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  If this situation weren’t life-threatening, I’d laugh that Lane snuck in without either of us hearing him.

  My heart races as my father stands, his chair crashing to the floor as he glares at Lane.

  “Is this true, Sienna?” he demands an answer in an angry tenor that has me hearing that disappointment.

  My lips quiver as I flick my gaze to my father. Hard lines form on his face, nostrils flaring as betrayal etches across his every feature.

  “Yes. Before you go off, please know Lane didn’t find out until this morning.” I want to tell my father this is my cross to bear. Then I want to turn around and yell at Lane for undoubtedly knowing me well enough to show up to defend me. He knew I’d tell my father and try to talk him out of punishing him for being disloyal.

  “For fuck’s sake, Sienna, do not try to protect me. Let me take responsibility for once. You owe me that much.”

  I hear Lane, but my gaze remains fixated on my father.

  “I’m sorry. I’m sorry you both found out the way you did. I’m sorry I was a coward. I’m sorry, my son is where I can’t protect him. I’m so sorry.” My voice cracks. The words are barely out of my mouth before a wail shrieks out of me. Each heart-wrenching scream takes another piece of my soul.

  God, I want to cry. Please let me.

  “Sienna, stop it now. You are my brave girl. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t let down by you. It hurts me more to think that the son of a bitch took his hands to you. You lied to me multiple times. I forgive you, but you will stand down when it comes to Lane. He went against an order. I will handle him the way I want to. Do I make myself clear?” My father squats in front of me, stroking my hair, and gently places his hands on my cheeks, forcing me to look at him. My father’s hands used to be warm and gentle. Now they feel as icy as his words.

  “No, I won’t stand down. If Lane betrayed you, then so did I. Whatever you do to him should be done to me.”

  I don’t know what he’ll do to Lane. He won’t let him off with just a tongue lashing. That’s not how the code works. He’ll have Matteo hurt him.

  “Leave us, Sienna. You are my child, but you are not in control here.”

  “Stop talking to me like I am a child then. You do it all the time, and it’s maddening. You will not harm a hair on Lane. He’s a good man, a good dad. It was you who told me that. He didn’t take things from me as Joseph did. He’s Luca’s father. I will not have my son come back to me and have to tell him I kept this from him and then turn around and tell him you are not the man he thinks you are.”

  Luca might know what my father does, but he thinks the world of him. I won’t taint nor keep anything from my son more than I already have. I want my boy’s forgiveness, not his hatred.

  My stomach clenches when I peer back at Lane. His eyes are boring into mine. The man is begging me to shut my mouth. To leave this be and let him take what he has coming.

  He doesn’t have anything coming to him as far as I’m concerned. He broke my heart, but he gave me the greatest gift I could ever ask for, and I kept it from him.

  The wrong is on me.

  My father takes hold of my shoulders and starts to shake me. I flinch and retract from his touch, sliding down to the opposite end of the couch, fear swelling harshly inside me. All I can picture is how Joseph would shake me until my brain rattled. I squeeze my eyes shut as I remember Joseph’s raised fists. The memories hit me fresh and deep.

  I shake worse than dried leaves in a windstorm on trees, holding on to the last bit of life before they fall to the ground.

  “Jesus, sweetheart, I’m sorry. I would never hurt you. I cannot let a man betray me and get away with it no matter who he is to me. You will not interject, Sienna. It isn’t your call. Lane, I want you to leave us. I will deal with you as soon as I sort out Sienna.”

  By taking this out on Lane, he is hurting me. Why can’t he see that? God, I hate this life as much as I hate violence.

  Father stands, holding his palms out in front of him, looking at them in disgust before moving back to his desk, pressing his palms to it, and lowering his head.

  I remind myself who this man is. He would have someone cut off his hands before he would ever hurt me with them. If he carries this through with Lane, he will hurt me much worse than any physical blow I’ve taken.

  I push up to stand, my legs wobbling as I ready to go to battle with him. “You sat me down with Lane and his brothers too. I’m not going to allow you to treat me special because I’m your flesh and blood.” I start to say more when Lane cuts me off.

