“I’ve been involved since I was eight years old. If he can’t handle that, then he doesn’t need to be marrying me tomorrow. He will get over it.” I squared my shoulders and stared Phantom dead in the eye.
I was tired of all this subterfuge. The deception needed to end. I wasn’t going to start my married life with a lie hanging over our heads. Not on my watch. “Where is she?”
Ari walked over, yawning. “Layla has her. She is safe.”
“Good. Is she okay?”
“Scared. A little thin but nothing a few good meals won’t fix.”
“Did you tell her?”
Ari smiled. “I did. She was happy when I told her about her brother.”
I grinned at that. I knew the little girl would be scared and I wanted to give her something to look forward to. Looking around the desolate compound, I added. “Best if you all get to bed. I fear we will all need clear heads because there will be no keeping this from Max. And Phantom, I ask that you let me know before you do. I want to be there when you tell him.”
“He won’t like that.”
“I don’t give a shit what he likes. He thinks he’s so damn smart that he has everything figured out. Well, he doesn’t. Just tell me before you do.”
Phantom gave me a two-finger salute before she walked into the clubhouse with her brother behind her. Taking Ari’s arm, we walked inside as I prayed that Max would be understanding and forgiving when the sun rose.
As the sun rose over the horizon, I knew I should have prayed harder because the man standing over me at the moment was an irate asshole, cursing, throwing shit and I bet if I looked a little closer, he was frothing at the mouth.
I knew his anger wasn’t solely on what we did. Something else was bothering him. Something that overshadowed what we did. It wasn’t as if we stormed the beaches of Normandy.
We weren’t that stupid.
Poor Ari. I really felt for her because Ghost was no better. Though he wasn’t yelling and pitching a fit like Max was, we could all tell he was rightfully pissed as he sat stiffly next to her.
“Let me get this straight,” Max said, taking a deep breath and trying to reign in his attitude. “The four of you knew about my daughter and said nothing.”
“Actually, I only learned about the kid after we arrived,” Phantom smirked but quickly wiped the smile from her face when Max turned his glare on her.
“And I only found out because I made Ari tell me what was going on before she left,” I admitted, cringing as I technically threw my best friend under the bus. In my defense, I did have a wedding tomorrow. I didn’t want to walk down the aisle with a sore ass.
Max looked ready to explode.
Brothers snickered, some sighed, others shook their heads, but most thought the whole damn thing was funny.
Honestly, I didn’t understand why Max was so bent out of shape about the whole damn thing. It wasn’t as if it was a big coup or something. We did get his long-lost daughter to safety. If he wanted to bitch at someone, he should technically blame Layla. She was the one who came up with the damn plan in the first place. I was just the cover.
“Sit down Max,” Layla said firmly as she leaned against her brother. When Giovanni and Layla arrived early this morning, Layla damn near shrieked the house down when she saw her brother. Gio was still rubbing his ear, trying to regain some of his hearing loss.
“Don’t tell me what to do in my own damn club. You are already on my shit list.”
“And I intend to be there for a long time. Now shut the hell up, and I will tell you what you need to know.”
Max grumbled a few more seconds before he sat, yanking me out of my chair and onto his lap.
Possessive freak.
“Well,” he growled.
Layla rolled her eyes and began. “Okay, this might be a bit confusing, so try to keep up. First off, your daughter Emma is safe. Secondly, during my captivity, I had heard my biological father talk about a child that was being used to coerce you into doing the Society’s bidding. He was actively looking for that child, but as you know, he never found her. It wasn’t until I was rescued and brought here that I learned the truth. I knew of Ari from my biological fathers dealing with the cult. It was a shock seeing her here. When I took over the Capribella family’s business, I asked my cousin Carmine to see if he could find anything to confirm what Ari had told me. It was only after Antonio killed Bianchi that I learned the whole truth after the Capribella Family raided and cleaned out Bianchi’s compound. There are hundreds of files that we are still going through. Emma’s mother was sent to Italy right after you impregnated her. I am sorry to say, she was murdered right after giving birth.”
Max’s arms stiffened around me. This was not good. I knew Max. He was already feeling guilty about what he had done, now, he was going to blame himself for her death.
“What was her name?” I asked carefully.