Dangerous Beauty: Part One: Destiny (20 page)

It took her forever to pick out what to wear. She had too many short dresses and she didn’t want to look like a hoe, as Jenna would say, so she decided to wear a casual purple flower print, Louis Vuitton dress. It was mid-thigh length with black satin straps, a belted waist, and low neckline. At first she thought it pushed her breasts up too much, but she decided it wasn’t that bad. The dress kept her neck and shoulders bare which was perfect because she wanted the summer look. She decided to pair the dress with a pair of black peep toe pumps, and she definitely couldn’t forget the jewelry her incredible boyfriend surprised her with a couple of days earlier. The low neckline of her dress showcased her diamond necklace perfectly, and she tucked her now wavy black hair behind her ears so she wouldn’t hide the earrings. Once she had gotten the long look of approval from Kyle she knew that she had chosen the right attire for the meeting.

As they neared The Salerno Organization, Carter couldn’t help but stare at the high rise building in awe. Kyle had told her that Angelo Salerno was a master at hiding in plain sight. He hid all of his criminal activity by building an empire as Angelo Salerno, business mogul. The Salerno’s practically owned New York City. They owned numerous department stores full of designers from all around the world, jewelry stores filled with rare diamonds worth a fortune, and Carter was also surprised to find out about the amount of real estate they owned. The Salerno Organization owned many of the luxury apartment buildings in Manhattan including the one her and Nathan lived in.

Kyle also told her about the many properties they own in Las Vegas, such as hotels, casinos, resorts, and Carter was shocked. The Salerno empire was massive, no wonder they’re so powerful.

“Kyle, are you sure my boobs aren’t showing too much?” Carter asked adjusting her dress and worrying her bottom lip. They were getting closer to this little meet and great, and she was starting to doubt her entire outfit choice.

Kyle looked at her with a sly smile. “Carter, you have beautiful breasts. Why the hell would you hide them with clothes?” Kyle answered honestly, and he laughed when Carter hit him on his arm.

The inside of the building was huge. Carter held tight to Kyle’s hand, trying to keep up with his long strides as her heels clicked against that shiny black marble floor. She was still nervous, but she felt her nerves ease when she saw two familiar smiling faces in the lobby. Carter’s mood brightened and she smiled wide as her and Kyle approached Dante and Lucca.

“Hey there, sweetheart,” Lucca said as he, leaned forward and kissed her cheek. “You look stunning.”

“Yes you do. My goodness, honey,” Dante said placing a loud kiss on her forehead.

Carter blushed and lowered her eyes shyly. They were all being so sweet, she knew it was because she had been so nervous.

“See, I told you look beautiful,” Kyle said looking down at her with a smile. “She wanted to change.”

“You guys are just being sweet, thank you though,” she said with a shy smile. These guys always made her blush like a damn school girl.

“You ready to go up? They’re ready for you now,” Dante asked.

Carter frowned. “They’re? How many people want to meet me?” she asked feeling her nerves now renewed.

“Don’t worry, it’s only our father’s, they all knew Spook too,” Lucca assured. “They don’t bite, I promise,” he teased and Carter gave him a playful punch in the arm.

“I’m sure they don’t. If you all are any indication of their personalities I think I’ll be able to get through it,” Carter said wondering if the guys’ fathers were just older versions of their sons. If they were, than this was going to be fun.

“Hold on, is Cesare there?” Kyle asked the guys while they loaded on the elevator. He pressed floor twenty-six and entered a security code on a key pad.

Dante chuckled. “Yep, he’s there.”

“Who’s Cesare?” Carter asked confused

“My father,” Kyle said with a groan. “And he might bite, not in a bad way, just in a very inappropriate way,” he said with a frown,

“Oh, so that’s where you and Mickey get it from,” Carter teased. A crooked smile appeared on his face and he winked at her. Carter giggled.

“Mitch is up there too, Kyle,” Lucca said suddenly serious.

Kyle frowned. “What is he doing in there?” he asked.

