by Mae Doyle
“I didn’t know he was going to do that! I didn’t! I stopped him!” She leans up and reaches for me, but I take a step back. “Honestly, Arlo, do you think that I would have asked him to do some shit like that? Do you think that I would have…killed him if I had?” Her voice breaks and I feel a jolt of pity through my body, but I push it away.
“Your fucking brother almost killed me, Hannah. If you hadn’t been there then I don’t know what would have happened. Fuck, I do know. I’d be in the fucking ground, not him. Is that what you want?”
What she says now will decide her fate, but I don’t think she has any idea that things are that serious. She still looks like she’s about to cry. I fucking hate it when broads cry.
“I would do it again.” Her voice is quiet, and at first, I think that I haven’t heard her correctly. She’d do it again? She’d kill her fucking brother for me again? That doesn’t make any sense.
I need to know the truth of whether or not she really wants this and if I can trust her. “Well, you don’t have to make that decision again ever, sweetheart. Your brother voided the contract. You’re free to go.”
Her eyes do just what I wished that they wouldn’t. They light up and I feel a strange squeezing in my chest. I thought that I’d be okay with this broad walking out the door. Maybe I would be, but I’m not sure that I’m okay with putting her in the ground.
“I can leave?” There’s a hint of hope in her voice. Fuck. She’s going to try to leave this room and Roque is going to be waiting in the hall for her with a syringe. The only good thing is that she’ll never know what was coming. She’ll feel a tiny prick and then that’s it.
That’s the blessing here. She won’t be in any pain any longer.
“You’re free to go.” I step to the side and gesture at the door to make my point even though both of us know that she can’t very well get up and walk out right now. She glances to the door and then back at me as if she’s trying to decide whether or not this is a joke.
Or a trick.
“What if I don’t think I want to? What would you say if I told you that I thought I wanted to stay here? With you, I mean, not in Ma and Pops’ house.” I can’t help but think that she’s kidding, but the look on her face is serious.
“You want to stay with me? You still want to get married?” Without thinking about what I’m doing, I sit down on the edge of the bed and loop my arm around her to pull her closer to me. “Why in the hell would you do that if you can just walk away? You can be free from us, go back to your old life in Colorado.”
God knows I’ve heard her talk about her time in Colorado enough to know that that’s where she really wants to be, not stuck here with me. With the mafia, as she has told me time and time again.
“Things change.” She struggles to sit up but I have my arm so snug around her that she can’t pull away. I don’t want to loosen up and let her go. I have to hear what she’s saying.
“What could have possibly changed this much? If I remember correctly, the first time that we met, you were about ready to jump off a bridge rather than marry me.”
“That was the second time we met,” she corrects me, “but I promise you, things have changed. Okay? You just have to believe me.”
I bark out a laugh. “Your brother tried to kill me and you want me to believe you? I might as well tie you down to the bed and just fuck you all day. It’s the only way that I’m ever going to be comfortable with you being with me. There’s no way that I can believe that you won’t try to walk out when you have the first chance.”
“I won’t!” Now she does struggle away from me. She can’t scoot very far, thanks to the fucking pillow cave she made herself, but she turns so that she’s looking up into my face. “I won’t leave you! Why won’t you believe me?”
“Because you’re a broad. Because you don’t really want to be with me. Because I terrify you, right?” Without thinking, I reach out and grab her perfect little throat, spinning her around to pin her on her back on the bed. She thrashes against me, her fingernails raking my arm and wrist, but I don’t let her go.
“Fucking hell, Arlo, are you this damn stupid?” She stops struggling against me and gasps a little for air. I loosen my grip, but only a little. Just enough to hear what the fuck she thinks can possibly change my mind and suddenly make me trust her.
Fuck, I want this to work. I want to trust Hannah. I want to bury myself in her perfect little cunt day after day, but she’s a broad. You don’t trust broads.
“Jesus, Arlo. I’m pregnant.”
My breath leaves my body in a whoosh and I immediately let go of her throat. There’s no fucking way that she just said what I think she did.
She doesn’t love me. She can’t be carrying my child.
I can only imagine what Pops is going to say now.
Chapter 21
Arlo
“Aren’t you going to say something?” Hannah looks terrified, honestly absolutely terrified of what I’m going to say or do, and I can’t say that I blame her. Just a few moments ago I had my hand wrapped around her throat.
Fuck, it felt good to feel her squirm under me while I squeezed.
“You’re lying.” She’s a broad. As much as I can feel myself starting to care for Hannah, I have to remind myself that she’s just a broad. Broads lie. They know how to get themselves out of problems and are willing to do whatever it takes to survive. I’m not mad at her about it. It just is what it is.
She shakes her head, her eyes locked on me. “Not lying, Arlo. I promise you, I wouldn’t lie about this. I’m pregnant, and you’re the dad. We’re going to have a baby.” My eyes flicker to her stomach as she spreads her fingers across it.
A baby.
I was supposed to make her mine, to get her pregnant, and make sure that she was carrying my seed so that we could be sure there wouldn’t be any problems with the contract, and I did it. I’m just too late.
