by Shay Savage
“What do you want to do?”
“Honestly?”
“Of course.”
“I’m most relieved because I don’t have to head up the family now. I feel like I have choices for the first time, and right now, there’s only one choice I really care about, and that’s you. You and the baby.”
Cherry smiles and blushes. I reach toward her stomach, tentatively at first, but when Cherry doesn’t stop me, I place my hand over her abdomen. I don’t feel any difference, and I wonder why Cherry’s neighbor was so sure of her condition. Had Cherry already confided in her?
“Did you tell Jessie you were pregnant?”
“No.”
“How did she know?”
“I have no idea. I only told Nora and Twos.”
“They were going to help you…take care of it.”
“Yes.” New tears spring to Cherry’s eyes. “I’m so sorry. I think I know how you probably feel about that.”
“It doesn’t matter now.” I hold her close to me, my hand still rubbing her belly. “I’m not sure what I would have done in your position. I’m glad you aren’t considering it now. That’s the only thing that’s important. Oh wait…there is one more thing.”
I jump up, retrieve my jacket from the back of the chair by the door, and dig around in the pocket.
“Will you put this back on?” I ask, holding up the ring.
“Yes.” Cherry blushes and smiles, her eyes lighting up as she watches me slide the ring back up her finger. She places her hand on her stomach. “All things considered, we might want to have the ceremony sooner rather than later.”
“We can go to the courthouse and have it done in an hour,” I say.
“I have a feeling Nora would not appreciate that.”
“No, she would not. I’m pretty sure she could have the arrangements done to her satisfaction within a couple of weeks, but I’ll leave that up to you. It’s whatever you want, not what Nora wants.”
“I think I’d prefer something simple,” Cherry says, “but also not necessarily at the courthouse. Maybe with just family and a couple of friends.”
“Catholic weddings are events, no matter how long the guest list is.”
“I take it you want a Catholic wedding?”
“I have to admit it’s my preference, but I’ll stand by what I said—it’s your choice.”
“Can you get your favorite priest to do something a bit…abridged?”
“You mean, tell him to skip the Latin?” I laugh. “Yeah, I’m sure he’d work with us.”
“Then I’d be happy with that.”
“I’ll inform Nora she can start planning again but within limits. You know you might have to rein her in a few times.”
“I think I can do that.”
“You say that now. We’ll see what you say in a couple of days.”
“I seem to be crying at the drop of a hat. A few tears will probably quell her insanity.”
“We can only hope. Do you think a month is too long to wait?”
“I’m close to three months along now,” she says. “I’ll be showing by then.”
“How about two weeks? That will give Nora a little time and maybe stop her from getting too many ideas.”
“I think that will work. It feels a little rushed, but…”
“We can wait, if you want. If you don’t feel like waddling down the aisle, we can wait until after the baby is born.”
“No,” Cherry says quickly, “I don’t want to do that. I guess I’m a little traditional when it comes to such things, too.”
“Two weeks, then.”
Cherry nods, and I kiss her again, slowly this time, but when she becomes more aggressive, I’m happy to oblige. I run my hand down her arm, over her stomach, and up to cup a breast. As soon as I do, I realize exactly how Jessie knew Cherry was pregnant—her tits are about to bust right out of her bra, even without my help.
I smile against her lips, but Cherry suddenly pushes me away.
“Nate—wait!”
“What is it?”
“What about the Ramsays?” Cherry asks.
“You mean, now that I know I’m one of them?”
“Yes, but also just in general. They were shooting at us recently, if you recall.”
“Oh, I have not forgotten about that. I need to talk to Threes and Antony. After that, I’m going to visit Janna Ramsay myself.”
“Nate,” Cherry says as she grabs my arm, “are you sure you want to do that?”
“I don’t see a lot of choice in the matter. It’s time we put an end to all of this, and talking to her is the first step.”
“And end to what?”
I turn toward her.
“Cherry,” I say, “answer me honestly. Do you want to have anything to do with the family business? I mean, take me out of the equation. Do you want to be involved in forgery and money laundering? Is that the business you want to own?”
Cherry bites her lip but doesn’t answer.
“You don’t, do you?”
“I love you, Nate, and I love your family. I want to be involved with the family, but no…I don’t want anything to do with the business. I’m all right with it because I want to be with you more than anything, but I don’t want to be directly involved in it. Even if you’re talking about the maple forest and the syrup plant, I don’t think I want to be a part of that.”
“You want to be a botanist.”
“Yes.” Cherry looks at me earnestly. “But Nate, I’d never tell you what you should or shouldn’t do. I can do my own thing on the side. I can still be with you and not be involved in the business. I can stick my fingers in my ears and hum when I need to.”
“No.” I take her face in my hands. “I don’t want you to have to do that.”
“What’s the alternative?”
I think about it for a minute, formulating a plan in my head.
“Where would you like to go to school?”
“Well, lots of universities have botany programs,” she says, “but I can’t really afford to go just anywhere.”
