Sinner - A Bad Boy's Baby Romance

by Layla Valentine

  When he exited the store, Viv was hanging up.

  “What?” he asked, noticing her frown.

  “She didn’t answer. I left a message.” Wrapping her arms around herself, she walked to the car.

  “She’ll get it in the morning. Don’t worry. There’s plenty of time.”

  Vivian slumped into her seat. Taking his spot behind the wheel, Markus set the shopping bag in the backseat and headed for the interstate.

  “Don’t worry,” he said again. “They’ll be okay.”

  If only he knew that for sure.

  It was his fault that Viv and her family were in this whole mess. If he could fix it all, he would. Problem was, right then there didn’t seem to be an answer other than keep running.

  “We can have them meet up with us,” he said. “I can buy them a house anywhere they want. They can start new.”

  Viv shifted in her seat to look at him. “You still have the diamonds?”

  “I do. And I’m planning on selling them. With that money, I can get them a house.”

  “I guess there’s no point in asking what would happen if you gave Mr. Romano the diamonds back…”

  “I guarantee he’d shoot me on the spot.” He paused. “But maybe I should—”

  “What?” she shrieked. “No. You can’t be serious. You weren’t about to suggest you sacrifice yourself. Markus? Were you?”

  He pressed his lips together hard. That had been exactly what he was suggesting. He’d made his bed. It was up to him to live with—and maybe die with—his mistakes. That didn’t mean Viv and her family needed to suffer as well.

  “It would be for the best,” he said.

  “No, it wouldn’t,” she snapped with ferocity.

  They fell into another silence. This car ride contained a lot of those.

  “You can’t give yourself up,” she said. “We’ll find another way, okay? I’ll talk to Veronica when she wakes up, and we’ll figure it out.”

  “Viv, we don’t—”

  “Enough.”

  She pinned him with a hard stare.

  He nodded but wasn’t so sure. Circumstances could change in a heartbeat. At this point, giving himself up to Dagger really did seem like the best option for everyone involved.

  “Markus, I have to tell you something.” Her flat voice made his heart race.

  “What?”

  “I only found out the other day, and I planned on telling you once I got back from the conference… I’m pregnant.”

  His mouth went dry.

  “You’re pregnant?”

  “Yeah. I took, like, five tests the other night and they were all positive.”

  He blinked, letting the news sink in. It made everything all the worse. Not only had he put Viv’s life in danger, but an unborn child’s as well.

  “Markus?”

  His eyes stung.

  “A baby…”

  “Yeah.” She inhaled long. “I’m keeping it. It’s what I’ve wanted for a long time.”

  “Viv.” He took hold of her hand and laced their fingers. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to show you how sorry I am, even if I say as much every day for the rest of my life.”

  “We all make mistakes.” She sniffled some. “You’re fixing them.”

  He grimaced. God, he was trying to. He wondered if there wasn’t more he could be doing, though. Like turning himself into Dagger so everyone else could be let off the hook.

  “I want you to raise the baby with me,” she said. “If you want to.”

  “If I…” He tripped over his words. “If I want to? Of course I want to. Viv, I love you.”

  She sniffled some more. “Really?”

  “Absolutely yes. But… after the mess I got you into, are you sure you want me around?”

  “You’re fixing that mess.” She brought his hand up to her mouth and kissed the top of it. “You proved how much you loved me when you came to rescue me, and Markus, I love you, too.”

  His chest swelled. “I swear I’ll be the best father.”

  “I know,” she whispered. “I know.”

  “We’ll start over, okay? You name the place and we’ll go there. First, though, we have to lay low for a little bit.”

  “Okay.”

  “Here.” He reached into the backseat and grabbed the shopping bag. “I got some bananas and protein bars. We’ll stop for a meal soon. What would you like?”

  She peeled a banana.

  “I dunno. This is fine for now. I’m mostly just tired. I think I had morning sickness last night and this morning.”

  He nodded. “You rest, then.”

  She took a couple bites of her banana but then set it down and reclined her seat.

  “You hot?” Markus asked. “Cold?”

  “I’m fine,” she mumbled, sounding like she was already half asleep.

  “Let me know if you need anything.”

  “Okay.” She yawned.

  A baby. Viv was going to have a baby.

  And the most surprising part about it was how thrilled he was. Though he’d always thought he might like to have a family one day, he’d never met a girl that he’d had an urge to make that happen with. Until Viv.

  Anything she wanted, and he would give it to her. After the hell he’d already put her through, she more than deserved it.

  And he’d protect her and their child no matter what. Until his dying breath, he would make sure they were safe.

  “Markus?” Viv’s voice was barely there.

  “Yeah?”

  “I meant it,” she cooed.

  “Meant what?”

  “That I love you.”

  His heart became so full he thought it might burst. He’d meant it, too. Everything he’d told her.

  Chapter 18

  Viv

  Though it had initially been hard to stay awake, Viv found staying asleep even harder. She turned endlessly, but it wasn’t the seat keeping her up. Even if she’d been in the most comfortable bed, her mind would still have made true rest impossible.

