Page 105 of Volatile Vice

“That may or may not be, but for now, Vinnie, we had a deal.” He grits his teeth. “Tell me who shot that cop, because I know it wasn’t my son.”

I don’t know Austin Bellamy well yet, but I do know that he will protect his children.

As long as it serves his own interests.

I believe he could have kept Falcon out of prison, which is why I’m not going to level with him now.

I open my mouth to say as much when my phone buzzes.

It’s Raven.

“I’m so sorry, I have to take this.”

I stand and walk out of earshot from Austin.

“Raven?” I say into the phone.

“Vinnie, I know you don’t want to hear from me, but I’m afraid you’re going to have to.”

“Is my mother okay?”

“Yes, she’s fine. Savannah’s in with her. And your grandfather is still here. But your mother has some other visitors.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. Declan McAllister, and his daughter.”

Shit. “Raven, you know?—”

“That’s not what this is about, Vinnie. I know you’re not going to marry her. Or maybe you will someday. Who knows? My concern isn’t about that. It’s for the little girl. I think her father is… He’s hurting her, Vinnie.”

Fuck. Belinda must be getting desperate if she told Raven—a stranger—what’s going on. “What makes you think that?”

“I offered to take her to get a drink while her father talked to your grandfather and went to see your mother.”

“I don’t want that degenerate anywhere near my mother.”

“Yeah, I can understand that. Anyway, she was so timid, and frankly I was surprised he let her go with Jared and me. But he did, and she didn’t want to go back to him. She wanted to hang out with me for a little while. She didn’t talk much at first, just told me how much she likes playing the piano.”

I sigh. “I know about this, Raven. I’m trying to figure out how to deal with it.”

“You know?”

“Yes. I had lunch with McAllister and his daughter a couple days ago. She slipped me a note asking for help. And then I talked to the nanny later and she told me about her father hurting her.”

“What are you doing about it?”

“I haven’t been able to do anything about it. I’m supposed to be in Colombia right now. And once my mother’s out of danger, I know my grandfather’s going to want me back on that plane.”

“You can’t get on the plane, Vinnie.”

“Raven, I’m not going to have a choice.”

“This is the woman you’re supposed to marry.” Her voice is pleading. “You can’t just let her stay in harm’s way.”

“First of all, Raven, she’s not a woman. She’s a little girl. And I’m not going to marry her. I hate this as much as you do. But there’s one thing I know about this family that I’ve been so fortunate enough to be born into,” I say sarcastically. “He may be hurting her, but he’ll make sure she stays a virgin. That’s part of the deal.”

“Great, so he’s not fucking her. There are a lot of other things he could be doing to her.”