  “Blood or not, Sienna doesn’t deserve punishment, she’s been through enough. I’m not going anywhere. I will pay for my crime against you. Then I’m taking back what’s mine. I’ve called a meeting between you, me, my brothers, and Gabe. They should be here within the hour. In the meantime, I’m warning you once, Lorenzo. Daughter or not, if you ever put your hands on Sienna again with anger behind it, anger that you should direct at me, I will cut them off.”

  Chapter Four

  Lane

  Regret and remorse. Shame and blame. Those words make up a second chance at love. After all, people who get that chance wouldn’t have it if those feelings didn’t play a part in their breakup to begin with. They place themselves in the middle of Sienna and me. Continuing to spin in agony until we decide to stop them. For now, their dust and debris fly all over the place.

  A dark and dreary cloud.

  I want to throw them against the wall and smash them to smithereens.

  Our love story deserves a fresh start to build on the love we still have for one another, just waiting for us to snatch it out of thin air when the time is right. We aren’t instant-love. We are a forever one. A painful love that will grow, but there’s a general in my way at the moment. One who thinks he needs to make me an example, if only to hold on to his pride for disobeying an order.

  It’s a crock of bullshit that’s starting to smell like desperation. We all have it. Only Lorenzo’s is worse.

  For the past half hour or so, he’s gone off with a piss poor excuse about holding onto his leadership if he lets me off. He isn’t fooling anyone in this room. Most of his soldiers weren’t even here at the time we were told Sienna was forbidden. And who gives a rat’s ass if they were. A child is missing. That should be the end of it.

  Sienna is thirty-years-old. A grown woman going through hell. Lorenzo’s attitude toward me is only throwing her farther into the fire.

  I won’t stand for it.

  “It’s my God-given right to get to know my son, damn it. Unless you plan on having my brothers carry me out of here in a body bag, I think I’ve paid the price by missing years of Luca’s life.” I grit my teeth. Already felt the knives in my heart from Sienna keeping Luca from me, now I sit here waiting on Lorenzo to shit or get off the pot.

  I care for Lorenzo, deeply, but he is wasting my time.

  I told myself my decision to come here without letting anyone know the reason could leave a ripple effect across everyone I care about, like a stone skipping across water. Mostly, my daughter, if I was hurt. But I’d be a shit parent to her and Luca when the time comes to discuss the events leading up to this day if I didn’t face what I’d done.

  I left Sienna earlier and went straight home, relieved Lexi’s babysitter, then stared at my son’s photo as I called Seth. Without explaining, I said I needed him and Gabe to meet me here as soon as possible. Then I called Logan, ignoring his infuriating ass when he asked what was going on. Then my girl and I spent the day at the park near our house. I watched her play with the neighbors, took a walk with her, fed the ducks, and thought about nothing else except righting my wrongs toward Sienna, my son, along with the hundreds of ways I want to kill Joseph.

  I’ll gladly start with his fingers.

  I blow out a straining breath, still trying to work through the fact that Sienna and I have a son. That missing boy is mine, and I’m lost and helpless. My heart is going through torture as if s
omeone were driving nails right through my chest. It’s an indescribable pain.

  If I thought I was hurting for Sienna and Luca before, I’m burning in hell now. For many reasons.

  “I’ll decide your fate. I should have Matteo pull the trigger and blow your head off. You took many oaths when I allowed you to become an associate of my organization. Do you not recall what happens to men when they are disloyal to me? Let me remind you, death happens,” Lorenzo shouts, veins protruding at the side of his neck. He keeps on, it won’t be long before he goes into cardiac arrest.

  That is not something I want to happen.

  Coming from someone else, I’d have already pummeled them into the ground. But this is a man I care about regardless of him treating me like the enemy in this heartbreaking situation.

  He’s taking Joseph’s disloyalty out on me. I can take it if it makes him feel better. It’s Sienna’s reaction to his behavior that concerns me.

  “So you keep saying.” I’m not going to hide being pissed off and agitated from him anymore. Screw that shit.

