Читать книгу Mills & Boon Christmas Set - Кейт Хьюит - Страница 33

CHAPTER FIVE

EMMA STARED AT Larenzo and saw the fury blazing in his gaze. Why, oh, why had she said that about hiding a baby? She’d meant to be bold, to pour scorn on the presumption, but she’d seen how she’d given him the idea instead. She’d told him about Ava.

Now she sagged against the doorway, completely at a loss as to what to do or say. Larenzo took a step towards her, his hands balled into fists.

‘So this is why you were so desperate for me to leave—’

‘Mama,’ Ava called, her arms still outstretched, and Emma straightened and walked swiftly towards her daughter, scooping her up in her arms, and pressed her cheek against Ava’s downy hair.

‘Please,’ she murmured to Larenzo. ‘Let me settle her and then we’ll talk.’ Although what she could tell him, she had no idea. She’d never imagined this happening, ever. She’d never expected even to see Larenzo again.

Ava continued to snuffle against her chest and Emma soothed her mindlessly, her mind spinning in futile circles. She settled her back in the cot as Larenzo waited in the hall and hoped her daughter might drift off to sleep once more. She’d slept for only twenty minutes, which unfortunately wasn’t that uncommon, but on a good day Emma could count on an hour.

Quietly she slipped out of the room and closed the door. Larenzo stood there, arms folded, eyebrows raised. He opened his mouth to speak but Emma shook her head and pressed a finger to her lips, cocking her head to indicate he should follow her downstairs.

In the kitchen she wiped the counters and tidied up the last of the lunch dishes, needing to keep busy, to keep from thinking how on earth she was going to handle this. Handle him. Larenzo watched her, one powerful shoulder propped against the doorway, everything about him arrogant, assured and definitely intimidating. She couldn’t handle this man at all.

‘You do not deny she’s mine,’ he said finally, and Emma shook her head.

‘How can I? She looks just like you.’

‘Yes.’ He raked a hand through his hair, his gaze shuttered and distant as he shook his head slowly. ‘We didn’t use birth control.’

‘No.’

‘I never even thought...’

‘Nor did I. Obviously.’

‘She must have put a dent in your plans,’ he said after a moment, his voice turning sharp, and Emma narrowed her eyes.

‘What do you mean?’

‘All your travel plans. You told me you liked to move around. Itchy feet, you said.’

She was surprised and weirdly gratified that he’d remembered what she’d said, but also piqued that he was throwing it back in her face now. ‘That changed when I became pregnant.’

‘You never considered a termination?’

Her mouth dropped open. ‘Is that what you would have preferred? Because—’

‘No.’ He shook his head, one swift, violent movement. ‘No. But I could understand if—’

She let out a rush of breath. ‘I thought of it at first, I suppose, but never seriously. I never thought I wanted a husband or children, but I couldn’t...she was a part of me.’ A lump formed in her throat and resolutely she swallowed past it. ‘I loved her even before she was born.’

‘And you’ve been living here since her birth?’ His gaze moved around the small kitchen, and Emma prickled.

‘My sister has been very kind—’

‘Yes, of course. But what about your father? Is he still in Budapest?’

So he remembered that too. ‘Yes, he is, but I wanted to be here. And frankly he wasn’t thrilled about me being pregnant, unmarried, and the father—’

‘In prison,’ he finished flatly, and Emma nodded.

‘In any case, we’re fine here.’

‘But you can’t stay here for ever.’

‘Meghan is happy for us to stay,’ Emma shot back. She wasn’t about to admit to Larenzo that she might need to move out. ‘Anyway, I don’t see how this concerns you, Larenzo—’

‘Are you serious?’ He cut her off, his voice harsh. ‘She’s my daughter.’ He paused, struggling to control his emotions while Emma watched in apprehension. ‘What’s her name?’ he finally asked.

She hesitated, reluctant to part with even that much information. What if Larenzo wanted to be a part of Ava’s life, of their lives? How on earth could she cope with that?

‘Emma, I deserve to know her name!’ His voice came out raggedly, and with a shaft of guilt Emma remembered how he’d told her about his childhood in Palermo, how he’d never had a real family. And with that came other memories of their night together, tender ones that she’d tried to keep herself from remembering. They tumbled through her mind in a bittersweet rush of poignant longing and she was helpless against it. No matter what Larenzo had done, she’d loved this man. For a night.

‘Ava,’ she said quietly.

‘Ava,’ he repeated, and she closed her eyes against the wonder she heard in his voice. ‘How old is she?’

