Chapter 34
Chapter Thirty-Four
ENZO
"I told you earlier, Dad, she's safe."
My line has bounced around the world, so if someone is good at tech, it's going to be hard to follow me. This kind of shit is impossible for most, and almost impossible for me. It would take time.
And everyone who is as good, or close to being as good, is in the Syndicate.
Go figure.
Dad is erupting with nonsense fueled by anger, and I mostly tune it out. He does this shit a lot when he doesn't get his way.
Fuck, call it a tantrum, mafia-style.
Earlier, I texted him and then let his texts pile up. Of course, I was a little busy after I let him know Lyndall was with me to read them.
What with eyeing off Lola, Lyndall being the latest runaway of her generation, killing the two goons, and then making sure Silas was Simon, this is the first chance I get to call him.
"Finished?" I ask.
"No. I have just started. I'm coming to get her—"
"We're no longer at my place."
"That little—"
"Dad, I have got some things I have to deal with," I say, a warning strong in my voice.
I can almost hear him grind his teeth. "Anything I can help you with since you will be coming back to the family?"
"Don't push it."
That is the fucking thing. I'm not coming back, not if I can help it, but I need to circumvent things carefully. And asking him for help is going to dig the hole deeper to where I can't get out. I will be trapped. Exactly where he wants me.
He said something about one of his men, but I wasn't listening, his tirade washed over me like the sea.
But there is one thing I need to know. Why Lyndall ran off in the first place.
She has done it before, I know that, but she wouldn't, now that I think about it. Not this close to me promising to do what I can.
"Any idea why your teenage daughter ran?" I pour a drink and sit down at the table. "Other than your charming personality and ability to listen to her and give her what she needs and wants?"
Lola is still there, she is pouring some water from the fridge. Her cheeks flame as she turns, scurrying out into the living room in the open-plan place where she sort of hovers.
Interesting.
She definitely knows something.
And the thing with open-plan places like this is that there is nowhere in this area for her to hide and eavesdrop, which she is trying to do.
Dad is talking, and I catch something that yanks my attention back.
"What the fuck did you just say?"
"I said I have got a good fucking idea why she ran. I caught her and one of my men in her room. She wasn't wearing much, and they were on the bed. Having sex."
"What?"
I'm on my feet so fucking fast my head spins. "She's fifteen. How old?"
"I don't know...Eighteen. Likes to pretend he's older to get into clubs. He's a piece of shit, Luke. And naturally, I put a fucking stop to it."
"She's fucking fifteen."
"Would it help your idiotic conscience if she was sixteen?"
I narrow my eyes and drain my glass, glaring over at Lola, who spins away and pretends she is examining some modern sculpture.
Silas didn't decorate this place, so he must have hired someone.
Fuck... Sex? With an adult man? It is bad enough if Dad was talking about a kid her age, but shit. Eighteen is adult.
I try to think of something else about this place to calm me down, but I can't.
"Christ, Dad."
"I locked her in her room, and I was intending to send her back to the school tomorrow and source a boarding school—"
"She's already at boarding school."
"A very strict one, like a fortress, in Switzerland."
I pinch the bridge of my nose. "A prison."
"If you fucking like."
I get up and cross to the far side of the kitchen, looking out at the walled yard.
There is more property beyond, in the darkness, but Silas has a smart design to keep the house and area around it secure and wired.
Right, I think I can speak.
"Can I fucking ask who this prick is, and how the fuck they were able to get some alone time?"
And I'm concerned about Lyndall. I don't want her fucking, but I don't want Dad to use any excuse to get rid of her.
"I don't appreciate the insinuation, Enzo. Or the accusation. You could be home, watching her."
"And I could watch her here."
"I didn't fucking set them up. And it is one reason why I don't want a pretty girl around the house. It is temptation."
"No, Dad, it is you not controlling your fucking men," I snarl.
