“Look, um—” She glanced to Paolo for help.
“Take as much time as you need,” he said, flashing a look at his cousin, but only waving the lawyers from the room and pulling the door closed behind them.
Gwyn looked to Vito, but saw immediately there was no point in asking him to leave. The hostility radiating off him was palpable.
Licking her lips, she turned back to Travis. “I’m sorry,” she said with deep sincerity. “It’s true, I was avoiding you and Henry. This whole thing has been very humiliating. I feel horrible for what Henry and you must be going through.”
Vito made a noise that she knew was an admonishment against apologizing for something that wasn’t her fault.
“Is that why you haven’t come home? Because you were embarrassed?”
She shrugged, as disconcerted by his forcefulness as by the implication that what she considered “home” was her home in his eyes, too.
“Is it?” Vito demanded from his position on the far end of the table. His hot glare was equally unnerving because he looked so stunned.
Hurt, even?
He must know she’d stayed for him. She swallowed, sending him a reassuring look before she turned back to her stepbrother.
“I stayed here for a lot of reasons, but I knew you must be furious—” she began.
“I’m furious because I’m worried, Gwyn!” he cut in. His dark face reddened with deep emotion and his hand waved in the air. “None of this is like you except the part where you refused to pick up the phone and ask me for help! Instead, you’re relying on...”
His gaze tracked Vito as he came down the side of the table to where Gwyn stood, closing in behind her in a silent message that might have been a warning to Travis to mind his tone. There was such an air of menace as he looked at the man.
“What the hell is going on here?” Travis asked, shifting his disbelieving gaze to hers. “I mean, I know what it was supposed to look like. Anyone with half a brain can see you were backing Jensen into an admission that he set up the photos, but why are you still here now that that’s accepted fact? Why didn’t you come home after he was charged?”
“I—” She didn’t know what to say. Somehow she was in Vito’s grasp, her back against his front, one of his heavy hands on her hip, the other curled around her upper arm.
“Why do you care?” Vito remarked in a dangerous tone.
Travis lifted his gaze to a point past her shoulder, his eyes so cold and deadly, Gwyn tensed and held her breath.
“We’re family,” Travis said through lips that barely moved. “Maybe we’re not related by blood, but we’re family. Do you get me? She’s not without connections. So whatever the hell you think you’re doing with my sister, it ends now.”
Family?
Gwyn was dumbfounded by Travis’s reaction.
The whole moment was so supercharged with emotion, she almost couldn’t speak, thoughts scattered. But these two pitbulls were about to take each other apart, so she covered Vito’s hand on her arm and tried to ground out his aggression.
“It’s okay,” she told him, then turned to Travis. “Your worrying about me is really nice, but it’s not necessary. I’ve been in good hands this whole time.”
In her head that had seemed like a sensible thing to say, but the hands upon her tightened and Travis choked out, taking on a thunderstruck expression.
“Have you? Have you really?”
“Yes,” she insisted, shifting enough so she could see Vito’s stony expression over her shoulder. She wasn’t sure what she had expected to see there, but not that cast of iron. For some reason it undermined her confidence in what she was saying. “Paolo and Vito have had my back this whole time.”
“That’s odd,” Travis said, tone dripping sarcasm. “Because what it looks like to me is that a man in a position of power took advantage of a woman who was already in trouble, used her to keep his bank from taking a kick to its reputation, hung on to her to influence the settlement that was being negotiated—” he nodded at the folders on the table “—and if he keeps you here, will be using you for reasons that have become far more basic.”
“Travis,” she gasped, stabbed by his cruel assessment.
“I’m sorry, did I miss a wedding announcement?” Travis asked, flicking his gaze to Vito’s. “Are your intentions honorable?”
Vito’s hands fell away from her body and stripped her of her skin at the same time. No. She wouldn’t let Travis ruin this. Why wasn’t Vito explaining this wasn’t cheap, physical gratification but something so much more?