carrot safe?”
I look at him in confusion. He reaches out and gently touches Aurora’s bright orange curls. She flinches a bit, her eyes widening as she pulls back slightly, mouth full of pancake, but doesn’t protest. Maxim draws his hand back and turns to me again.
“Tell me. How’re you going to keep her safe?”
The seriousness in his tone keeps me from dwelling on the nickname he’s given her. I lace my fingers together on the table.
“We’ll go to England. No one knows us there, and no one’s got a grudge against you. We’ll start over.”
He nods slowly like he’s processing it. “I have enemies everywhere. That’s lesson one.
Second, moving to another country isn’t a bad idea, but don’t forget where your father snatched your mom from.
Tracking you down in England would be easier for him than here in Italy.
Now, let’s say you pull some ninja-level disappearing act and dodge every crook out there.
What happens if you go out one day and don’t come back?
Who’s going to look after Aurora? You got family over there? ”
His words hit hard, and I shake my head.
He doesn’t miss a beat. “So our poor little girl ends up in an orphanage. While her father’s a rich man in Italy, she grows up in poverty because of her mother’s stupidity, cut off from everything she’s entitled to—father, family, wealth, everything.
And that’s if she’s lucky. If luck’s not on her side, some sick bastard takes her in, not to give her a happy life, but to sell her to traffickers.
The same fate as her grandmother, your mom, Ava. ”
I cover my mouth with both hands, eyes stinging with tears. My mom never spoke about her past. And now, learning this truth shatters my heart into a thousand pieces. She went into a family full of hope, and they sold her like cattle?
Maxim notices my stunned expression. He shuts his eyes, mutters a curse under his breath, shifts in his chair, then says more gently, “I thought you knew.”
“Are you sure?”
He only nods. Aurora notices a tear rolling down my cheek, and her voice trembles. “Mama, are you crying?”
I reach for her without thinking and lift her from the chair, pulling her into my arms. I breathe in her scent like I need it to stay upright. “No, baby. I’m not.”
I slide the straw of her milk glass to her lips and wipe my tear. Maxim stays quiet for a few seconds before speaking again.
“When you and Aurora were taken, Carlo wasn’t even fully sure she was mine.
Still, he didn’t think twice about arming his men to the hilt to save you both.
If something happens to you, Aurora has me.
If I go out and don’t come back, she has you.
And if something happens to both of us, Carlo, Emily, and Brando will guard her with their lives.
This girl has roots here, she has Luca and Gabriel.
And you want to take all that away because some women choose to work at the club I manage? Because you’re too damn narrow-minded?”
He gets more heated, finally pounding a fist against the table.
Aurora pulls the straw from her mouth and says timidly, still shy around Maxim, “Luca’s mean!”
Even with his fiery expression, Maxim offers her a faint smile and teases her with confidence. “Don’t worry, little Carrot. I’ll teach you how to put mean boys in their place.”
Aurora eyes his fist on the table and asks in her childish tone, “What’s that?”
Maxim raises his fist. “A tiger.”
She furrows her faint brows, puzzled. “Tigel?”
“Yeah, the kind with big claws and a loud roar.”