‘Ten months. She was born on Christmas Eve.’

‘Would you have ever told me about her?’ he asked after a moment.

She opened her eyes and stared at him helplessly. ‘Larenzo, you were in prison. You were convicted of about a thousand charges all related to being in the Mafia. How could I tell you?’

He gazed back steadily, unmoved by her argument. ‘The charges were dropped.’

‘I didn’t know that. And I still don’t know why they were dropped—’

‘You still think I’m guilty?’ he cut her off, his voice hard.

‘I don’t know,’ she cried. ‘Larenzo, you have to understand how it was for me. The day you were arrested...those men...’

Even now, a year and a half later, the memory of that night made shame and fear roil through her. ‘It was horrible. And then I spent the whole day in the anti-Mafia headquarters in Palermo while they told me you were involved in the Mafia, how they had all this evidence...what was I supposed to believe?’

‘Me. You could have believed me.’

‘You confessed,’ she shot back. ‘I read it in the papers. So I did believe you.’

He pressed his lips together, his gaze narrowed and hard. ‘Of course you did.’

‘And yet you still seem to think I should have believed in your innocence.’

He didn’t answer, and Emma bit her lip. She felt cold inside, so terribly cold. For a year and a half she’d been so certain of Larenzo’s guilt, and yet now, having seen him only for a few minutes, she felt doubt creep in along with the bittersweet memories. Who was the real man—the Mafia monster or the one she’d made love to?

‘But just now,’ he finally said. ‘You wanted me to leave. Even now, when you knew the charges had been dropped, that I was free, you were trying to keep me from my child.’

‘Because as far as I know, you’re still a dangerous man,’ Emma retorted. Larenzo’s eyes narrowed and she almost took a step back. Yet even now she realised she wasn’t actually afraid of him. She didn’t think he’d hurt her, but...

What was she afraid of, then? Because she certainly felt the cold claws of terror digging into her soul, icing over her mind. ‘Even if you are innocent of the charges they laid against you,’ she continued more calmly, ‘you must have Mafia connections, something that made the police—’

‘Not in the way you think,’ he bit out, and Emma just shook her head, overwhelmed with too many terrible emotions to respond. ‘I am a free man,’ Larenzo said in a low voice. ‘And you can’t keep me from my daughter.’

Emma pressed her hand to her forehead. ‘We can’t talk about this now,’ she said. ‘My sister will be home in a few minutes, and Ava is going to wake up soon. I never even expected to see you again, Larenzo. Having you turn up out of the blue...’ She shook her head. ‘It’s a lot to take in.’

‘I understand,’ he answered levelly. ‘But know this. I will be back, and I will see Ava again. Don’t think for a moment you can keep me from her.’

His mouth compressed and his eyes flashed silver and Emma’s stomach did a sickening little flip. She had no idea what to think, to believe.

‘We’ll talk,’ she managed. ‘Soon.’

Larenzo held her gaze for an endless, agonising moment, and then with one swift nod he turned and left the room. Emma heard the click of the front door closing and she sagged against the kitchen counter, utterly emotionally spent.

‘Emma?’ A minute later her sister’s voice, lilting with curiosity, floated down the hall. ‘Who was that leaving the house?’

Emma straightened as her sister came into the kitchen with Ryan in tow, her eyebrows raised, a smile playing about her mouth. ‘Do you have a secret admirer?’

‘Hardly.’ Emma took a deep breath. ‘That was Larenzo Cavelli.’

‘What?’ The smile slid clear off Meghan’s face and numbly Emma explained the events of the last hour. Ava woke up just as she was finishing and she hurried upstairs, grateful for a moment to collect her thoughts, few as she had.

‘Mama.’ Ava wound her arms around her neck as Emma closed her eyes and breathed in her daughter’s scent, baby powder with a hint of the banana she’d eaten for lunch. Ava pressed her cheek against Emma’s chest, letting out a snuggly sigh, and Emma’s heart gave a painful squeeze. She would do anything for Ava. Anything to keep her safe...even if it meant keeping her from her father.

Yet how could she do that? And should she, if Larenzo were really innocent?

‘Ava, sweetheart,’ she whispered against the baby’s silky hair. ‘What are we going to do?’

She stayed upstairs for a few moments, cuddling Ava and then changing her diaper, wanting to put off the conversation she’d have to have with Meghan. Wanting to put off thinking about Larenzo Cavelli and what she was going to do.

