“Maybe I do now.”
Dominic gave him a steely-eyed look. “At your age? Gimme a break. You’re still racking up your score. So, look, we’re both”—he sighed—“experienced. With your track record you have to know this isn’t permanent. I don’t want Nicole hurt. You be nice to her too long and she’d going to suffer when you decide to move on.”
“She’s the one who’s moving on. She’s going back to school at the end of the month.”
“Which brings up another point. I’m not sure you have a month of leisure with Shanghai on your ass. That’s major fire power coming your way.”
“I’m taking care of it.”
“You might not be able to. You don’t have the troops.”
“I do. You know who my father was. I was dealing with his enemies before most kids had their braces out. So my security is strong, more than capable, and currently expanding. Carlos has the word out. And Ganz can hack into their communications. They give an order, we know it.” Rafe blew out a breath. “I’d rather stay out of it. I would if I could. But it’s not likely.”
“Not a chance,” Dominic said.
“Right.” Rafe sighed.
“Except for your friend you’d try?”
“Yeah—I would. But Ganz and two other guys are my family, or as much family as I have, aside from my mother. And everyone needs someone at their back. I can count on them, they count on me. You fuck with my family, you fuck with me,” he said, smiling faintly. “It’s that simple.”
“Smart-ass.” But Dominic’s mouth twitched slightly and he thought of his sister, who’d been all he had growing up. Suddenly, he was looking at Rafe Contini through a slightly different lens.
“I really will take care of Nicole,” Rafe said, recognizing a small breakthrough in their disagreement. “Hand on my heart.” He made the gesture. “And I wish I could walk away from these pricks who’ve been trying to steal from my company for years. Piracy is a fucked-up business model if you ask me. I have a company that contributes to society both in product and charities. My grandfather planned it that way. He was a good man.”
“Maso?” A test question.
Rafe shrugged. “A place holder. He wasn’t interested in anything but—”
“I know. You don’t have to say it.”
“Personally, I like R and D—have since I was very young. We help make the world better, safer, healthier. In fact, we have a new nonspecific flu vaccine coming online soon that’s revolutionary. And we just discovered an on/off switch in a genome sequence that shuts down tumor development in certain tumors.” Rafe smiled. “Sorry, off topic. Anyway, if you’d allow it,” Rafe added, with exquisite deference, with a conciliatory, respectful tone he’d never before employed, “I’d like to take Nicole to my property in Split. It’s completely secure and the moment it isn’t, I’ll see that Nicole goes home.”
Rafe took a small breath before he added, “I’ve never been with a woman for more than a few hours, so—this feels like the happiest day of my life. Ask Nicole. She says the same thing. Neither of us ever thought we’d experience the sappy, once-in-a-lifetime stuff. It’s like free-falling into a brave new world. It’s that good. Ask her, she’ll tell you.”
Dominic’s lips were pursed, but there was something different in the brilliant blue of his eyes, like maybe some test had been passed, like there might be an alternative to fuck off and no way in hell. “Sit.” Dominic pointed at a chair. “Give me a minute to make some calls.”
While the children were busy tearing boxes apart, Kate and Nicole confided in each other, as they had for years. Nicole had been instrumental in bringing Kate out of the sadness engulfing her after her miscarriage; they’d been close ever since.
“Rafe seems nice,” Kate said. “He thought of the children.”
“He is nice. That’s why I like him. Dominic thinks he’s too disreputable, but I told him he should talk. I heard what Dominic was like before he met you. And look at him now.”
“Your uncle worries about you, that’s all. He’s protective.”
Nicole rolled her eyes. “Controlling, you mean.”
Kate smiled. “Dominic likes to think he can manage the world. Not that he doesn’t do a pretty good job of it, but there are times. I understand. Oh my goodness, a doll with red hair just like yours,” Kate said, responding to Rosie’s squeal of delight. “Isn’t that lovely.”