“Hell if I know, but I almost had to throw his ass out the window,” Lucca said with a scowl on his handsome face. Carter didn’t like it, he looked so angry and she had never been able to handle anger, not even her own. Whenever Carter would walk around her house upset with a scowl on her face her father would embrace her warmly, and it always seemed to do the trick. He was the reason why Carter loved to show affection to those she cared for. Whenever her father showed her affection it made her relaxed and she felt loved.

Carter reached up and touched his face tenderly and he looked down at her with a curious smile.

“If he pissed you off that much, I’ll help you haul his ass out of the window. That should help me make a good impression with your fathers. Don’t you think?” she said with a wink.

Lucca laughed softly and kissed her hand. “I know it would help with my father.”

Once the doors to the elevator opened on the twenty-sixth floor Carter tensed again and unknowingly gripped Kyle’s hand tighter.

“We’re right here, honey. We’re all going in together,” Kyle said giving her a reassuring smile.

Carter nodded and they exited the elevator. Kyle held her hand and she gripped his arm, pulling close to him, Dante and Lucca followed closely behind.

The twenty-sixth floor was huge, and busy. Men filled the area, some sitting at desks, some sitting at long meeting tables. The floor had pretty much everything you would think was in a regular office, like cubicles and conference rooms, the only difference was everyone in this office was strapped. Every man had a gun holstered somewhere and a cup of coffee in their hand. Some guys had a beer, which was not very business-like. And why was everyone wearing black?

Carter just shrugged and let Kyle lead the way. Once they got in the view of everyone, it seemed like every man paused and looked in their direction. Carter tried to maintain an impassive expression. She didn’t want to look like a frightened child.

They continued to walk through the large office. This side of the office was filled with young men, many of them attractive. They all ran an appreciative eye up and down Carter’s body and some of them just focused on her chest. She told Kyle it showed too much.

Carter saw a man look at Kyle and smirk. “Damn Kyle, is that your…” His sentence trailed off as realization hit him and his eyes opened wide. “Hold up, is that Spook’s…”

“Go find something to do, Jay.” Lucca growled from behind her.

Carter looked at the man as they passed by and he stared back at her, his mouth still agape. Once they rounded a corner to another side of the office she relaxed a little. This side looked to be the side with the veterans of the business because no one looked to be under forty. Every man was focused on what they were doing on this side, so no eyes looked at them making their way to the boss’s office. Carter relaxed, she much rather have them focused on their work than on her. That was the way it remained until one man that looked to be in his early forties stood up from a meeting table with a cup of coffee in his hand looking at a piece of paper. The man’s eyes rose from the paper in his hand and met Carter’s. He gasped as shock registered on his face. He dropped the cup of coffee in his and it shattered as it hit the floor.

Startled, Carter gripped Kyle’s arm tighter. Kyle stopped walking when the glass hit the floor and looked at the man’s expression confused to why he looked like he’d just seen a ghost.

“What the hell, Rick?” Lucca said angrily.

The man pointed his finger at Carter frantically, shock still masking his face. “What the…” he trailed off. “That’s Anastacia fucking Stone.”

Carter’s heart stopped. More fear than she had ever experienced in her life accompanied by a million different emotions she couldn’t really deal with at the moment stilled her heart.

After the man yelled that forbidden name, every man in the room abruptly shot to their feet, pulled out their guns, and aimed them straight at Carter.

In a fast swift move Kyle had Carter behind his back shielding her with his big body.

“Hey, hey, hey what the fuck? Are you out of your minds?” Kyle shouted.

“Get away from that crazy bitch!” the men shouted over and over again, urging Kyle, Dante, and Lucca to stop shielding Carter.

“Put down your guns now!” Dante yelled as he shielded Carter on her left and Lucca came and shielded her on the right.

“I swear to Christ if you don’t put those goddamn guns down I’ll blow all of your heads off!” she heard Lucca scream at the men.

After that, every man in the room began to scream back in forth in Italian.

