Dangerous Beauty: Part One: Destiny (21 page)

“There she is,” he said as he gently wiped the tears from Carter’s eyes. “There’s that sad little girl that stood in my living room nineteen years ago. Your father told me about your teddy bear, he called the airline before our meeting began, trying to get them to look for it.”

Carter laughed softly through her tears. “My bubby,” she whispered.

Angelo smiled. “If I’m remembering correctly your father said you thought Nathan was your new bubby for a long time after that day.”

Carter smiled at the memories. “You are remembering correctly.”

“No, you are not Anastacia Stone at all. You have her temper,” he said tapping her nose with his index finger, “and your resemblance to her is unreal, but Ana doesn’t have this,” he said wiping the tears softly from her face.

“Have what?” Carter asked inquisitively

“A heart, sweetheart, genuine emotion. Regardless of that fire we all just witnessed you have warmth, but your mother, she’s…not warm.” He frowned. “Accept this, your existence, the fact that she nurtured you inside of her body for nine months is out of character for Ana, but then again she was always good at surprising us,” he said as if lost in thought. He released her chin and stood back to get a full view of Carter. “Have you ever seen your mother, child?” He asked in a deep fatherly tone.

Carter shook her head. “No, I haven’t,” she replied softly.

He didn’t say anything after she answered. All he did was stare at her as if he were trying to figure out something.

After a moment he walked up to Carter and placed one hand on her back. “May I show you what the fuss is all about?” he asked while motioning toward the door of the office.

Carter looked up at him giving him an are you serious look and he nodded.

“Yes, please” Carter replied and he began to lead her out of the office.

Once they got to the door he paused and looked over at Mitchell. “Mitchell if you pull that knife from the wall please, so that I can return it to Carterina,” he said.

Mitchell’s jaw clenched, but he did as he was told. He handed the knife to Carter. Angelo smiled. “Very impressive dear, we’re going to have to find you an outlet for that anger. I have a feeling that if we don’t,” he turned to look at Nathan, remembering when Carter punched him and chuckled, “you and my son may have trouble conceiving his heir for this empire.”

Carter lowered her head in embarrassment and blushed. She heard Dante, Lucca, and Mickey snickering behind her followed by a loud smack, which she was sure was Nathan’s hand slamming across someone’s head, probably Mickey’s.

“Meet us in my conference room,” Angelo said over his shoulder, as him and Carter began to walk toward his office.

He led Carter through the twenty-sixth floor with his hand on her back. As they passed the place of the incident of mistaken identity, Carter looked around. The place was destroyed. Men were picking up papers scattered across the floor and carrying out a huge broken meeting table.

“That would be your boyfriend’s work. He has a bit of a temper himself, especially when he finds out the woman he loves was being held at gun point by a room full of his men,” Angelo said continuing to lead Carter to his office.

Once Carter walked into Angelo’s office she walked nervously over to a chair and sat down.

Angelo went behind his large desk. Opening a drawer, he picked up a key and walked over to his safe. He unlocked it and removed a black folder then closed it back.

“Where have you been these past five years, sweetheart?” Angelo asked as he pulled up a chair to sit beside her.

“Drifting,” Carter said with a small sad smile.

Angelo chuckled. “Well, you should be able to afford to drift. Your father was a very wealthy man, you should want for nothing.”

Carter shook her head. “I have nothing, Mr. Salerno. Spook exchanged everything we had for the promise of my escape. They told him that if he didn’t give them everything they would torture me to death, and he gave them everything,”

“So they didn’t kill you because Spook paid them not to?”

“No, that’s not why. They were still going to kill me after they killed him.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, how are you so sure?”

“I heard them say they were going to kill me, after I watched them kill my father,” Carter whispered, her eyes cast down to the floor. She knew that if she looked into his eyes and saw the concern she knew was present she would just start crying again, and she didn’t feel like dealing with all of that emotion.

Angelo tucked the hair shielding her face behind her ear. “Honey, if you don’t mind I would like to know what happened that night. There are rumors and the newspapers but I have a feeling that the truth of what happened lies with you. Am I right?”

Carter looked from the floor to Angelo’s eyes and nodded yes.

