I looked over my shoulder at him with a small measure of triumph. So the exalted man wasn’t the honest do-gooder he pretended to be.
“You want to know the difference between you and me, Luca?” Ronan asked.
“Please, enlighten me,” I said dryly.
Not surprisingly, Ronan didn’t react to the jab.
“There are four two-man teams covering my husband and children every hour of every day. Eight men and women at any given time who’d be willing to lay down their lives for Seth or Jamie or Willow or Nicole. They give up time away from their own families to protect mine. Do you think they do that because I pay well?” The man took a couple steps toward me. “You’re right that the men who come after my family will be seeking justice for some wrong they believe I’ve committed against them. They’ll be looking to make me suffer in the worst way possible… by taking that which is dearest to me. Just like that fucker who took your mother.”
I flinched at that. It shouldn’t have been a surprise that Ronan knew about my mother’s murder. It was public record, after all. But his comment still caught me off guard, and my stomach churned as I remembered watching my mother’s blood staining the crisp white snow around her lifeless body.
“The part you haven’t figured out yet is that a paid bodyguard, no matter how skilled, can’t stop that kind of hatred. But family can. And what you saw in New York was just a glimpse of my family. Those men and women protect my husband and children not because it’s their job, but because that’s what family does for each other. You stayed away from your son—”
“I had to!” I snarled as I got into Ronan’s face. “I had to stay away from him to protect him!” I wanted to kill the man for saying the very words I’d long ago accepted as the truth. If I’d been in Gio’s life more, if I’d tried harder to get his mother, Genevieve, to let me put a security detail on both of them, Gio never would have been targeted and he’d still have his mother. But I’d fucked up… I’d failed them both.
“You stayed away from your son to give him a normal life,” Ronan continued, seemingly unconcerned by my rage. “What happened wasn’t your fault, Luca. It wasn’t your enemies who took him, who killed his mother,” he reminded me. “There’s no normal in our world. Every single man, woman, and child that I get to call a member of my family has had to learn this. We can bury our head in the sand, or we can accept it and deal with it. You’ve got a second chance with your son, Luca… with Remy. Don’t fucking bury your head in the sand.”
Ronan didn’t give me a chance to respond and, in truth, I didn’t have a comeback anyway. He pushed open the balcony door. I watched him go but just before he left the bedroom, I called his name. He stopped and turned to look at me.
“Remy and Violet stay with me,” was all I said. It wasn’t a request or question. It wasn’t an acquiescence of any kind. It was the politest way I could think of to tell him to stay the fuck out of things.
Because I knew if Remy had a choice between my help and Ronan’s, he’d pick Ronan each and every time.
And I just wasn’t going to let that happen.
I waited for Ronan to say something, but all he did was glance toward the bathroom door… the one Remy was currently standing in with Violet wrapped in a towel in his arms.
A very pissed-looking Remy.
“I’ll be downstairs if you need me,” was all Ronan said. I had a sneaking suspicion he was talking to me.
And based on Remy’s expression, I knew there was a very real possibility that I’d have to take the smug surgeon up on his offer.
Chapter Seven
Remy
“Remy—”
“Don’t,” I managed to say quietly even as I rocked Violet back and forth. She’d been yawning a few minutes ago, so I knew there was a chance I could put her down for a nap, but if I went off on Luca like I wanted, no way that was going to happen. “Wait for me somewhere else.” I didn’t wait to see what his reaction would be to my demand because I didn’t care.
Okay, okay, so maybe a tiny part of me cared. Maybe even two tiny parts. There was the part that was a little fearful of how he’d react to the order, but the other part was kind of looking forward to it. Somehow, fighting with Luca was less overwhelming than interacting with him on any other kind of level.
Like when he was touching me.