28. Chapter 28
Rory
I was sweating, hungry and so, so tired of trying on dresses. They were all gorgeous, but I was nervous about going back to Elio’s house and ended up finding a flaw with every dress I tried on. I stared at the navy blue fabric wrapped around my torso and frowned as I pulled the curtain aside and stepped out of the dressing room. I stopped in front of Cal, who was seated on a chaise lounge, and threw my arms up, letting them drop against the silky fabric dramatically.
“I like this one. What’s wrong with it?” Cal asked.
I rolled my eyes and tried to raise my arms again, but my bracelet snagged on the fabric and pulled a thread loose. My eyes widened as I quickly tried to remove the bracelet from the dress and huffed in exasperation. “The chest is too big. I look completely flat and I hate these ruffles and I CAN’T GET THE DAMN brACELET OFF THE DRESS!” My voice rose with my frustration and the sales associate, Liz, quickly jogged over, kneeling in front of me.
“Here, let me help with this,” she said soothingly as she made quick work of disconnecting the dress from my bracelet. “There! All done. I don’t think this one suits you. Go take it off. I have the perfect dress in mind.” She rose to her feet and scurried off back out to the floor.
I watched her go and then turned to Cal. “I like her a lot.”
He smirked and lifted his chin to Finn. “Make sure Liz receives a tip for assisting my wife so well.” Finn dipped his chin but didn’t move from his spot against the wall while I turned back to the dressing room.
I stripped out of the blue dress and hung it on the hanger, sitting on the little stool and resting my head against the cool mirror while I waited. Seconds later, a soft knock sounded before a hanger slipped through a small gap in the curtain.
“I think this one is perfect for you,” Liz said as I took the hanger and handed her the navy dress.
“Thank you so much for all your help, Liz. Give this dress to Cal and we’ll be sure to pay for it since I damaged it.”
The dress disappeared out of my dressing room. “Nonsense, ma’am. We’ll just put it on our discount rack. I’ll wait here for your reaction to this one.” Excitement bubbled in her voice and I eyed the silver material as I pulled the hanger loose.
Once I had the dress on, I couldn’t stop staring. It was beautiful. It was silver but when I turned a little from left to right, it shimmered like a pearl with pale pink, blue and purple. The bodice was figure-hugging and the material clung to my slight curves without being indecently tight. A sweetheart neckline draped into off-the-shoulder sleeves, which were tight at the arms but loose and flared at the wrists. The material hugged my hips before flowing loosely around my legs, with a slit all the way up the left, baring my entire leg. I smiled and stepped out of the dressing room.
“Oh, I knew it! I knew this one would be perfect! Look how it fits you!” Liz gushed.
Cal’s eyes roamed my body and hunger burned like fire in his gaze. I turned and showed him the back of the dress, which exposed almost my entire back. As I turned back around, he nodded in approval and told Liz, “This one. Please bag it up and have it delivered to Cassandra’s.”
I frowned. “Cassandra’s? Why are we going there?”
“Because your selfish husband spent too long between your legs this afternoon and didn’t give you enough time to do your hair and makeup before the party this evening.” Liz squeaked and hurried to busy herself, gathering a garment bag and a shoebox.
“Ma’am, if you’ll just try these on to be sure they fit?” She held out a pair of strappy heels covered in pale pink rhinestones. I smiled as she fitted the shoe on my right foot and nodded to herself as she made sure it fit properly.
Once I was back in my own clothes and everything was paid for, Cal led me down the sidewalk with an arm around my shoulders as we walked down three stores to the salon. Cal made sure I was settled in the chair, ordered Connor and Carson to keep me in their sights, and then left, saying he needed to find his own attire for the evening.
An hour and a half later, my hair was curled and pinned into a partial updo, the barest amount of makeup was applied, and my lips were painted the brightest shade of glossy red lipstick I had ever seen. I was draped in my beautiful dress, sporting my beautiful new bracelet, and I felt like a new woman compared to the last few weeks.
Cal couldn’t stop staring and could barely stutter out a compliment before his lips were on mine. Cassandra immediately swatted at him with an insanely long lock of hair that she was braiding into her next client’s hair. The hair stuck to Cal’s stubble as he jerked back, shock on his face.
“Don’t you mess up my work, Callahan! I will charge you triple next time, I swear it! Don’t make me call Lorcan!”
His eyes narrowed on her. “You wouldn’t fucking dare.”
