Acquisition (10 page)

“The men have gone to discuss business, so I thought we could have an after-dinner coffee in the sitting room.”

She nodded her agreement, though she really didn’t want to follow the older woman down the hallway. They returned to the room where they had started the evening, and she settled into a comfortable armchair, offering no protest when Avriella hesitantly asked to hold the baby. It was a new experience to have to share her son, one to which she’d have to adjust quickly. Lucas family was clearly interested in getting to know Lucas, so it was inevitable she’d have to share him sometimes.

They sat awkwardly for a moment, the silence lengthening until the woman in the black dress, who she assumed was either Lucia of the lasagna fame, or another staff member, entered the room and placed a tray of coffee on the table between them. Since Avriella was holding Lucas, it fell on Abby to pour, and she struggled to do so without her hands shaking and revealing her nervousness.

“I’m sure this is all very strange for you,” said Avriella with what appeared to be genuine sympathy as she took the cup of coffee, waving away the saucer with the hand holding Lucas before taking a big drink of the dark beverage and placing it on a coaster on the table.

“I’m sure it’s even stranger for you. It’s not every day that you get a grandson overnight.”

Avriella smiled down at Lucas, who was still awake and was contentedly playing with a gold locket the other woman always wore. If she remembered correctly, it held pictures of her children, the three triplets on one side in a family photo from when they were about four, and a picture of Amber around age two in the other.

That reminded her that Amber wasn’t present, prompting her to ask, “Where’s Amber this evening?”

Avriella stiffened slightly, though her voice still sounded relaxed when she replied, “I’m not entirely sure. She isn’t speaking to us at the moment.”

She found that implausible, because she remembered Amber and Avriella being very close. She hesitated with her reply, not certain how she should respond. She didn’t want to probe too deeply if Avriella wouldn’t welcome the questions. Before she could decide how to proceed, Luka’s mother expounded.

“I don’t know if Luka ever told you, but Amber isn’t actually my daughter. She was the daughter of Mario’s second wife.”

Abby nearly dropped the cup of coffee in her hand, and it made a clinking sound when it hit the saucer. To be on the safe side, she set them both down on the tray again. “Um…I see. I wasn’t aware Luka’s father had been married twice.”

“People in our generation remember, but not so much in yours. When I discovered Mario was in the mafia, the boys were young, and I didn’t want them raised in that kind of environment. I insisted on a divorce that I didn’t really want, but it seemed like the right thing. Mario fought the idea, but he eventually had to capitulate.”

She blinked. “Really?” Abby had a difficult time imagining the older Rinaldi giving in on anything he didn’t want to do.

“I was…persuasive.” Avriella shrugged. “He found comfort with another woman, and though I never really got to know Mila, she seemed like a sweet young woman. She was good to my sons. All along, I knew Mario was still in love with me, but I couldn’t let go of my fears and my anger at the lies, along with worry about what it would mean for my sons if I accepted what Mario did, and what he planned to train them for.”

“I think I understand that feeling,” said Abby softly.

Avriella nodded. “I’m sure you do.”

“What changed the situation? How did you and Mario end up back together?”

A fleeting look of sadness crossed Avriella’s face. “Mila died giving birth to Amber. Mario seemed so lost, and there was a helpless little baby without a mother. At first, I simply stepped in to help where I could, but it’s impossible to care for a little one and not learn to love him or her, even if they aren’t your own.” She cast a tender gaze at Lucas before resuming speaking.

“When Amber was seven months old, she called me Mama. It resonated, and I realized that I was her mother in all the ways that counted, since poor Mila couldn’t be there for the role. It also made me realize that Mario loved his sons, and though I didn’t necessarily approve of his profession, or his intent to pass it along to our boys, I also knew he would never do anything to knowingly hurt them.”

“That must have been a difficult realization,” she said softly before sipping her coffee.

The older woman nodded. “It was. He wouldn’t hurt them, and neither would I, but having broken up our family because I couldn’t accept the harsher realities of the Rinaldi empire was hurting all of us. It was shortly thereafter that Mario and I reconciled and remarried, and I formally adopted Amber.”

Her head was reeling with the information she’d imparted, and she was going through the motions when she managed to ask, “Amber didn’t know?”

She shook her head. “Not until recently. She was involved in an accident at the hospital and had to have a transfusion. She has a rarer blood type, where the boys and I all have Type O-positive. She’s a science major, and it didn’t take her long to figure out that I couldn’t possibly be her mother since she’s AB-negative, whereas Mario is B-positive. Once it all came out, she stormed out, and she hasn’t spoken to us since. She’s still in contact with her brothers and Sarah, but she wants nothing to do with me or Mario, because we hid the truth from her.”

Abby couldn’t help a small frown. “I can understand her position quite well, Avriella. No one likes being lied to.”

