Chapter Five

Claire

I swear the second those kind eyes landed on my face, the dams burst, and the tears flooded down my face.

"I need help," I said, voice thick with a mix of fear and relief.

Aurelio's gorgeous eyes slid from me, down to my arms, where Judah was waking up with the way my chest was heaving with my silent sobs.

It was complete understanding in his eyes as he looked back up at me.

Like all the pieces clicked together for him.

Me in the car, cuffed, captive, refusing to let him save me.

Because I didn't have my baby with me.

"Come in," he said, stepping aside as I shifted Judah up, my arms screaming and shaky, but knowing I couldn't put him down yet.

The inside of the house was, put plainly, gorgeous.

Welcoming.

And, what's more, there was very little harsh white to be found.

The floors were a light wash that made the space in the entryway feel airy. There was a center staircase then a living room to the left, the walls painted a dark gray, but thanks to the light streaming through the windows, it wasn't dark and depressing.

To the right was a dining room dominated by a massive table. The walls in there were a lighter gray, allowing the spaces to flow together without being too matchy-matchy.

"Come on. Let's get you off your feet, angel," Aurelio said, leading me past the staircase, past a much larger family room with a fireplace and tons of sectional seating, and into the kitchen.

There was a little white in there in the form of the white quartz countertops. But the cabinets were a shade of gray that allowed the appliances to blend right in.

The space was dominated by a massive island, but there was a small table and chair set over toward windows that overlooked the backyard.

Aurelio led me to the table, and my arms practically wept in relief as I was able to set Judah on my lap.

"I'm sorry, but… but can you get him something to eat?" I asked, wiping at my tears, but they were immediately replaced with fresh ones. "Anything. We… we left before I could feed him. It's been hours."

"Yes, of course," Aurelio said, turning and making his way right to his fridge, reaching inside, and pulling out a Greek yogurt, then grabbing a spoon and bringing it to me. "Get him started with this while I make something more filling."

"This is fine," I said, not wanting to ask for too much. Especially since I wasn't done asking for favors.

"Angel, he's hungry. I've got food," he said, shaking his head, and making his way back to the fridge, pulling out a carton of eggs, milk, and butter, then starting to gather the cooking supplies.

Eventually, he brought over a cup of milk for Judah to sip, and a cup of coffee for me, silently leaving milk and sugar to add per my preferences, then turning back to make the eggs. And English muffins. And a side of apple slices.

When he brought the plates, yes plates, over to the table, I felt more tears start to flow.

"I'm sorry," I said, trying to swat them away.

"You don't need to apologize. Here, let me help him, so you can eat too," he offered, reaching for Judah, but waiting for me to hand him over before taking him.

Judah, unaccustomed to men as a whole, looked curiously at him, then reached up to rub at his stubble.

"His name is Judah," I said as I lifted my light and sweet coffee to my lips. "He's two and a half."

"He's Warren's?" he asked, Warren's name having a bite on his lips, and I suddenly wondered if my warning had been pointless, if he had lost some of his men in the deal.

"He's mine," I said, chin lifting.

"He has your eyes," Aurelio said as he raised a fork toward Judah's mouth.

He was still busy playing with Aurelio's stubble, but he opened his mouth for the fluffy scrambled eggs.

"Yeah," I agreed, finding I was suddenly starving myself, and reaching for my own fork, seeing that Judah was clearly in the hands of someone who knew their way around child care.

My heart sank at the idea of a woman in this house, of children between them.

But, no, there was no ring on his finger. There were no signs of kids anywhere.

Not that it should matter to me anyway, I reminded myself.

"What's your name, angel?" he asked as he handed Judah an apple slice.

"Claire," I told him, watching as those eyes of his land on me.

"You got yourself free," he said.

"Yes," I agreed, nodding. "I guess I can thank whoever shot Warren for that," I added.

"That would be me," he said, voice calm.

"Thank you," I said, meaning it. "He had a meeting because of it. And… and there was a grocery delivery van… and I just… took Judah and ran."

"Good for you," he said as I started to eat. "How far did you walk?" he asked, glancing down at my filthy socks.

Oh, God.

I'd probably tracked dirt all over his lovely floors.

"Oh," I said, wincing. "I'll clean the floor," I said as I noticed some mud tracked on the kitchen floor. Mixed with something else, something kind of red-colored.