  After maybe the hundredth readjustment, something sharp poked her hip. Reaching into her jeans pocket, she found her HW access card.

  Frowning at the piece of plastic in her hand, she tried to remember how it had gotten there. After getting off the plane the morning before, she’d felt so frazzled. Usually, the access card was clipped to her keys.

  Except she’d dropped them at the airport, she finally remembered, and the access card had popped off. Instead of clipping it back onto the keys, she must have stuffed it into her pocket.

  “What’s that?” Markus drained the last of his coffee. The dashboard clock read twelve after three.

  “It’s my access card to HW. I was supposed to turn it in yesterday, but I forgot all about it.”

  She ran her thumb down the laminated surface. “It opens any HW door in Jacksonville.” Her heart picked up speed.

  “Guess you won’t be needing that again.”

  “Or maybe I will.”

  “What?” There was a sharpness in his voice.

  Even as she’d said it, she was still formulating a plan. All she really had was an idea. No. A desire.

  A desire to bring Mr. Romano/Dagger down.

  “This can get me into Mr. Romano’s office.”

  Markus’ jaw flexed. “And? What are you saying?”

  She sat up straight, suddenly incredibly awake. “If I can get into his office, I might be able to find something incriminating.”

  “No,” he said, way too fast to have properly thought about it.

  “What? Why not?”

  “It’s too dangerous. He could be watching HW. You’re not putting yourself at risk.”

  “Oh my God,” she half laughed, half scoffed. “Are you kidding me? You can’t stop me.”

  Markus’ nostrils flared, and his hands tightened around the steering wheel. “Okay. Fair enough. I can ask you, though, to consider your safety. For me. For the baby.”
<
br />   A lump formed in her throat. “That’s all I’m thinking about now. The baby. My sister. Her husband and kids. You. My family. You all are why I need to do this.”

  “What are you expecting to find, exactly?”

  “I don’t know.” She turned toward him as much as her seatbelt would allow. “Between what you know about him and what I know about him, there must be something. At least the start of a trail, anyway.”

  “So we’re going to play detective.”

  She didn’t balk. “If that’s what it takes.”

  Markus’ shoulders rose nearly to his ears. “I ruined your life, Viv. The least I can do is keep you safe and give you a fresh beginning.”

  She placed her hand on his shoulder. “You didn’t ruin my life. You added to it. But there’s one thing I really can’t live without, and that’s my family.”

  “Viv—”

  “You don’t have to apologize to me again. I know you’re sorry. It’s okay. But if you really want to make things up to me, let me do this. If we go into hiding, I don’t know when I’ll see my sister and mom again. The kids…”

  She got too choked up to continue.

  His shoulders relaxed. “It’s hard to say no to you.” He glanced over at her. “I’m not going to try to keep you from your family. We need a plan, though.”

  “Great.”

  “Do you have one?”

  “Well…” She dropped her hand and chewed on her bottom lip. “Other than sneaking into HW headquarters when no one else is there? No.”

  “Do you know where Romano’s office is? Is it locked?”

  “I know where it is. I don’t know if he locks it at night. Most people there don’t.”

  “Hm.”

  “Hm, what?” she pressed.

  “There might be someone who can help us.” He nodded ahead. “There’s a twenty-four-hour store up here. I need to stop and get something.”

  “Okay.” Viv settled back into her seat. Simply knowing that Markus was warming up to her idea made her feel better. It was only a matter of time before she won him over.

  They pulled off the exit and into the nearby parking lot of a supercenter. Only a few cars littered the area. After parking up front, they walked into the store hand in hand.

  “What are we getting?” Viv asked.

  He grabbed a package of toothbrushes and some toothpaste.

  “That’s what we stopped for?” she asked.

  “No, but I don’t want to expose you to my morning breath.”

  “That’s already happened, buster, and it didn’t chase me away.” She pressed her fingers to her mouth and giggled.

  “This is what I needed right away.”

  While talking, they’d ended up in the electronics section. Markus reached for a flip phone and a card for minutes.

  “I can’t use my cell,” he said in a low voice. “But I can use this to make one call to Ryder.”

  She nodded, her heart pounding in the base of her throat. “For help?”

  “He’s something of a whiz when it comes to computer stuff. He’s always taking down security systems for us.” He paused and looped his arm through Viv’s. “I mean, he was.”

  “I don’t want to put him in danger.”

  His lips pursed. “What if you get into Romano’s office and there’s nothing in the filing cabinets, as there probably isn’t? Anything juicy would likely be on his personal computer or on the cloud. Unless you have some great hacking skills I don’t know about, we’ll need Ryder.”

  She chewed over that. Ryder had already done so much for them. It didn’t feel right to drag him back out of hiding for more danger.

  “Don’t worry.” Markus squeezed her shoulder as they walked. “He won’t feel put on the spot. If he’s not willing to do it, he’ll just say no.”

  “Really?”

  He nodded once. “That’s the kind of guy he is.”

  Only one cashier was open. After paying for their goods, they went back into the parking lot—but not before Markus made them hover behind the store’s entrance while he scanned the area for any signs of danger.

