Dangerous Beauty: Part Four: Beautifully Broken (59 page)

Nathan and Anastacia had probably gotten into quite the tiff about Josef not having it on. Kyle was glad he’d missed that.

“Look whose letting me hold him,” Mickey chuckled as he walked over to stand beside Kyle. “He gave me a kiss too.” He kissed the toddler on his cheeks until he giggled. “He usually only lets me hold him while he’s sleeping.”

Sighing, Kyle smiled at the child. “He is very particular.”

“And cute as hell.” Mickey blew a raspberry on the child’s cheek right before he rested his head to his shoulder.

Chuckling softly, Kyle ran his hand over his face, then turned his eyes back ahead.

“He was upset,” Mickey spoke again. “Nate—”

“Made him put his hearing device back on,” Kyle nodded, finishing his brother’s sentence.

“Yeah,” Mickey replied. “I feel for him.”

Kyle looked over to his brother, nodding his head once again.

“The world is too loud sometimes. Too much stuff going on, never really a …” He frowned, clearing his throat. “Never really a moment of peace.”

“Hmm …” Kyle hummed in response.

It was his way of showing that he agreed with his brother, agreed with what he’d said. Peace, at most times, seemed to be something that just … didn’t exist. Both in business, and even in one’s personal life. If it wasn’t one thing, it always seemed to be another.

“So are you going to tell us? What’s going on with you?”

Did Kyle tense at the question? Absolutely he did. But only because it’d been so abrupt; he hadn’t been expecting it.

Managing to keep his cool, he looked over at his brother. “Tell you what?” he asked, as if he hadn’t known the answer to his own question. He did know, he just still wasn’t ready to talk about it. Not even with Mickey.

Mickey raised a brow, then rolled his eyes. “You’re tense brother. And you have the soldiers afraid to talk about something that happened today.”

“Yeah, well,” Kyle shrugged. “Maybe I’m not ready to say anything yet.”

“Why not, Kyle?” Mickey asked, his tone seeming oddly soft.

Kyle also detected a bit of concern in it, perhaps a little fear too. It was an interesting mix of emotions for Mickey.

“You know whatever it is … Nate can help—”

“And when are you all going to tell me what’s going on with you today?” Kyle asked, cutting off his brother with an abrupt question of his own.

Just as Kyle knew it would, the question caught Mickey off guard. His eyes widened for a second; his mouth even dropped with a slight intake of breath. All of those were things Mickey did when he was hiding something, and Kyle wasn’t even surprised.

He’d pushed it out of his mind all day, deciding to focus on work rather than family matters, but unfortunately, that hadn’t stopped his annoying ass, overactive mind from going to work on what it was that they were hiding. It had been Nathan’s ‘
It’s nothing, brother’
comment earlier when he’d left Kyle’s office that had started the wheels turning in Kyle’s head; and the fucking wheels continued to turn all damn day no matter how many times Kyle attempted to make them stop. He’d noticed the way his family was handling him with kid gloves, noticed the difference in their tones’ when they spoke to him, and he knew that it wasn’t just because they were happy about his newest life decision either. That was the downfall of knowing his brothers so well. He could tell when something was really wrong. Something bad,
and that
was just judging by how long it was taking them to tell him.

“So here’s the deal, little brother,” Kyle killed the silence, looking back over to Mickey. “You tell me what you four are so hesitant to tell me, and I’ll tell you what me and the soldiers are hiding. Deal?”

With those words, Kyle waited for what he knew wasn’t going to come. The truth. A lie wouldn’t come either. Usually when there was some big news that his brothers felt needed to be delivered to him gently, they told him together. They were secretive, they met about it behind his back, threatened to kill Mickey if he said anything before they were all ready, then eventually told Kyle the news and watched for the reaction that
‘old Kyle’
would have given them back in his younger, less mentally stable days.

He still wasn’t
all the way
mentally stable, but still; he was better now than he was back then.

