28 Seconds: A House of Valentine Novella (11 page)

“The rain,” he realized. “That’s why you were out in the rain for all those hours.”

“The sound of the storm lashing against the roof,” I whispered. “It was the only thing that made it tolerable. Please tell Charlie I’m so very sorry. I didn’t know-”

“You have the compassion of your mother, Ariana, but I personally don’t give a damn if Charlie caught pneumonia.”

“Cole!” A sharp knock caused us both to jump. “Wake up, brother.”

“It’s open, Tony.”

“It’s open?” I hissed.

Cole nuzzled my neck as Al and Tony strode in. “You are the daughter of Franco Valentine. No one, not even the old man himself, would enter your bedroom unannounced.”

“Speaking of the old man,” Al said, “he’s waiting for you downstairs.”

Cole made no move to leave. “He’s early...as usual.”

“And he knows you’ve been frolicking with his daughter.”

“Frolicking?” I laughed. “Tony, did you really just say frolicking?”

“I told him he needed to tone down his language since there’s a new lady of the house,” Al offered.

“I imagine everyone in a five block radius is about to hear much more colorful language from both me and Franco,” Cole grumbled.

“Well, he’s waiting and getting angrier by the second. The families have started arriving and Franco’s brought in the expanded security detail.”

“Awesome,” I mumbled, “more fucking people.”

“Frolicking,” Tony corrected.

Cole sighed. “Let me get dressed and I’ll be down. Make sure there’s coffee going for Ariana.”

“Already done,” Al said, winking at me as they left.

Cole tugged on a shirt and apparently that was as formal as he intended to get. He didn’t even bother to reach for his shoes. I sighed and then began a search for something more suitable than sweatpants to finally meet my father.

“Don’t take too long, okay?”

“Afraid to be alone with him?” I chuckled.

“I just don’t want you up here alone in the quiet,” he said, kissing my head.

I snorted. “I won’t…dally.”

“Dally and frolicking. What the hell have you done to this household?” he laughed but paused at my side. “Ariana, I need you to promise me something. I do have a temper and it can be blinding sometimes. Franco’s presence will draw it out even more often. I get distracted by work and trying to keep track of the thousands of backhanded dealings that are constantly swirling in this world. If you need me and I don’t see it, then make me see. Slap me, throw something at me, whatever it takes.”

“You have so many more important-”

“Nothing,” he promised, “is more important.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

I took a tentative step onto the stairwell and the raging voices assaulted my ears.  Cole and my father were somewhere and, from the sound of it, they were ready to kill each other.  I inhaled a deep breath, readying myself for battle against the only two people I had left in the world.  At the foot of the stairs I listened to gain some direction but, when I tried to turn the corner, I was met with a wall of men.  

“Ms. Valentine.”  They all nodded in close unison and I could only shake my head and the idiocy of it.  Cole and my father sounded near blows and they were standing by just letting it happen.

“It’s probably best if you go back upstairs,” Al said, stepping out of the opposite room with Tony.  They each had a mug of coffee in their hand and looked completely unconcerned.  That emboldened me and I realized that, while the topic may be new, their fighting was apparently a routine dance to the men of the house.

“How bad is it?”

“It’s escalating,” Al frowned.  “Cole’s not his usual rational self.”

“Wonder why that is,” Tony chuckled and offered me the mug in his hand.

“And my father?”

“Totally unreasonable at this stage.”

“Well, Cole could’ve eased that if he’d bothered to button his damn jeans before coming down.  Reckless little shit.”

I smiled in spite of the situation and then took a long draft of the coffee before handing it back.  I straightened, exhaled a heavy breath, and then turned to face the testosterone wall.  I steadied my voice as much as possible.  “Move.”

“Ms. Valentine-”  a dozen voices spoke together.

“Get out of my way or I will have them,” I nodded back to Al and Tony, “make you get out of my way.”

I had no idea if it was true - they could have their own instructions to keep me away - but I was damn sure going to try.

I could feel them take a step up, closing in behind me.  Tony’s voice, normally so light and carefree, was a lethal hiss that made me understand why Cole had him at his side.   “Give ‘em hell, spitfire.”

“You heard her,” Al said, softer but equally as threatening.

They didn’t need to repeat themselves and then men moved aside.  I braced myself before sliding open the silent door and stepping in, but I needn’t have worried about being noticed.  They were on the opposite side of the room, inches apart and throwing harsh words back and forth.  

“I’ve loved her since the day she was born, Franco, just like you.”

“That is not what I’m talking about and you fucking well know it!”

“And I did not, as you so crassly put it, shove my dick in your daughter and then run off!”

“She was drugged, her mother just died, and you had no right-”

“I have whatever right she decides to give me.  You’ve no idea what hell this has been on all of us.  And you don’t know because you were, once again, so fucking self centered you couldn’t even bother to come home!”

He staggered back and I knew Cole had hit him somewhere deep. I intended to step forward right away, but the sight of my father made me hesitate. He was nothing like the fatherly figure I had imagined throughout my life. Instead, he was more the movie mafioso that little girls crushed on: tall and handsome with a sprinkling of silver hair threading through his black waves; muscled just like all the other Valentine men; dressed in some expensive suit that had to be hand tailored; and, perhaps most surprising of all, he looked as damned deadly as everyone had tried to warn me. It was easy to see why my mother loved him and just as easy to imagine why she’d ran away.

I exhaled and straightened which caused Cole’s eyes to drift my direction.  He jerked his head toward the door, telling me to leave but I stood firm.  He closed his eyes and I wasn’t sure if he was cursing my stubbornness or trying to calm himself.