"This isn't my fault, you ungrateful prick. But don't worry, he's been taken care of."
"Taken care of?" If he means killed, then so be it. Any little fucker who thinks it is okay to stick it in an underage girl deserves it. But...
I try to breathe.
It shouldn't have come to this. Lyndall is not home enough for it to have built to this bullshit.
There is blame to lay, and it belongs firmly at my father's feet.
Stomach knotting, I clench my hand. "How the hell could this happen?"
Dad snorts out bitter laughter. "If you think it is so easy to keep a teenage girl in line, then fuck the Swiss boarding school idea. In fact, fuck the school she's going to. You can have what you want."
"What I want?"
"Yes. You think having a teen is easy, you can take full responsibility for her."
I can't breathe for a moment. And I try to wrap my head around it.
Not the concept. I understand that just fine. But Dad just coming out with it.
"You want me to take over?" I fight to keep the shock from my voice.
"Yes. You think it is so easy, you do it. Twenty-four fucking seven, Enzo."
I never thought in a million years I would hear the old man give up so easily. Fuck, I never thought he would say something like that.
"Fine, I will do it." And all bets are off.
Dad just changed the rules. It gives me wiggle room.
But I don't tell him where we are or what happened at my place. And I'm certainly not telling him we are in hiding.
It would just fuel him into taking control, tightening the noose.
"You will regret it."
"No, Dad. I will speak to Lyndall and be in touch."
"Whatever you want. And you know what? I have had enough. I'm wiping my hands clean of both of you." Dad sounds indifferent.
And he hangs up.
I punch the wall.
Fuck.
If I thought he meant that, I might celebrate, at least for me. But Lyndall? He is the only parent she knows, and deep down this is going to devastate her, no matter how much she claims to hate him.
She is fighting to grow up too soon.
Fighting?
She is having fucking sex.
Isn't she?
Because I'm not sure she would. Then again, I'm not a teenager, and...do I want to know? Especially if Dad killed the kid.
I close my eyes, breathing in and out, slow and deep.
Silas is back in Queens. He has work to do. As do I.
And then...there is Lola.
I open my eyes and find her sitting on the edge of the sofa. "Hey, can we talk?"
"I'm not telling you any of the girl talk."
I offer her a smile that feels stretched and thin. "I would never break those sacred bonds. But I wanted your perspective. Dad said he caught her having sex with this guy, Luke. He's eighteen."
"I thought he was older," she mutters.
"So, you know."
She sighs and smooths her hands down her skirt. Her tits press against the fabric of her shirt, and all I want to do is tuck her up against me in bed and go to sleep.
Except, I'm not sure that is a good idea, even if I didn't have to spend the night at my computer.
"Lyndall...confided some things in me," Lola says.
And even though I guessed, it is not the same as knowing. My stomach roils, spitting acid, hot and bitter into my mouth.
"How fucking dare you keep knowledge of an underage girl being taken advantage of by a guy—"
"She—"
"In fact...where the fuck is she? I'm going to demand the truth from her, right now."
Lola grabs my arm. "It's way too late in the evening for that, and you need to calm down and not act like a crazy controlling idiot. Otherwise, you will push her away. Just like your father. Apples falling from trees, you know?"
"No. I don't. And I resent that."
"So, don't make it true."
"In case you missed the memo, Lola, she's fifteen and having sex."
"Calm down." She crosses her arms.
I will calm down, all right, when she stops making me sound like I'm the same as my fucking father. I'm not. And I will kill anyone who tells me different.
"Lyndall is smart, with a good head on her shoulders, and she's young and wanting to be older, but she's young."
"I know that," I push out.
"What I mean is she isn't experienced. She called him her boyfriend but said they never kissed and.
.. they weren't having sex. She was upset after a fight, and he comforted her.
Maybe she tried to kiss him, and maybe he wanted to kiss her.
Hell, maybe there have been talks about kisses, but he works for your dad, so that makes things complicated.