“Nothing?” Kyle asked his silent brother. He smiled at the nervous look on Mickey’s face, then gave his shoulder a light pat on his shoulder. “It’s alright, Little Brother,” he chuckled softly. “I’ll wait for the last minute meeting .” The meeting where his brothers would send what was left of his
‘newly engaged’
good mood crashing straight into hell. But luckily for Kyle, he would have the fix for that waiting for him at home tonight.

His family.

His lovely Sofia and his beautiful soon-to-be wife … and dinner, if he was lucky—

“It’s Abrielle, Kyle.”

The words seemed to come out like vomit. Quick, unpleasant, and painfully abrupt. Kyle’s entire body just froze as a blank expression immediately fell over his face.

“I’m sorry, brother,” Mickey shook his head.
So much
distress. More distress than he’d ever seen mask Mickey’s face before. “I didn’t mean to tell you. I just …” His features tightened as his blue eyes fell to the floor, and he sighed heavily. “Oh God, they’re going to kill me. I’m so sorry, Kyle …”

Wait. What the fuck was happening? What was he saying? Kyle wasn’t even comprehending it, which didn’t make much sense because, according to his IQ, he was a fucking genius.

Abrielle. His birth mother? What about her?

Kyle opened his mouth, seeking clarification, but his attempt was all but foiled when a sweet sound penetrated his ears, yanking him back into his present reality.

“Papa!”

Papa …

“Papa! Papa!”

His head immediately turned in the direction of her voice.

“Sofia.” He was already to his feet walking in her direction before it’d even registered to him that he was.

His
bambina
.

“Papa!”

She was screaming his name, running to him with the biggest smile on her perfect little face.

“Mi sei mancato, papa! Mi sei mancato!”

The answering smile to her words was immediate as Kyle jogged forward, closing the bit of distance left between them, and scooped his little girl into his arms.

“Oh,
vieni qui la mia bambina
,” Kyle laughed happily, hugging his daughter tightly. “I missed you too, lady bug. Papa missed you so much.”

He kissed his bambina over and over again, reveling in the musical sound of her little munchkin laughter, melting at the sight of her smile, and resting in the peace that only being in the presence of his little girl could bring him. Nothing else mattered in this moment, nothing else was even on his mind, only his little girl … well, his little girl and the beautiful woman that he knew wasn’t too far behind her.

“Papa, you’re being silly,” Sofia giggled, pushing against Kyle’s cheek when he blew a raspberry against her neck. “That tickles.”

“I know it tickles, bambina. That’s the point.” Kyle pinched her sides, making her laugh loud. “Papa hasn’t been able to torture you with tickles and yucky kisses all weekend. We have a lot to catch up on.”

“But you can’t tickle me all day, Papa!”

Kyle frowned playfully, shaking his head back and forth. “I’m your father, Sofia. And as your father, I reserve the right to torture you anytime I want.”

She laughed again, shaking her own head in response to his teasing.

Kyle kissed her cheeks once more, deciding to save his torturing for later. “So how was your trip, bambina? You’ve grown.” He brought his hand up and ran his fingers over her long ponytail. “And you cut your hair…”

It wasn’t much of a difference, just a couple of inches, barely noticeable, but noticeable at the same time.

“Nonna and I went to the princess spa in Florida, Papa” she chirped, her eyes bright with excitement at the memory. “I got my hair done and my nails …” She lifted her fingers, wiggling them to show off her
sparkly
purple nail polish. “And my toes, but I can show you that at home when I don’t have on my shoes.

Kyle chuckled. “It’s very pretty, bambina.”

“…It was fun, Papa. Then they did my make up and gave me my own Princess dress!” She grinned wide. “I got to wear it the whole day and everyone was telling me how pretty I was.”

“Mmmhmm,” Kyle kissed her cheeks once more. “I’m sure you were stunning, my little lady bug.”

“I brought you a picture of it for your office in my backpack, Papa.”