It doesn’t matter now. I already told her that she could leave here, but now if she does, she won’t be the only one who dies as soon as she steps foot out of the door.
My hands clench into fists. I don’t want to think about the drugs in the syringe stopping two hearts today, but I tell her what will happen to her if she leaves then I know she’ll want to stay here. It’s the right thing to do, just to keep herself alive.
“How long have you known?” If she is pregnant – and that’s a big fucking if – then I want to know everything.
She visibly relaxes, like she’s glad that I’m starting to see reason. “I thought that I was the other day when my period didn’t come. I haven’t taken a test yet to be sure, but I just know. I know, Arlo, I promise. I don’t think that I could ever be wrong about something like this.”
But broads are wrong about this shit all the time. I know that, and I’m sure that she does, too. There’s no way for me to believe her completely until she takes a test. Only when I see that fucking pink line for myself can I know for sure that she’s not trying to pull some shit on me.
I scoff at her and immediately see the hurt look on her face.
“Then I guess we know what we need to do. That is, of course, if you want to stay here with me. You can still leave, Hannah, the door’s right there.” I gesture behind me at the closed bedroom door but I don’t take my eyes off of her.
“And what would happen then?”
My heart stops for a fucking second. Does she know that she’ll die if she opens that door? Before I can ask her, however, she continues.
“Would you want us in your life? Would you still want to be the father to your baby? I just…family is so important, Arlo. Fuck, you of all people know that. You and your family are so close and I just…I guess that I’ve always wanted that.” A single tear runs down her cheek and I take a step to wipe it from her, but I stop myself.
“You’re close with your family,” I counter, but then I think about it. She just shot her brother. Her parents sold her off into a marriage so that they could loo
k after their own business interests.
She stares at me while I figure it out. “I’m not, though, Arlo. I don’t think that my parents ever really wanted me because I didn’t want anything to do with the family business. Kinda ironic that now you and I are together, isn’t it?”
Together?
This broad has gone off her rocker. As much as part of me likes the idea of being with her, I have to make sure she’s not lying.
“We’re not together. And you’re not pregnant, at least not until we can prove it.” I turn to the door, crossing the room quickly, but pause to look back at her before I leave the room. “You can still leave if you want, but if you do, I never want to see you again.”
She nods and sucks in a sob, but I don’t have time for her shit. Even though I want to believe her that she’s pregnant with my child, I have to get proof. I have to know for sure if she’s lying to me.
Roque must have heard everything from his place in the hall. “You okay there, man?” He asks, clapping a hand on my shoulder as we walk away from the room. Neither one of us lock the door from the outside. The deadbolts are all open, which means that Hannah can easily leave if she wants to. She won’t get far, there’s too many of us in the house right now waiting on her to make up her fucking mind.
“I will be as soon as I find out if she’s lying to me.” Turning to Roque, I consider my options. The last thing that I want to do is go buying a fucking pee test at the store.
He reads the look on my face. “I’ll send Eva,” he tells me. “She won’t mind. You just wait here and she’ll be back as soon as possible so that you can get your answer.”
He heads to the living room to find his wife and I walk straight to the dining room. As soon as I slip back into my place besides Pops, he passes me a glass and the bottle of whiskey.
“What’s her decision?” Pops does an incredible job sounding bored even though I know that he’s dying to know exactly what’s going on and how it’s going to affect him.
The whiskey slides smoothly down my throat before I answer. “She thinks she’s pregnant,” I tell him, pouring us each another glass.
“That may be the thing that saves her,” he tells me, gently clinking my glass with his. “But until we know for sure, drink up.”
Fuck. I have no idea how long it takes to buy a pregnancy test, but I’m going to sit here on my ass until Eva gets back. There’s nothing waiting for me in the bedroom right now, at least not until I know for sure if she’s lying.
I swear to god, I’ll kill her myself if she’s lying to me about being pregnant.
And if she’s not? Fuck. Then I’ll have to decide what to do with her.
And the baby.
***
“Sorry, the traffic was crazy!” Eva bursts into the dining room and drops the little pink box in my lap before turning and sweeping back out. She’s efficient, which is just one of the things that I like about her. My brother definitely could have done worse.
Dread grows in my stomach when I walk into the room to give the box to Hannah. I know that she has to pee on it, and I also know that she can’t walk right now, so before she can protest, I lift her up and carry her down the hall to the bathroom.
I drop her in front of the toilet and walk to the door, leaning against it with my arms crossed on my chest. She pulls herself up to the toilet and perches on the edge, staring at me.
“You just going to watch?”
I roll my eyes. “I want to make sure that you don’t try to do anything stupid like fake a positive test.”
A laugh bursts out of her and she quickly clamps her hand over her mouth to hold it in. “You’ve got to be kidding, right, Arlo? You think I have some contraband piss on me somewhere?”
When I don’t answer, she slams the test down on the bathroom counter next to her and shimmies off her pants and underwear. She’s angry when she rips into the box and throws the package into the trash.
“Don’t you need to read the instructions? I thought that this would be your first test since you said that you’re a virgin?”
