Defying Her Mafioso

by Terri Anne Browning

  “Oh.” She bit her lip, obviously not expecting me to say that of all things. For several minutes she was quiet as she helped me undress. When I pulled my shoes back on she sat in one of the plush chairs in one of the corners of the dressing room. “Is that a deal breaker for you?”

  “No,” I told her honestly and sank into the other chair across from her. “I love him. Kids aren’t a must for me, Tor. But…”

  Her eyebrows lifted. “But?”

  “I might already be pregnant,” I told her in a low voice, knowing that Paco was probably outside the dressing room and not wanting him to overhear. “We haven’t been using anything. Not once. He thought I was on the pill and I just assumed he wasn’t using anything because he wanted to start our family right away. When we talked earlier I didn’t bring up the fact that I might already be pregnant.”

  “Holy crap. What are you going to do if you are, Scarlett?”

  I fell back against the chair, pushing my hair out of my face as I glared up at the ceiling. “That’s the million-dollar question now, isn’t it?” I released a humorless laugh. “A baby could mean giving up Ciro, because I can’t get rid of it.” Tears unexpectedly filled my eyes and I was helpless to hold them back. “I love him more than life, Tor. What am I going to do?”

  She was up and across the luxurious little room in a heartbeat. She crouched down in front of me and we wrapped our arms around each other. I buried my face in her hair as a sob threatened to tear my body apart. “Sh, sh,” she whispered, glancing at the door before lifting her eyes to mine. “First, you don’t know if you are or not. How big of a chance is there?”

  I scrubbed at the tears that still continued to fall. “I haven’t let myself really think about it, but if I’m honest I’d be more surprised if I wasn’t pregnant. We’ve had a lot of sex and I’m halfway through my cycle. You know how regular I am. I can count down to the hour my period will start.”

  She nodded, her eyes sightless on the wall above my head as she thought about what I’d just told her. “Okay. So it’s probably way too early for you to know one way or another. Right?”

  I shrugged. “Probably. I doubt an over-the-counter test would pick that up until I’m late.” At least I didn’t think it would. Which meant having to wait a few more weeks until I knew one way or another.

  Victoria stood and crossed to the door. Opening it, she stuck her head out. “Anya, can you come help me with something?”

  I sat up straight in the chair. “What the hell are you doing?” I whispered fiercely. I had told her because I trusted her not to tell anyone, yet she was asking the other woman to join us?

  Victoria shot me a glance over her shoulder. “Anya is trustworthy and she can help you.”

  “How?” I demanded, glancing at Paco’s shadow on the wall just a few feet from where my twin stood.

  “I don’t know yet, but I trust her.” Anya appeared at the door and my sister stepped back to let her in, closing the door behind them.

  “What’s up?” she said when she saw I was already dressed and had obviously been crying. “You getting cold feet?”

  Victoria stepped closer to her and whispered something in her ear. Anya’s lashes lowered, hiding her reaction from me. “What do you think?” she asked when she pulled back.

  Anya grimaced but kept her voice at a low whisper when she spoke. “It probably is too early to use an at-home test. The only way to find out this early is a blood test. I know a doctor. He won’t say anything to anyone, but that means losing the entourage out there. Especially if she doesn’t want Ciro knowing. I’m not sure Mary will keep that kind of thing to herself. Pretty sure she would want to know if she was going to be a grandmother.”

  “I can’t go to a doctor without Paco and Antony, and they’ll tell him.”

  “They won’t know that you’re the one seeing the doctor,” Victoria assured me. “I’ll just pretend to be lightheaded. No one will question it.”

  Anya pulled her phone from her purse. “I can make it happen right now, Scarlett. It’s up to you.”

  I bit my lip, uncertainty filling me. I had to know the truth before I married Ciro. If I waited, then found out I was pregnant and he didn’t want me to keep our baby, I wasn’t sure what I would do. Blinking back a fresh flood of tears, I touched a hand to my stomach. I nodded because I couldn’t have spoken around the lump in my throat if I’d tried.

