Abruptly Cole raised his head and looked into the furious face of the man who had fathered, Lucien Delano who loomed in the doorway, his face a savage grimace. Proserpina pushed him away and stepped away, scrubbing her mouth with her fist, her eyes wild with conflicting emotions.
Cole grinned, a malevolent chuckle as he stepped back. Proserpina’s eyes misted with tears as she turned and ran out, stifling a sob. She moved past her husband and was out in the hall and running even as Lucien turned to look at Cole, his eyes narrow slits of rage.
Lucien
He faced the young man before him, his fists clenching and unclenching as he tried to control his rage. Cole grinned, sure that his father would believe him.
‘C’mon, Dad. She was turning on every man in the room, jiggling those big tits…’
He got no further.
Lucien crossed the room in two strides and reached out to grab the younger man’s shirt collar in one large fist. Then, before Cole could even comprehend what was happening, he had swung his fist and smashed the younger man’s nose. Cole let out a howl as he cupped his bleeding nose and staggered back, his eys wide in shock as the blood bubbled through his fractured nose. But the Boss was not done yet. He walked forward, fists pounding on the younger man’s face, stomach, about his head, mad with anger. He kept seeing the traumatised features of his wife as she swept past him, her lips swollen and her eyes streaming. He had forced her into this situation, had made her the victim of this ba*tard he had created.
The memory of how Cole had had his hand up her skirt, squeezing his Woman’s a*se made Lucien’s blood boil.
No man had the right to touch his Woman.
He slammed his fist into the man’s face again and heard the sickening crunch of bone, a most satisfying sound and then, two of his men were beside him and he heard Beston say, worriedly,
‘Boss, he’ll die if you keep on at it…’
The men held his arms and he took a deep breath, fighting to overcome his rage. Cole lay crumpled at his feet, clutching his face or what was left of it, blood all over his face and on the carpet. He was moaning pathetically.
‘That is My Woman and if you dare to so much as LOOK at her again, I shall kill you.’ He gave a vicious kick at the man’s ribs and felt exalted to hear the man scream. He snarled as the young man was lifted to his feet by the bodyguards.
“Get the mother f*cker out of my sight,’ he growled and the men immediately stepped forward, forcing the limp body of the younger man to move. They half lifted, half dragged him out of the room.
None of his children was about, thank the f*ck, thought Lucien as he stumbled towards the elevator, barely aware of his stinging knuckles, followed by Boris and Beston.
‘Sir, your hands,’ murmured Beston but Lucien waved him away. His battered fists could wait. He needed to get to his wife first and check on her.
*
Tara
Tara stood in the shadows of the wide stairs leading downstairs from her room to the ground floor, trembling and trying not to whimper loudly. The only brother of hers, the man who had shown some kindness to her had been Cole. And Pappa had beaten him up so badly, he could not walk.
She had come down to fetch her book which she had left in the living room. Tara loved books and she had been telling Cole about how she was into classics these days, Jane Eyre being her current favourite. He had actually seemed interested, which was more than she could say of her twin brothers and Claude who would only laugh at her!
The girl was often side-lined by her twin brothers who had enough to keep themselves absorbed to take notice of a mere girl! Tara, with her sensitive nature, was shy and introverted and preferred her own company anyway. She adored her elder siblings, Piers and Ria. The older twins made a fuss of her when they were home and Ria was always there to protect and take care of her. But things had changed; Piers was engaged to pretty Susie who was sweet but rather dumb, thought Tara. Her eldest brother still made it a point to get her a special gift when he was returning from University and knowing her love of music, Piers always made sure to get her anything she wanted; new music scores, whatever she asked for. Ria was the one who was always there to share girlie stuff with but now that she had also gone to University, Tara felt lonely.
As for her brother Claude, he had always made her the butt of his pranks when they were growing up and she avoided him as far as she could. He laughed at her piano playing and she felt embarrassed to play when he was around to taunt her.
From placing a spider in her bed when she was three years old and terrified of them, to keeping a lizard among her clothes when she was ten, he had always found great joy in tormenting her. Of course, Mumma had punished him and scolded him but he had continued until her father intervened once when it was brought to his notice.
Confronted by the scene of his near-hysterical little daughter wailing piteously when she found a small snake on her bed, His face like thunder, Lucien had hauled Claude away to his study.
The Mafia Don had seen red.
When Claude emerged, he could barely walk.
Her father had thrashed Claude but it was the kind of discipline that the young boy understood, the violent kind of punishment he required.
After that evening, Claude avoided her and she was grateful for it.
*
As they grew older, she guessed that he wanted to get closer to her but she shrank from her brother. Truth was, he scared her too with his cold grey eyes and his bulging muscles and the fact that he was a fighter in the ring, made him seem all the more fearsome.
Her beautiful, gentle mother was always there to listen to her play music, encourage her, to love and hug her but Tara was just a little scared of her formidable father although she loved, nay, adored him too.
Pappa was a gangster, a Mob Boss, she knew because the kids at school had said so. Her only friend, in school, was the serious Agnes Walters, whose father was a newspaper editor. Barry Walters also owned a newspaper too and she knew Agnes well enough to know that she would not make up such stories. Pappa had also killed people, with his own hands, Agnes had whispered, sounding terrified and shocked and more than a little awed; Agnes had confirmed it and Tara had felt her awe and her fear grow. Of course, he was Pappa and he loved all of them, especially Ria and herself and he adored Mumma. But …still, a gangster lord who killed people?
*
But right at this moment, she felt her heart breaking.
She had been on her way upstairs when she heard a man scream in pain. Pappa’s guards, Boris and Beston, were standing about, watching and she had managed to get a peek too from her vantage point on the stairs, hidden in the shadows; and then she almost screamed in shock.
Pappa was beating up Cole!!!
He was kicking him and beating him so badly, so roughly that Tara had to push her fist into her mouth to stifle her screams.
Cole lay on the floor, blood everywhere, moaning, begging Pappa to stop but her father kept on hitting and kicking him till Uncle Tony Beston rushed to him and said something.
Then Pappa kicked Cole again and stepped back, muttering under his breath. Tara shrank into the shadows and watched fearfully.
Poor Cole could not stand up on his own; two men supported him and took him outside. She saw Philippe had entered the house and she watched in horror as the big man effortlessly swung Cole across his shoulder and carried him out. The sound of a car door slamming and an engine revving up as he drove away was somehow final.
Tara stood, her knees shaking, as she watched her father walk out, swearing and flexing his fists as he strode to the elevator. He looked terrifying and Tara wondered what had made Mumma marry him.
Had he killed poor Cole, she thought in dismay, beginning to cry.
The tears coursed down her cheeks and she bit her fist to keep from sobbing as she sank onto the wide carpeted steps, hidden in the shadows.
*
Was her Pappa a bad man.
He had hurt poor Cole who had been so kind to her.
When she saw that the men had gone away, she fled up the steps, taking them two at a time. The house was dark and silent; everyone was in bed. She could see a dim light in the basement; Paddy, dear Paddy, she thought and listened as she heard the dull sound of music coming from Claude’s rooms.
Tara rushed to her bedroom and threw herself on the bed, crying her heart out.
Life was so unfair!