Dangerous Beauty: Part Two: A Mafia Princess (22 page)

“It wasn’t my work, Papa. It was Kyle and the guys. I’ve been here, remember? Kyle’s been struggling a bit, but he’s done well. You should let him know that when he gets here.”

Angelo nodded. “Yes, I know,” he groaned. “The boy has done well, but he calls me nonstop. I am not used to that. You don’t call me for anything— you just handle shit. It used to piss me off, but the past few months have really made me appreciate your hard-headed ass.”

Nathan chuckled. “I don’t know why you get mad. I always do the right thing,” Nathan said smugly. “I’m glad you finally appreciate me, old man.”

“Old? Bite your tongue!” he said in mock offense. “I’m finished talking to your smart-ass. Shall we go? I need to apologize to your wife for letting her damn mother get to me,” Angelo said a bit bitterly.

And there it was. The window. Nathan decided that now was the perfect time to ask his father about his and Anastacia’s relationship. There was still an infinitesimal chance they weren’t fucking.

Nathan cleared his throat and sat on the edge of the desk. “Uhhh … Pop? Can I ask you a question about that?” Nathan asked. He was still feeling a little uncomfortable about the situation. The sooner he got this cleared up, the better.

Damn, he was really in denial.

Angelo frowned and hesitated, but eventually nodded. “Go ahead, son,” he said slowly.

All right, here we go,
Nathan thought. He knew what a stickler his father was for respect, so he tried to figure out how to word this question respectfully. He cocked his head to the side and bluntly asked, “Are you fucking Carter’s mother?”

He didn’t know how to ask it any other way. He just wanted it to be out there in the open so his father could tell him that he wasn’t, and they could move forward. He didn’t know why Carter had been so worked up upstairs. He could handle this.

Nathan was still waiting for an answer a minute after he asked the question. Angelo just stood, staring at Nathan with an impassive expression. He stood there for another moment before placing his hands on his hips and dropping his head forward. He walked slowly toward Nathan, stopping a small distance away from him. He lifted his head and narrowed his gray eyes on his son. Nathan stared back with an identical pair.

“Come again, son? I don’t think I heard you correctly,” he said, now speaking in his mother tongue.

Nathan was confused.
How the hell did he not hear?
He was sure he had spoken loudly enough, and there wasn’t anyone in the office except the two of them.

Nathan shrugged. “I asked if you were fucking Carter’s mother. Fucking her. Are you fucking Anastacia Stone?” Nathan asked in Italian. He repeated the word
fucking
with more emphasis this time to be sure his father heard.

Nathan was once again met with silence from his father. He frowned. What the hell was his— ?

Nathan’s thoughts were abruptly interrupted when his father smacked him in the back of the head—
hard
.

His father hit him with so much force that he nearly fell off the damn desk. He rubbed the throbbing spot on the back of his head and turned to his father, giving him a disapproving look.

“What the shit, Pop?” Nathan yelled.

“Are you out of your fucking mind?!” Angelo shouted. “My own damn son doesn’t know how to speak to me! You don’t know how to be respectful to your own fucking father?”

“What the hell did I—” Nathan cut himself off as realization hit him. “You
are
fucking her, aren’t you?! What the fu— ahhh!” Nathan bellowed when his father hit him again. He was positive the hit was harder this time. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

Nathan’s father gripped his shirt and yanked him up from the edge of the desk. “Do you think that just because you’re twenty-five and married, I won’t kick your little blonde ass, Nathan Alessandro Salerno?”

“Little. Blonde. Ass? Really? Pop. I’ am inch shorter than you. And what in
the
fuck does the Salerno family have against my goddamn blonde hair!”

Nathan learned long ago that the best thing for him to do when his father was this pissed off at him was to act like a damn fool. It was the only way to bring his dad back down. He wasn’t stupid, though. He knew the only reason he got away with acting like this with his father was because he was his son. Anyone else wouldn’t have been so lucky.

Angelo let out an enraged roar and pushed Nathan forcefully back on the couch behind him.

He continued to shout in Italian at him. “Why do you insist on being such a fucking smart-ass all the time? You think everything is a damn joke, Nathan!”

Nathan leaned back. “No, Father. I don’t think everything is a joke,” Nathan said calmly. “I just find it funny that you get upset when I’m right. You should be used to it by now— you did raise me.”

