There are three bedrooms upstairs, I can tell from the number of doors there are, not just the two bedrooms as I first thought. Three bedrooms, and a bathroom, however, I don't snoop I want to check out my new bedroom.
It's not too bad as bedrooms go. It's nothing like what I'm used to, but there's a huge bed that looks comfortable enough, and there's a dresser against the left side wall. I do like the window seat. I'll enjoy sitting there in the evenings. There's an en-suite bathroom with a nice sized bath and shower. I can't wait to sink into that of an evening after a long day with the baby.
God, what am I doing? I shouldn't be here. This is stupid! However, I guess this is my life now, and I need to figure shit out, and soon.
As much as Jett told me to stay in the house and wait for him to get back, to wait for him to talk to his father about this, about us, I just can't. I cannot let my brother find out that I've let him down from anyone but me.
That's why I take a shower and change into a modest black dress that falls nicely on my knees. I don't know whom it belongs to, but I found it in Jett's closet. Probably belongs to one of his hookups, or maybe one of his sisters? I do not particularly appreciate wearing clothes belonging to other women, especially sluts, but I can't very well see my brother in the dress I had on. It was far too short for a start, and he'd throw a hissy fit. I am his baby sister, after all, and he seems to think I'm some virginal princess.
Lucky for me, the dress fits well enough, and it covers everything I don't want anyone to see. I don't have to wear it for long. Jett will bring my things back to his place, and I can change into something more comfortable, something that's mine. If Draven doesn't kill him first.
Don Vidal is a very respectable man. Thirty-six years of age and probably the most dangerous man I have ever known, but he's also a good man, my big brother, the man who raised me, the man who loves me and has protected me my entire life. There is nothing I wouldn't do to make him proud of me. However, what I did with Jett at Avery's wedding, what I have been left with, will bring him anything but pride.
After styling my hair, curling the ends and leaving it loose, I apply light makeup to my face, then a little perfume to my neck. Less is more, that's what Draven always told me growing up. A little perfume goes a long way. Good job I carry compact stuff in my purse, or there's no way I'd leave the house!
I stare at myself in the mirror, my hand on my stomach. No matter what happens tonight, no matter how scared I may feel, I'm doing this all for my baby. I have no idea how Jett is getting on, but I do know that after I tell my brother, I may never see him again.
I may not be in love with Jett, but I do like him. As crazy as that sounds when I was raised never to so much as speak to a biker, but he's so handsome it stifles me. It's not just about his looks I like his personality too. He's charming, and he knows how to make me smile with ease.
I may never love him, but there will be something there between us. We're having a baby, and we both want it. We're going to give this baby the best life we possibly can. We have a connection that cannot be broken. Doesn't that deserve my brothers blessing?
“Yeah right, Maria. Keep dreaming.” I tell myself out loud.
I grab my cell and call Lorenzo, the man who trails me usually. The man I gave the slip earlier. The man whom I have no doubt told my brother as much. I'm shocked Draven hasn't sent a search party out looking for me. I'm even more surprised he hasn't killed Lorenzo for losing me again.
Maybe the text I sent him eased his mind. The text I sent from my car outside the clubhouse after Hammer pushed me down, was to let Lorenzo know that I was going home. I told him I was going to get some work done on the restaurant books I'm supposed to be looking over. Something I often do for Abrianna. Her uncle has worked for the Vidal family for years. We grew up together. She owns her own hotel and restaurant, and I sometimes go over the books for her.
Lorenzo arrives at Jett's ten minutes later. He's not happy because he knows who lives here. “What the hell, Maria? You take off on me, and now this is where I find you? At the house of a damn biker! What the hell is going on?”
“Don't, Lorenzo.” Is all I say before climbing into the back of the limo. I'm not in the mood to explain myself to him. I need all my strength for Draven.
The drive over to my brother's restaurant, once belonging to my uncle, the Don before my brother, Avery's father, goes all too quickly. Sooner than I'm ready for.