“Money is no object.” I stare into her eyes. “Are you going to object to your husband paying for your degree with his ill-gotten booty?”
Cherry laughs.
“Tell me,” I say insistently, “where would you go if money and location were no object?”
“It’s not just money,” Cherry says. “Even if I let you pay for tuition, I’m going to have a baby to take care of as well.”
“Hello?” I tap on my chest. “Just what do you think I am, a caveman? I’ll take care of the baby so you can go to school.”
“How are you going to do that and run your business?”
“Forget that. Tell me where you’d want to go to school.”
“I don’t know. Ohio State and Purdue have great botany programs.”
“Purdue is in Indiana, right?”
“Yes.”
“Sorry to be so blunt, but are your grades good enough to get in?”
“I think so.”
“Apply. If you get in, we’ll move to Indiana.”
“How are you going to run your family businesses from Indiana?”
“I’m not,” I say. “I want to take you and our baby out of Ohio completely, and I’ll be the dutiful house-husband while you get your degree.”
“But, your family…”
“I’m leaving the family business. Nora will have to run it, if she’s willing. If not her, then Antony. Twos and Threes can have it for all I care. I’m taking my cut—which is more than enough to raise our children and their children—and getting out.”
“Are you serious?”
“Completely.” I smile, but Cherry looks away, her jaw tight. “What’s wrong? I thought you’d like that news.”
“I don’t want you to abandon your family because of me.”
“I’m not. I’m leaving the family business—not the family—and I’m doing it for myself, our baby, and you. Those are three very compelli
ng reasons in my book. Even without you and the baby, I’m starting to see all of this insanity I’ve endured for the past few months as a blessing.”
“A blessing?”
“I’m not cut out for this life, Cherry. I don’t think I ever was. Ever since you left, I’ve been imagining what it would be like to be somewhere else—away from Cascade Falls and all the nonsense that goes with it—and the more I think about it, the more I don’t want to be here. I want to live where no one knows my name or my family history. I want do to something that matters to me, not to everyone else, and I can’t think of anything I’d like to do more than raise our children.”
“Children? Do you think I’ve having twins?”
“I think I’d like to have a lot of kids with you.”
“Do I get a say in this?”
“Yeah, I suppose you do. Please tell me you want at least two or three.”
“I am not ready to talk about this!” Cherry laughs and shakes her head. “I’m still trying to wrap my head around having one.”
“I’m trying to figure out how to talk you into five.” I grin at her as I take her hand and lead her to the bedroom. “Now, let me show you how I can make that worth your while.”
Chapter 24—Unexpected Resolution
Cherry and I spend the rest of the day and night with each other, talking about the baby and our future plans. In the morning, Cherry makes an appointment with a local OB/GYN and also calls the Accident library to quit her job. When she gets off the phone, there are tears in her eyes.
“What’s wrong?”
“I hate leaving so unexpectedly.”
“What did you tell her?”
“Basically, the truth—I’m pregnant and I moved out of town. I’m sure everyone knows by now.”
“You don’t ever have to go back there if you don’t want to.”
“Maybe. We’ll see. Now that we’ve…well, sorted things out, I’m not quite so freaked out about everything.”
“I think we have a few things left to sort out.”
“If you drop one more bombshell, I will break, Nataniele.” Cherry narrows her eyes at me. “No more.”
“I agree with you there.” I pull her close to me. “I can’t imagine what else could possibly come up. I wish Kate had come clean in the beginning.”
“Why didn’t she? She knew who I was the first night I came over, but she said nothing.”
“Fear, I think. Probably some shock, too. Given the family dynamics, I think she learned to keep her mouth shut unless asked directly. I get the idea she was afraid of how I would react.”
“You weren’t quite rational at that time.”
“No,” I reply softly, “I wasn’t.”
“I’m very proud of you,” Cherry says before she kisses me gently.
“For what?”
“For seeing that you needed help and getting it.”
“I don’t think I could have done it without you.”
“Don’t sell yourself short,” she says. “I wasn’t even here.”
“But the idea that if I worked hard enough, I might get you back…that’s what kept me going.”
I wrap my arms around her, and Cherry leans her head against my shoulder. For a moment, we just stand there, and I don’t want to ever let her go again.
“Family meeting this morning?” Cherry leans back a little and looks up at me.
“Yes.” I sigh. “We should get moving. We have a lot to work out, and then later on, we can start applying to universities.”
“I’d like that.” Cherry smiles and I wipe the tears off her cheeks.
“I love you,” I say softly.
“I love you, too, Nate.”
We get in my car and head back to the house to talk to my family…or should I say her family? My former family? Whatever it is, we need to talk to them. There are a lot of decisions to be made, and everyone will want their say. A few minutes later, we drive up to the Orso house.
The Orso house.
I realize that it no longer feels like my family home. I’m apprehensive about showing up, unsure if I should just walk right in or if it would be more appropriate to knock on the door first. All of my personal things are there, and I wonder if I should get them and move in to Cherry’s apartment, as opposed to her moving to the house. What about my office? Was it still my office?