"No, you won't. But you are going to need to let me clean the cuts on your feet."

The cuts?

Oh.

My gaze went back to the marks on the floor, knowing what the red was. Blood. My blood.

I hadn't even been aware of them.

Not until right then.

I guess the survival instinct had dulled it for me, but now that I was—for the moment—safe, the pain was a burning and throbbing sensation. Cuts. And maybe blisters.

Still, a small price to pay for freedom.

"I can clean them," I insisted.

He didn't argue with that, focusing instead on trying to get Judah to eat some of the buttered English muffin.

"How far was the walk?" he asked again.

"Two and a half hours, the directions said. But I'm not sure how long it took. It could have been half the time or double it. It was just a blur of aching arms and crying, hope and guilt.

A sad look crossed Aurelio's face, but he didn't say anything. Which I appreciated. I was a mess enough. Any more kindness from him was going to open the floodgates again.

Eventually, Judah became difficult, prompting Aurelio to start doing the whole airplane trick with the fork.

Somehow, that small, sweet little gesture had my heart squeezing in my chest.

"You're good with him."

"There's a lot of kids in my family," he said.

Was it just me, or was there something wistful in his voice when he said that? Like maybe he wanted some of his own.

Not, I imagined, to just carry on his ‘empire,' the way Warren wanted a child, though.

"I can take him," I insisted as he set Judah down on the floor.

"He's okay. There's nothing he can get into. Believe me, if there was, one of my nieces or nephews would have found it and broken it," he added as Judah moved around the kitchen, tugging at drawers, but finding them locked.

Aurelio stood, but only to move to the doorway into the living room, and pulling some sort of built-in child gate out of the doorway itself. Like a pocket door, but only half of it. Then he walked toward the opening of the dining room and did the same.

"That's incredibly handy," I said, watching as Judah ran toward them, but couldn't make them budge.

"When I renovated, I had future children in mind," Aurelio admitted as he ducked into a cabinet, and produced a bunch of plastic cups in a container, and set them on the floor for Judah to play with before joining me again.

Was this man real?

Gorgeous.

Kind.

Knowledgeable about and good with kids.

He seemed like a dream come to life.

"I'm just going to grab the first aid kit and some supplies," he said, making his way out of the room, and allowing me to close my eyes and let out a deep breath while I reached across the table to snag some of Judah's leftover eggs.

I was suddenly ravenous.

And after months, maybe years, of feeling too nauseated to enjoy food, it felt good to actually enjoy eating.

I finished not only my eggs and English muffin, but Judah's as well.

I was picking at his apple slices as Aurelio came back into the room, pulling his chair in front of mine, setting the kit on the table, then reaching down for my leg, but looking up at me for permission before he touched me.

He'd filled a small basin, and slipped on gloves before lowering my foot into the lukewarm water, allowing the dirt and dried blood to wash away.

Again, I felt the tears prick, but fought them back as he carefully lifted my leg, then lowered it onto the towel on his lap, carefully drying it, and making me grit my teeth to keep from crying out.

"Is it bad?" I asked as he inspected my sole.

"The cuts aren't too bad," he told me. "But these blisters are going to feel awful for a few days. Even just the brush of his gloved finger over the pad beneath my toes where the blisters were located made me hiss out a breath.

He carefully went about spritzing on some numbing spray, wiping gently, then slathering on ointment before placing some large bandages over the cuts.

The second foot was a bit better.

When he was done, though, I didn't immediately pull my foot back, and his hand rested on my ankle where it was perched on his thigh.

On the floor, Judah was clapping plastic cups together, happy with his new toys, and completely ignoring us.

"Do you have family you want to reach out to?" he asked as he removed the gloves, and started to clean up.

"I don't… we don't have anyone," I admitted.

I'd never had a father. I mean, yeah, there was a man out there somewhere carrying my DNA, but I'd never met him. I didn't even know if he knew I existed.

My mom had been my only family growing up.

But she'd passed in a car crash the year before I met Warren.

I wondered, had she lived, if she would have saved me from my fate with him. If she would have seen the evil in him. If she would have been a safe place for me to run the first time he put his hands on me.

I knew she would have.

My mother had a knack for seeing beneath the surface charm in people. She used to try to explain it to me, a gullible little girl, so easily swayed by a kind word or empty promises.