Angelo gave a nod of his head and opened the black folder in his hand. He pulled three small pictures from one of the small pockets and Carter tensed.

This is it. She’s finally going to see if she is actually identical to her mother or if everyone was full of shit. A part of her wanted this to remain a mystery, but there was a much larger part of her that wanted to see, needed to see her mother. She could feel the obsession she had as a child making its way back into her system, and she nearly reached for Angelo’s hands and yanked the pictures from him. She suddenly wanted to see Anastacia, get know her, and she hated that; she hated her. She hated that she left her, she hated that she looked like her, she hated that her father said she was exactly like a woman she’s never even met.

“Are you ready?” Angelo asked.

Carter saw the concern in his eyes and she suddenly felt like she had accidently said her thoughts out loud. She took a deep breath and relaxed.

“Yes,” she whispered.

Angelo nodded and put the pictures in her hand.

When Carter flipped the pictures forward she gasped loudly. Her hand shot up to her mouth and her head shook back and forth as she stared wide eyed at the picture.

The picture in her hand showed a young woman sitting on the edge of a large fountain. She was wearing a yellow dress and looking at the camera or the person taking the picture with a small smile on her face.

Carter could feel tears stinging her eyes as she looked at a woman identical to herself. There were a few differences, but they were barely noticeable. The woman’s skin was a chocolate shade of brown, her eyes hazel, and her hair so long it touched the edge of the fountain she was sitting upon.

Carter turned to the next picture. In this picture the woman wasn’t alone. She still sat at the edge of the water fountain but this time, a handsome young man with striking sky blue eyes sat with her. The man was looking at the camera with a huge grin on his face, while Anastacia’s lips were against his cheek. “Is this Kyle’s father?” Carter asked still looking at the picture.

“Yes,” she heard Angelo reply.

Carter smiled. “Kyle really looks a lot like him. He’s very handsome.” She really wanted to say he was sexy as hell. But that would be too much even though he was, he really was.

After Carter finished lusting over Kyle’s father she moved on to the third picture. In this picture Anastacia sat with Cesare and a tall beautifully handsome man with gray eyes and messy black hair. They all had smiles on their faces. Anastacia held both Cesare and Angelo’s hand as the men smiled to the camera and she rested her chin on Angelo’s shoulder looking at his face.

Carter smiled. “That’s you,” she said looking at the picture, “it’s like looking at Nathan with black hair.”

Carter looked up at him. “I think she liked you a lot, Mr. Salerno. I can tell, by the way she’s looking at you.”

Angelo didn’t respond he just looked at the young beautiful woman in front of him. Looking at her brought back many memories of his younger days with Anastacia Stone, many of them painful and hard to relieve, but he refused to look away from the young girl. He wouldn’t make her feel as if it was her that caused him the pain her mother had caused him. Carterina Stone is not Anastacia Stone. Anastacia Stone is a cold hearted bitch. Carterina Stone is the sweet girl in front of him, with the genuine smile that captured his son’s heart.

“Are you okay, Mr. Salerno?” she asked concern in her eyes. “Is it me? I can look away if it’s difficult for you to look at me. I understand, now more than ever,” she said sadly as she waved the pictures in the air.

Angelo chuckled. “No, sweet girl. I was just lost in thought. And call me Angelo please. You’re making me feel old. Forty-seven isn’t old anymore is it?” he asked in a teasing tone and Carter smiled. He chuckled. “Yes, the resemblance between you and your mother is uncanny, but I know who you are.”

“What about my voice, my father said my voice was like hers too.”

“Did he? Well I would have to agree. In her younger days her voice was very similar to yours, but now, she definitely puts a little more bite in her words.”

Carter placed her hand on Angelo’s. “Tell me about her, please, just what you know. I would really be grateful. Anastacia was a forbidden subject with my dad,” she pleaded.

“Darling, that’s a very long story.”

“Please.” she saw in his eyes that he wasn’t going to let up so she tried another strategy. “I’ll make you a deal. You tell me about Anastacia, and I’ll tell you my secrets.”

“Secrets?”

“Yep.”

Angelo smiled. “What kind of secrets do you have, Ms. Stone?”