Carter didn’t speak Italian. She had no idea what they were saying. All she could understand were the two names being thrown back and forth, Anastacia Stone and Carterina Steele.

This is it. This is why her father kept her away from here, from it all. Carter’s heart began to beat rapidly. It was too much, being here in this place where people knew a face identical to her own that wasn’t hers, was all too much. Carter had never even seen her mother, except in her own reflection. She knew absolutely nothing about the woman, and she was haunting her, and there was no way Carter could escape it. She didn’t want to pay for the sins of an identical stranger.

Oh God. I have to get out of here!

The men continued to scream at each other back and forth and the sounds were deafening. Men from the other side of the office came over to see what the chaos was all about.

Oh God. Oh God. Where the hell is Nathan!
Carter thought as she covered her ears and buried her face in Kyle’s back, trying to silence the arguing men.

Carter wanted to disappear. She wanted to curl into a ball and become invisible. But most of all, she wanted her father.

At the thought of her father, a sob threatened to escape Carter’s lips. She should have listened to him and stayed away from this place. So what if she would have lived her life in hiding and alone. These people would kill her! Her father taught her numerous skills, but not one of them was how to dodge fifty bullets that come at her at once!

Tears filled Carter’s eyes and she groaned as she tried to blink them away. She gripped Kyle’s suit jacket. “Kyle,” she screamed. Kyle turned around to her quickly, standing directly in front of her still shielding her from the yelling men with guns. “Kyle, please you have to get me out of here. Please?” Carter cried to him. She was about to have a serious breakdown. This was too much
too
soon.

Kyle quickly scooped her up in his arms. “Go to Angelo’s office and get Nathan now!” he yelled to Dante walking quickly back to the other side of the office with Carter in his arms. She buried her face in his neck refusing to show the men her tears.

“None of you idiots move a muscle because if you do I will not hesitate to blow your head off,” Lucca growled, pointing his gun at the men and blocking the path where Carter and Kyle had just exited.

***

Nathan sat in his father’s office wondering what was taking Kyle and Carter so long. He knew the twenty-sixth floor was large and his father’s office was located a long distance away from the main elevator, but they should have been here by now.

While he looked out of the glass wall of his father’s office to the long hallway something that he forgot to ask his father popped into his memory. He figured he’d ask since his father always seemed to know everyone, and Anastacia should be nearly the same age as him.

“Pop, I forgot to ask you something.” Nathan walked over to his father. Angelo looked up from his conversation with Cesare. “Are you familiar with a woman named Anastacia Stone?”

All the men visibly stilled.

“Where the hell did you hear that name, Nathan?” His father asked him, his tone suddenly becoming serious.

Nathan’s jaw clenched. “Shit,” Nathan muttered, and just as he was about to explain the door of the office swung open and Dante stood in the doorway breathing hard, as if he’d just run a marathon.

“Nate, you need to get out here now, the men have lost their minds.”

“What the hell do you mean? Where’s Carter?”

“We were bringing Carter through and they all flipped out and aimed their guns at her. They think she’s her mother, Nate.”

“Her what?” Cesare exclaimed.

“Her mother, Anastacia Stone,” Dante replied remembering Carter saying the woman’s name during her argument with Tessa. What he didn’t understand is why the men reacted that way when they thought Carter was her. Who the hell was Anastacia Stone anyway?

Every man in the room shot up from their seat.

“Shit, shit, shit, shit…” Nathan chanted over and over as he ran out of the office and down the long hallway. His father and the other men in the office followed behind him.

Once the office came into view Nathan stopped running and stormed the rest of the way in. “What the hell is going on here?” he yelled. The men paused at the sound of the angry underboss.

Nathan was pissed, beyond pissed, the thought of Carter being held at gun point in a place she should feel safe — a place that was his— filled him with rage.

“These dumbasses wanted to kill Carter for no fucking reason,” Lucca said still standing where Kyle and Carter just exited.

The men standing behind the long meeting table looked at Lucca like he was crazy. “Who the hell is Carter? We were following orders given to us before you could tie your damn shoe, Lucca. If you see Anastacia Stone you capture the bitch and take her to Angelo,” one of the men said.