Wiggling her little body, she prompted for him to put her down. Once he did, she scrambled to take her purple backpack off of her back, then she sat on her knees and opened it up.

The smile was unmovable on Kyle’s face as he watched rummage through her backpack, searching for her picture, while telling him about her day.

“Zamiyah, my best friend …” she looked up at him, ceasing her search for a moment. “… you remember my best friend, Zamiyah, right Papa?”

Kyle blinked.

Did he remember? How the hell could he forget as many times as he’d been forced to listen to their nightly phone conversations every damn night at the same damn time. Not to mention that Sofia’s favorite place to talk on the phone, with her dear best friend Zamiyah—who happened to be the Senator of New York’s daughter—was wherever the hell Kyle decided to work. Whether it was in his home office, in his bedroom, the living room; it didn’t seem to matter. When it was time to talk to little Zamiyah on the phone, Sofia was always near, taking Kyle’s cell phone to play with while she was on the house phone, and lying down next to him, kicking her little feet and talking about little girl shit with her best friend.

“Yes,” Kyle answered his daughter with a tight smile. “Of course I remember her, lady bug.”

Sofia resumed her search. “Well, she said she wants to go with us next time so that we can go to the spa together and be our favorite princesses.”

Kyle chuckled softly. “Sounds like you two would have a nice time together, lady bug.”

“I found it!” she exclaimed, scrambling to her feet with a framed picture in her hands. “See! I was Princess Belle, and I got to dance with Mickey Mouse.” She handed him the picture. “I brought this for your desk.”

Taking the picture from her hands. Kyle lifted her back in his arms, placing a kiss to her cheek. “You look beautiful, baby.”

She giggled. “Thank you, Papa.” She the place then sweetest soft kiss to his cheek. “And I got you some other presents, too. And I got some for Reanna … But I saved those for after dinner, ‘cause, guess what?”

“What’s that, bambina?” Kyle asked her, trying to sound just as enthusiastic.

“Reanna’s coming over tonight!”

And it was at the moment Kyle felt it; Reanna’s hand moving slowly up his arm.

“I see you two found each other, huh?”

“I was just telling Papa the good news!”

Reanna gasped playfully as she came forward and rested her head on Kyle’s arm. Kyle welcomed her, holding Sofia up with one arm as he brought the other around Reanna’s back, resting his hand at her waist and pulling her closer to him. She rested her head on his chest in a silent greeting, but Kyle— a bit more forward with his greeting despite their decision to keep things secret from Sofia until dinner tonight— leaned down and kissed the dimple on her right cheek, then chuckled when she gave his back a light pinch.

“Good news, huh?” Reanna asked Sofia, her tone playful and light. “What good news, baby?”

“That you’re staying the night!”

“I am?”

“Yes,” Sofia laughed.

The two of them were talking to one another, teasing and laughing, but Kyle couldn’t hear them. He could only focus his eyes on what they were seeing.

A family. A sweet, loving, little family. the two of them … So beautiful and all his.

“Okay, Papa,” Sofia said, yanking him out of his blissful state when she began wiggling around in his arms once again. “I’m gonna go see my uncles now, okay?”

Smiling at his daughter, Kyle gave a nod of his head. “Okay, bambina,” he replied, releasing Reanna momentarily so that he could put Sofia down. “You go see your uncles then.”

After zipping up her backpack, Sofia handed it to Reanna, then scrambled over to her uncle Nathan first.

Kyle watched her, waiting until he was certain that she was no longer facing in his direction. Then once his daughter was occupied with her dear uncle Nathan, Kyle attacked the beautiful woman that was still standing in front of him.

He reached out, hooking his arm around her waist, then brought her flush against him.

She gasped, standing on her toes immediately as her hand shot to her mouth to stifle her squeal of laughter.

“Oh my God. Kyle, no,” she whispered frantically, though excitement still brightened her brown eyes. “No, we can’t.”

“Kiss me, woman,” Kyle commanded impatiently. “Obey me. I am your husband.”