by Nicole Fox
Her stomach curled in on itself, even more so than it usually did when she had morning sickness. It had been bad for the last few days, so bad that Kenzie had barely been able to keep any food down. And it didn’t just happen in the morning and then go away; she felt sick almost from the time she woke up until the time she went to bed. “I’m not doing anything like that. I don’t know any more than you do.” It wasn’t completely a lie. If Matteo didn’t realize that Xavier was trying to get her out from under his thumb, then he was an idiot.
“I’m not sure I believe you. At one time, Kenzie, I thought I could rely on you. I thought you were a dedicated part of this family. After all, you told me how you were going to become a lawyer just so you could help us out. That’s something big.” He shook his head, giving her a look of such disappointment that almost believed him.
Kenzie knew all of this was from Matteo’s own imagination. She had contemplated law school at one point, and her father had taken the idea and run with it. She, however, had never said anything about helping the family. That was all him. Still, this wasn’t the time to correct him on it, not when she might never see the light of day again.
“But now you’ve betrayed me in more ways than I’d like to count. I don’t know exactly what you did, but I know you’ll never get a chance to see the dirtbag again. You’ll never have another second to yourself, because I’m not going to let Flynn have a chance at getting to you.” Matteo shook his finger at her, his face nearly purple now.
“Can’t I at least go back to my room?” she asked, casting her glance at the concrete walls and floor that surrounded her. It was dismal, at best. “I’d like to at least have a window to look out of. It might not be so bad then.”
“If you don’t like being down here, then you need to remember that it’s your own doing. You must have gone to Flynn at some point, or he wouldn’t be so desperate to get to you and he wouldn’t know about the baby. He would have written you off weeks ago as just another slut trying to use him.”
Kenzie’s stomach revolted against her. She pulled in a deep breath, trying to dispel the nausea, but it wasn’t enough. As she reached for the bottle of water that rested on a nearby table, her insides lurched. Kenzie lunged for the trash can and bent over it. Angelo had brought her a meager lunch on a tray, and she heaved up every bit of it. Her stomach continued to contract, trying to purge her system completely. Her throat burned as her body fought against her instincts, and she sobbed over the trash can.
“Don’t go thinking I’ll feel sorry for you,” Matteo said, as though she had vomited on purpose. “When you’re pregnant, you puke. I know how it is.”
Kenzie shook her head. Tears leaked through her closed eyelids as she willed her body to be still for a moment. “I know, but I don’t think that’s it. This is something different. I can feel it.”
Matteo threw his hands in the air. “Why did I have to have a daughter? You’d better hope that little brat inside you is a boy, otherwise I might sell it along with you. There’s no point being so dramatic. It’s not going to change my mind.”
She looked up at him, willing all of her desperation and sincerity to show in her eyes. “Please, Daddy. Just let me go to the doctor.”
Her father hesitated for just a moment, and then he sighed. “Fine, but you aren’t going anywhere. I’ll bring a doctor in to see you. That’ll be good enough.” He turned and stormed out, slamming the door behind him. The silence that fell in the room afterwards was so thick it made Kenzie’s ears ring. She laid back on the bed and cried herself to sleep.
* * *
The knock that came on her door an hour later was so gentle that it startled Kenzie out of a deep sleep. Angelo and Tiny usually beat on her door like they were storming a castle, and her father didn’t bother to knock at all. She hesitated as she sat up on the edge of the mattress, moving slowly so as not to disturb her stomach again. “Yes?”
The door opened a crack, and the graying head of a man she didn’t recognize peeked in. “Miss Labriola? My name is Dr. Girtman. Your father said you needed to see me.”
“Please come in.” Kenzie would have much rather chosen her own doctor and done this in a proper exam room. But this was the only thing her father was going to allow, and she was going to have to take what she could get. She felt a certain sense of hope and relief that Matteo had even allowed this man to come.
Dr. Girtman had a medical bag with him, and he set it down on the table. He unzipped it and pulled out a blood pressure cuff. “Why don’t you tell me about your symptoms?” He was a frail-looking man with knobby knuckles and veins that stuck out of his skin. His white hair stuck out on either side of his head, uncombed. But his hands were warm as he wrapped the cuff around her upper arm, and he treated her with more kindness than anyone she had been around in a long time.
Kenzie had to wonder where Matteo had found this man. Back-alley doctors were usually young and hungry for all the money they could get, no matter what kind of oaths they had taken back in medical school (or if they had even finished medical school). This man was a different sort, and she was grateful. “I’m exhausted all the time. I can’t concentrate, and I’m throwing up constantly. I know those are all normal symptoms of pregnancy, but this just seems like an awful lot.”
The old man smiled and looked at her fondly with his pale blue eyes. “You say ‘symptom’ like you have a disease. And that’s how a lot of doctors and hospitals choose to treat a woman with child. But this is so much more important than just some head cold. I can’t just throw some generic medicine at you and expect the problems to go away. Everything you do or experience during your pregnancy can change the outcome. Tell me a little bit more about what’s been going on in your life.”