“You are a dumbass, Rick, you know that Me, Kyle, and Dante kept telling you idiots over and over that she isn’t Anastacia Stone. She’s Spook Steele’s daughter.” Lucca yelled and the men.

“Bullshit,” Rick yelled back. “It’s impossible for Spook to have a daughter who has the exact same damn face as Anastacia—”

Rick’s sentence was cut off when Nathan stormed across the room, gripped the meeting table, tossing it effortlessly across the office. Men in the path of the table darted out of the way as the large flying table sent papers flying through the air. The table was thrown with so much force when it hit the wall and cracked and the men stared wide eyed as Nathan took long angry strides over to Rick, and gripped him by his shirt. He towered over the shorter man, which wasn’t surprising, Nathan and his father pretty much towered over many of the men in the family.

Angelo stood back and didn’t intervene. He figured the men should see his son like this now, he would be the boss one day, and they needed to see what the boss is like when he lost his temper.

“She looks like her because she’s her daughter,” he yelled. He pushed Rick back forcefully into the wall behind him. Nathan turned and focused on every man present in the office. “None of you are to pull out a gun on this floor unless you are instructed to do so. Everyone that has access to the twenty-sixth floor has been approved by either me or my father. So this shit, will never happen again because if it does, heads will literally be rolling across this
goddamn
floor,” Nathan growled. He looked around the room, daring them to challenge him.

Nathan turned back to Lucca. “Where is she?”

“Kyle carried her to his office. She wasn’t okay, Nate,” Lucca replied.

Nathan clenched his fist. “Clean this shit up!” he ordered the men as he stormed toward Kyle’s office.

Angelo followed slowly after his son. He noticed the men hadn’t moved yet. He looked at them with his arms crossed over his chest and a smirk on his face. “If I were you I’d clean this shit up like he said. We wouldn’t want him to come back in here, would we?” Everyone present in the office, and even some men from the other side of the office began to scramble around cleaning up the mess and Angelo chuckled.

***

Back in Kyle’s office, Carter had gone from being sad that her father wasn’t there, to furious at pretty much anything she could think about. Like, why the hell did she even left Hope Beach in the first place? Why was she stupid enough to think she didn’t have to live her life hiding? Why the hell were there so many people that wanted to kill Anastacia Stone? Why the hell was there so much blue in Kyle’s goddamn office? And last but not least, where the hell was Nathan?

Carter paced back and forth in the middle of Kyle’s office, seething. Her fists were clenched and her jaw tightened, she was trying to block out the knowledge that she had four very sharp knives holstered around her thigh. She wanted very badly to go back out to that office and rip all of their heads off. She was sure eventually they would shoot and kill her, but not without her taking at least ten of those sons of bitches to hell with her.

“Carter, honey, you have to calm down,” Kyle said, getting very worried. The last time he’d seen Carter this mad she cut Tessa’s throat.

“I am calm,” Carter said her tone low and cold.

No you’re not
, Kyle thought, but he didn’t want to deal with what would happen if he said it out loud. He would just watch her pace back and forth and stop her if she tried to go back out to the office.

When he first brought her back to his office, she seemed sad, distraught even. He sat her on his couch and she buried her face in her lap. He’d gone to his restroom to get her a warm towel to help her relax then he heard a series of slaps against the leather couch. When he turned to the direction of the noise he saw Carter slamming her balled up fist against the couch, with her head still buried in her lap.

“Carter, are you sure I can’t get you anything to help you calm down?” he asked sitting on the front of his desk watching her pace back and forth while they waited for Nathan.

Carter looked at him with a deadly glare. “I am calm, Kyle,” she said through clenched teeth.

If looks could kill and voices threw daggers, Kyle was sure he’d be dead. He raised his hands in surrender and nodded. “Calm,” was all he could say. And he was relieved when she started pacing again.

The door to Kyle’s office flew open and Nathan came in. “Carter,” he said relieved to see her.

