Going downstairs I tried to put on a happy face, but I knew I failed as soon as Dom saw me. “What’s wrong?” he demanded as soon as he reached me.
There was no way I could tell him. If I did it would cause an even bigger rift between him and his father. “I think I ate something bad. My stomach feels funny,” I said, hoping that he’d believe me.
Gathering me into his arms he gently rubbed my stomach. “Is the baby bothering you?”
“No, wait, what? What baby? I’m not pregnant,” I sputtered.
He smiled softly at me. “Yeah, you are.”
“Dom, we’ve only been back together a few weeks. Even if I was, which I’m not saying that I am, but even if I was, it’s too soon to tell,” I said, exasperated when he only laughed.
“Baby, you’re several months pregnant, not weeks.”
I looked into his face and realized he was serious. Quickly I tried to remember when I had my last period. When I kept coming up with a blank I panicked and bellowed at the top of my lungs, “The hell I am!” Which was probably not the best thing to do when you’re around a bunch of nervous, trigger-happy people. Women screamed as they were pushed down and guards pulled out guns. In shock, I pressed my hand to my belly, ignoring the chaos that I had caused. I looked at Nero, who was yelling at me to tell him what happened because Dominic couldn’t on account of laughing so hard.
“I’m pregnant,” I blurted out.
Blinking once, twice, he holstered his gun and looked down at my stomach. Seeing Nero put his gun away seemed to calm everyone. Dom’s brother and father stood staring at me with the same dumfounded look Nero wore. Like fools we all stared at my stomach as if it was going to bite.
Coming through the crowd as if nothing had happened, Angie clapped her hands to gain everyone’s attention. “Show’s over, the food’s out. Now please help yourselves.” Shooing away the stragglers she walked over to Lucca and took his hand, smiling at me. “I told you that you needed to make a decision,” she said, before walking away with her husband and father-in-law in tow.
I looked to Dom, who stopped laughing at her words. “Do you ever get anything by her?” I whispered, afraid that she’d hear me.
“Never.”
“I guess I’m not going to have to worry about you getting into trouble anymore with her as your relative,” Nero teased. He pulled me into his arms and whispered, “Congratulations.”
He turned to Dom and held out his hand. Gripping it hard he pulled him into a man hug and pounded his back before stepping back. “Normally I’d be threatening you and rushing you to the court house to get married, but I expect I’ll be getting a call from your sister next week telling me when the wedding is, so I won’t waste my breath.”
Chuckling, Dom pulled me into his arms. “Yeah, I think you’re right.”
“Better you than me,” Nero threw out as a parting shot, and he walked away from us. Staring after him I thought of what I had witnessed between him and Maria, wondering if he had any chance of escaping Angie’s notice.
…
“Ms. Genovese, I told you the damage was quite extensive. It is a miracle that you survived the fire. The surgeries and skin grafts have made great improvements, but nothing can restore you completely to what you were before.” The weak-willed doctor sniveled, holding the cheek that I had sliced with the scalpel.
“I suggest you find a way, Doctor, or make your peace with God,” I hissed, before turning to view my unbandaged self in the mirror. I opened my robe and looked at my charred body before turning my eyes to my ruined face. I slammed my fist into the mirror at what I saw as the loss of my beauty became real. Spinning around, I looked for a target for my rage, zeroing on the newcomer to the room. “Where have you been? I expected you hours ago.”
Unconcerned with my anger, the little fucker smirked at me. “The party lasted longer than expected. It turns out it wasn’t a regular party, but an engagement party for Victoria and Dominic.” His smile grew as I snarled. “They also announced that they were having an addition to their little family. It would seem, Caterina, that you have wasted my and my family’s time. If you had just waited I could have dealt with Victoria and Maria permanently. Instead you lashed out and screwed up years of planning.”
I wanted to rip this little fuck apart but I knew I couldn’t. His father had already warned me that he would hold me responsible for anything that happened to him. It was still tempting, and I’d do it and damn the consequences, but I needed their money backing me if I had any chance of getting my revenge. “Now, Tony, that wasn’t my fault. I had to move quickly. My sister had figured out that I was involved,” I said, running my hand over his chest.
Disgust filled his handsome face, and he stepped back away from my touch. “The only reason she realized it is because you fucked up and revealed yourself to her, having to gloat in a tape. If you had just done what you were supposed to they never would have figured it out.”
“That’s not true. You saw the tape—” I cried, but he cut me off.
“I don’t want to hear it, Caterina. From now on you do what I say when I say it. You’ve already lost half of your use to us. If you can’t follow orders I’ll have your throat slit,” he said before leaving.
Who the fuck did he think he was talking to? I ate men like him for breakfast. I might need him and his family’s money for now but that would change. There were other fathers and brothers that that cunt Angelica had killed. They would be all too eager to help me get my revenge. Nothing was going to stop me from making every one of them suffer.
Coming 2016
Nero
Book 3 of The Family
Angelica (The Family # 1)
Family is many things to many people but in one woman’s world family means
Respect
Honor
Loyalty
These words are the meaning to life in her world. When these words are not followed there is only one other word that you must know
Revenge
For Angelica it is the only word that has held any meaning in her life for ten years. Taught at an early age that disloyalty equals death and that blood is to be answered with blood she seeks vengeance for the deaths of those she loved.
Always alone she has been careful to stay free of emotional ties until her life takes an unexpected turn. Unfortunately like everything in her life it has consequences. Consequences that can only be answered with blood. As her past and future collide together Angelica must face her past once and for all if she has any chance at a future and happiness that she never dared hope for. She must do it quickly before she sinks further into the darkness and becomes the very thing that she hunts.
Gazers
What if you woke up and your whole world changed.
What if everything that you knew was a lie even your humanity.
Elizabeth was a girl like any other until one day she wasn't.
In The Shadows of the Cavern of Death
Words are what defines a civilization.
At one time the words used to define our civilization were
Equality
Freedom
Humanity
The power of the word is so great that it took only one to change the course of our civilization,
Rebellion
Dominic (The Family Book 2) Page 17