Chapter 6
RAFEAL
The words hit me like a gunshot. I take a step back, staring at the crying little bundle. She turns him, her eyes conflicted. She looks like she wants to scream at me to leave and beg me to stay at the same time.
“Theo,” I murmur.
“Hmm,” she mutters.
“Are you sure—”
“I’m sure,” she cuts in, annoyed. “You were the only person I slept with for over a year, Rafeal. Theo is your child, no doubt about that.”
I walk forward slowly, pulled closer without thinking. When I’m near enough, I see it—the color of his eyes. My mother used to describe them, warm and golden, like something that belonged to the earth itself. I lift my hand to touch him, but Ava steps back.
“What are you doing?” I ask huskily.
“He’s never met you. You can’t just prod him.”
Never met me…
And yet I feel an instant, sudden, certain love unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before. As I look into his eyes and his distraught beautiful little face, I know I’d do anything for him, anything at all. I’d give up all my riches and go to war with the entire world for him.
“I wasn’t going to prod him,” I tell her. “I just… wanted to make sure he was real.”
For the first time since we reunited, her guard falls completely. For a moment, something like true affection flashes across her features. She cradles her son – our son – closer to her chest, rocking him gently, as he continues to wail.
Quickly, she gets her guard back up. “He’s real, believe me. My back wouldn’t be aching so badly if he were make-believe.”
“I knew you looked curvier,” I say.
She flinches.
“In a good way,” I rush to add. “Hand on heart, Ava, that was one of the first things I thought when I saw you. Damn, how has she got even more attractive?”
“That’s quite the line,” she murmurs, avoiding my eyes.
“It’s the truth,” I say. “Whether or not you want to believe it.” A pause. “Does he need feeding? Burping or whatever?”
“Or whatever,” she echoes.
“Burping,” I say. “Or something else?”
“Sometimes, babies just cry,” she says tiredly. “Sometimes, there’s a reason, sure. But other times, they just cry to keep their mommy on her toes.”
“I can tell you’re an incredible mother.”
She rolls her eyes, but a smile tugs at her lips. “Oh, really? And how exactly did you figure that out?”
God, I love her sass. It was one thing that drew me to her that night almost a year ago, and it hasn’t faded one bit.
“He’s wailing loud enough to bust your eardrums, but you look like you could do this all day,” I say.
“I get frustrated sometimes. All moms do. It doesn’t mean we don’t love our babies.”
“Now you’re disagreeing just to disagree,” I rumble.
She tilts her head as if to say, What now? It’s not like she can think I’m going to meet my son then just forget he exists, surely.
“Let me hold him,” I say.
She hesitates visibly, shifting from foot to foot.
“Ava, he’s my son. My blood. I already feel a connection to him. He has my eyes. He’s half me. I know I’ve been gone, but I swear to God—”
“Ah, yeah, you thought I was dead.” She laughs shakily.
I grind my teeth. “I’m asking you, please, let me hold my child.”
“Just for a minute,” she says after a pause, licking her lips nervously.
She gently hands him to me.
“You might have to give me some pointers,” I murmur, as I take my son into my arms.
“Just be gentle… if you can.”
Her eyes flash with added meaning. I wonder if she’s hinting at that night. The night we fell onto each other like wild animals, the night everything changed.
I wrap my arms around Theo, staring down at him. Then the world blurs. Shimmers and changes shape. It takes me a few moments to realize there are tears in my eyes. I hear Ava’s breath catch, but I don’t look at her. Just keep staring down at our baby.
Then, like magic, he stops crying. He blows a spit bubble and his mouth creases into a smile. I rock him gently, leaning down, kissing the top of his head.
“Hello,” I whisper. “It’s nice to meet you, little man.”
“I think he likes you,” Ava says, sounding surprised, and perhaps even a little annoyed, like part of her wants him to reject me just like she thinks I rejected her.
“Is he a big crier?” I ask, rocking him gently.
“On the whole, no. But he has his moments.”
“What about the birth? Was that okay? You have everything you need?”
