“I don’t want to hear about it,” Custo said, preempting any discussion.
“But you’re his son.”
“I’m his bastard,” Custo bit out. “He taught me the word himself. When I was four. When he fired my mother from his staff and kicked us out of his house.”
Annabella ignored Custo’s vise grip and craned her head over her shoulder to see if she could get another glimpse of the man. She had to have read him wrong. Someone that cruel couldn’t look so handsome, so charming.
Evan was crossing the hallway in pursuit.
“Just make your rounds so we can get out of here,” Custo said.
She couldn’t very well say anything to anyone while he was holding on to her so tightly. And besides, the little old ladies looked like they were more interested in Custo than her.
“Hear me out,” Evan said, as he caught up with them, “that’s all I ask.”
Custo ignored him, growling in her ear. “Who do you need to talk to?”
Uh…“I should probably check with Mr. Venroy again…” Annabella’s answer trailed off. She didn’t think Custo was paying attention to her anymore. Or looking out for the big bad wolf. Custo’s eyes were unfocused, fixed on a blank wall, but his expression was hard.
“I don’t have to listen to this,” Custo said. He dragged her on, leaving his father agape behind them, an arm lifted, empty palm up.
Whatever Evan had done in the past, he was obviously very sorry.
Custo was having none of it. He plowed through the crowd to the door, dragging her with him.
Custo had said that she needed to attend the reception for an hour. She’d vowed to herself to try for two. And yet, here they were leaving not twenty minutes after arrival, and it was Custo who was running away. The irony was killing her, though with the current drama unfolding, she didn’t have the nerve to point it out. Later, for sure.
She bit her lips in the elevator when Custo couldn’t get a mobile phone signal to call their driver. He was cursing when he finally connected in the lobby and hauled her out of the building to the curb to hail a cab. “I don’t care that you thought we’d be longer,” he snarled into the phone. “I needed you here now. It’s unconscionable that you would leave your post for a moment.”
Cabs rolled down the street, but none stopped at Custo’s wave.
Behind them, the door to the apartment building gasped open. Custo’s father emerged. Tenacity must have run in the family, too.
“I was wrong,” Evan said. “Even then, I knew I was wrong.” His words had a gravity decades in the making, a note of pain that only profound loss could create.
Custo kept his face turned away, arm raised. “I don’t care. Leave me alone.”
“No. I left you alone for too long, and you died.” That last little word ripped a hole in her heart. “Or at least I thought you had. If I leave you alone now, I know I’ll never see you again.”
“You made that choice a long time ago.”
A cab finally took pity on Custo, and he wrenched open the door before the car came to a full stop.
Annabella didn’t need the hard yank toward the waiting seat to know he wanted her to get in quickly. The combined smells of urine and cigarette smoke were bitter, but faint. She sidled over to make room for Custo, then leaned back toward him when he didn’t immediately get in himself.
“—you stay the hell away from her,” Custo was saying.
“Our family has been donating to the ballet since its inception. I’m not going to stop now. You’ll just have to deal with it. With me.”
“Get your hand off me.” Custo’s voice came out in a guttural rumble that had her cringing. His body jerked and he lowered himself abruptly into the cab, slamming the door.
Only Evan’s dark suit was visible through the partial obstruction of the window.
“Go!” Custo shouted at the driver, who had to wait several beats for a break in traffic.
Annabella was glad Evan kept back. In the two days since she’d known Custo, he’d been beaten, distressed, angry, but never…undone. Near frantic. How was it that this strong man, an angel, could face all sorts of monsters but not his own father?
The car nosed out to the blare of a horn, and then bullied its way into the slow stream moving toward the traffic light.
“Where to?” the driver asked.
Custo didn’t answer. His gaze hovered on the door handle, distracted. His shoulders and chest rose and fell with great, unsteady breaths. His skin, usually a very pale gold, had reddened with feeling.
Annabella sat forward. “Umm…” She had no idea where Segue was, and her place was definitely out of the question. She never wanted to go back there again. The wolf could find her anywhere, eventually, so why not…
“A hotel,” she said. Give Custo some space to breathe and get a grip on himself.
The cabdriver scowled. “Which one?”
Her credit card had about $300 left on it. Her bank account had half that. “Somewhere inexpensive, but close.”
In the corner of her eye she saw Custo shift. “Scratch that. East Thirteenth Street and Broadway.”
“Where are we going?” Annabella ventured, sitting back.
“Nowhere,” Custo answered. “I’m sorry about your party.” His voice had mellowed, but he still wouldn’t look at her.
“I didn’t want to go anyway.” Not the time to needle him about their length of stay. She needed him back in the present, ready to face whatever came out of the shadows. If the wolf were looking for a weak moment, this was it. Anna-bella glanced around nervously.
Custo shook his head. “You should be there.”
“Yeah, well, I prefer to remain dramatically mysterious. I don’t think my rep will suffer; the other dancers already think I’m a diva.”
That got a wry, sidelong glance. “Diva?”
“I am very dedicated to my craft. Maybe too dedicated.”
“I noticed,” he said. “A little more balance might be in order.”
Annabella let him change the subject for the moment. “Doesn’t work that way.”
“I imagine not,” he said, then fell silent again.
She chewed a lip wondering how to help him. Passing street lamps were a slowly modulating strobe of sharp light, dazzling her eyes. “I don’t want to meddle, but”—she took a deep breath—“seems to me like you have some family history that needs to be resolved.”
Custo’s expression turned sick. “Don’t go there. My head is still full of him; I don’t think I can take much more.”
Annabella waited a beat, considering. No, it was too important. She knew from personal experience. “It’s just that…It’s your dad. Mine ran out on us a long, long time ago, but I’d give anything to sit down for coffee with him. I’ve been fantasizing about it since I was a kid.”
He shook his head in denial. “I spent a lot of wasted time growing up imagining a happy future with my father. The kind of life that Adam had with his family.”
“Seems like you have another chance now.”
“I don’t want it.” His voice was rough. “And I don’t want him meddling in your life either.”
She shrugged. “I don’t even know him.”
Custo strained toward her. “He’s going to find out everything he can about you. He’s going to give your company more money. He’s going to use all his influence to surround your life. He’s going to try to talk to you to get to me.” He swallowed hard. “Promise me you won’t have anything to do with him.”
“Why would I?” Though it wasn’t like she could tell the company to give back the man’s money.
“When he calls you tomorrow, promise me you’ll hang up on him.”
Custo was trying to save her from the Shadow wolf. Her side wasn’t hard to pick. “Okay, fine. I’ll hang up or whatever if he tries to get in touch with me.”