  Lorenzo stiffens, while the bastard holding the gun to my head growls in my ear, becoming a little more irritated.

  “You watch how you talk to me, boy.” Lorenzo’s response flicks a lighter under my ass. If the flame touches me, it’ll be his fault if I knock some sense into him.

  I clear my throat, wanting to tell him he’s in no position to tell me what to do, let alone calling me a boy. I’m a man standing up for what’s mine. The problem with doing so, I’m wound up about having a gun that Lorenzo isn’t planning on giving the order to use sitting at my temple, especially by a man who wouldn’t blink an eye at pulling the trigger if he were told.

  Another problem. It would turn this room into a bloodbath if that were to happen. I can already feel my brothers heating up at my back. Surprised, they’ve allowed Matteo to hold the gun for this long. Gabe, too, for that matter.

  “You know, for a man I once respected, I have to say I lost what I had the minute you brought your puppet in here and had him wrap his arm around my neck and put his gun to my head.”

  I wasn’t sure what to expect. Maybe a little compassion since we’re all wandering around in the same kind of hell.

  I glance at Sienna. She is shaking as if she’s spent hours in a snowstorm without proper clothes to keep her warm. Her father has her scared to death. I’m sure I’m not helping by arguing, but I’m not sitting here listening to Lorenzo treat me like I’m the one who committed a crime.

  In a way, I don’t blame him for his reaction. None of us would be here if it weren’t for me. Still, this is wrong on many levels.

  You’d have thought the remorse he felt at himself would have lasted more than five fucking minutes, after he grabbed hold of Sienna before he had his pet in here aiming a gun in my direction, snarling in my ear while Lorenzo tried to make things right with her. She wouldn’t listen to him, and she has every right not to.

  Violence is Sienna’s trigger, and here he is, trying to prove a point. He’s taken it too far. Up till now, I’ve remained calm. But a man can only take so much, and I’m past it. I need to take care of Sienna, then get back to Lexi.

  Sienna won’t look my way either, hasn’t looked at anyone. No, she’s sat on the couch with her head aimed at the floor like some obedient servant. She’s doing it out of living in fear. I feel it leaking out of her.

  No woman should feel she can’t look someone in the eye. No woman should be afraid of a man who took a vow to treat his wife with love and respect while making her obey in any other way than to please her. And no woman in Sienna’s position as Luca’s mother should have to be talked to like what she has to say doesn’t matter.

  Because it fucking does. She matters. Every woman matters.

  The woman was so brave going into a battle with Lorenzo, trying to get him to back off me before Matteo walked in. She shouldn’t have had to. She’s his daughter, for fuck’s sake. None of us in this room should be at war with one another.

  We’re family.

  Yet, here we are, me with a gun to my head and him acting like a ruthless asshole.

  I’m proud of her for standing up to Lorenzo, not many do. I was close to decking the man when he kept telling her to shut her mouth. I wanted to shove my fist down his throat. I didn’t. One, I’d be dead right now. Two, he’d probably be along with me. Three, even with the way Lorenzo is treating Sienna, she loves him, and once he calms, he’ll regret his wrong, and four, I won’t take her voice away from her, as Joseph did. She has a right to speak her mind about anything.

  I won’t treat her like a fragile, broken doll either. That’s not what she needs. I’ve yet to figure out what could help her heal, but I will. Even if I have to break my own damn heart, I will get her back to solid ground. She’s closer than she thinks. With a little encouragement, and a whole lot of kissing, touching and fucking, she’ll be right back to that feisty woman she used to be.

  It all makes a man wonder how Joseph got away with treating her the way he did without anyone noticing. It makes me wonder about my son too. Did he witness Sienna being abused? Is he a mess over it? Was he abused?

  I have questions coming out of my ass, and they are piling the longer we sit here.

  Lorenzo shifts in his seat, pulse ticking at his jaw. “I don’t give a fuck if you’ve lost respect or not, Lane. This is my kingdom. These are my rules. There are no exceptions, not even for you.”