Yet even in the dim quiet of her and Ava’s bedroom, memories invaded. Memories not of Larenzo as he’d been only moments ago, coldly angry, clearly ruthless, but as he’d been the night their daughter had been conceived. The tenderness he’d shown, as well as the despair. That sorrow and resignation she’d felt in him, had yearned to take away, and the aching, reverent gentleness of his touch...

Remembering that man made all the certainties she’d cultivated over the last eighteen months scatter like ash.

What if he wasn’t guilty?

But what if he is?

‘Emma?’ Meghan’s voice was sharp with concern as she called up the stairs. ‘Are you coming down?’

‘Yes, I’ll be there in a moment.’ Taking a deep breath, Emma settled Ava on her hip and headed downstairs. Ryan was playing in the playroom adjoining the kitchen and she put Ava on the floor with him, scattering a few blocks and soft toys around. Knowing her daughter as she did, Ava would throw all the toys across the room and then try to grab the trains Ryan was playing with. Her daughter knew what she wanted...just like her father.

‘I can’t believe Larenzo Cavelli came here,’ Meghan said, her voice hollow with shock. She filled up the kettle, shaking her head slowly. ‘How did he even know...?’

‘The address was on my employment application.’

‘And he wants to see Ava?’

‘I don’t know what he wants exactly, but he told me I couldn’t keep him from his daughter.’

Meghan was silent for a moment, her face pale with strain. ‘So do you think he is innocent, if the charges were dropped?’ she asked and Emma bit her lip.

‘I don’t know anything any more, Meghan. For a year and a half I thought I knew the truth. I didn’t like it, of course, and at times I couldn’t believe it, but I thought I knew.’

‘And now you think you didn’t?’ Meghan sounded sceptical, and rightly so. How could Emma take anything Larenzo said at face value?

‘I don’t know. But I suppose I should find out why the charges against him were dropped.’ She reached for the laptop they’d left lying out on the kitchen counter, the browser still on the employment agency’s listings. Had it only been a couple of hours ago she’d been worried about what sort of menial job she’d take? It almost seemed laughable.

Quickly Emma typed in the browser’s search engine Larenzo Cavelli charges dropped. Hundreds of results came up within seconds. She clicked on the first one, and began to read the news article.

All charges have been dropped against convicted felon Larenzo Cavelli when new evidence came to light that business partner Bertrano Raguso was in fact behind the illegal activities...

Meghan peered at the article over her shoulder. ‘Do you think it’s true?’ she asked in a low voice.

‘I have no idea.’ Emma scanned the rest of the article, skimming over the terrible list of Larenzo’s alleged crimes that she’d read in the paper once already. Once had definitely been enough.

‘If his business partner really was guilty, why would Larenzo confess?’ Meghan asked as she nibbled her lip.

‘I don’t know.’ Emma gazed at the photograph of Bertrano Raguso, a silver-haired man in his sixties, his face set into haggard lines. ‘But if they let Larenzo go...’

‘But they’d have to, if they have another confession.’

‘I don’t know if it’s that simple.’ Emma rubbed her forehead, felt the beginnings of a headache. From the playroom she heard the clatter of blocks being flung across the room, and then Ryan’s yowl as one connected with his head. ‘I need to see to Ava,’ she said. ‘I’ll have to think about this later. About what I’m going to do.’

‘You should consult a lawyer—’

Emma flinched at the thought. She didn’t want to get involved in some messy, drawn-out custody battle that would no doubt be splashed across the newspapers, due to Larenzo’s notoriety. But what if the alternative was granting him access to Ava? Exposing her to God only knew what kind of danger?

Unless he really was innocent...but how could he not have known about his partner’s activities? And why would he have confessed?

Emma let out a tired sigh. Her mind was racing in circles and she knew she had no answers now. ‘He might not actually want to be involved with Ava,’ she said, trying to convince herself as much as her sister. ‘He might just want to see her once...’

‘You need to be prepared,’ Meghan answered swiftly. ‘Emma, the man is—’

‘We don’t know what he is.’

‘Can you really doubt—?’

‘I told you, I don’t know.’ And yet if there was any chance Larenzo was guilty, any chance of putting Ava in danger...

‘I’ll talk to a lawyer,’ Emma said. ‘I should do that much, at least. Just...just in case.’

Ava and Ryan had both started crying and so Emma scooped her daughter up and distracted her with a few board books before rejoining Meghan at the laptop. Her sister had typed custody lawyers into the search box, and, with her heart thudding sickly and her head still spinning from all that had happened in such a short span of time, Emma watched the results come up, and then she reached for her phone.