I'm standing outside his office worrying myself death. My heart is in my throat, my stomach is tight and turning over and over so much I feel it in my hips.
I can do this. My brother is not going to hurt me physically. Jett? I'm afraid that he will, and not in a good way. Not that there is a good way to be physically hurt.
Maybe I should've waited for Jett to come with me to see Draven, but I know in my heart that would've been the biggest mistake of my life. Draven would've shot him in the head without one word. Then where would I be? Disgraced even more than I already am.
I knock the door with my knuckles and wait for him to yell for me to enter. However, he doesn't. Tony, his top guy, answers the door with a smile on his face. “Hey, short stuff.” I roll my eyes, and despite myself, I smile.
Tony is the guy I should've been with, the man who made no secret that he wanted me. He obviously never said anything in front of Draven because he would've killed Tony if he'd known.
But Tony has never been inappropriate with me, never touched me in any way he shouldn't. He has told me he loves me and would do anything for me. Even when I said that I didn't love him in the way he loved me, he told me he would still be there for me, and he has been. I can count on him for anything. However, I bet once he finds out about what I've done, he'll distance himself from me. I'm going to lose everyone I care about because of this. Is it really worth it?
Yes, my baby is worth losing everything for.
Maybe I should have told Tony first, perhaps he'd have taken the baby and me on, loved us both, married me. My brother would have been angry at first, but he would have allowed the union. I know he would.
However, I would never have been able to live with the lie. Every time I looked at my baby all I would see was Jett. What would I have told my child when it was old enough? I mean, if it got sick and needed something from its father in order to help it, what the hell would I do? I'd ruin its life with such a lie.
I couldn't do it I'm not a deceitful person. If Jett was a monster and I thought it would be best my child didn't know him, then I would have gone to Tony. However, Jett isn't a bad person. Not where it counts.
“Hey, Tony, is my brother busy? I really need to speak with him. It's urgent.”
He gives me a longing look. It never used to make me feel uncomfortable, but right now, it does. “Come in.” He holds the door open, and I slip past him.
My brother is sitting behind his desk, in his large leather office chair. His office is nothing fancy, or at least not to me. The tiled floor with a huge Persian rug, large, plush couch at the far end of the room, with a small coffee table in front of it, give the place a homey feel. There's a large potted plant of some kind in the right corner. Then there are the large windows that bring in so much light it's hard not to smile. There's also a vast floor to ceiling bookshelf, filled with books, folders, even small potted plants. Picture frames of photographs of him, me, Avery, baby Daniel, and our mother sit on his big oak desk.
“Maria? Everything okay?”
I shake myself out of my silly daydream of how odd this office looks in the back of a restaurant, and I turn to look at my brother, so handsome, so strong. Always in a suit to keep up appearances. No one messes with him.
I look just like him, everyone says so. I have plenty of family members, even if they're not blood-related, even a brother who hates me, but Draven is everything to me. Without my big brother, the man who raised me, who the hell would I be?
I am so scared of losing him.
“Can we talk? In private?” He lo
oks at me curiously. “It's really important.” My voice cracks a little. I tried so hard not to let it, but I couldn't stop it.
That little crack instantly changed the smiling expression on my brother's face to one full of concern. He's out of his seat and coming around the desk, his eyes locked on me while telling Tony, “Wait outside.” He turns to Tony for a second. “No one is to enter this room for any reason. You understand?”
“Boss.” With that, he's gone, and like the loyal man he is, he won't allow anyone to enter this room unless the damn building is on fire!
“Hey,” My brother's voice is calm, his smile sympathetic. Of course, he can see that something's wrong, I have tears in my eyes. He taps my arm before sitting his ass on the edge of his desk. “Wanna tell me what's wrong?”
“I need to tell you something really important, but I need you to listen to me without getting angry. Please let me finish before you blow up. Because I know you're going to.”
“Is that so?” He asks me with arms folded across his big, powerful chest.
