My only focus had been the dog.
“You okay?” he asked, his hand once again going to the small of my back. Odd that the need to move away from his touch wasn’t as profound as it normally was.
“Not a fan,” I said softly as I kept my eyes on the pair of dogs. The shepherd wasn’t even looking my way anymore, but it was still all I could do to quell the fear that was clawing at my insides trying to get out. My fear of dogs was something I’d battled with for a long time, especially since the family I worked for had so many of them. The Barretti brothers who employed me often invited me to family gatherings that included loads of kids, dogs, and other animals. I’d gotten out of most of the events, but there’d been a few that I’d attended, and it’d been all I could do to hide my stark fear of the four-legged attendees.
I trembled when Luca’s fingers began rubbing my lower back.
“Jamie,” the other man called out. His eyes were on me and Luca. I finally realized I knew him.
A little boy of about five or six came running out of the house. He was wearing a Spider-Man costume that included little red tights.
“Yeah?” he said.
“Why don’t you and Daddy Seth take Bullet and Bella with you to Uncle Hawke’s house, okay?”
“Okay!” The boy, Jamie, threw his arms around his father and then took off, calling the dogs. Both jumped up to follow him. When they reached the end of the block, Jamie stopped and began pretending to shoot webs from his wrists. I found myself smiling at his antics as he acted like the stop sign was some kind of foe he’d caught up in his webs.
“Ronan, do you know where Jamie is?” a voice from inside the house called.
“Out here,” the man responded.
“Please tell me he’s wearing pants,” the exasperated voice returned.
“Yes and no,” the man, Ronan, said with a smile as he watched his son.
A second man appeared at the door. He had a bag slung over his shoulder. Ronan’s arm immediately went around the slimmer man’s waist when he stopped at his side. I remembered the younger man being introduced to me as Seth, Ronan’s husband.
Seth leaned into his husband’s side as they watched their child battle the evil stop sign. I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen anyone look so content. I was envious, but when I looked down at Violet, my heart felt like it shattered into a million pieces. Would the little girl ever know what it was like to have someone who loved her that much? So unconditionally? Or would she end up like her mother or Carla or the kid at the warehouse?
Lost?
Forgotten?
Would she even be either of those two things if there wasn’t anyone left to miss her? To want her back? To always be searching for her, or, at the very least, be wondering about her?
“Remy, let’s go inside, okay?” I heard Luca say gently. “The dogs are gone.”
I looked up from where I’d been staring at Violet’s innocent, sleeping face and saw that Jamie, Seth, and the two dogs were nowhere in sight. Ronan was gone too and the front door to the house was wide open.
Fear for Violet overruled my brain and I heard myself whispering, “What are we doing here, Luca?”
It was a moment of weakness that I wasn’t proud of, and I swore to myself there wouldn’t be another around this man, but I needed…
What?
What was it that I even needed?
I shook my head because I didn’t even know the answer to that.
I just needed.
And as much as I hated to admit it, I knew I wouldn’t be able to take another step forward until Luca gave it to me… whatever it was.
Chapter Four
Luca
“Have you met Ronan before?” I asked as I stepped around Remy so I was between him and the house. He was staring at the ground and I could see the distress in his eyes that had been in his voice only moments before. I felt like shit for not having given him a heads-up about why we were coming here while still in the car, but he’d been so preoccupied with his thoughts, I hadn’t wanted to pull him from them.
Not to mention I’d been dealing with my own issues.
Remy nodded. “He’s a friend of the Barrettis. And Aleks’s brother works for him.”
“Dante.” I nodded in agreement. “Did you know he’s a surgeon? Ronan, I mean.”
That had Remy lifting his eyes. “Dante doesn’t work in medicine.”
The way Remy said the words almost had me smiling. He was almost daring me to contradict him. It seemed to be a game of “how much do you know?”
“No, he doesn’t. The ‘group’ he works for is run by Ronan, but Ronan still practices medicine. I thought we could have him take a look at Violet to make sure she’s okay. I wasn’t sure you wanted to take her to the hospital.”