“That’s what we’re here to decide,” I mutter.
“What was that?” Cherry asks.
“Nothing.”
As soon as we get out of the car, Antony is right there.
“Boss, we gotta talk.”
“Did Kate explain everything to all of you?”
“Yeah.”
“Then stop calling me ‘Boss.’”
“Fine.” Antony sighs. “Can we just hold off on all of that for a minute? That new hacker guy found something on the web. It’s news from Seattle, but it’s not public knowledge yet.”
“What is it?”
Antony glances at Cherry.
“Spit it out,” I tell him. “She’s more a part of the family than I am.”
“Okay.” Antony takes a deep breath. “Joseph Franks was killed yesterday. A sniper got him while he was on the deck of his boat in the Puget Sound.”
Cherry wraps her fingers around my arm, tightening her grip.
“A sniper?” Taking a hit out on a mafia family member might be a common thing, but a successful hit on someone so high up in the organization is not. An actual sniper doing the job is almost unheard of. In fact, it points to a single individual.
“Direct hit through his eye,” Antony informs me. “No trace of the shooter.”
“Did Moretti take out Franks?” I speak in a hushed voice and look over my shoulder as if I’m going to find a gun pointed at my head just for saying the words.
“Moretti’s enforcer was killed in the last tournament, remember?”
“Oh, right.” I don’t personally keep up with the tournament information, but Threes does, and I remember him talking about the death match in question. “I forgot about that. So, who did it?”
“No idea, but it’s apparently creating complete chaos, and Landon Stark is nowhere to be found.”
“Where is this information coming from?” I ask.
“The new hacker guy.”
“The one who set up all the new algorithms? Ron Phillips’s kid?”
“Will Phillips, yeah. That’s the one. He set up some program that monitors police band radios or something. He’s been getting information from all over the place. Threes had him do it so we’d have some heads-up if there was ever any trouble headed our way.”
“Is he here?”
“Threes is inside.”
“I mean the Phillips kid.”
“He can be.”
“Get him.”
“Will do, boss.” Antony pulls out his phone and types a quick message.
“Let’s get some of this other shit out of the way while we wait for him.”
Everyone gathers in the office, and I sit at the chair behind the desk. I can’t decide how I feel about being here, in this seat. Just when it had started to feel like my place, my world was turned upside down again.
After Cherry and I announce that we are still getting married, I turn the meeting over to Kate. I shift in my seat a little as she goes over everything about the treaty in front of everyone. Nora asks a lot of questions, looking at me but getting her answers from Kate.
“I don’t care,” Twos suddenly blurts out. “What difference does it make now? Nate’s in charge, and that’s good enough for me.”
“Me, too,” Antony and Threes say together.
“We were already planning on Cherry becoming a member of this family,” Nora says, “so that’s a moot point. Nate, you are my brother—period. I don’t care what genetics or the treaty says about that.”
“As much as I appreciate the sentiment,” I say, “things are still going to change.”
“We definitely need to have
all of this sorted out,” Antony says. “Nate is a Ramsay, and we can’t just ignore that.”
“Well, he’ll be an official member of this family as soon as he marries Cherry,” Nora says. “He’s an Orso one way or another.”
“This actually would make things better as far as our reputation goes,” Antony says. “Cherry still needs to change her legal name, of course. From the outside, nothing looks like it’s changed.”
“Who cares?” Nora replies. “Nate’s a part of the family. As the eldest child of the family, I say so.”
“Thanks for stepping up, Nora,”—I grin at her—“since I do not plan on continuing my position as the decision maker around here.”
“Nate, you don’t have to do that,” Threes says. “We want you right where you are. You gotta know that.”
“I do know that, and as much as I appreciate it, this is the decision I’ve made. It’s not about me being a Ramsay or an Orso—this is about me doing what’s best for Cherry and our baby.”
Everyone goes quiet as they all take turns looking at each other’s expressions.
“Yes, Cherry is pregnant,” Nora says, “and it’s fantastic news. In fact, it’s just what we need in this family, but that doesn’t mean you have to leave.”
“Yeah,” Antony says, “what Nora said. We don’t want anything to change, boss.”
“It’s what I want,” I say again. “This isn’t a topic I’m going to debate. Cherry and I will get married in two weeks, and I will be stepping down right after.”
“Don’t think this means I’m happy about that idea.” She glares at me. “What exactly are you going to do if you aren’t leading us?”
I glance away, but when I look back, I can see in Nora’s eyes that she already knows what I plan to do.
“Cherry and I will be leaving Cascade Falls,” I say firmly. “I’m not cutting ties with you as my family, but I am stepping down, and I will no longer be a part of the family business.”
“You can’t just walk out,” Antony says. “In fact, with everything going on, we should be keeping all of this under wraps, especially you and Cherry. Some people wouldn’t understand.”
“How do we keep it under wraps with the Ramsays out there?” Twos interjects. “They’ll spill. They’ll even tell people you two are siblings and start all kinds of rumors.”