"Oh, my sweet girl," she'd told me one night as I sobbed on the couch because some boy at school told me he'd take me to the school dance, but then took someone else. It never occurred to me that it could be a prank, that people could be so deliberately cruel.

Looking back, with much more cynical eyes Warren had forced me to look through, I could see why it had been so painfully obvious to her that it had been something his cruel buddies put him up to.

At that point, he was the hottest guy in school. You know the type. The ones who seemed to grow up faster than the other boys, get taller, stronger, more chiseled in the face. With the easy cockiness that came with knowing all the girls' gazes lingered when he passed.

And me?

God. I was going through that painfully awkward phase most girls have somewhere in their teens. When their skin is a mess, their hair is greasy an hour after washing it, all gangly and flat-chested, flat-assed.

Of course, it didn't help that I also had the most atrocious sense of style.

There was no way a boy like that took a girl like I'd been to prom.

At the time, though, I'd believed him. I trusted him to be honest and kind.

Much like I'd done with Warren.

In all honesty, I could blame less of that to naiveté and a lot more to loneliness. I'd gone a whole year all by myself. No one there for Christmas or Thanksgiving. No one to bring me a cake and sing me Happy Birthday.

Then there was suddenly a man, gorgeous, interested, wanting to give me all of his time.

Now, sure, I could see it for what it was.

Love-bombing.

Roping me in.

Until I was too tangled up to free myself.

Even when the abuse started.

It wasn't until I woke up on the bathroom floor, face throbbing, bruised, broken, that I finally walked out of his life.

Well, not walked.

He wouldn't have let me go.

But I… found a way out.

Then the stick told me that, no matter what, some part of me would forever be linked to Warren.

"Hey," Aurelio said, voice soft, dragging me out of my thoughts. "You have me," he said.

I sniffled as I fought back yet another wave of emotion, because I never thought I would hear those words again. That I could believe them.

Everything about Aurelio Grassi, though, seemed to suggest that I could trust him.

"I am not asking for much. I just… I needed somewhere to think. And get Judah some food. Once I—"

"Stop," he interrupted me. "There's no clock on this. You need a place to stay. I've got extra rooms. Take as long as you need to figure out what you want to do next."

"You don't even know me," I insisted.

"You didn't even know me, but you risked yourself to warn me about the ambush," he said, shrugging. "Think of this as me trying to return the favor. It's not pity," he added. "It's payback. One good favor for another."

"This is a lot more intrusive than me just giving you a quick heads-up in the parking lot."

"Neither of us could know what might have happened if you hadn't delayed me by a couple of minutes. If I would have been face-to-face with a gun before I realized it was a trap. Me, my cousins, and my men could be dead right now if not for you. Giving you and your son a place to crash and regroup is nothing compared to that."

When he put it that way, I guess I could understand why he was so willing to help.

"Can I ask you something, though?"

"Of course."

"Is Warren going to come for you?"

I took a slow, deep breath.

"No," I told him. I believed that to my core. "But he will come for Judah." I watched as Aurelio's gaze slid to my son, then back to me. "If not for my convincing him that a baby his age still needs his mother, I'd be dead."

"Why?"

"Because I dared to leave him. To keep my pregnancy and delivery from him. Warren has this obsession with bloodlines and having an heir to his empire. It's why I had to run," I said, looking over at Judah who was making noises into the cup and giggling at the echo. "I knew he would take Judah from me eventually. Then turn him into a monster like his father."

To that, Aurelio nodded.

"I think then, for a while at least, that you two just… shouldn't leave the house. If he's that serious about his lineage, there's good reason to believe his men will be scouring the entire state looking for your son."

I liked how he said that.

Your son.

Not ‘his' son.

"Yeah," I agreed. "I'm honestly a little paranoid about even being near a window," I admitted.

"Well, you don't have to worry about that, at least," he said, waving toward the windows at our side. "They're mirrored. In the daytime, no one can see inside. And the backyard is safe too. There's a stockade fence and then lines of evergreens that stretch a few feet above that."

Maybe it should have felt like trading one prison for another. But the difference here was, Aurelio was offering us safety. Not bars to keep us in, but to keep others out.

"Shit," he said when his phone buzzed on the counter. "Sorry," he added, wincing over at Judah.

He went to his phone, his face getting tenser as he read.

Then, with a deep sigh, he tucked the phone in his pocket, then found a notepad and pen, and brought it to me.

"What's this for?"