  At the car, Viv sat with the passenger’s side door open and had another banana. Now that there was the possibility for a positive resolution to all this, her appetite had returned. Oddly enough, as well, she suddenly loved bananas, a fruit that had never done it for her in the past.

  Pregnancy cravings, most likely.

  The thought made her smile. The baby couldn’t get here soon enough.

  A second later, and her lips turned down. No. That wasn’t true. They needed a safe environment for the baby to enter into. Viv didn’t want to raise her son or daughter while on the run, separated from their relatives.

  Leaned against the car, Markus made a call on the burner phone.

  The banana churned in Viv’s stomach. It was the middle of the night, and Ryder could have gone in any direction. Hell, he could be on a boat, sailing into the Atlantic, unable to help even if he wanted to.

  “It’s me,” Markus said suddenly, making Viv sigh in relief. “We’re okay. You? Uh-huh… Okay, so Viv has an access key to HW, where Dagger works undercover as her former boss, Mr. Romano. She thinks that if she gets in there, she has a chance of finding something we could pin Dagger for. Now, it’s only a chance, but… okay. Really? … Meet us at Riverside park. Our usual spot. We should be there about dawn.”

  Closing the phone with a clip, he looked at Viv.

  “He’s in?” she asked.

  “Yeah.” He smiled. “Sounded really eager.”

  “Good.” She buckled up her seatbelt. “Let’s go.”

  Markus got into the driver’s seat, but he didn’t start the car.

  “What?” she asked.

  “You can still change your mind. Even if we get all the way back to Jacksonville, you can change your mind. Even if you’re in his office, you—”

  “Markus.” She took his hand and peered into his face. “Do you know what the most important thing to me in the world is?”

  “What?” he asked, reaching up and tucking some hair behind her ear.

  “Family. The one that I already have…” She rested her hand on her belly. “And the one that I’m starting.”

  Markus put his hand on top of hers, his head bowing forward. “That’s why it’s hard for me to let you do this. I should go in there, instead.”

  “No. If I’m caught, it will be easier to come up with an excuse. Even if I have Ryder with me.”

  His silence agreed with her, even though he probably didn’t want to.

  “Family is important to me, too.” He lifted his face to hers. “You’re my family, Viv. I can’t lose you. Not when we’ve just begun and have a baby on the way.”

  “Then let’s do this right. Come on.” She touched his cheek. “With your bad boy background, I know you can come up with a solid plan.”

  He smirked. “I’m not that bad boy anymore.”

  “Maybe you can be him for one more day.”

  He shuffled forward, and his lips grazed hers. A delicious shiver went through her. It had only been a number of days since they’d been lost in each other’s arms, but it already seemed a lifetime ago.

  “This will all be over soon,” he said. “And then I’ll make you the happiest woman in the world.”

  She let out a pleased sigh at the promise, knowing he meant it one hundred percent.

  “You already make me very happy,” she whispered.

  Her lips pressed to his, while he looped his arms around her waist. The kiss was heated but loving. Safe. Tender.

  Over way too soon.

  Markus broke off and turned on the car. “Come on. Let’s take care of business, bad girl.”

  Chapter 19

  Viv

  She wouldn’t have thought it possible, but Viv managed to sleep most of the way back to Jacksonville. She’d offered at least twice to drive, but Markus had waved that away.

  Turned out, a nap was much needed. Right as t
hey were pulling up to the park’s edge, she woke up. A man leaned against a tree, hoodie pulled over his head and face in spite of the Florida warmth.

  Markus killed the engine. “You woke up just in time.”

  “Yeah.” She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and stretched.

  Her limbs ached and her head throbbed—hopefully symptoms of the recent stress and not of pregnancy.

  The man, who turned out to be Ryder, pushed his hood back and came to Markus’ window. “Glad to see you two alive.”

  “Same to you.” Markus gave him a fist bump.

  “All right, so we gonna do this?” He rubbed his hands together. There was a gleam in his eye, and Viv got the sense he wasn’t pretending. He really was excited about breaking into HW.

  “The sooner we get it done, the better.” Markus hooked his thumb at the backseat. “Get in.”

  “Nuh-uh. I have my ride over there.” He nodded behind his shoulder, at the car parked closer to the road. “I know where HW is. Already checked it out. Park around the corner, and we’ll meet in the bushes on the east side of the back parking lot.”

  “See you there.”

  “Thanks, Ryder,” Viv managed to say before Markus rolled up the window.

  With a salute, Ryder spun on his heel.

  It felt surreal, to say the least, returning to HW. Not because she didn’t work there anymore; she’d only been gone a day. It felt odd because now she had a completely different perspective on her time there.

  On the drive over, she went through her mental files, wondering if there had ever been signs pointing to Mr. Romano’s nefarious double life. She recalled at the conference the other day, when she’d bumped into him having a conversation in the hotel and seen the gun.

  But even that wouldn’t have been enough to ever make her suspect something weird was up with him.

  “Hey,” Markus said, noticing her watching him. He took one hand off the steering wheel to clasp hers. “Remember. It’s not too late to change your mind.”

  “I haven’t changed my mind.”

  “What are you thinking about over there?”