Dangerous Beauty: Part Four: Beautifully Broken (48 page)

Yes, she had indeed been very much serious.

“You know what, Tamara,” Reanna sighed tiredly, bringing up a hand in surrender, “I can’t explain to you every single thing that happened over the course of my weekend with Kyle, nor can I relay to you every word that was said between us. Because, honestly, it was personal. So you’re just going to have to take my word for it.”

“Take your word for it?”

“Yes!” This time Reanna didn’t back down from raising her voice. “I’m not a freaking child, Tamara. I am fully capable of making a decision that I know is right for me. Kyle is good to me—amazing, gentle, sweet—and for the first time in my life, I’m in love. I
feel
loved. He understands me on a level that nobody has ever understood me before. The man is my freaking soul mate for God’s sake! We
connect
. Dating didn’t feel like enough of a commitment to us. We’re both ready for more. What is so wrong with that?”

“What’s wrong is you didn’t take the time needed to make sure that this was what you wanted forever, Rea!” Tamara shouted, now visibly shaking with her irrational anger. “How the hell do you go from running from love, to embracing it so fucking hard that you’re willing to change everything!”

“I’m getting married, Tamara!” she screamed, now feeling her own irritation rising. “I’m not uprooting my entire life, I’m just …” she shook her head, searching for the words she wanted to say, “moving forward.” Yes, that was it. “I’m moving forward with my life. Doing something that I want to do. I want Kyle as my husband, and Sofia as my daughter. I need to live with them, see them when I wake up every morning and before I sleep every night. I long for a family …”

Tamara’s eyes widened, and what Reanna discerned as sadness flashed through them. “Oh I’m sorry,” she said, her voice slightly shaking. “I was under the impression that we were a family.”

“Stop that, Mara,” Ronaldo spoke up. “That ain’t fair. You know that isn’t what she meant.”

“Then what the hell does
‘I want a family’
mean, Ron?”

“You can just ask me, Tamara,” Reanna stated. “I’m standing right here. I don’t need Ron to explain what I meant.” She was fully capable of doing by her damn self. “I know that you and Ronaldo are my family. What I’m saying is that just the two of you are not enough for me.”

“So now we’re not enough?” she asked, her voice rising.

“No!” Reanna snapped. “How the hell could you be? I want a life, Tamara. I want everything we missed out on—a loving home, a loving family, a good life. What the hell is so bad about me wanting that for myself!”

She was shaking now; emotion was causing her voice to tremble. She was having a hard time understanding why Tamara wasn’t getting it!

Even now, the woman just stood, staring at her with the most infuriating blank expression. She wasn’t saying a word, but the silence … Reanna swore the silence between them was saying everything for her.

“Tamara, that’s enough,” Reanna said, clenching her teeth tightly. “It’s obvious that this isn’t going to be resolved today, so I think I’ll just go.”

“Go?”

“I agree, y’all.” Ronaldo rose from the couch. “This is getting a little too intense. Y’all need to cool off, take a break for the rest of the day. Maybe we’ll finish discussing this at home … over dinner and about eight or nine bottles of wine.”

“We’ll have to talk tomorrow, actually.” Reanna grabbed her purse and stood from the couch. “I’ll be staying in Manhattan tonight … with Kyle and Sofia.”

“Are you serious?”

Reanna rolled her eyes. “Yes, Tamara,” she answered sharply. “Kyle and I would like to tell Sofia that we’re getting married together, if that’s all right with you …”

“And when is this move supposed to be happening?”

Jesus Christ, please save me
, Reanna thought with a frustrated grunt. “Kyle wants me to move in as soon as possible.”

“He wants you to …”

Reanna turned back to face her sister. “I want to as well, Tamara. He isn’t forcing me to do anything I don’t want to do.”

Even when she and Kyle weren’t a couple Reanna had hated when she had to leave him and Sofia to go back home to Pleasant View. Now, they were her family, and living apart from them—even for a night—didn’t feel right to her.

Of course Tamara, in all of her selfishness, didn’t even attempt to try and understand Reanna’s reasoning for not wanting to go back to Pleasant View for the evening. She instead continued to argue.

“So you’re not coming home then?” she asked, shock and anger evident in her voice.

Reanna’s fists clenched tight at her sides as she fought against her anger. “I just told you—”

“And what the hell does ‘as soon as possible’ mean, Reanna? You need to come home tonight so that we can discuss this.”

“There is nothing to discuss!” Reanna yelled. “This is my life, and my decision, and it’s your choice whether you choose to accept it or not. I don’t need to discuss
any
of this with you …”

“I’m your sister!”

“Exactly!” Reanna clutched on to her purse tightly. “You’re my sister, and you’re suppose to be supporting me.”

“Not when I think you’re making a stupid decision …”

“Oh my Gosh!” Reanna threw up her hands in frustration. “That’s it. I’m done with this. Seriously, Tamara.” She pointed a finger in her sister’s direction. “You take whatever time you need to come to terms with all of this, then you call and we’ll have a rational discussion. I refuse to deal with you when you’re like this.”

“You have to deal with me, you’re my sister!”

Reanna shook her head. “I don’t, and I’m leaving …”

“But we just got into a fight, Reanna!” she shouted. “You need to come home so we can work it out.”

“What are you not understanding about this?” Reanna snapped, the sharp scream in her voice causing her sister to go silent.

Usually she wasn’t one for screaming like that, especially at her sister, but she was being pushed too far. And she hated feeling this way, but she didn’t want to be around Tamara—not while she was like this. All she’d wanted was her sister’s blessing, her love, her support, and maybe a few pats on the back because she’d finally found the courage to take the next step in her life. But no. Instead of being a good sister, of being happy for her, all Tamara seemed to want to do was argue, and Reanna had had enough of it.

