Vincent smiled. “You will need to make arrangements to visit once the babies are old enough to travel. I am sure that will go a long way toward making up for being an ass to your beloved.”
I nodded absently but then picked up on what Vincent had just said, and I glared at him. “Abel has forgiven me. I have more than made up for not opening myself up to him completely. There were many long discussions, but he knows why I withheld part of myself to protect him from my past.”
“I do not believe I want to find my beloved,” Nicolo said.
“You do; you just don’t realize it yet. Nik spent a very long time watching his with another man, and although he is now immensely happy, I do not wish what he went through on anyone,” Vincent said.
“That was a different situation though. Nik had met his beloved.”
Vincent stared at me. “Yes. Same as you. There was no way I was going to allow something such as that to happen again if I could change things. You have Abel,” Vincent said. “And I am certain that you will find your beloved when the time is right,” he said to Nicolo. Vincent turned his attention back to me. “If you wish, I will take care of Uriah for you. I understand that you have every right to have restitution for your beloved, and it’s possible that Abel will see it as that and not something else. But if you are concerned, I will deal with him.”
I had thought about that very thing since Naldo and Vincent had returned with Uriah. How would Abel react to me killing his own father? It would be different if it was simply the men who had raped him, but this was his father.
“There is indecision in your expression,” Nicolo said.
I nodded slowly. “Two months ago, I wouldn’t even have waited a day before dealing with him. Abel would have never known because he didn’t know I existed.”
“Yes, but two months ago, you were unaware that it was his father who had sold him,” Vincent said.
“True. At a minimum, I want to be there and see his final moments. I want him to know that his son was rescued, that he lives a life of luxury and is treasured more than he would have ever imagined.”
“We can make sure that happens,” Vincent told me. I thought about it a moment before nodding in agreement. I took a bite of my food, which had cooled considerably, and listened absently as Vincent and Nicolo started discussing something to do with the Pisano family. That caught my attention.
“What’s happening with the Pisano family?” I asked.
“Not much of late,” Vincent said. “Dino has started selling off warehouses as well as ships.”
That certainly caught my attention. Then again, he was too old to start another family; Aldo had been his only surviving child, and he hadn’t ever managed to have children of his own. Of course, that was difficult when you liked to stick your dick into men who weren’t omegas and you yourself were human.
“Do you believe he is leaving the area?” I asked.
“We are looking into that, as well as other possibilities and new opportunities,” Vincent said.
It was the last part of that comment that caught my attention. I set that aside to ask about later and ate my meal in silence. I knew that my own internal dilemma was because having Abelin my life had changed me to a certain extent. Everything I did affected him.
“Are you ready?” Vincent asked after some time. I looked around and saw that they were both finished, and I had been sitting there while staring off into space. A glance at my own plate showed that I’d absently eaten my food. I shook my head at myself.
“I am,” I said as I stood. I took my dirty dishes and placed them in the bin on the other sideboard, then followed the others to the door.
“Did we miss breakfast?” Dario asked as he and Carmelo came in.
“No. We were just here earlier,” Nicolo answered. “We have somewhere to be.”
“Do you need help?” Carmelo asked.
“No,” Vincent said. “The three of us will be dealing with this situation personally.”
Carmelo and Dario glanced at one another, and then Dario spoke up. “If you need my assistance later, I have nothing going on.”
I chuckled at that. Dario was one of our cleaners, and he’d not been overly busy as of late. I checked in with Abel, and although he wasn’t as deeply asleep any longer, he was still very much asleep, and I was going on the thought of taking care of business and asking for forgiveness later.
We left the villa, and as Nicolo slid behind the wheel of the car, Vincent and I both got into the back.
“If you decide you want me to deal with it, I won’t think less of you,” Vincent said.
I looked over at my longtime friend. “I appreciate that.” I thought about things for a moment and shook my head. “I’m leaning toward doing things myself. It’s personal for me, and I really want him to pay for the pain he put his son through.”
“Understood.”