And I believe her when she told me what they did, and in that, what they didn't do.
And they didn't have sex. I mean...were they naked? "
Heat radiates from me. "He didn't say."
"So, they weren't, because your father strikes me as the kind of man who would tell you the gory details if they were naked or doing it. Right?"
I just stare at her.
She is not fucking helping, and she has the gall to stare right back, exasperation all over her pretty face.
"She likes this guy."
"Eighteen's too old."
"Twenty is even older."
"Oh, fuck. He told her that was his age?"
She shrugs. "He mentioned twenty and twenty-two, so who knows? Maybe she was just trying to impress me. She wants to be grown up, but...like any girl, she has crushes. Thing is she is more excited about music."
"Her violin? She's a fucking virtuoso, of course she is."
"I mean that got her more passionate than some guy. Talk to her, but tomorrow."
I push a hand through my hair. "She still shouldn't be doing things with an adult in her room. Fifteen and eighteen is too much."
And I don't even dare say a thing about how horny I was back then. But that is why I'm upset. It could have happened and—
"You need to trust her, Enzo. At least enough so she tells you the truth. That means not yelling or threatening or anything like that."
"I never signed up for any of this. Like boys and men and sex and kissing. Or even just hugging in her room. I know where that leads."
"Maybe he's a better guy than you."
I narrow my eyes at her. "What's that supposed to mean?"
She spreads her hands. "Lyndall feels invisible to your father. Maybe she's acting out, and maybe she did get upset, and he comforted her."
"In her room?"
"I never said it was right, but if they're close, then..."
"Fuck."
"I'm going to bed. I'm going to take the other guest room." She rubs her eyes. "But just think about this. From the little I know of her, it is obvious Lyndall looks up to you the most out of anyone else in her life. She thinks you're amazing. So, you should keep trying to be that person for her."
I think I get about two hours of sleep on the sofa, and my dreams are nightmares of me having to save my sister from horrible situations over and over again.
I wake to Lyndall peering at me, and it takes everything I have not to scream. "What the fuck?"
"It's six a.m. When's Dad coming to drag me to hell?"
"He's not." I sit up and take the coffee she has made with a muttered thanks. "Where's—"
"Your girlfriend's still asleep." And she has the gall to look gleeful.
"Lola's not my anything." I rub my hand over my face. "Dad told me you were having sex."
The horror on her face is real. "I was not!"
"That's what Lola said."
"You're not sending me away, are you?" she asks anxiously.
"No. I wouldn't."
The coffee is bitter and sugary, which is quite a feat.
"Are you sure? I like Luke, but...he isn't interested. I mean, he is, but I don't think he would cross lines." She frowns. "More importantly, I want my scholarship."
Part of me breathes a sigh of relief. "Thanks for your honesty."
"That's what we're going for, right? Honesty?"
"Yep."
She beams. "Good. Now it is your turn."
"Fuck, it is a trap."
"Trust goes both ways, and so does truth. Sooo, what the heck's going on with you and pretty Lola?"
"It's complicated."
"By that, do you mean she has no idea I have to pretend Silas is Simon and that you're not stalking her?"
I stare her down. "Not stalking." Not really. "More...watching."
"Why?"
"As I said, it is complicated."
She smacks my leg, hard. "Complicated is another word for cop-out. Are you madly in love with her? Obsessed? Which one?"
"Neither. There might be feelings, but really, she's in trouble—"
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, and I just told her last night. I'm just trying to keep her safe from some bad men." I sip my terrible coffee.
"Does she know you have known for a while? Because that's not good." Then she stands. "Simon has waffle mix. I'm going to make waffles."
Lyndall leaves the living room, and my stomach turns to lead.
I want to protect Lola, but everything is hastening away from me. Starting with the Alex thing to me fucking her.
This isn't going to end well.
Fuck me.
I need to tell Lola everything before I screw it up for good.