She casually brushed out the hair, not looking at Cal and I giggled at her indifference and the fact that she just threatened the head of the Irish mob and was seemingly completely unaffected by the knowledge. “You know I would, and you know he would side with me.”
“I will bury you. You know that, right?”
She laughed but I responded on her behalf. “Cal, stop bullying my new friend. I only have like three of them.” I frowned at him, mostly for show, and Cassandra laughed again.
“Oh, Cal, my friend. You will have your hands full.”
“Don’t I know it,” he said as he led me to the door, satisfaction heavy in his voice.
In the back of the car on the way to Elio’s, I turned on the seat, bringing my legs up and leaning my back against Cal’s side. He wrapped his arms around me and held me to his chest. I played with the fingers on his left hand, twisting his wedding ring around and running my index finger up one side and down the other of each of his fingers.
He watched our fingers as we chatted quietly.
“Will you tell me about your mam?” His voice was soft and I could tell he was hesitant to ask it.
“I don’t remember much about her. She died when I was six. She was blonde, like me, and tall. She was kind. She encouraged me to dance, even though Elio said it was a waste of time and money. He always said I’d never get good at it, but she was always there, using her love to outweigh his negativity. I wish I could remember more about her,” I finished, melancholy darkening the mood.
“My mam died when I was three weeks old. She was taken out in a hit when we were on our way to my first doctor’s appointment. I was told my father died before I was born but Lorcan didn’t know who he was. My mam would never tell him.”
My heart broke for the baby boy that lost both his parents. The weight of my suspicions regarding my mother’s death suddenly felt like a ton of bricks sitting on my shoulders. I leaned more heavily into his chest and wrapped his arm around my front, hugging his bicep and laying my cheek against his soft dress shirt. I swallowed the emotion clogging in my throat and told him something I’d only ever voiced to Charlotte.
“I think Elio killed my mother,” I whispered.
He adjusted his position so that he could see my face without separating our bodies. There was a small frown line between his brows. “Why do you think that?”
“He said something once, when he was talking to Marco. We were at a party one night when I was fifteen and one of Elio’s friends, some old guy named Gino, tried to feel me up. I slapped him and later that night, Elio and Marco were talking in his study. Elio said something like, ‘if that bitch doesn’t stop embarrassing me in public, she’ll meet the same fate her mother did.’” I shivered. “After that, I did everything I could to either avoid going to parties or I made sure to hide in the back.”
“Is that why you get so nervous about being the center of attention?” I nodded against his chest as the car turned down a driveway that led to a house that was once my prison. The muscles in my back tensed as the house came into view.
“Cal, will you promise me something?” I tilted my head back to look up into his face again.
His eyes bounced between mine and concern sparked in his eyes. “Anything, solas. You could ask me for literally anything on this planet, and I would make sure you got it.”
I laughed through my nose and smiled up at him. “It’s nothing so difficult. Just…please make sure I leave this house with you tonight?”
His nostrils flared and his arms tightened around me. “Baby, there isn’t a person alive that could make me leave this house without my wife by my side.” He bent over me and kissed me before helping me sit up and opening the door. Finn, Connor and Carson flanked him as he leaned down and helped me move my floor length gown around my legs as I exited the vehicle, making sure it didn’t get tangled around my feet or caught on the pointy heel of the pretty stilettos.
When we entered Elio’s house, my fingers tightened around Cal’s. He pulled me into his side, wrapping his arm around my waist and keeping me close as a maid led us down a hallway, towards the back of the house where the huge sunroom was located.
She opened the door for us to enter, music and voices spilling through the opening. Cal squeezed my waist and ushered me through the door. I surreptitiously looked over my shoulder to be sure Connor and Carson were still close to us. Connor winked at me before scanning the room. I followed his lead and gazed over the room. I immediately clocked Elio, standing by the massive piano that was definitely a statement piece, since nobody in the house knew how to play. His closest guards surrounded him, the others lining the walls of the room. I frowned and tilted my head back to whisper in Cal’s ear.
“Carlo isn’t here. When I lived here, Carlo was never far from Elio or Fern. Not ever. He was always within a few feet of one of them.” His eyes followed the line of the room and he lifted his chin in acknowledgement but didn’t get a chance to respond.
Fern had spotted us as soon as we entered the room and was making her way over. Her hair was up in a sort-of chiffon that could’ve been cute with just a few tweaks, but currently looked like a messy, mom-on-the-go bun.