“What’s been going on?” she asked, stunned. Nobody had really ever stopped to ask her that before. And this man seemed to not only know about pregnancy, but to care about it.
“Yes, yes.” Dr. Girtman took a stethoscope out of his bag and put it around his neck. “Sometimes, it’s the everyday things that we don’t really think about that affect us the most.”
At this new opportunity, Kenzie found the words flooding out of her mouth. While she left out the details about the blackmail, she told Dr. Girtman all about how she’d had a one-night stand with Xavier that wasn’t supposed to mean anything, that she had gotten pregnant, and how enraged her father was. Matteo would wring her neck if he had any idea what she was doing. He wouldn’t want her to reveal their lives to anyone, even if he had been the one to bring the doctor into the house. “I wasn’t sure at first what I was going to do, but it’s like I really haven’t been given a choice. My father is so angry, and I think he would kill Xavier if he could get his hands on him. I just want to live my life, but everyone else seems to be trying to live it for me.”
Dr. Girtman nodded as he took his stethoscope from around his neck and put it back in his medical bag next to a heartbeat monitor, a thermometer, and a blood pressure cuff. He had listened quietly the entire time she talked, nodding occasionally and never chastising her for what had happened. He had no harsh words for her even though she’d made some less-than-stellar choices. “Well, my dear, you might as well get used to that. Once you have a baby, he or she will be the center of your universe. As for right now …” he trailed off as he looked around him at her little corner of the basement. “I can see that you’re stressed. I don’t think there’s really anything wrong with you or with the baby, but you clearly need lots of good vitamins, nutritious food, and light exercise. I don’t suppose there’s any way you can stay in a, shall we say, slightly more comfortable part of the house?”
Kenzie’s lips pursed, and she shook her head as she glanced at the door. She hoped nobody would take the doctor’s honesty out on him. “I’m afraid I’m stuck here for the moment.”
The doctor looked concerned, but it was obvious he understood her situation. Otherwise, he never would have agreed to come to the house to do the exam. “I see. Sometimes
we have to make the best of bad circumstances. I’ll leave a prescription for some prenatal vitamins and supplements. Those should help you feel better in general. Make sure you eat lots of small meals to combat the nausea.” He nodded and smiled, opened his mouth as if to say one more thing, but then turned for the door.
“Dr. Girtman?”
He looked over his shoulder, his face frightened and yet curious. “Yes?”
“Thank you.” And she truly felt gratitude for this man. He was a complete stranger, and yet he had been far nicer to her than her father had ever thought about being.
Kenzie sank back down into the mattress, a weight lifted off her. It was so nice to find that there were still good people in the world, and Dr. Girtman was definitely one of them. Maybe it wouldn’t be so terrible to only have house visits if she always got to see him, and not just some random quack with a dirty scalpel.
Shouts sounded just on the other side of her bedroom door, followed by heavy thuds on the stairs and a slammed door. Her father burst into the room a moment later. “What did that swindler say to you? He gave me a big load of bullshit about how I’m treating you, saying it was inhumane or some shit like that. What did you tell him?”
“I just told him how I was feeling,” she replied, raising her eyebrows a little and trying to look innocent this time. Normally, she liked pissing her father off, but it was better not to at the moment. “He said he left some prescriptions with you?”
“Yeah, that and a big lecture, the asshole. Who does he think he is to tell me how I should be treating my daughter? Like I don’t already know what you need.” He ran a hand through his hair, thoroughly irritated. “That shriveled old man had the balls to shake his finger at me. He’s lucky I didn’t have Tiny take care of him.”
Kenzie didn’t know what to say, and she was afraid that if she tried she would only end up laughing. She nodded and listened while her father raged, and he left a few minutes later. She turned and put a pillow over her face to muffle her laughter. The old man had gotten to her father, just as he deserved. It was a small blessing, but one she would gladly enjoy while she could.
When she was done, she lay back down and stared up at the ceiling. But instead of feeling forlorn and miserable, she felt comforted. It was a surprising relief to know that the baby really was okay, and she tentatively touched her stomach once again. Not too long ago, she had been so focused on getting rid of it and not going through with the pregnancy. Those thoughts were so distant now that it was as though they belonged to someone else. The child growing inside her suddenly felt so much more real. She would find a way out of this, and everything would be okay.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Xavier
Asphalt shook his head and handed Xavier a mug of coffee. “It’s just not going to be simple. Nothing that has to do with the Labriolas is easy; that’s why they own so much of this town. They’re ruthless, and they’ve got more money than they know what to do with. Anybody who tries to leave the family ends up mysteriously dead within days. People think the Reapers are scary, but they have no idea.” He poured a mug of coffee for himself and added a heaping spoon of sugar.
“You know I can’t just let this go.” Xavier stared down at the black liquid in the mug, still seeing Kenzie’s empty room in his mind’s eye. There was no amount of caffeine or alcohol that could ease his mind right now.