Angelo groaned, too tired to deal with his son. He walked behind the large desk and fell back in the chair behind it.

“What is your relationship with Anastacia, Pop?” Nathan asked. He sat and waited for his father’s response.

Angelo ran his hand over his face. “You won’t leave it be, will you?”

“You know I won’t,” Nathan said as he sat back on the couch and rested his aching head. “Just tell me. We’ve never kept anything from one another. Even when I didn’t like you, I told you shit because I loved you. Now spill.”

Angelo shook his head. “I love you, too, son. You know I do. But it’s just too complicated a story.”

“I have time, and so do you.”

“Son,” said Angelo with an exasperated groan.

Nathan frowned and sat forward. “What are you hiding from me?” he asked accusingly.

Angelo looked over at him and feigned confusion. “What are you talking about?”

“You won’t talk to me. You’re hiding a relationship, which you never do. What the hell happened to Cynthia? You two were talking about living together— and now this? And the weirdest part is you never even mentioned any type of romantic involvement with Anastacia to me.”

“That’s because it was none of your fucking business, Nathan,” Angelo snapped.

“See, Pop? You’re hiding something! We don’t keep shit from each other. Haven’t since I was a kid—”

“Did you not keep Carterina from me for weeks?” Angelo accused.

Nathan frowned. “That was different.”

“How so, Nathan?”

“I told you that I didn’t mean to do that. I was preoccupied. I wasn’t lying about that.”

Angelo chuckled. “Yes, I remember you lying to me over the phone.”

Nathan frowned. “I didn’t lie. I withheld information. I had to— you know that.”

Angelo snorted. “Bullshit, Nathan. You didn’t tell me that you cut off Andrew Reeves, that you had an active threat on the table, or that you found Robert Steele’s daughter. What could have possibly kept you so occupied you forgot to inform me of these things?”

Nathan stared at his father blankly.
Was he fucking serious?
Nathan blinked and pursed his lips before snapping. “What the fuck do you think kept me occupied?” he yelled. “I was falling in love! I told her I loved her the first night. I didn’t even allow her to go back to her own damn house. She stayed with me the entire time. We barely left the bedroom. I wasn’t lying to you— I just … I wasn’t ready to tell you,” Nathan said, lowering his voice.

“Tell me what? That you had found Robert’s daughter?”

Nathan shifted uncomfortably. He didn’t want to talk about this. Weren’t they supposed to be discussing his relationship with Anastacia? “Stop changing the subject.”

Angelo frowned at the change in Nathan’s attitude. He was no longer talking to smart-ass Nathan. That meant he had something on his mind.

“What is it, son? Tell me.” Angelo leaned forward in his seat, resting his elbows on the table and clasping his hands.

Nathan sat silently. He didn’t want this conversation to go where he knew it was going. He had told Carter he wasn’t ready.

“Why the hell should I tell you anything? You certainly haven’t been telling me shit these past few months,” Nathan said, hoping the conversation would end.

Angelo sighed in defeat. “Fine, have your way. I will tell you what you need to know about my relationship with Ana.” He saw Nathan’s smug smile and shook his head. “Not so fast, boy. I will not share if you do not share. So … share,” Angelo said as he motioned for Nathan to continue.

Nathan sat for a minute, trying to decide whether or not to continue. He had told Carter he wasn’t ready for this conversation, but it looked like the opportunity to fix things between them was right here in front of him. “I’ll only move forward because I no longer feel like arguing with you.”

Angelo nodded for Nathan to continue.

Nathan sighed. He didn’t know if the words were going to come, but he’d try. He’d never spoken about this with anyone except Carter. He’d never spoken about this with his father, but things were different now, and he wanted to tell his father that.

“I didn’t call during that time because I fell in love with her. I’d had the phone in my hand, and I was going to tell you the next morning, but I …I wasn’t ready to admit that I’d done something I’d told myself I wouldn’t do …”

Angelo frowned in confusion. “I don’t understand, Nathan.”

“I know you don’t. That’s because I never told you.” Nathan cleared his throat and shifted before continuing. “A-after …” Nathan cleared his throat again. Shit, this was hard. “After mom died …”

Angelo’s body stilled when Nathan mentioned his mother. He didn’t know how to react, Nathan had never— not once since the day he was found in that bathroom with his mother’s body— spoken about her to him. And now that he was, Angelo was speechless, but he continued to listen closely.