Carter smirked. “I’ll tell you how I got away, who I let go, who I killed, why I tortured the man upstairs, what made me do what I did to Reeves face, and why I’ll kill the asshole if he attempts to touch my Nathan.”

Carter sat back in the chair and crossed her arms over her chest smugly.

Angelo looked at her with one eyebrow raised then burst into laughter. “Men like me dream of having daughter’s as tough as you,” he said through a laugh. “You have a deal. I will be honest with you and you will be honest with me. How does that sound?”

He held out his hand for Carter to shake and Carter smiled and shook his hand. “Deal.”

“Good. And after all of this we can talk about finding you that outlet for your temper, huh?” he said in a teasing tone. “I have a feeling you and Mikilo would work together very well.”

***

Angelo and Carter joined the men in the conference room and Carter settled in a seat between Kyle and Nathan to listen as Angelo told her about her mother.

“Alright, when we were eighteen years old Cesare and I were pretty much lap dogs for a mafia boss named Fiorenzo Luchini. His family was big in Sicily, they still are, but his son is boss now. Anyway, Fiorenzo was good friends with a powerful man in The French Corsican mafia named Alexis Stone. Alexis was said to have had an affair with an African woman and she became pregnant with his child. The woman died while giving birth to a baby girl whom Alexis named Anastacia.

“Now, although Alexis was married and had three children at the time, he favored Anastacia above anyone. She was his pride and joy. He spoiled her rotten and kept her with him always. She was never out of his sight once. Her skin color was an issue with many men back when she was first born, but Alexis dared anyone to say anything about his precious Anastacia, and if they did, he would kill them in the most brutal ways imaginable. Whenever Anastacia would even hint that someone had a problem with her to Alexis he would kill them, on the spot, while Anastacia watched. Like it was some kind of offering to her, and she loved it so much she made him teach her to do it too.

“Ana’s first kill was when she was ten years old, and she didn’t stop. She was just as dangerous as her father and she had an army of men to back her up if anyone tried to retaliate. As she grew up she began to make a name for herself, Anastacia Stone, as dangerous as she was beautiful. And she is very, very beautiful, much like yourself child. Grown men feared her because of her coldness and because of whose daughter she was, but her world fell apart when she was sixteen years old.

“Alexis became terminally ill and died, it was quick, and it tore Ana to pieces. Her father’s men scattered and Alexis’s wife and children threw Anastacia out of her home. Ana was sixteen years old when Luchini took her in. Alexis left Ana all he had, but she couldn’t have access to it until she was twenty, so until then Luchini would take care of her out of love for his dear friend. Even though she had been living in Luchini’s mansion for months Cesare and I didn’t see her until we were assigned as security for Fiorenzo’s son, Paolo, who had just, become underboss at twenty-two.”

“Yep, we had to follow his ass around everywhere prepared to take a bullet for the prick everyone wanted to kill,” Cesare interjected.

“Very true. So, we had to drive him to a meeting he had with an associate and when he came out of his wing of the mansion Ana was with him. Stunning.” Angelo said shaking his head from side to side remembering the first time he saw Anastacia. “People of color weren’t really respected then and still some these days but it was like Ana got a free pass because she was so beautiful.”

Cesare nodded in agreement. “Long thick black hair and hazel eyes with specks of green, much like your own,” he added.

“And Luchini had her by his side like she was a damn accessory. He would make sure everyone knew that she was his possession and if anyone touched her, he would cut off their fingers, Ana seemed to enjoy it when he actually did. There were some men who couldn’t keep their hands to themselves around her. Even though she could stop them easily by herself, she would wait and watch Paolo fucking lose it. He was obsessed with her and she used it for her own entertainment. To this day Paolo is still obsessed with your mother. She’s been following him around since she was seventeen years old as his secret weapon, brutally killing his enemies and scaring the shit out of anyone who even thinks of trying to fuck with him,” Angelo said.

“Is she still with him?” Carter asked engrossed in the story.

Angelo shook his head no. “Even though it pisses off Luchini, Ana comes and goes as she pleases. There isn’t really anything he can do to stop her. Obviously, nobody had a clue that she had a child with Spook,” he said and Carter saw an emotion pass through his eyes but it was gone too quick for her to identify it. He cleared his throat and shifted in his seat uncomfortably.