  Anya touched something on her phone, then put it to her ear. She spoke in rapid Russian and I couldn’t keep up with her but she was quickly putting the phone away. “He can do it in half an hour,” she assured me.

  “How long will it take before we know something?” Victoria asked, glancing at the door again.

  “He can do the lab work himself and know within an hour.” She glanced from me to the door. “We need to go now though, because it’s going to take a little while to get there.”

  “Okay. I got this.” Victoria turned for the door. “Give me ten minutes.”

  After the door closed behind her, Anya took the empty chair. I cleared my throat, forcing down the lump that was trying to suffocate me. “Thank you,” I told her belatedly.

  “No thanks needed,” she told me with a small smile. “Victoria and I have bonded over the last few weeks, Scarlett. She’s the closest thing to a friend I’ve ever had and I would do anything for her. Which means I would do anything for you as well. Friends help each other, right?”

  I nodded, wiping away the last of the tears. My head was starting to ache from all the crying and I knew I probably looked like a hot mess. “Yes, they help each other.” I glanced at the door again when there was a light tap. It hadn’t been ten minutes, but Victoria was good at convincing people to do what she wanted them to. Nona was wrapped around her finger tighter than anyone else I’d ever seen.

  Anya stood and let her back in, but when Victoria entered the room again she looked like she’d seen a ghost. “What is it?” I demanded as I jumped to my feet, pushing my own issues to the side at the look in her eyes. “Are you okay?”

  “It’s nothing. I just thought I saw Adrian outside.” She clenched her jaw. “He’s been trying to call me the last few days.”

  “Hell,” Anya grumbled. “He probably followed me here. I’m sorry, Victoria.”

  Her smile was brittle, but she tried to put on a brave face. “It’s okay. Really. Let’s go out the back, though. I don’t want to talk to him right now.”

  I opened the door and glanced at Paco, who was standing at attention, his eyes on the front of the studio that was now empty. “Tell Antony to pull the car around back,” I commanded. “Volkov is out there and I don’t want Victoria to have to deal with his ass right now.”

  He nodded. “Whatever you want, Miss Vitucci.”

  Paco was gone for less than half a minute. We headed to the back of the studio, bypassing the seamstress and the designer as we found the emergency door. Victoria had sent her own guards with the others, but since she was going to be with me there was no real need for the extra men. We would both probably hear it later from Papa, though.

  He opened the door and glanced out before reaching for my arm. I stepped outside with him and he opened the back of the Town Car Ciro had made available for me. As I climbed in the back, Victoria and Anya got in on either side of me. Paco had barely closed the door behind my sister when we saw Adrian come around the corner of the studio.

  I heard Victoria’s sharp gasp at the sight of him. “Let’s go,” I snapped at Antony, who was behind the wheel.

  Instead of doing as I told him, he just sat there, watching as Adrian came closer. I leaned forward, glaring at the man. “Let’s go, Antony. My sister doesn’t want to see Volkov.”

  “No, but he wants to see her,” Antony said as he pulled the keys from the ignition.

  Anya groaned. “I knew you looked familiar,” she muttered and, leaning forward, punched the guard in the back of the head. “Scarlett, your man needs to find mo
re loyal soldiers.”

  Fuck. I glanced at Paco, who already had his gun out. He pointed it at Antony’s head, making us all sit back. “Keys, now,” he roared.

  Antony tossed them at the other man, then jumped out of the driver’s seat as Volkov drew even closer. I glanced at the Russian, saw that his eyes were glued to my sister’s face. He looked determined and pissed. I wanted to take Paco’s gun and shoot him in the heart, to see if he had one and if he would actually bleed. Beside me, Victoria seemed to be in a trance as she looked back at the man. I wasn’t even sure she was breathing.

  Anya climbed over the seat and took Antony’s place behind the wheel. Before I could even comprehend what she was doing, she snatched the gun out of Paco’s hand and fired it twice at Antony, hitting him in each leg. “Pidor,” she snarled at him in Russian as he fell to his knees beside the car. “Idi nahui.”