"I need a list of what you are going to need while you're here," he said. "Sizes. For you and Judah. Obviously, he needs a crib. Some toys. Books. But if there's anything else I'm not thinking of, write it down. Big or small. And food. I always have food here, but if he has any preferences that I don't have…"

"This is too much," I said, my mind spinning with just how much we would actually need if we were staying more than a day or two. And how much that would all cost.

It was different with Warren.

I picked out and demanded tons of stuff for Judah, things he didn't even need, out of spite. Wanting to make him hurt a little, even if it was just in his pockets.

To that, Aurelio sat and thought for a second, likely knowing that a basic assurance that it was no big deal wouldn't set my mind at ease.

Finally, he looked back at me and said, "Let's put it this way. Because of you, a deal that would have made me a hundred or so grand richer has now made me almost four hundred grand richer. You deserve to spend a chunk of that windfall, don't you think?"

Well, when he put it that way, I did feel a lot less guilty about it.

"Okay," I said, nodding.

"Okay. Here," he said, taking the pen, and jotting his number down on it.

"Oh, uh, I don't have a phone," I said.

I'd gotten so accustomed to that over the past two years. It was hard to believe I used to be so attached to mine.

"I have that covered," he said. "Give me one second," he added, then made his way out of the room.

"Can we clean up, buddy?" I asked when Judah abandoned the toys, and came over to me. "Like the little kitten book?" I added, knowing he loved that one where the kittens learned to clean up all their toys after they got so piled up that there was no room to even play anymore.

Judah pouted but went over to his cups, getting lost in them again, and forgetting all about cleaning up.

Aurelio came back, ripping open a box, pulling out the contents, checking the interior of said box, then handing it to Judah, who took it eagerly, using it to start stacking with.

"Alright, phone is covered," he said, placing the phone down on the table next to a card with what seemed like a lot of minutes on it. "You just have to add the minutes," he added, reaching for his own phone, and jotting down my new phone number.

It was a burner phone, of course.

Warren and his men used and tossed them all the time.

But this was a nice one. Looking similar to the expensive-seeming phone Aurelio was holding. Access to the internet and everything I might need to try to figure out my next moves.

A lifeline to the whole world, that was what a phone was.

"So once you set it up, snap a picture of your list, and send it to me. I will get it all handled before I come home. I have a…meeting today. But it won't be more than an hour, and I can focus on getting you guys what you need."

"Thank you," I said, feeling a little dazed.

"The house is full of supplies. Use however much you need. There are four guest rooms upstairs. Pick whichever one or two you guys want. Each should have all the usual basic care shi—stuff stocked to get you through until I get back. You with me?" he asked as I sat there just staring at the phone.

I don't know where the urge came from.

But the next thing I knew, I was leaping out of my chair, painful feet be damned, and throwing my arms around this man.

"Thank you," I half-sobbed into his suit jacket as his arms, a bit unsure at first, went around me, then started to squeeze. Like he knew how close I was to falling apart, and how much I needed him to hold me together.

"Everything's going to be alright, angel," he told me, squeezing me tighter still. "You did the right thing," he added, and, God, I needed to hear those words. "And we're gonna figure all this out."

Still sniffling, I pulled back.

A little embarrassed, it took me a second to glance up at him. To find him already watching me with those warm brown eyes.

"I can't imagine how scary this is for you," he went on. "But you are a hell of a mom, Claire."

Good Lord.

The man was intent on making me cry, it seemed.

Admittedly, yeah, my emotions were all over the place. But still.

It was like he knew how badly I needed to hear those words, how much Warren had emotionally beaten me down over the years, had made me constantly question myself and my mothering.

"Thank you," I said. His phone started to buzz in his pocket again. "You need to go," I said.

"Yeah," he said as we finally broke apart.

I didn't expect the disappointment as we moved away from each other, how much I wanted to walk right back into his arms.

It was good he was leaving.

Clearly, I needed to pull myself together a little bit.

"Send me the list, okay?" he asked, heading toward the gate. "Do you want me to set the security system, or would you prefer I didn't?" he asked.

Like he knew it might feel like another prison if he did.

But if this was a prison, it was one I wouldn't mind being trapped in.

"Set it," I said, thinking the added layer of protection would give me some peace of mind. I had no intentions of going anywhere anyway.

"Okay. I'll be back in a few hours," he told me before heading out.

And, oddly, I was looking forward to it.