“Listen to me, Tamara.” She said her words slowly in an effort to ensure Tamara heard each of them. “I am not going back to the house.” Plain, simple, and to the point. She placed her hand to her heart. “That is not my home anymore.” She shook her head. “And maybe you’ll understand this more when you fall madly in love with whomever you spend the rest of your life with, but I just … can’t live in a home where Sofia and Kyle are not. They are my home now …” Even as she said the words her eyes began to fill with tears. Kyle and Sofia were her beating heart, and she could no longer imagine calling anywhere but the place the three of them could live together home. She didn’t want to do that anymore. “Wherever they are, is where I’ll be, and you can come find me whenever you decide to talk to me like you have some sense …”

And that was it. It was all she was going to say. Not because she didn’t have anything else to say, but because she refused to give this argument anymore of her time.

Turning away from Tamara, Reanna headed for the exit, only to be stopped by her sister’s words once again.

“I think you should call Dr. Tomlin.”

That made her pause.

Frowning, Reanna turned to look back at her sister. “What?”

Tamara lifted her head slightly as she crossed her arms over her chest. “I said, I think you should call Dr. Tomlin, Reanna. It’s obvious that you’re being reckless again …”

Reanna’s brows rose. “Again?” She shook her head. “What the hell does that mean?”

Tamara’s jaw ticked as she shrugged slightly. “It means that I think you need to talk to your psychiatrist before you make anymore rash decisions. You’re acting weird, and taking huge steps before you’re ready.”

“I don’t need anyone to run options by before I make a decision, Tamara. I’m not a mental patient.”

“But you are a depressive; you have PTSD—”

“And I go to two sessions every week, and take my medication daily to keep myself balanced.”

“I still think it’s best if you call Dr. Tomlin, Reanna. Look at how you’re acting.”

“I’m not acting any differently than I usually do.”

Tamara slammed her fist against the wall next to her. “You’re being reckless, Reanna!” she screamed. “You rush shit. You’re not capable of making a decision like this! The last time you did you almost got yourself killed …”

“Whoa! Hold up,” Ronaldo yelled, pointing to Tamara. “Okay, girl. You need to let it go now. That was below the belt ...”

But of course, Tamara was past the point of listening. The woman was on a roll, completely uncaring of who she knocked down in her path to get what she wanted.

“No, Ron!” she persisted. “She’s being a bitch about this when all I’m trying to do is protect her! Dr. Tomlin can help her avoid doing what she did the last time she didn’t take the time to get to know the man she vowed to spend the rest of her life with.”

“Dammit! I mean it, Tamara. Shut the fuck up, you’re going too far.”

“Ron, we need to help her! She’s getting married after three days and I’m just supposed to sit here and watch her make another stupid fucking decision—”

“Stop it!”

Reanna screamed the words, only because she desperately needed her sister to stop freaking talking. The voices in her head were in a frenzy, screaming for her to disappear back into herself—put up the walls that held her back for so many years, just so she could hide her emotion and guard her heart. However, she refused to give in to them, refused to cry.

So without saying another word to them, Reanna turned once again, and walked out of the store … and this time, no one stopped her.

Once she was outside, she closed her eyes as she exhaled against the chilled wind hitting her face. This was what she needed … air. Fresh air. Cold air that would keep her mind more on how cool it felt on her skin and less on her troubles.

Reanna focused on that cold, and not on the painful squeezing of her heart and the excruciating twisting of her stomach. She stayed zoomed in on the striking chill of the New York City wind as to not feel the pain of her heart breaking over and over again because she knew she wouldn’t be able to take it. She knew if she let it all in then she’d break, and she didn’t want to cry. She refused to surrender to tears; she had too much to be happy about.

She was getting married.

That was what she’d focus on.

She was getting married, and there was so much planning to do. Reanna knew there’d be no way she could keep the guest list under a hundred, so she hoped Kyle would be okay with that. They didn’t have a date yet, but it would be soon. Maybe at the start of the new year, early February? If Carter and Gabriel wouldn’t mind if it was too close to their birthday—

“Miss Pierce!”

The abrupt call of her name from the curb of the sidewalk caused Reanna to pause, her attention suddenly shifting to a man who looked vaguely familiar. He was a tall—a
very
tall—young man; dressed in all black and insanely handsome, which probably made it impossible to forget such a face. He had shiny, golden brown hair that was striking in contrast to his naturally tanned skin tone, and even more striking when one factored in the stormy gray color of his eyes. He was pushing through the crowded sidewalk in an effort to get to her.

She frowned. Maybe she hadn’t seen him before. He just really looked like someone she knew, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on who.

“Who the hell does he look like?” Reanna whispered, forcing a polite smile just as the man neared her. “Hello,” she greeted a bit awkwardly.

He gave her a quick smile and a nod. “Hello, miss.”

Her eyes widened slightly when she heard the man speak.

Italian accent …
Yeah
, that just made the kid ten times hotter than he’d already been before he’d spoke.

What the hell did he want with her?

“I am from the Salerno Organization. I have your car waiting for you.” He motioned behind them.

Jeez, he was so handsome. Like almost Kyle level handsome. And as fine as Kyle was, this kid definitely gave him a run for his money. He had this aura around him that reminded her of someone she—

Wait a minute. What did he just say?

“My car?” Reanna asked, her thoughts now centering around the words that had come out of his mouth. How the hell did he get her car?

The man nodded his head. “I will be driving you now. I am the head of the security detail protecting you, miss.”

Reanna shook her head. “Protecting me from … what?” Last she checked she wasn’t much of a danger magnet. She was a pretty simple gal—quiet, not much of a thrill seeker. The only thing she really ever needed protection from nowadays was herself. “I don’t think I need protection …”

She let her words trail off, hoping he’d fill the silence with his name.