  The door slammed shut and she tossed the gun back at Paco, who was gaping at her in stunned amazement. “Close your damn mouth,” she told him as she switched gears and hit the gas, driving away just as her brother reached the car and tried to open Victoria’s door.

  “Anya,” he bellowed after us.

  Only as we drove away did Victoria snap out of her Adrian daze and realize what had happened. I was still replaying everything in my head. How Anya taken charge of the whole situation. The way she’d unflinchingly shot Antony in the legs. Anya was a badass and my new best friend.

  Paco had his phone in his hand, but I reached forward and snatched it from him before he could call Ciro. “Not yet,” I told him.

  “I have to tell the capo what happened, Miss Vitucci,” he explained.

  “You can. Later.” I rolled down the window and tossed the phone out before he could take it back. I couldn’t face Ciro right then. If I saw him, if I heard his voice, I wouldn’t be able to go through with the blood test. I’d take my chances and marry him without knowing for sure. Maybe make the wrong ones that could leave us both miserable forever if I waited.

  “What the fuck?” He glowered at me. “Have you lost your mind? Capo is going to kill someone over this.”

  He was right, but I’d worry about that later. Along with a million other complications if I was pregnant.

  Anya hit the brakes, making us all lurch forward. She turned to face Paco with a deadly scowl on her beautiful face. She was fast—faster than Paco could ever dream of being, because she snatched the gun from him for the second time and pointed it right at his head. “You can either go with us and do it without complaint or you can get out and walk from here. Which do you think Donati would want you to do?”

  He blew out a harsh sigh. “I’ll go with you.” Anya lowered the gun and hit the gas again. “Wherever the hell that is.”

  Beside me, Victoria was watching out the back window. “Did that just happen?”

  “Yes, Tor. Anya is a superhero. I think I’m a little in love with her right now.”

  Chapter 27

  Ciro

  “Two more days. Got cold feet yet?”

  I didn’t even spare Dante a glance as we rode through one of the more questionable parts of the city. We’d gotten a lead on where Jr might be laying low since he’d gotten back to New York, but so far we’d run into dead ends. He was a slippery sonofabitch, but I’d catch him and make sure he joined the other bottom feeders in the Hudson.

  “Nope,” I told him honestly. I was ready to get it over with, make Scarlett my wife and start our life together.

  The talk about babies kept trying to sneak its way into my head, but I pushed it back every time. My gut twisted each time her pale face would flood my mind. Knowing she’d been hurt at first, and then so accepting when I’d told her why I didn’t want kids, was like a kick to the teeth.

  I hadn’t realized she wanted my child until today. She’d looked so happy until I’d squashed her fantasy about our kids.

  Fuck.

  I should have thought about protection from the first night. Instead I’d jumped to the conclusion she was taking care of it. I hadn’t let myself think about what us going unprotected for over two weeks could mean. Sweat beaded my forehead every time I thought about it, along with Scarlett’s words from earlier.

  You are enough for me, Ciro. Nothing else will ever make me as happy as being loved by you.

  You’re a good man and I love you completely.

  I love you despite the things you might have done in the past. Despite what you might have to do in the future.

  Our child would love you too.

  Our child. Fuck. Why did those two words make my heart stop? Why was I so focused on them when she’d told me that she wouldn’t push the subject? That she wouldn’t ever bring it up again because I was all she wanted?

  Because I wanted to believe that our child really would love me. That I could love it.

  Fuck.

  “So if this isn’t you getting cold feet, what’s up with the sweating? Are you getting sick?” He shifted closer toward the driver’s window as he watched me out of the corner of his eye. “I don’t want that shit, man. Keep it to yourself.”

  I wiped my hand across my forehead. I really was sweating bullets. I was letting this whole baby thing eat at me too damn much.

  “You forget how to talk?”

  I cracked my knuckles. “Leave it alone, Dante.”

  “Is she getting cold feet, then?” He chuckled when I felt the blood drain from my face. What if she did get cold feet? “Relax, my friend. Scarlett would never do that to you. She’s loved you since she was, like, eleven.”

  “How do you know that?” I growled before I could stop myself.

