Clicking the button on my key fob to make sure my car is locked, I walk the short distance to Rafe’s car. “Fine.”
He opens the door for me and gestures for me to slide in. “Don’t sound so excited,” he says wryly.
“If you get handsy, I’m telling Santa,” I inform him.
Rafe smiles and closes my door, then walks around to the driver’s side. All the reasons this is a bad idea flood my brain at once, forcing me to take stock of them. Every step I take closer to this man makes me nervous. I know so muc
h about him and he knows much less about me, and his trust is so easy to damage. Once broken, it’s gone forever. I don’t know what I’m morally compelled to tell him, what he would expect me to tell him. I don’t fully understand the lines we’re straddling or why he even wants me to be here.
The only thing I know for sure is that his investment in me is only a shadow of my investment in him, and that means he can afford to be reckless, while I can’t.
The fact that he’s had his hand between my legs and he was a breath away from kissing me just a couple nights ago is sufficient evidence that I should not be spending the night with him, expecting things to remain platonic, while the knowledge that he left with someone else reminds me that platonic is the only way I can hold onto my current relationship with Rafe and my sanity.
Then there’s the whole scene that just happened with his cousin in the living room. I don’t even know what the fuck that was, but Mia was involved, so maybe that’s a good thing to bring up. She’s just a crutch for him, but she does adequately distract him. “So, um, not to pry, but do most of your family holidays involve rape accusations?”
His lips curve up faintly. “More than you might think. Sorry about that. I didn’t mean to literally trap you in the middle and make you feel awkward, I just get sick of Vince’s shit. I’ve mentioned my cousin and his wife, Mia.”
“Of course.”
“Well, she dated Vince first, but I guess his Hulk appeal faded fast. She ended up engaged to my other cousin, Mateo.”
“Right, I knew that part.”
“All right, well, remember—never mind, you probably don’t remember, it was a long time ago. But back when Ben was still in charge, when Vince came to town, I told you one night at the restaurant he had some boneheaded plan.”
Naturally, I do remember that night. He was wearing a black dress shirt, unbuttoned at the chest, and his hair was a little longer than it is now. I drag the memory to the forefront of my mind right now and do a quick review to catch up. I nod my head for Rafe to go on. “Got it.”
“His boneheaded plan was to kidnap Mia—then my cousin’s fiancée.”
“A bad plan,” I agree.
“A very bad plan. But Mia is very trusting, and she felt bad for him, so she let him lure her out for a drink.”
I grimace, since this cannot be heading anywhere good.
Rafe nods, turning his key in the engine and checking his rearview mirror. “Yeah, so, long story short, he kidnapped her and brought her here to hide out. Unsurprisingly, this woman who was engaged to another man was not interested in him, even despite this grand gesture, and all she wanted was to go home. Instead of admitting defeat and giving her back to my cousin, he kept her here for a week, raped her the whole time, and I guess one of those times…”
“She got pregnant,” I finish softly. “Ugh, that poor woman.”
Annoyance flits across his face and he nods jerkily. “Yeah. I decided to intervene before things got any worse. They were so toxic together—one night I thought he was going to hit her, and I just… I was done. I took her back to my house, called Mateo to tell her she was here, and I ended the whole thing. I told Vince to get out of town, and I took Mia back home to Chicago.”
“Which is why he doesn’t like you,” I surmise.
“Well, no. I mean, yes, that’s mostly why, but there are other reasons. Anyway, she decided to keep the baby and raise him like he’s Mateo. As a matter of assuring Mia’s safety, Mateo has obviously banned Vince from Chicago.”
I nod my head. “Like you banned him from Vegas. But what about the wedding? They’ll both be there. And she sent him pictures?”
Rafe watches out the windshield for a moment, then sighs. “Mia’s… she’s hard to explain. Once you meet her, you’ll probably get it. She’s not like us. She cares about people. She has a big heart. Mateo wanted to kill Vince, understandably, and Mia fought to keep him alive. She’s just… her own person, I guess. Anyway, even though she’s the one my asshole cousins mistreat all the fucking time, she accommodates them. That’s why she didn’t come to Laurel’s baby shower, even though she wanted to. She wanted Carly and Vince to be able to come and be comfortable, and she knew if she and Mateo came they wouldn’t be.”
“Wow, sitting out the event so your rapist won’t be uncomfortable. That’s something.”
“Isn’t it?” he murmurs. “That’s Mia in a nutshell. Sitting on the sidelines so people much worse than her can have fun.”
“But she’s a bridesmaid in the wedding.”
“Laurel doesn’t know the extent of Vince and Mia’s past. I assume if she did, she wouldn’t ask Mia to be around him, but she thinks they’re just awkward exes. Carly didn’t want Laurel to know any of that about Vince’s past. Laurel does not know Dom is Vince’s son. Anyway, not that this is likely to come up, but now that you know all this, make sure you don’t say anything to Laurel about it.”
“I won’t,” I assure him. “Does Sin know?”