Avriella nodded, looking unoffended. “Sometimes, we lie to people we love to protect them, or under the mistaken belief that we’re doing the right thing. I told Luka to tell you about the family business when it was obvious to me that you are both getting serious. He told me the time wasn’t right, and he was sure you’d leave him.”

She nodded, speaking bluntly. “I would have.”

Avriella gave her a sad smile. “It might surprise you to know I agreed with him and knew you would leave—but I also told him that you’d come back. To me, it was obvious you loved each other, but you deserved and needed time to deal with what you were going to learn. I didn’t anticipate you learning it all in such a harsh fashion, and I don’t blame you for running. I wish things had been different, but you’re here now, and so is Lucas. Those are the important things.”

She changed gears so quickly from discussing Amber to moving on to the topic of herself and Luka that it almost made her head spin. Abby had to take a moment to gather her thoughts, trying to proceed delicately to avoid hurting the other woman’s feelings. “Lucas is here, but I’m not sure how long I’ll be in the picture. There is no
us
anymore. Our relationship is over. I can’t trust him, and I can’t look past what he does.”

Avriella looked momentarily saddened, but then her expression cleared. “I was once like you, dear. I hope it doesn’t take you three years to realize what’s really important.”

She frowned at the older woman, feeling the first stirrings of irritation. “And what do you consider so important that I should overlook Luka’s illegal activities and the future implications for my son?”

Unruffled, Avriella took a sip of coffee before she said, “Love, my dear. The most important thing in the world is love. There’s still love between both of you, and even a blind fool could see it. You have to find a way to move past what you’ve learned, and you both have to forgive each other for the terrible things you’ve done to each other.

“But—”

She pressed on, ignoring Abby’s attempt to protest. “He lied to you about what he does, and you kept his child from him. You both hurt each other deeply, but you can move past it if and when you choose. That’s all I wanted to say on the matter, because I’m not going to harp on you. I just ask you to consider what I’m saying. Do you really want to throw away the love you feel for Luka, or can you find a way to look past the parts you don’t like to embrace the parts you love?”

Abby stared at her, completely speechless. The older woman’s words resonated within her, and they sounded righter than she would have dreamed. Still, there was a stubborn block inside her that couldn’t accept Luka’s criminal ties. Even worse, she’d seen with her own eyes as he had shot a man in the forehead. He could take a life so casually, and it overwhelmed her. It was frightening to see that kind of violence, and to know it was hidden inside the man who had always been so tender and loving with her, at least until last night.

She thought Avriella was far too optimistic, but she didn’t want to hurt the other woman by pressing the issue or escalating things to an argument. Instead, she opted to change the subject to Lucas and spent the next half-hour telling the other woman all about her grandson. It was a safe topic, and it brought them both pleasure.

Try as she might, she couldn’t seem to dismiss Avriella’s words over the next few days. Her mind kept dwelling on it, turning over and over the idea of finding a way to embrace Luka and forget about his mob ties.

In an effort to do so, she carefully watched his interaction with Lucas, finding it charming how quickly he had taken to fatherhood. He didn’t even complain about the messy parts, like burping or diaper changes. He instinctively did his part and then some, treating Lucas tenderly, and even being considerate to her.

Considering how angry he was with her, he was being awfully sweet, she decided. He brought her snacks without asking, allowed her to sleep in on more than one occasion until the point where her breasts were aching and woke her up to feed the baby, and had already arranged for Amber to take her shopping for a new wardrobe when he’d learned none of her old clothes fit quite right.

One afternoon, she took advantage of Lucas’s naptime and Luka’s absence to snoop through his home office. She wasn’t certain what she was looking for, but she thought it might offer some insight into the man and his actions. The room was tucked away on the bottom floor of the apartment, so she took Lucas with her, napping in his car seat, and left him on the floor in front of the desk.

Not knowing what she was looking for, she simply sat and stared around for a little while, getting a feel for the masculine room with its rich wood tones, bookshelves full of books, and chocolate-brown carpeting that cushioned her bare feet. She leaned back in the chair, which was executive-style, of course, and imagined she was Luka. What did he do when he sat here? He claimed to be busy mostly with the foundation, but was his home office where he plotted his crimes?

She opened the nearest drawer, almost surprised to find it glided easily and wasn’t locked. The top one yielded nothing but miscellaneous office supplies, which she sorted through quickly. The next drawer opened equally easily, and it was filled with files. There was a filing cabinet beside the desk, which also opened easily and held more files. Idly, she rifled through them, soon grasping they were all related to the foundation he ran for his mother with Avriella’s part-time input these days.

She selected a file at random, reading through the charity’s profile and discovering it was a shelter for domestic abuse victims. There was a remittance stub attached showing a donation for a hundred thousand dollars, and she nodded her approval before sliding the file back into the desk.