“I made a choice then. I told myself that I wouldn’t fall in love. I wouldn’t put a woman in danger by bringing her into my life. I thought that if I did, what happened to Mama would … you know. I have a lot of enemies. And we never figured out who did that to her …” Nathan took a deep breath. “I knew I couldn’t take it if anything ever happened to a woman because of me. Then when that shit with Mitchell happened, I thought I was right. As soon as I fell for a woman, she was dead. And I know you kept telling me it wasn’t my fault, but I didn’t believe you. I still couldn’t look in the mirror.”

Guilt and sorrow filled Angelo. “Nathan—”

Nathan shook his head. “No. Pop, don’t apologize,” he said calmly. “You don’t have to apologize anymore. Like I said, I’ve changed, and so has my view on many things that have happened in my life.” Nathan swallowed then took a deep breath. “What happened to Carter wasn’t my fault. Just like what happened to mom wasn’t yours. We both would have prevented the events if we could have.” Nathan could feel himself getting emotional, so he pushed back the urge to shut down so that he could continue. He wanted his dad to hear this. “What happened to her messed me up. Seeing her on that floor, having her blood all over me … It took something from me. I didn’t think that I could have a life like this because I thought that when she died, she took my—” Nathan paused to collect himself again. “I thought she took my heart with her. But now I see that it was impossible for Mama to take my heart, or my ability to love another, when she died. She wanted me to love. She always said so.” Nathan sat back and smiled, caught up in good memories of his mother. “Do you know she spoke of Carter years after that day in the garden? She told me I had to find her. That it was her wish that I marry the ‘stunning little girl with the beautiful hair’.” Nathan chuckled. “I always agreed with her even though I didn’t believe in the wishing anymore. I just loved that she still did. She still believed that everything could get better by simply making a wish.” Nathan looked over at his father, sitting behind the desk in silence. “Do you think she would’ve loved Carter, Pop?”

And just like that, Angelo was looking into the eyes of a five-year-old Nathan sitting on the couch, asking him about Carter. He was trying not to get to emotional, but his son was one of the few people in this world that evoked strong emotion from him. He didn’t want to be a sappy father and cry, but Nathan had finally opened up— the way Angelo had always wanted him to. He’d just broken down the decade-long barrier that had always kept Angelo at arm’s length for nearly fourteen years. Fuck not being a sappy father. He was a sappy father, and he didn’t give shit anymore.

Angelo pushed back from the desk and stood. Nathan watched him curiously, but that didn’t stop Angelo. He needed to hug his baby boy. If this was his only chance to comfort his son the way he had wanted to when Anya died, then he would take it. He made his way to where Nathan sat, gripped his shirt, and pulled him to his feet and into a tight hug. He noticed Nathan’s hesitation to return the embrace, and he kissed his son’s hair lovingly, just as he used to do when he was a child.

“Ti amo il mio bel bambino
 … Your mother would have adored her,” he said as he continued to hug him. Nathan’s hesitation began to ease, and he embraced his father in return. “She would have loved her because you love her,” Angelo chuckled. “Plus, your wife is a pro at bombarding her way into someone’s heart.”

Nathan’s hesitation completely melted away after the comment about his wife. He laughed and embraced his father fully.

They both laughed until they broke their hug.

“Indeed she is, Papa. But she makes it so easy to love her once she makes it in,” Nathan said.

Angelo nodded. “Yes, she does.” He looked at his son, noticing that he had indeed changed in such a short time. He was happy. Angelo loved seeing his boy happy. “You are happy son, yes?” Angelo asked.

Nathan smiled and chuckled. “I am, Pop. Very happy.”

Angelo slapped him on the back good-naturedly and went to sit on the edge of the desk. “Have the two of you spoken of when you plan to return. If she needs more time, that’s okay with me. I know it was a long recovery.”

Nathan plopped on the couch with a sigh. “She’s ready, Pop. She’s been ready. Carterina is stronger than I am— the hold-up has been more on my end than hers.” Nathan groaned and raked his fingers through his hair. “She and I will talk about it tonight before bed— maybe. You and everyone else are welcome to stay here tonight if you like, or I can set you up somewhere else, but I have to tell Carterina about what was found, and she’ll want to prepare for our return immediately after I do. So …”