“How can I walk away from you, Kiara? I dedicated the last eighteen years of my life trying to find you. You were ripped away from me when you were just a baby. The only time I would get pictures of you was before your mother met Tony… five thousand dollars a picture she would charge me. Her father hid her and you from me when she fled. I destroyed her whole family and still lost you.” He turns away from me and runs a hand through his hair. I can hear the anguish in his voice, it hurts me. I turn and peer up at Bishop. His gaze implores me not to but he should know by now I don’t do as I’m told. I break away from him and step around Quinn’s body. Anthony turns to me and I stop a foot away. The look in his eyes opens something inside me. I’ve never known the love of a parent, so to have him staring at me like he would burn the world to the ground in my honor stumps me. Longing springs to life inside me, something I haven’t felt since I was a child. The need to be loved and held by a parent who wants me, who doesn’t treat me like shit. I never had a mother that did my hair, took me for mani-pedis or even just held me when I skinned my knee. I was nothing to her except a way to pay for her habit, a tool to be used for her own gain.
“I don’t know what to say to you. I want to believe everything you are saying but it’s not like I have experience with what a good parent should be like. If you mean what you say, don’t hurt the man that I love or the people I care about.” His gaze burns. I can see he wants to deny me and take the revenge he has craved for years. I move forward and leave a foot of space between us. We stare into each other’s eyes and that’s when I see it, the longing. He’s so fast when he reaches out and yanks me against him. I hear Bishop rush forward but stop when Anthony wraps his arms around me and buries his face against my head. I stand stiff for a moment, shocked as hell. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, but as if my body knows what to do, my arms lift of their own accord and wrap around him. He melts at my touch and all the tension flees my body. I live in this moment and embrace the thought of being loved and wanted by the father I was told hated the sight of me and wanted nothing to do with me. He pulls back and grips my face between his hands smiling down at me. I see unshed tears in his eyes.
“I wish I could give you what you want but now that I have you in my sights, I won’t be able to walk away.” I tense again, expecting him to turn on Bishop and the others. “I will agree to not hurt themifyou agree to meet me with me weekly.” Before I can protest, he pushes on. “I only want to get to know my daughter, nothing more. Please, Kiara. I am begging you. Give me a chance to show you I am not like your mother.”
“How can you say that, your step son was just killed and you didn’t bat an eye but you stand here and claim to care for me?”
“Quinn was an idiot. He thinks I had no idea that he was planning to kill me and then you so he would be the one to take overourfamily. He is not a Bennett, but you are. Everything I have will be yours––.”
“She won’t be a Bennett for long!” Bishop’s words send a shiver down my spine, I hear the conviction in his words. Anthony glances at Bishop briefly before dismissing him like he is nothing but a nuisance.
“You don’t have to marry a Murdoch. I’m here now and they cannot make you do anything you don’t want to do.” Call me stupid but I believe him. I believe that Anthony would take Bishop and all his men out now if I was to ask, but that isn’t what I want.
“He isn’t making me do anything I don’t want to do, now that you’re here he may actually let me travel.” I try to jest to lighten the mood.
“If you wanting to travel means getting away fromhim, I’ll fuel the jet now and take you wherever you want.” It may not be the right moment but laughter bubbles out of me, Anthony smiles and for the first time since seeing him tonight this one reaches his eyes.
“Thank you but all I want to do right now is go to the hospital and make sure Knight is okay.”
Chapter23
Bishop
We sit in the waiting room of the hospital. Rook looks as pale as a ghost. Carlina just stares ahead at a blank wall in a world of her own. Gage and King stand in the corner of the room, while Kiara and I sit in the hard plastic chairs. I cut my gaze to the man sitting on her other side and grind my teeth. Anthony Bennett agreed to let us go but on the condition he came with us, the fucker wasn’t lying. He had us outnumber and outgunned, he could have slaughtered us and taken Kiara but he didn’t, he swore to her that he wouldn’t do anything to upset her. Every fiber of my being wants to say he’s lying and planning to do something to my family but, that is only because I never had a good role model as a parent. I agreed to him coming here if he sent his men away. The fucker agreed and came alone without a single man to watch his back. I don’t know if he is cocky or if he is a man of his word and expects me to do the same.
Rook and King were pissed when they saw him. Gage and I had to hold them back before they killed him. I look out the glass window to the side and see the same Escalade drive past and smirk, Anthony cocks a brow at me.
“You didn’t think I trusted you?” I narrow my eyes ready to tear the fucker a new asshole but pause when Kiara places her hand on my leg.
“Fucking pussy,” I mutter as I slouch back in my chair. Mav and Luka rush through the entry and come straight for us. I told them to deal with our men and put a tail on Anthony, I won’t be caught unprepared again.
“Boss?”
“What?” Luka looks to Mav before facing me again.
“The Ramano’s.” I’m on my feet and ushering the two of them to the other side of the room. When I’m sure we are out of hearing distance I signal for him to continue. “We just got word that they are planning a retaliation for Pauly’s death.” Fuck, I can’t focus on this shit right now, I need to see that Knight is okay before I can focus on anything else. If the Ramano’s want a fucking war they will get one!
“Tail them, report back to me. I want to know when they shit, what they eat and where they go.” Mav and Luka nod before turning and leaving.
* * *
Kiara is resting her head in my lap sleeping, King has taken Rook and Car to get something to eat from the café, Gage is off doing whatever the fuck he is doing. Anthony sits opposite me just staring at her. I look down at her with my jacket draped over her sleeping form. She looks peaceful, looking at her now you wouldn’t think she has faced the horrors that she has in her short life. She went through fucking hell at the hands of my father, how she come out the other side and not bitter and hating the world I will never know. She possesses a strength inside her I never will. I stroke her hair marveling at how silky the strands feel between my fingers, fatigue gnaws inside me but I’ll never sleep a wink with my enemy sitting across me.
“I will never support this.” I swing my gaze to him. He keeps his focus on Kiara. The way he looks at her like he has some claim on the woman I love grates on my fucking nerves. She’s mine and I will never let her go.
“I don’t give a fuck, she’s mine and will remain with me. You try anything to take her from me and I’ll bury you six feet fucking deep.” A condescending smile crosses his face as looks to me.
“You are but a boy trying to play in a man’s world. I have more power, more money and more men than you do. I’ll wipe out your entire family and not bat an eye or lose a wink of sleep over it.”
“Try it you––”
“Shut up boy and listen!” My fingers itch to reach for my gun. “You can reach for your gun. You can try to take me out but just know this, I own the fucking hospital. I own half the shares in all the other hotels and clubs you are trying to acquire. Why do you think your land deals and sales aren’t going through?” I keep the shock from my face, this dirty old fucker has been building a backlist while we try to play catch up and fix all Tony’s fucking mess. “You want to take me out? You need to learn how to play the long game. You and your brothers are named after chess pieces yet you play like checkers. You are still breathing right now because my daughter willed it be that way. If she changes her mind, I will not hesitate to end you and your family.”
“You had my sister, why not take her out? You had the means and the opportunity to do it, if what you say is true, you never needed Car alive to get to me.” His eyes glaze over for a moment as he grits his teeth.
“I do have the means. I never laid a single finger on your sister, nor did any of my men. I had planned to kill you the day you came to the school.”
“Why did you take Car and why didn’t you kill me?”