Carter whipped around and stormed up to him, “Where the hell were you?” she yelled glaring at him.

Nathan seemed taken off guard by her mood.
Tough
, Carter thought. She didn’t give a shit, she blamed his ass for all of this.

Noting her mood, Nathan chose his reply wisely. “I was waiting for you to come to where I was, honey. I didn’t know—”

“What? That I was going walk into a gun fight where I was the sole target!”

“Technically, Anastacia was the target, not you.”

“Don’t say her name, Nathan. I told you this was a bad idea. I just have to keep hiding. I can’t go through my life having people with guns mistaking me for that bitch.”

“No you don’t have to hide, Carter. You hated hiding. Don’t even stand here and pretend you didn’t.”

“It doesn’t matter whether I hated it or not, Nathan. The fact is that I have to, I can dodge bullets, but not that many.”

“No one’s going to shoot at you, Carter, just calm down.”

“Don’t tell me to calm down, Nathan. You know I hate that shit. I have a right to be pissed, you weren’t out there, and you didn’t see what happened.”

“Well, I know that it’s not going to happen again, they know you aren’t Anastacia now and that’s all that matters so just calm—”

“Stop telling me to calm the fuck down, Nathan. And if someone says that bitch’s name one more time I’m going to lose my mind.”

Right at that moment, the men caught up with Nathan and begin to fill Kyle’s office. Dante, Mickey and Lucca came through the door first and were followed by their father’s and Mitchell.

When they laid eyes on Carter standing in the middle of the office with a scowl on her face, their hands shot to their mouths and they stared at her in shock.

“Holy shit,” Cesare exclaimed.

“Jesus Christ,” Alessandro said quietly.

“My God,” Angelo said staring wide eyed at Carter.

“This can’t be possible,” Bruno said shaking his head from side to side.

“There’s no way that she’s not Anastacia Stone,” Mitchell yelled from where he had backed up against the wall.

At the mention of her name Carter’s body tensed with rage. She hiked up her dress and gripped one of her knives, ready to kill the motherfucker that said it. Each of the men in the room gasped.

Nathan stepped in front of her with his hands up to stop her from moving forward. “Carter calm— Shit!” Nathan bellowed and he fell to the floor holding his poor balls after Carter punched him, full force.

There was a collective “Oh!” from all the men in the room when Nathan fell to the floor, then a collective “Shit!” when Carter threw a knife across the room and it stuck in the wall, passing mere inches away from Mitchell’s face.

Carter stormed to the bathroom, threw open the door and stood in front of the mirror. She looked at her face for two seconds, balled up her fist, reared back, and punched her reflection once, twice, three times, before the glass shattered under her fist.

“Just… give me a second. She’ll be fine,” Nathan gritted out. His face was crimson as he waited for the pain to pass. “Jesus Christ,” he groaned placing his arm over his eyes while lying back on the floor.

The men watched as the woman stood in front of the shattered mirror. Her head was hanging forward and her shoulders rose up and down as she began to take loud deep breaths. She appeared to be doing some sort of calming exercise. Her long hair shielded her face and she brought her now wounded hand in front of her. Without even flinching, she pulled a piece of glass from her knuckle. Blood ran through her fingers as she continued to stand in silence.

Nathan let out a loud groan then jumped up from the floor and walked calmly into the bathroom. Carter turned on the sink and placed her wounded hand in the warm water letting the blood wash away. Nathan walked over to a cabinet on the other side of the bathroom and pulled out a first aid kit. He walked over to Carter, turned her toward him and took her wounded hand in his. Quietly, he cleaned the cut and wrapped it with gauze, Carter stood silently while he completed the task.

Once he finished he ran his fingers through Carter’s hair, pushing it back from her face softly then gripped a hand full of her hair hard. Carter gasped and a small whimper escaped her lips.

Nathan leaned in close to her lips and kissed her softly while maintain his tight grip on her hair. “That hurt,” he said against her lips.

Carter smirked.

Nathan smiled and released his grip on her hair.