“Cole.”  When he didn’t respond to my father’s call, the voice dropped to a near whisper.  “Cole, I know she was like a mother to you.  I know you loved her nearly as much as I.  I can’t imagine what it was like to witness her last moment and I hate that I wasn’t the one to have her in my arms at the end. It’s a burden I never wanted you and certainly not Ariana to have.   I despise everything about it and will live with that regret until my dying days.  But,” he took a settling breath, “you can not love my daughter.”

“Is that a house of Valentine rule someone forgot to mention?” I asked, making both men turn my way.

“Ariana-” my father was stepping toward me.  

“Don’t touch her,” Cole’s command stopped him in his tracks and my father whirled on him, fists already clenching.  Before he could say anything, Cole was shaking his head.  “It’s not just you, she just has-”

“Issues,” I provided.  “Yes, I damn sure do.”

“Ariana, we can discuss this later.  Right now, having you home-”

“No.  We’ll discuss it now.”  I could see Cole cringe and his reminder about how dangerous my father could be came storming back.  But he wasn’t the only one who could be reckless.  “You seemed to think that my sex life was more important than visiting me - the daughter you haven’t seen in almost two decades, the one whose mother bled to death in her arms, the one whose entire life was stripped away in seconds.  So, if something is that fucking important, then we should probably discuss it now, don’t you think?”

“You are as irrepressible as your mother.”

“Yes,” I admitted.  “And you loved her for it.”

His fierceness was gone, replaced with either exhaustion or resignation - I couldn’t tell which. He sent me a tortured gaze and a slow shake of his head.   “You know nothing of love, Ariana.”

“I am a Valentine.  We love fiercely and without rules.  It is extraordinary, inexplicable, and, yet, somehow always…

“Devastating,” my father whispered the last word in unison with me.  “How do you know that?  Ariana, how can you possibly remember that?”

I bit my lip, faltering, but Cole was beside me, molding his body into mine.  “Because she is your daughter, Franco.  And she’s finally home.”

“I…you look so very much like her. It’s breathtaking.” My father shook his head and I could see him trying to get his grief under control. Strength, I remembered, was the only thing he was allowed to show the world. He reached to touch my head but then drew his hand away. “I’ll…just give me a minute, okay?”

He hurried out the door and I couldn’t help but feel crushed. The first time I meet him, the only parent I have left, and he runs away. Somewhere deep I understood that I looked too much like mother. Probably almost identical to her the day she fled. But, the less forgiving part of me could only wonder: wasn’t he supposed to be the fucking adult?

“That was the bravest thing I’ve ever seen,” Cole murmured, his hand stroking along my spine.  “Remind me never to doubt you again.  Al? Tony?”  He barely whispered their names and they were at our side.  “What time is it?”

“Almost dawn.”

“Push back the meeting with Father Michael.  Everyone in this house needs sleep before we kill each other.”

“Will do.”

“Franco isn’t going to-”

“Then drug him,” I interrupted.  “Six hours, no more, no less.”

“We can not drug your father,” Al hissed.  “We have rules-”

“Your Valentine rules are shit and have done nothing but dismantle my entire life,” I spat.  Cole’s fingers tightened at my waist in warning and I let out a calming breath.  “Give it to me and I’ll do it.”

“I’m not leaving you alone with him.”

I gave him a half smile.  “Was that even a consideration?”

“He’s in the kitchen.”

Tony was back in moments but before he could tell me what he drugs he was providing I waved him off. Cole’s hand moved to the center of my back, directing me down the hall to the kitchen.

Cole’s voice was a soft, but reprimanding, whisper. “We do have rules, Ariana, and he won’t thank you for breaking them.”

“Fine, Cole. Tell me your precious rules.”

“We don’t drug each other, especially without consent.”

“Then you have a hell of a lot to answer for where I’m concerned,” I huffed. “But it doesn’t matter. I never intended to be subtle.”

He opened his mouth to argue but I pushed away and stepped into the kitchen. My father was sitting sideways at the table, a bottle of whiskey beside him and a glass in his hand. At least I now knew where I got that predilection from.

I sank down to my knees in front of him, clasping my hands in my lap.  “I know I’m not the daughter you had hoped for.  I am passionate and headstrong like my mother.  But I can also be fierce, protective and loyal which I’m starting to learn comes from you. You don’t know me and I don’t know you.  That’s something we can try and fix or we can pretend it doesn’t exist and let it haunt our every action.  I’d rather we fix it.”

Rather than touch me, he offered up his hand, waiting for me to accept it.  When I did, he offered me a faint smile.  “Your mother,” he murmured, “was the best part of me.”

“And me as well.”  I squeezed his hand.  “But these men need you.  My mother still needs you.  And, stranger or not, you are my father and I need you.”  He gave a single nod and I motioned to Cole.  He tucked the pills into my palm and then gave me some water.  I stood up, pressing them both to my father.  “So, please, will you get some rest for all of our sakes?”

He hesitated, his eyes drifting to Cole but then swallowed them without comment. He put the water glass aside, took the last swallow of his whiskey and then opened his arms to me. “Please, Ariana.”

It took everything I had to step forward into his embrace. Once I was there, it felt impossible to leave. He was so warm, so strong and he smelled exactly like I’d always dreamed a father would…musky and minty with a tinge of whiskey and tobacco tying it all together. No matter what kind of man he was, he was my father.

I didn’t realize my tears had started to fall but my father’s hands were soft on my face, wiping them away. “Cole, see Ariana to her room, please.”

Cole’s hands were on me again, directing me up the stairs and back to my room but, my head was so overwrought, that I missed the entire journey. Once behind closed doors, his arms enveloped me.

“All right?”

I nodded. “I’ll be fine. That was just…a hell of lot more emotional than I expected.”

“No one could prepare themselves for what you’ve been through or what you’re going through now. Cut yourself some slack, okay?”