The next file she pulled out at random was for the state’s Headstart program, and the number of zeros after the one on the check made her eyes widen. She remembered hearing something about a budget shortfall that would have cut Headstart two years ago, diminishing it down to the bare-bones, and apparently, the Rinaldis hadn’t wanted that to happen. They must have picked up the difference, judging by the size of the check.

She continued searching through the files, not pausing to look at all of them, but each one revealed a new charity. There was the animal shelter, a scholarship fund for underprivileged children, donations to Make-A-Wish Foundation, and several programs invested in feeding children, both domestically and abroad.

Each file gave her the warm fuzzies when she saw the concrete proof of how at least part of the Rinaldi fortune was spent. If Luka was the one who personally selected these charities, he clearly favored programs that supported the vulnerable and the weak. There was an occasional donation to an art foundation, but most of them were far more pragmatic, focusing on alleviating suffering, hunger, and the effects of violence.

Did he select these charities as a way to compensate for the crimes the Rinaldis committed? It added to the puzzle of who he was, and it gave her more questions than answers.

He’d also gone out of his way to retrieve her possessions, though it had proven to be a futile endeavor. As she had suspected, her apartment had been ransacked and cleared out. All of her things were gone except for bits and pieces that had been scattered across the torn carpeting, according to the men Luka had sent to fetch her belongings.

They’d taken a few pictures too, but she hadn’t been able to look at more than one or two. Contrasting the place where she had been raising Lucas with where they were now was too painful and too sharp a reminder of the existence to which she had been willing to consign her son in an attempt to protect him from a man who loved him dearly.

That left a bitter taste in her mouth, and she was no longer certain she had done the right thing, or that she was continuing to do the right thing by trying to ignore how she felt for Luka.

Surprisingly, it was Haley who helped her reach a decision, though she was certain her sister would never want to claim credit for such a task. In fact, she had done her best to do the exact opposite when she’d finally called her sister a few days after her return to Luka’s life and invited her to come over for coffee on an afternoon she was certain Luka wouldn’t be home. She still hadn’t tried to leave the condo alone, and certainly not with Lucas, because she was certain she wouldn’t be allowed to, and she didn’t want to face that confrontation just yet.

Haley was clearly spoiling for a fight when Abby opened the door for her that afternoon at two, though she did take time for a long hug before launching into a tirade. “I missed you,” she said grudgingly.

“I missed you too.” Abby licked her lips, bracing herself for Haley’s outburst.

“You didn’t call or anything the entire time you were missing. Do you know how worried Mom and I were?”

Abby nodded. “I’m sure you were, but I was afraid to contact you in case Luka was still looking for me. It wasn’t safe.”

Haley scowled at her. “If it wasn’t safe, then why the fuck are you back in his apartment?”

Abby licked her lips as she hesitated, uncertain how much to tell her sister. She didn’t want Haley to run off halfcocked and contact the police or something, so she tap-danced around the blunt truth—that Luka had kidnapped her and Lucas. “It’s complicated.”

Haley rolled her eyes as she strode into the apartment, barely glancing at Gretchen, who had come to the doorway of the kitchen. The housekeeper disappeared just as quietly, and Abby followed behind her sister as Haley went to the living room on the first floor. As her sister started to sit down on the leather couch, she said, “We need to go upstairs. We’ll talk in the media room.”

Haley scrunched her brow. “I really don’t feel like going into the mobster man’s bedroom, sis.”

“I need to be upstairs.” She spoke firmly, not allowing Haley time to argue as she turned around and walked up the stairs, not stopping until she reached the media room. The master bedroom door was open so she could hear Lucas if he cried, which was why it was so important to be upstairs.

“What’s the deal here?” asked Haley as she strode inside. Her tall, willowy figure was a perfect match for her overbearing nature, and her long legs ate up the steps much faster than Abby usually moved. “Are you confined to this area or something?”

She ignored her sister’s taunts as she sat down and indicated Haley should take a seat on the loveseat as well. “Would you like coffee or tea?”

Haley shook her head, making auburn waves fly around her face. “What I’d like are some answers. Maybe start with why you ran away from Luka, and then fill in the gaps of where you’ve been and why you didn’t contact me?”

“I can’t go into everything, but that thing Mike told you was right.” She wished her sister had requested coffee, just so it would give her something to do with her hands. She was unreasonably nervous and ended up grasping a throw pillow on her lap and squeezing it with her fingers. “I was afraid, so I ran.” Abby couldn’t trust Haley with the full truth. If her sister found out she had witnessed Luka shooting an FBI agent, Haley would run straight to the authorities. She’d think she was doing the right thing, and maybe she was, but it no longer seemed so clear-cut to Abby.

“I get you were afraid, but I don’t understand why you thought you couldn’t call us.”