  For fuck’s sake, we all know the rules. It’s why my brothers and Gabe have remained quiet. I respect them all the more for it. I know they are likely boiling with anger at Lorenzo and me. Their time will come to lay into my ass. I won’t take it the same as I’m not taking it from Lorenzo. He doesn’t scare me. What does, is the man holding the gun, and the thought his patience is wearing as thin as mine. If he decides to pull the trigger, where does that leave my daughter and Sienna? Where does that place my son’s way of thinking when he returns? I’ll never meet him, never get to know him, and that pisses me the fuck right off.

  “Why the hell do you think I’m here? I know I’m not an exception. I told you I came here once I got Lexi settled with Ellie to take my punishment. You’re the one who insisted on dragging this out by asking me to tell you what happened back then to cause me and Sienna to split.” That was one of the hardest things to do. Stand here in front of my brothers and Gabe and tell them how I destroyed a woman they’d defend with their lives over some club. Rehashing old wounds in Sienna and me that are raw as hell.

  “You have some balls coming in here the way you did making demands to me regarding my daughter. She isn’t yours. She is my daughter. I listen to her yell in her sleep for Luca almost every night. I watch her walk around with her phone glued to her hand as I sit here, blaming myself when it’s you to blame. You tell me what you would do if someone did what you did to Lexi?”

  “I’d kill them,” I answer without hesitation. There’s no doubt about it. “You have a right to lay blame at my feet for what I did to Sienna, what you don’t have the right to do, is call me disloyal. That right belongs to Sienna and no one else. I’ve brought in men to watch her every move. I gave her space to get back on her feet. I’ve done all I can do to help Sienna except searching for Luca. I’d give up my life right now if it meant it would take away her pain. One more thing, I own this house, in case you forgot. I bought it for you and Sienna. If I want to come here any damn time I want, say anything I want, then I will.”

  I can go on about how loyal I’ve been. I’ve killed for him to prove my loyalty. I’ve kept his name hidden when we owned the club, and I’ve risked going to prison by keeping his books. I can say my daughter’s name to prove how loyal I am. I’d prefer not to throw that card on the table with Sienna present. There are things my brothers told me they told her over the years, but they didn’t tell her I hadn’t had sex since well before Lexi was born.

  That’s not something you go tossing around, but Lorenzo knows. So fuck him and loyal
ty.

  A gasp coming from Sienna sucks the air from my lungs. I’m not sure if her reaction is from having no idea this house is in my name. Or me saying I’d die for her. It doesn’t matter. A response out of her calms me a bit.

  I blow out a breath when affection coming from those eyes of hers stare back at me. After all this time, perhaps it bleeds from us both.

  “Right. How could I forget you bought this house with whore money.” Ouch. That remark dug its claws into me deep. He just cut me to my core on top of adding more tension to the room. Enough that I’m surprised the glass on the windows behind him isn’t frosting from the death stare I’ve no doubt my brothers are giving him.

  “Father, stop. You are unfair, and I won’t sit here and listen to it anymore,” Sienna says, defending me once again. I don’t deserve it, never did. I’ll be damned if I don’t deserve her now, and I’m taking as good as I give.

  Proud of you for opening your mouth, my eyes say to her.

  Lorenzo ignores her like he’s been doing since everyone got here. That heats my blood until I feel it boil—a sizzle popping at my heated flesh before it soaks in.

  “That comment, along with the way you are treating Sienna, should break me away from this family quicker than flies on shit. Since you’re judging me, you are the judge on whether I stay or go. Need I remind you of the things you do, Lorenzo? You are a criminal. No better a man than me.”

  He keeps rattling my cage, and our relationship will be unsalvageable. He’ll be dead to me. That is the last thing any of us needs. Regardless of the degrading way he’s throwing his weight around, I care about him. I know he cares for me. He might want to consider that before he tosses anything else in my face.

  I take a deep breath, reminding myself Lorenzo is under as much stress as the rest of us. Quite possibly more. He’s tired, worried, and yes, he has a right to be angry with me. He’s going about it all wrong.