“I’m cold,” she said softly. He removed his suit jacket and helped Carter put it on. He gathered her long hair and placed it on the outside. The suit jacket was longer than her dress and she nearly disappeared in it, but it was warm and it smelled so good, like him, it helped calmed her.

Carter turned back to Nathan. “Which one is your father?” she asked softly.

“Guess,” he replied with a smirk.

Carter worried her bottom lip. “Shit,” she muttered.

Nathan chuckled like the true asshole he is. “Don’t act shy now, killer,” he teased. “Get your ass in there and say hi.”

Carter scowled at the jerk. “Kiss my ass, Nathan. It’s your damn fault my whole damn plan is shot to shit,” she whispered angrily.

Nathan just laughed at her which only turned her scowl into a deadly glare. “I’m sorry, baby. I didn’t know you’d be that pissed.” He only laughed harder when she pushed him.

She pointed her finger in his face. “Don’t fuck with me, Salerno. I swear to god I’ll cut your ass off.”

Nathan raised an eyebrow and smirked. “No sex?” he asked, amused by her threat.

Carter crossed her arms over her chest smugly. Hell yea she can cut his smartass off…at least she thought she could, she didn’t really know yet.

Nathan smirked and reached out, delivering a light tug to the hem of her dress. Carter slapped his hand away and sent him a vicious warning glare. Nathan laughed in the face of her glare and tried to reach for her but she dodged his attempt. Carter hit his hand from the hem of her dress once more and scrambled into the office before coming to an abrupt stop.

They were all looking at her now, and with her rage now gone she was a little nervous. She scanned the room and her eyes fell upon a man with brown hair and brown eyes. She knew that had to be Dante’s father. They both had those thick eyebrows that she loved to tease Dante about whenever she could. Her eyes moved to the next man. His hair was in a short cut, black, and smoothed back. He had gray eyes much like Nathan and Lucca’s, but Carter knew that he wasn’t Nathan’s father. Lucca looked just like him.

She smiled when she looked at the man standing next to Lucca’s father. His beautiful sky blue eyes and inky black hair told her exactly who his sons were. And just like his sons the man was devilishly handsome. The smile Carter gave him seemed to make him uneasy. He frowned, cast his eyes downward, and turned to look in another direction. Carter’s smile faded and she bit her lip, her stomach tightening with nerves.

She walked forward toward the tall man with black hair, gray eyes and features resembling her Nathan and stood in front of him with her eyes cast downward, afraid to make eye contact with anyone else. She knew she was a damn freak of nature. That had to be the reason Kyle’s father just gave her the same look her own father used to, like it pained him to look at her.

Carter extended her hand, and introduced herself the way her father instructed her to for this sort of situation. “Hello, my name is Carterina Anastacia Stone,” she said softly. “I am Spook and Anastacia’s daughter,” Carter cleared her throat, “and your son’s girlfriend.” Even though she was pretty sure the man thought she was a fucking psycho now. God, she hated her temper, she really did. She tried her best not to get mad, to keep her cool so that she could make a good impression, but sometimes it’s like the universe was against her. She couldn’t catch a damn break. She wanted Nathan to be proud of her, proud to be her boyfriend but instead she attacked him right in front of his damn dad.

Carter felt big hands grip her chin softly as Nathan’s father tilted her head until she met his eyes. Surprised, Carter tensed under his touch but she didn’t move. She let him continue with his inspection of her face. He looked into her eyes with a frown on his handsome face as he turned her head from one side to the other. Once his inspection of her features was complete his expression softened and he looked into her eyes.

“Spook was a dear friend of mine. I was deeply saddened when I heard what happen to him. You have my sincerest sympathy for your loss,” he said genuinely.

At the mention of her father’s death, Carter’s eyes filled with tears. It didn’t take long for the tears to overflow and begin falling down her face and she didn’t even try to stop them, there was no use, they weren’t going to stop. Nathan’s father had opened up the flood gates. “Thank you,” Carter whispered through her tears.