“Well, well. Looks like you’re alive after all. I’m so happy to see you survived your attack. I was so worried.” The words were full of concern, but I could hear the scorn underneath. Her eyes moved to my husband. “Cal,” she said in a sultry voice that made me want to gag as she held her hand out for him to kiss. “It’s so good to see you again. I’ve missed you lately.” My teeth gritted at the blatant disregard and I knocked her hand away from Cal, who hadn’t made a move to take it.
“I can promise you, my husband hasn’t been missing you at all.” She sneered at me but before she could say anything, Cal spoke up.
“Lovely dress, Fern. That color compliments you.” I laughed because it truly didn’t, but then I laughed harder when I recognized the dress.
“Yes, it’s a beautiful dress. It’s a shame about that snag though,” I said, letting all my cattiness and sass bleed into my voice.
She frowned. “What snag? What are you talking about?” she asked and she looked down, running her hands over the fabric covering her stomach.
“The snag right there,” I pointed and she gasped, covering it with her hand. I clicked my tongue. “I’m just really glad my bracelet didn’t break. That dress had a death grip on me for a cool minute,” I said, switching from catty to false relief and humor. I held my wrist out to show off the bracelet and Fern glanced from my wrist to her own bare ones before turning and stomping toward Elio.
I leaned heavily into Cal’s side, my barely-renewed strength waning quickly. He wrapped his arm around my waist and supported my weight against him as he surveyed the party. Mikhail and Nate were seated at a table with another man and two women, Milhail’s guards standing nonchalantly to the side. Cal steered us in that direction. When Mikhail noticed our approach, he instantly jumped to his feet and made his way around the table. He met us a few feet away and immediately grasped my cheeks, kissing each one in turn before holding me at arms length and running his eyes over my body.
“Lovely Aurora, I am so pleased to see you recovering. I am so sorry about what happened in my restaurant.” Despite his heavy accent, I could feel the sincerity in his words like a weighted blanket, wrapping comfortingly around my shoulders. “Please, sit, sit.” He led Cal and I to chairs at the table and Cal helped me relax into it before taking his own. Mikhail returned to his seat.
Nate leaned over and grabbed my hand, pressing a kiss to the back of it. Elliot growled, somewhat playfully, but I could hear the real threat lingering underneath. “So good to see you again, Rory. You really do light this place up. How did you live in such a dreary place for so long?”
I blushed and looked around at the opulently decorated room. Despite the beauty of the twinkling lights and shining balloons and sparkling chandeliers, it did seem empty. If these walls could talk, I imagined they’d spill all the secrets of the darkness that happened between them.
Cal brushed his fingers along the curve of my neck until his index found its spot. My pulse fluttered under it. “Rory, this is Elliot Wilde, Nate’s boss.” He gestured to the man sitting next to Nate.
Elliot reached around Nate and offered me his hand. I shook it and then relaxed back in my chair, tiredness seeping into my being. It seemed my reprieve was over, but I couldn’t let my guard down in this house, and I had a job to do this evening. I fought the exhaustion and smiled at Elliot.
“It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Wilde. I’ve heard a lot about you and your business. Nate talks about you quite a lot.” Nate shot me a wide-eyed look I couldn’t decipher and Cal’s index dug into its resting place for a moment before going back to stroking my skin. I wondered what I’d said but tried to play it off by looking at Nate. “How is it going with Charlotte?”
Nate’s features relaxed and he rolled his eyes. “She’s horrible,” he groused, with no real heat. “She drags me to art classes all day long, and when she’s not painting or sketching, she’s trying to sneak away from me and slip her detail. I swear she’s going to drive me mad!” He whined and crossed his arms like a petulant child.
“I could talk to her, if you’d like. I’m sure I can convince her to make your life a little easier.”
“You know the Blacks?” Elliot asked before Nate could respond. The woman seated next to him seemed to pout that his attention had been stolen, her mouth pinching and her eyes squinting in my direction.
I nodded, pointedly ignoring the woman. “Charlotte is my best friend.”
Mikhail was conversing quietly with the brunette woman next to him. Distracted by the foreign words, I took a moment to appreciate her beauty. She was dainty, and built similar to me. I wondered if she was a dancer. Mikhail’s eyes caught mine and he introduced the woman as Irina, his wife. I shook her hand, introducing myself.
“I saw you perform once, last July. You were wonderful as Cinderella. It was truly a beautiful performance.”
I blushed under the praise. “Thank you, Mrs. Ivanova. I enjoyed that role. Are you a dancer?”