  The chuckle turned into a full-fledged laugh. “Rein it in, Ciro. You don’t have anything to worry about where I’m concerned. Scarlett’s like my little sister. We’re close. We always have been. You know that. So don’t get yourself twisted over it.”

  I sat back, reminding myself that I had nothing to be jealous of where Dante was concerned. He was right. She loved me, not him.

  My phone went off and I pulled it out of my pocket as Dante stopped for a red light. Desi’s voice filled my ear when I connected the call. “Paco’s phone just went dead, boss. I got an alert when it did.”

  “So call Antony,” I told him even as dread filled my stomach. I’d made sure that the men watching over Scarlett had new phones. They were programed to alert Desi when they were turned off, so in case something happened to one of them I would know about it immediately.

  “He won’t pick up. The GPS still shows that it’s outside the studio where the women were supposed to be.” There was hesitation in his voice, which wasn’t like Desi. He normally told me everything I needed to know up front and was done with it.

  “Go check it out,” I told him, trying not to let the sudden bad feeling I had in my gut push out any thoughts of common sense. Scarlett would bust my balls if I overreacted and showed up at the studio where she was trying on her dress. My mother would kick my ass if I saw the dress before the wedding.

  “I’m here now, capo.”

  I clenched my hands into fists. “And?”

  Desi sighed, as if dreading what he was about to say. “So are the cops.”

  “What the fucking hell? Just spit it out, Des. Is Scarlett okay?” Dante shot me a look, not bothering to touch the gas when the light turned green.

  “The women left about an hour ago. The seamstress saw everyone but the twins and Anya Volkov go out the front with the men. She didn’t see Paco and the others leave, but heard the back door’s buzzer go off and assumed they left that way. A few minutes later she heard two gunshots and then squealing tires. The woman called the cops and they showed up. There’s two patches of blood on the pavement, capo.”

  My blood turned to ice. Jr. It was the first thought that ran through my head, but at the same time something didn’t feel right about all of it. Jr wouldn’t ambush anyone unless he had an entire army of men with him, too
much of a chicken-shit to do anything alone. Anya had been with Scarlett, and I knew she was just as capable as five men when it came down to it. She could deal with a little weasel like Jr on her own with no trouble.

  “Trace Scarlett’s phone. Talk to the cops and find out what they know and tell them I’m on my way.” The cops knew who I was. They wouldn’t do anything unless I told them to.

  Dante was still waiting when I hung up on Desi. The people behind us were blowing their horns, trying to make him move forward, but he just sat there, waiting. “You know where that fucking designer’s studio is?” He nodded. “Then let’s go. Now.”

  He did a U-turn then and there, cutting off three vehicles, making them have to swerve to avoid hitting us. “Allegra?” he bit out.

  “She left with my mother apparently.” I didn’t pay attention to what he was doing as he drove through the city at triple the legal speed limit. Lifting my phone, I called Scarlett’s phone but it went to voicemail after only a few rings. Hanging up without leaving a message, I called my mother next. It rang twice before she picked up.

  “Hi, sweethea—”

  I cut her off. “Ma, is Scarlett with you?”

  “No. We haven’t seen her in about half an hour. Victoria said she had a surprise for Scarlett and that they would catch up with us at dinner,” my mother told me. “Is everything okay?”

  “I’ll call you back,” I promised without telling her anything. As soon as I disconnected with her, I called Cristiano. “Have you talked to your sisters?”

  “Victoria called earlier today. She was on her way to the dress appointment with Nona and Allegra.”

  “Fuck. Get over to that studio. Something’s going on. I’ll tell you more when I know something.” He didn’t ask questions, not that I could have given him answers. I didn’t know anything.

  By the time we got there the cops were gone, but Desi was behind the building. Even driving like a Formula One contender, it had still taken Dante over half an hour to get to the studio. Desi was standing beside two dark spots on the pavement. Blood. My gut twisted again, making it hard to breathe for a second. In his hand were two phones. I glanced around, looking for any sign that might tell me what was going on and where Scarlett was. Dante crouched down to examine the blood stains.