“I've done something, and I know you're going to be ashamed of me.” I'm already struggling. I have to pull myself together, I need to get this out, and as he tells me that he could never be ashamed of me, I take a deep breath and blurt it all out.
I tell him about the wedding and how I met a guy there, and it's so damn embarrassing telling him how I slept with someone. That's not something I ever wanted to say to my brother. Not that I tell him how many times I slept with Jett, he doesn't need to know that.
“Who was he? Tell me!” He bellows, making me jump as he gets to his feet. This is exactly what I didn't want. “I'm not kidding, Maria. Lo ucciderò.”
“No, you won't kill him, Draven!” I yell in retaliation. “I wanted to be with him. He never made me do anything I didn't want to do. That I can promise you.”
“Tell me who he is!”
“Jett.” There I said it, but I swallow so damn hard I feel like I've got a golf ball stuck in my throat.
“Are you telling me that you whored yourself out to one of those filthy bikers?” That hurt. He's never said anything like that to me before. He thinks I'm a whore and that hurts. “Where the hell did I go wrong? Did I not raise you better?”
Why is he being so dramatic?
“He might be a biker, Dray, but so is our brother, and if you stand back and look at it, are they really any different from you and your men? You might wear fancy suits and expensive watches, own the whole of Tennessee and half of the damn country for all I know, but you kill at will just as they do. You put the fear of God into people just as they do. Even more so, in fact. You are all monsters in one form or another.”
“That's what you think of me, Principessa? You think me a monster?”
“No,” I close my eyes for a second. My brother is a monster he's a mafia Don for crying out loud. He's done things that don't bear thinking about. However, to me, he's just Draven, my brother, the man who has taken care of me my whole life. He's my hero, and I don't care who thinks of me as childish for it. “You are my hero, and I need your help.”
“Go on.”
I swallow hard again before telling him, “I'm pregnant. Jett is the father.” His face has not only lost all color it's set in stone. I grab his hands in mine. “I want to keep my baby, Dray. I've spoken to Jett, and he wants it too. I told him about tradition and all that, and he asked me to marry him.”
“No! I will never agree to that.” My heart sinks. “You think I'll hand my sister over to those assholes?! If it wasn't bad enough handing Avery over and finding out we have a biker brother, now my baby sister... My life wants me to hand her over, too? Over my dead body, Maria!”
“But what about my baby, Dray? Don't you think...”
“Shut up!” He bellows, and I do shut up. He's more than just angry, and I know not to push when he's like this. He'll come around. He has to! “You can't be very pregnant the wedding was just a couple months ago.” He's not looking at me; he's clutching his desk with his head hanging down.
“I'm three months pregnant, Dray.”
“I don't give a damn!” I flinch. What is he going to do? “The biker is a dead man.”
I open my mouth to speak, but it's pointless, his hand is held up to me. He stands his full height and looks at me, hell burning in his eyes. “I will find you a husband who's willing to take the kid on as his own. You won't fight me on this, Maria. You've disgraced the family and me!” I hang my head. “You'll do what's right to fix this.”
I don't want him to find me a husband. I don't want him to take that choice away from me. The man could be a monster who may hurt me. If that happens, I won't be able to go to my brother about it. That's not the way things are done. Once I'm married, I'll belong to my husband and will have to put up with everything he does to me.
“But what if I don't like the guy, Dray? What if he's horrible and hurts me?”
“You really think I'd give you to someone who'd hurt you? You'd disrespect me further by thinking such a thing of me?!”
God, he's so angry.
This isn't going to end well for me. It might sound stupid when I don't know much about him, but Jett is the one I want to be with. I want my child to know its father, and to be honest, he's the only man I've ever been with that could set my body on fire with desire by merely looking at me. I'm never going to find another man who can do that, and the truth is I have a crush on the man.
“You will marry who I damn well tell you to marry, Maria, and be grateful I don't make you get rid of the kid and send you the fuck to Italy so uncle Piero can deal with you!”
