“It’s okay, Sloane, I’ve got you.” He scoops me up and carries me up the stairs past Onyx. I see the way they look at each other. Like I’m losing my mind. And maybe I am. He cradles me close to his body, so close I can feel the way his own heart races. He takes me up the stairs and back into the room I stayed in the first night I was here. He places me down on the soft bedding, pulling me into his body, stroking my hair lightly as he tells me everything is going to be okay.
But I know it’s not, because Orlando is gone and things will never be the same again.
Chapter 30
“Youcan’tsaveeveryone,”comes Onyx’s voice from the doorway of the spare room.
“Why not?” I mutter, not bothering to turn back toward him. I’m now snuggled into Reef’s chest, my tears staining his shirt as he strokes my hair tenderly and makes me feel safe.
“Some people don’t want to be saved,” Reef agrees with Onyx.
I sit up, pulling my knees into my chest and hugging them protectively. Reef keeps an arm around my shoulders, sitting with me, like he’s scared to let go of me in case I try something else. “Orlando did. That’s why he had me here. That’s why he had all of us here. He wanted you all to know who he really is. He’s not some fucking mob boss like his cruel papa.”
Onyx shrugs, but it’s not as if he doesn’t care, more that he doesn’t agree with me. “Maybe he is, Sloane. Just like you’re the daughter of the vice president, Reef is the son of a prostitute, and I’m the son of a thug who sold me out for fame in one of the most notorious mob families. We might not like it, but our past defines us.”
Irritation crawls under my skin at his words. “It doesn’t have to. I’m not defined by mine, I’m a fucking biker chick who owns a sex club, not some spoiled high-society girl.” I glare daggers back at him as he takes a seat beside me on the bed, leaning his back into the plush pillows as if I exhaust him.
“You can be whoever you want to be, trouble. But while you’re running from your past, it’s always going to define you in one way or another. You will forever have to live in the shadow of Ava Kingsley and who you really should have been.”
“There will always be some cop looking for you, wildcat. And Orlando would have been hiding the rest of his life if he didn’t confront his papa and take his rightful place in the family,” Reef agrees with him, annoying me even more.
“Maybe.” I sniff, still feeling way too emotional about it all. I’m never going to see him again, and it feels like someone is strangling the life right out of me. I glance at Onyx. “Onyx, how does your past define you? You said your father sold you for fame?” I ask. He’s made me wait, but now I need to know the truth, who he really is.
I don’t miss the look he gives Reef, a silent message passing between them.
“Tell her,” Reef finally says.
Onyx lowers his head, sucking in a deep breath as he scrubs a hand through his stubble. “My piece-of-shit father worked for the Morettis. He was a low-level thug at best, but he dreamt of something more. To work his way up to the top, and he thought I was the key to his success. So he started putting me in these underground fights against other boys. I have always been kind of huge, and even at twelve I was a head taller than the others and built. He made me work out every fucking day of the week, and then every Friday night there would be some new kid I would have to fight. I was unstoppable. Unbeatable. And it went to his head.”
My eyes meet with his, seeing how haunted he is thinking back to that time. I’m crushed for him. “That’s seriously fucked up. You were just a kid. You should have been in school, not fighting to line greedy mobsters’ pockets.”
“Like I said, we’re all defined by our past. I was brought up to be a fighter, ruthless, cold, and vicious as hell. One night when one of my fights went too far and I nearly killed some other kid, my mother tried to put a stop to it. She went behind my father’s back to the person organizing the fights, Emilio Moretti, and begged him to cancel, to get me out of it somehow, but they were already proving to be way too lucrative for the family. So instead, he killed both my parents and put me in that fucking group home. Where he had all the control.”
My mouth nearly drops open. “Romeo and Orlando’s dad killed your parents as well.”
I feel Reef’s arm tighten around me, and I glance back at him, knowing it’s all true. We have all lost so much because of that man. “His goons would have done it. That man never gets his own hands dirty, that’s what makes him so damn untouchable.”
I find Onyx’s hand and lace my fingers with his. “I’m so sorry, Onyx, I don’t even know what to say.” He squeezes my hand back. But I see how much this shit still tears him up. He’s so strong, but his past defines him, like he said. “How did you end up with my family?”
He looks away, and I know he’s trapped back there. Maybe I shouldn’t have asked, maybe it’s all too much to talk about. “It was a few years later. Syd was at one of my fights, the one where I went too far and killed the guy I was competing against.”
I cover my mouth as a gasp escapes. He killed some other kid?
His dark eyes meet with mine like he wants me to see his pain. His truth. He’s hidden it from me for so long, but now he’s finally ready. “Emilio and he cut a deal on the spot. I don’t know the details, just that he wanted me to disappear so my fuck-up couldn’t come back on him. Syd needed some extra security around the club, so I was shipped halfway across the country and ended up with your family.”
“Are you happy working for my family?” I ask, wondering if he wished for another life. Not the one he was trapped in.
He lifts a shoulder. “Your brothers are good to me. That club is the only home I have ever known, Sloane, and your family is like mine.”
“You’re like family to them as well.” I smile softly at him. When I look at him, I see my home, and I know that’s strange, but he is. “And I’m sure Reef and Romeo feel like you’re family to them as well.”
“We do,” Reef agrees.
I move in between Onyx’s legs, placing a soft kiss to his lips, my beautiful broken man. Then I cup his face, staring right into his stormy eyes. “We’re all like broken pieces of the same puzzle. Emilio Moretti has fucked up all of our lives in one way or another. I hope they make him pay. Kill him slowly and painfully. He deserves the worst.”
Onyx’s lips twist up at the sides ever so slightly. “I like you best when you’re talking like a fucking psycho, trouble.”
“It’s sexy as fuck,” Reef agrees, lightening the somber mood.