She nodded. “I was a professional ballerina. That’s how Mikhail found me when I was sixteen. I was an orphan, raised in an opera house in Moscow. When Mikhail discovered how terribly we were treated, he convinced his father to buy the whole place. When I turned eighteen, he claimed me as his bride. We moved here not long after that. His father was a stern man, but Mikhail stopped at nothing to get what he wanted.” She smiled fondly at her husband and my heart melted a little. I leaned my head back against Cal’s shoulder, tilting my chin up to meet his soft gaze.
“That’s a very romantic story. I’m very happy for you and Mikhail. I have a feeling you both deserve the happiness you bring each other.” They smiled fondly at each other and, as she leaned back, Mikhail’s hand ran over her slightly rounded stomach. I hadn’t noticed until my attention had been drawn to it and seeing him lovingly stroking the bump she was sporting, my heart pinched in an entirely different way.
Something like jealousy, but also like sadness, made my chest tight. I wasn’t sure what I was feeling. I felt almost nostalgic for something I’d never had, and that didn’t make any sense. Cal must have sensed my shift in mood and pulled me closer to his side, running his nose through my hair. The hand that wasn’t tucked around my neck ran down my arm, the backs of his fingers ghosting along my skin until he reached my forearm. Then he flipped his hand over and the pads of his fingers skimmed the side of my stomach.
Tingles lit in my belly and I looked up at him again. His eyes bounced between mine before tracing the features of my face, his fingers still softly grazing over my stomach. “Soon, my love.” I felt my cheeks pull into a smile, even as they burned with the heat of my blush at his endearment.
Nate and Mikhail took up a conversation while Elliot and the woman next to him flirted shamelessly. It all drifted into background noise, this moment with Cal feeling heavy and important. “Soon?” I asked, my voice small with insecurity but bubbling with a quiet excitement.
“Whenever you are ready, remember?” His hand drifted from my arm to flatten against my belly. “The idea of you, round with my child? It makes me breathless with emotion. It makes me excited and nervous and gives me the urge to lock you away so you and our baby will be safe, always.”
I stared at him, trying to decipher the heavy emotion in his eyes. When I realized what I was seeing, I was afraid to put a name to it. I couldn’t come up with a response, so I flattened my hand over his and leaned up to press a kiss to his mouth.
Just as we separated, Elio’s voice came over a sound system, asking everyone to find a seat so dinner could be served. Nerves took up in my belly. A hundred waiters exited the door to the side of the room and started laying dishes in front of guests and filling wine glasses.
A plate appeared in front of me just before red wine was poured into my glass. I stared at the two dishes, unable to tear my gaze away as my nerves knotted my stomach and nausea bubbled up my throat. That clenching in the back of my throat that signaled the urge to gag appeared so violently my neck broke out in a sweat and my hand clenched into Cal’s pants without my consent.
Cal’s fingers pried mine off his pants and he laced our hands together. The fingers of his other hand ran over my arm soothingly, his worried gaze focused completely on me. But still, I couldn’t tear my gaze away from the food and drink in front of me. It was like staring down the barrel of a gun. I knew the thing in front of me could be deadly, but there was also a chance there was no bullet in the chamber.
But it could also finish the job that had failed the first try.
The smell of the food hit me and my throat clenched again and I swallowed heavily, desperately forcing bile back down my esophagus. The chatter around the table grew quiet and I was finally able to tear my gaze away to look around. All eyes were on me. The woman next to Elliot sneered at me as if I was a freak, eyebrow raised and lip curled. Nate, Elliot and Mikhail watched me closely, their expressions hard to decipher. Mikhail seemed angry while Nate looked like he wanted to throw the food across the room, like he wanted to get the thing that had offended me as far away from me as possible. Knowing him, he probably would frisbee the damn thing if I asked him to. Elliot seemed concerned, but unsure while Irina was clearly confused, but sensed the tension and made no move to touch her own food.
Embarrassment lit my cheeks on fire and my shoulders curled in on themselves, tears burning my eyes. I turned my face into Cal’s chest, trying to hide under his jacket. He stroked his hand over my hair, allowing me to take comfort from him and giving it freely. Mikhail whispered quietly to Irina, telling her about the poisoning, I guessed. I breathed in Cal’s scent, drowning out the nauseating smell of garlicky chicken. The rolling in my stomach calmed so I pressed my nose harder to his chest and breathed deeply until he was all I could smell, his touch was all I could feel, his heartbeat all I could hear.