I don’t want that, uncle Piero is so strict he’d have me locked up somewhere dark and never let out. Not to mention he’d send my baby to live with strangers. No, thank you.
I shut Draven out after that. He's letting me keep my baby, but he won't allow me to marry the father. He's going to deprive my child of its father by killing him, and I have no idea how to stop him.
Maybe Avery will have some advice for me. She might be a royal bitch right now, but I know she'll help me.
Chapter Five
Jett
Jesus Christ, Jett! How could you be so stupid?! What the hell were you thinkin'?”
“I wasn't. Obviously.” I thought with my dick that night. What man wouldn't? Maria is so goddamned beautiful it would stifle any man with a heartbeat, that body of hers... Hot damn!
However, that aside, she's pregnant with my kid, and I'll do anything to keep them with me. Do I think Draven Vidal will put a stop to it? He'll try. I'm not scared of any man, Mafia Don's included. I'm not stupid either, and I know the power he holds. I know should he put a hit out on me, my days will be numbered.
When I got to the clubhouse earlier and asked to speak to my father in private, he instantly knew something was up. I didn't lie to him, lying to my father is something I've never felt the need to do. I didn't go into detail with him, but I gave him enough information to know that I'm about to make him a grandfather. He also understands that I haven't been able to get Maria out of my head since the moment I met her. Shepard wanted to know if I had feelings for the girl. I told the man the truth. I'm not in love with her, but I sure as shit feel something special for her. Now he's standing there giving me a damn lecture like I'm a fucking five-year-old or something. I'm not a fuckin' stupid kid. I'm pushing thirty.
Is what I did stupid? Without a doubt. Only an idiot would willingly take the mafia princess and fuck her six ways to Sunday and stupidly get her pregnant.
Stupid should've been my middle name.
“Prez!” Is the only thing I hear before a breeze flies past my face. A fist lands on my jaw, a powerful fist, the fist of Draven Vidal, cage fighter, Mafia Don. Fuck me; the man can hit. I'm no weak man, but Vidal has some fuckin' power behind him.
I get a punch in before he goes for my ribs. Bastard!
“Let him go!” Hammer has Vidal by the arms, pulling him away from me.
“Get your fuckin' hands off me, Sam!” Only Draven Vidal could call Hammer by his given name and get away with it. I have no idea what kind of relationship they've got, but it thoroughly pisses me off that they have one at all when Hammer can't bear to have Maria near him. We're his fucking family, this MC, that motherfucker has been around a few months, and he's taken the fuck over!
I wipe the blood from the corner of my mouth while my eyes scan the room. When did it fill up? Vidal has three of his biggest men with him. I don't know their fuckin' names, and I don't want to they're nothing to me. Hammer's here, Stryker, Hawk, all looking at me like I'm the devil. I'm the damn VP of this club, who the hell do they think they are to look at like that?
“Did you think she wouldn't come and tell me?!”
I fold my arms across my big chest. “I knew she would.” Of course, I did. I knew Maria wouldn't keep it from him, just thought I'd be with her when she did. Naturally, she left the house as soon as I did, and it obviously didn't go well. So where the fuck is she?
“Whatever ideas you had about marrying her and raising that kid, forget it!”
“It's not your choice to make.”
“The hell it isn't!” I let him yell, and I let my father yell in retaliation, it doesn't mean anything to me right now. There's nothing on my mind other than Maria. Maybe I should pull my head out of my ass and appeal to his nicer side.
Ha! The nicer side of Draven Vidal. Is there one?
“You stupid fuckin' son-of-a-bitch!”
“Give it a rest, Hammer! Don't even dare do the big brother thing after the stunt you pulled today!” He has no fuckin' right! None whatsoever.
“That has nothing to do with what's going on now!”
“It has everything to do with it!” I yell. “I get why you're angry, Draven, she's your baby sister. However, I'm trying to do the right thing.”
Never Give You Up (Snakes Henchmen Book 3) Page 4