“I hate to say this, and I know you don’t want to hear it, but how do we know she’s still alive? Like I said, the Labriolas are heartless. I now it’s his daughter, but still.” He shook his head, uncomfortable with the thought. “We could be chasing after a ghost.”
But Xavier wasn’t ready to think about that. “I don’t think so, not according to what she put in her note. Labriola wants the baby, and like it or not, he needs Kenzie in order to get it. He’ll keep her alive, at least as long as he has to. She might not be happy or well, but she’ll be alive.” He hated to think of her locked up somewhere. Her bedroom had seemed like a plush enough place to make imprisonment at least tolerable. Had Matteo given her the same kind of comfort wherever he had her right now? “I just don’t know how I’m going to get to her now.”
The president swirled the contents of his mug and then tipped it back and drained it. “I should be furious with you, you know. Charging in there like a young bull wasn’t exactly a bright idea, and it’s only by the skin of your teeth that you came out alive. You should have waited or at least talked to me first. I could have helped you.”
“You would have tried to stop me,” Xavier replied somberly. “That wouldn’t have gone well.”
“Maybe not,” Asphalt agreed. “But you couldn’t really have expected to be successful going in there by yourself. Matteo is good, Xavier. You have to give him credit for that.”
“I don’t have to give him credit for shit.” Xavier set his mug down, disgusted with it and everything else in life. Some of the coffee sloshed over the side and onto the counter of the bar. “He’s an asshole who abuses his daughter. I don’t care how wealthy he is, or how smart he is, or how powerful he is. When it comes right down to it, he’s a dirtbag and nothing more.”
Asphalt nodded. “I tend to agree, which is why I have something to show you. Come with me.”
The two men headed outside. Asphalt fired up his bike and Xavier followed suit, threading through town with him and wondering just where the hell they were going. He wondered for a moment if the guys had gotten him a hooker to get his mind off of Kenzie, and he already vowed to himself that it wouldn’t work. He wasn’t going to be able to concentrate on anything until he had this resolved.
But they made their way to the industrial part of town, and Asphalt pulled over at the warehouse the Reapers used for repackaging their shipments. He didn’t say a word as he unlocked the door, went inside, and began climbing a ladder that went up to the roof.
“You’re really starting to make me wonder about you.” Xavier climbed the ladder easily behind his leader, but he couldn’t help but wonder just what the hell they were doing here. Hanging out at a warehouse wasn’t going to save Kenzie. “You didn’t fall off your bike and hit your head while you were on that trip, did you?”
The older man laughed, and it echoed in the big metal building. “Nope. I promise, I’m just as crazy as I ever was, no more and no less. I know what I’m doing. You just have to be patient.” He shoved open a trap door and stepped up onto the roof.
They could see a good deal of the city from here. The skyscrapers bunched together in the distance, but most of the buildings in this part of town were about the same height as the warehouse or lower. They were surrounded by other industrial buildings, and small clusters of poverty-stricken residential neighborhoods gathered near the edges. Even though he didn’t want to admit it, Xavier took a deep breath and just let himself enjoy the view for the moment. He had been in his own head too much over the last few weeks, and it was starting to get to him. It was good to be outside and away from everything.
“You know, when I first took over as president of the Reapers, I wasn’t sure how I wanted to do things. I didn’t want to be the kind of leader Matteo Labriola is, where his men are beholden to him for their very lives. That was more responsibility than I needed, and I wanted my men to follow me because they wanted to, not because they feared me. I thought keeping some distance between myself and the men would be a good idea. But then there have been guys like you, Xavier, guys who needed a family whether they wanted to admit it or not.”
Xavier, struck dumb for the moment, stared at him. The word “family” had caught his attention and held it tightly. When was the last time he’d really had a family? It had only ever been him and his father, and his father hadn’t needed anyone around. The club had been his family for years, but now there was the prospect of a woman and a child. No, he couldn’t allow himself to think like that. Kenzie didn’t want the baby, and she probably didn’t want him, either. She just needed to get out of Matteo’s house, and she knew Xav
ier could do that for her. And he would, but that would be the end of it.
“The Reapers have gathered around you in a way I never anticipated,” Asphalt continued. “They look up to you, but it’s more than that. They’re your brothers, and you mean a lot to them. I’m not saying this to embarrass you, but I want you to understand what you’re about to see. This wasn’t my idea, but I definitely supported it.”
“What are you talking about?” Xavier watched Asphalt closely, wondering just what was going on. The president was known for being cryptic when it suited him, and he was definitely doing it right now. This was an odd conversation to have on the rooftop of a warehouse.
“Look right over there, just past that green warehouse.” Asphalt pointed off in the distance and checked his watch. “It’s almost time.”
The silence that descended on them as they waited was almost too much, and Xavier was just about to turn to Asphalt and ask him what the hell was up when a building in the distance exploded. A ball of flames billowed out, sending bits of roof and wall with it that could be seen even from this distance. Thick black smoke penetrated the late afternoon sky. The shock of the blast vibrated through Xavier’s chest, making him take a step back.