Abby arched brow. “You don’t think Luka was watching you and having you monitored to make sure I didn’t contact you? I mean, assuming he was ever looking for me in more than a casual way.” She didn’t know and hadn’t yet had the courage to ask Luka how he’d reacted beyond the first few weeks of thinking she’d been kidnapped.

When he found the watch, had he called off the search completely? She didn’t know. The only thing certain was when he had accidentally crossed her path, he’d still wanted her enough to take her. Or had he simply wanted to eliminate a witness? She wasn’t sure she was ready for that much blunt honesty, so she hadn’t broached the topic yet.

“Okay, let’s concede that. Why the hell are you back here with him now? Did you come crawling back because you decided you can’t live without him?” Haley’s scathing tone made it clear how pathetic she found that sentiment.

Glaring at her sister, she shifted slightly on the loveseat. “We actually ran across each other in another city, where I was living. Luka convinced me to come back. There’s more to it than you know.”

Haley scoffed. “What could possibly make it okay to be here with the mafia? You know better than that. What they do is wrong.”

Abby shrugged a shoulder, not intending to engage in an ethical debate with her sister if she could help it. Lucas picked right then to start crying, and from her heavy breasts, she knew he was ready to eat. “I’ll be right back.”

Haley’s mouth dropped open. “Is that a baby?”

Ignoring her sister’s question, Abby went down the hallway to the master bedroom and lifted Lucas from the crib. After opening her shirt and bra, she offered him her breast, and he quieted down as soon as he latched on. She rubbed his downy head as she walked over to an armchair in the corner and sat down with him. She looked up in some surprise when the door opened with a hard push that made it rebound against the wall. “Come in,” she said dryly to her sister.

Haley’s gaze was focused on the baby latched to her breast. “It is a baby. Your baby,” she said in an accusatory fashion. “Oh, Abby, how could you do this?”

Her shoulders went up defensively as she glared at her sister. “Not that it’s any of your business, but Lucas wasn’t planned. I just found out I was expecting him when I saw…left Luka.”

Haley shook her head. “It didn’t mean you had to have it. You could’ve terminated. It would’ve been the safest option, and you wouldn’t have anything tying you to a mobster.”

Except she’d been a witness to him murdering Armstrong. She left that part unspoken. Instead, Abby shrugged a shoulder. “Until you’ve been in this situation, you can’t really judge the decision someone else makes, Haley. I thought about it, but it just didn’t feel right. I had Lucas because I felt compelled to do so. I love him, and I don’t regret the decision to keep him.”

“I’m so grateful that you did,” said Luka as he stepped into the room. His expression was mild, though he wasn’t entirely successful in hiding a flash of irritation when his gaze settled on Haley before moving to her and Lucas. “I don’t think I ever said thank you for that.”

She gave him a tentative smile and nodded her head. “It was difficult, but it was the right thing to do.”

“Oh, please,” inserted Haley, her exasperation obvious. “You’ve ruined your entire life over this mess. I told you not to get involved with him, and then I tried to get you to see reason and leave him alone, and now you’re stuck with him for life.”

“Fortunately, that’s not your business, Haley,” said Luka in a stern voice. “I’m sure Abby was happy to see you, but you must be going now. It’s getting late.”

Haley crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him. “I’m not leaving without talking to my sister. If I have any say in it, she’ll be leaving this place with me.” Her eyes narrowed suddenly. “Unless she’s not free to leave? Are you holding her prisoner here, Rinaldi?”

Abby didn’t look up from the baby as she awaited Luka’s response. Technically, she was his prisoner, but she hadn’t made any move to leave either. It had seemed futile, but she was still interested to hear what Luka would say.

“Abby can leave of her own free will if she chooses,” he said impassively.

She did look up then, his disinterested tone catching her attention and ripping out her heart. Her lips opened to emit a small gasp, but before she could work herself into an emotional frenzy, she saw the resignation in Luka’s gaze and realized he was preparing himself for her to choose to leave, as though he dreaded it.

Haley made a scoffing sound. “Yeah, sure. You say she can leave, but let me guess? The kid stays with you, ergo Abby’s your captive, because you know she won’t go without her kid.”

Luka’s expression betrayed little, and his voice was flat when he said, “Abby can take Lucas if she wants to. We’ll set up visitation or something. I’m not holding her against her will.”

Haley seemed surprised, sputtering for a moment in her shock before regaining her composure. She turned to face Abby. “Well, come on then. Let’s get out of here while you still can.”

Abby bit her lip as she considered the two people standing in front of her. Haley made no effort to hide her emotions or opinions, so it was easy to guess what she wanted. She wanted Abby and Lucas to walk out of Luka’s apartment and not look back. Luka was more difficult to read, but it was because he hid how he was feeling that she intuited his emotions. He was preparing himself for the pain of them leaving again. “No,” she said softly.