“We did okay,” she replies. “My parents were there to help me.”
“They help you a lot?”
“Yeah, they’re great. They would’ve had him tonight, but it’s their anniversary.”
We both turn at the sound of the door. It’s Adrian.
He pauses in the doorway. His eyes go wide when he sees me holding the baby, gaze flicking between Ava and me and the bundle in my arms. Recognition slams into him.
I see the moment he realizes. Maybe it’s the eye color or the sheer fact that I’m holding him.
He knows Theo is mine.
He clears his throat and takes a step back. “I’ll, uh, leave you to it.”
Yeah, you do that. I glare at him until he backs off.
“Give him back to me,” Ava says a moment later, voice soft.
I don’t want to hand him back. I want to keep holding him, to learn every little thing about him. But I’m pushing my luck already as it is.
“Thanks,” she says.
“Amazing, how he can be screaming the place down one second and fast asleep the next.”
She looks over the top of his head, glowing, so beautiful, I want to grab her and kiss her right now. “He’s a miracle, all right.”
“You should give me your number.”
She raises an eyebrow. “Should I?”
“We can’t leave things like this, Ava.”
“Maybe you should tell me who you are first, Michael. Perhaps you should tell me if the rumors I’ve been hearing all night are true.
Are you a mob boss? Why is everyone scared of you?
Why did you give me a fake name? Why did you abandon me?
Why are you spinning this little story about believing I was dead? ”
I’m not a man accustomed to being questioned like this.
But Ava is a unique case.
I take a step forward, looking sternly down at her. “You deserve answers,” I tell her. “But it’s too much to get into tonight. I’ve got matters I need to handle.”
Namely: find Nico, figure out why he lied, and why he’s dodging my calls.
“And you need to get the little one to bed.”
“Sounds like a delaying tactic to me,” she murmurs.
“Perhaps it is,” I snarl. “Now, your number.”
“You say that like I haven’t got a choice, like I have to give it to you.”
“I’m not going to forget I have a kid. And I’m not going to forget you’re alive. So either give me your number or…”
I stop. Or what? Am I going to threaten the mother of my child, the only woman who’s ever made time stand still for me?
“Fine,” she says. “But I need to make something clear. I’m giving you my number for Theo’s sake. Because when you held him, I could see that it mattered to him, okay?”
“Okay.”
“And there’s a condition. Answers soon, or I’ll block your number, and you can go back to pretending to think I was dead.”
I swallow a wave of anger. I need to get her some proof as soon as possible.
“Fair enough, Ava.”
I take out my phone. She recites her number. After punching it in, I call it. She gives me a reluctant smile as her cellphone rings from her handbag on the table.
“Had to be sure,” I say.
She laughs. “We’re not all liars,” she replies sassily.
I leave, though I don’t want to. Adrian is waiting for me at the end of the hallway.
“So, it’s you,” he says.
“Hmm.”
He steps forward. “If you had any love in your heart for that child, you’d leave this city and never return.”
“That’s a fucked thing to say, Adrian,” I snarl. “Even for a mob-lackey like you.”
“Ava’s doing well. Her son is doing well. They don’t need you.”
“That’s not your decision to make.” I tilt my head. “Either get out of my way, or call your Hungarian buddies for backup.”
“You think you’ve got it all figured out,” he says, stepping aside. “You think the whole world is as cynical as you.”
After arranging the collection of my pieces, I leave the function hall, walking across the street in search of Nico and Tony. There’s no sign of the car. I look up and down the street. Tony is approaching with a cardboard case of takeout coffee cups in his hand.
“Cousin, what’s up?” he says.
“Where the hell is Nico?” I growl.
“He should be here,” Tony says. “He sent me for coffee, said he’d keep watch. Why, is something up?”
I massage my forehead, temples pulsing, a war drum slamming in my chest. Nico, my most trusted man, my second-in-command, a man who lied about the mother of my child being dead…
has disappeared. Did he bolt when he realized I was going to discover his lie?
Perhaps he somehow got word that Ava was here.
“We need to find him,” I snarl. “Now.”