She glares at me. “I am a virgin, asshole. It’s a pee test, so I’m pretty sure that I can handle it without having to follow step-by-step instructions. Feel free to read along while I do it, though, if that makes you feel better.”
When I don’t move, she uncaps the test and I hear the flow of her urine. Satisfied, she caps it and sets it back on the counter, slowly pulling her clothes back up.
I should help her. I’m watching her, and I know that I should go to her and help her get dressed, but I don’t want to. The thought that she may be lying about being pregnant just to get out of dying pisses me off.
Although, does she know that walking through the door would result in her death? I stare at her while she dresses, sucking in hisses of air when she puts too much weight on her feet. Chances are good that she doesn’t, but she’s much smarter than I’d given her credit for.
“What do we do now? How long until we wait?” I’m curious, but not curious enough to go and pull the trash from the bin or pick up the test and look at it.
She answers me without looking up at me. “It takes about three minutes and then you’ll see the line in the second window. You know, I’m surprised that you haven’t knocked up a girl before this.”
It’s meant to sting, and it does, but I do my best to ignore her. She’s hurt and pissed, but that doesn’t mean that I have to respond to her.
We wait. I stare at her, but she’s found a spot on the floor that must be interesting, because she can’t take her eyes off of it. Finally, she sighs and twists, grabbing the test and holding it up to look at it.
“Well?” I know that I shouldn’t be falling all over myself to find out the truth of what’s on the test, but I can’t help myself. There’s just something about Hannah that’s addictive. She got under my skin, and no matter what I do or how hard I try, I can’t seem to get her back out. I don’t know if I’m ever going to be able to get her out, but knowing the truth about this will help, one way or the other.
But I swear, if she’s fucking with me…
“Told you.” She waves the test in my direction and I step forward, grabbing it from her. It takes me a moment of turning it around to tell what it says, but as soon as I see it, I know that there’s no way I could mistake what it’s telling me.
There’s a bright pink line in the first window and another in the second, just like she said.
“Congratulations, Daddy,” she tells me, but she doesn’t sound very happy about it.
I flick the test into the trash and walk to her, quickly picking her up and pinning her against my chest. She didn’t lie, and if she’s really going to stay with me, then I want to make this work. I’ve never really loved a broad, not like I feel about Hannah, but I’m pretty sure that I can handle it.
“So what’s your decision?” We leave the bathroom and I carry her down the hall. We can stop in the bedroom and Roque will take care of her there, or I can take her to family dinner.
Her stomach rumbles and she laughs a little. “I told you, Arlo, I’m staying with you. Why won’t you listen to me? Is there something that you’re worried about? Because I know that I’ll be a good mom.”
Fuck yeah, there are things that I’m worried about.
I’m worried about whether or not the family will really accept her the way that I need them to.
I’m worried about being a dad.
But mostly I’m worried about whether or not I’ll be able to keep the two of them safe.
Chapter 22
Hannah
I knew I was pregnant. Even before Arlo came anywhere near me with that stupid pee test, I could have screamed it from the roof. I’ve never felt like this. My hormones are out of control, my tits are incredibly sore, and everything makes me want to throw up, even though I also want to eat everything in sight.
It sucks.
He carries me into the dining room, where the entire family is already sitting and w
aiting. There are two chairs right next to Pops, and he gently puts me down in one. It’s a hell of a lot nicer way to be treated than he treated me just a few minutes ago when he basically threw me on the toilet, but whatever.
I’ll take what I can get right now.
The asshole should be throwing himself at my feet and thanking me for saving his life, but for some reason, I can’t help but feel like I’m the one who needs to apologize. For getting pregnant, maybe, although he seems happier about that than I thought that he would.
Or for making everyone late to dinner.
Holy hell, I already knew that Ma was a great cook, but she really pulled out all of the stops tonight. The table is practically groaning with food and as soon as I sit down, I want to reach for something to eat, but Arlo grabs my hand and pulls it away from the food.
It’s only then that I see everyone staring at me.
Pops is the first to speak, which I guess makes sense, because he’s the don of the family and the one who runs everything. I least, I think that’s how mafia families work, but I guess I’ll find out soon enough.
“Hannah, I guess that this means that you’ve made your choice.” It’s a statement, not a question, but I nod anyway.
“Yes, sir, I’m going to be with Arlo.” Arlo squeezes my hand, and I like to think that it’s to give me some strength when talking to his dad, but who knows in this family. “I want to be a part of the family.”
“He told you that you’re free from the contract, right? After the shit that your brother pulled, there’s no reason for you to go through with the terms of the contract.” His voice is even and steady, but I have the distinct feeling that everything hinges on what he and I are saying.
In fact, nobody else around the table has done so much as move. They’re all staring at us, probably trying to decide whether or not I’m really going to stick around.
Sorry to tell you, folks, but I’m not going. They invited to be a part of the Torenti family, or rather, my family sold me off, but I’m their problem now, and I’m not planning on going anywhere. I don’t know how they feel about that, but I know that I can’t go home.