When I finally stopped trembling and the clenching in the back of my throat calmed enough that my mouth wasn’t watering with the need to puke all over the table, I pulled away and met his eyes. He swiped my tears away with the pad of his thumb. “What can I do, solas? How can I help?” I took a shuddering breath and eyed the food again.
“Do I have to eat it?” I whispered.
“Not if you don’t want to, but this is something we need to overcome. How can I help you right now?”
I shook my head and shrugged, unsure what could possibly help me through this fear. Cal stared a moment longer, his gaze bouncing between me and my plate and thoughts playing over his face, changing his expression too fast to decypher. Finally, he grabbed my fork and leaned forward, stabbing a green bean and bringing it to his mouth.
Fear. Fear like I had never known.
I feared what the food could do to me, but the thought of what that food could do to Cal nearly paralyzed me. My hands shot out, wrapping around his wrist and yanking the forkful away from his mouth, knocking it onto his plate with a clatter.
My wild eyes focused on his face, fresh tears tracking down my cheeks. Panic made my heart flutter and my breathing harsh. He slowly extricated his hand from my grasp, picked up the fork and took the bite before I could stop him, holding my eyes the entire time. Methodically, he took a large bite of everything on my plate and then sipped my wine.
When he was done, he brushed a stray curl behind my ear and smiled at me. “Does that help, solas? Will you be able to eat now?”
I examined him closely, looking for any sign that the food or wine was making him sick. He was perfectly fine, his focus on me laser sharp. I looked back to my plate and that nauseating, debilitating fear wasn’t nearly as strong. I took a tentative sniff of the aroma wafting from the food, but my stomach didn’t roll and my throat didn’t clench with the need to expel the food before I’d even taken a bite.
I looked back to him again, making sure he was still fine. Seeing he was completely normal, my tense shoulders relaxed. “I think it did,” I whispered. His smile was huge and proud. He ran a hand over my hair, from my crown to my lower back.
“Thank God. Can you eat now?” Relief was heavy in his voice.
I swallowed nervously but reached for my fork. I cut off a small piece of chicken and brought the fork up, pausing with hesitance. Cal wrapped his big hand around mine and guided the fork the last few inches to my mouth, his eyes holding mine.
“It’s okay, solas. I’m right here.” He rubbed my back before gripping the back of my neck, under my hair. “You feel my hands on you? What did I say about when you have my hands on you?”
You never have to be afraid when my hands are on you, mo solas.
He kept up a steady stream of soft encouragement while I sat frozen with the fork an inch from my mouth. Finally, I opened my mouth and took the small bite of chicken between my teeth. Cal held my gaze as I chewed and only once I’d swallowed did the others at the table begin to eat. It was strange, almost as if they’d been waiting out of respect for me. I cast a shy glance around the table. Elliot had a firm grip on his date’s wrist, her fork poised to take a bite. Once I had swallowed, he released her. She huffed in indignation and shoved the forkful between her painted lips.
Cal kept his heavy hand on the back of my neck while he ate with his other hand. His fingers massaged my muscles gently and it kept me grounded enough to finish a third of the chicken and part the green beans and roasted potatoes. I hardly touched the wine. It seemed that was the root of my fear, knowing it had been the wine that contained the poison at Mikhail’s restaurant. Still, when I reached for it, Cal’s hand tensed on my neck in encouragement. I took a tentative sip and it was sweet with no hint of the bitterness that the poisoned wine had held.
When I placed my glass down and pushed my partially eaten plate away, Cal leaned into my ear. “I’m so proud of you, solas. Look how good you did. You ate almost half of what was on your plate.” His hand stroked down my back and I felt his fingers bump along my spine. Something like guilt simmered behind my breastbone as he continued whispering praise to me. “You did so good, baby.” He pressed a kiss to the shell of my ear. “So proud. It makes me so happy to see you eat like that, solas. Promise me you’ll try again in the morning?”
The praise sent tingles of arousal and pride through my belly and I smiled shyly but nodded to him. “I promise to try.”
As if my promise had lifted a weight off his shoulders, he closed his eyes and pressed his mouth to my forehead. A gusty breath left him and ruffled the hairs on the top of my head.
When dinner was over, Elio made a long speech about how happy he was to have Cal join the family. He waxed on about how I was such a good daughter, how he loved me as his own, it had been a joy to raise me. It was a whole bunch of bullshit and I know he made it a point to drag it out, just to make me that much more uncomfortable. Then he announced the gardens would be open for touring and most of the guests made their way through the massive double doors, into the flower garden my mother had planted years ago. Cal and I exchanged a glance and I knew this was my moment.