Mountain Man's Baby Surprise (A Mountain Man's Baby Romance)

by Lia Lee

  If my dad found us, and the chances of that were good, my dad would kill Luke. I believed him when he’d said that to me. My dad had broken a lot of promises to me as a little girl and as a teenager growing up, but he had never gone back on his word when it came down to business, and all of this—my marriage to Sam and Luke’s imminent death if I refused—was business.

  Of course, thinking about running away with Luke wasn’t even a possibility anymore. The man didn’t want to be in the same cabin as me, let alone run away with me and spend the rest of our lives together. I had lied to him out of fear and selfishness, and instead of keeping him, like I had hoped to do by lying in the first place, I had lost him. When I thought about it, my heart broke. Tears rolled over my cheeks, and this time it wasn’t out of fear that I was crying.

  It was despair.

  I didn’t know how long Luke was outside or how long I’d sat on the floor, crying and feeling like my world had come to an end. When the door to the cabin opened and Luke stepped in, I realized it had started to grow dark. The only light in the cabin came from the few embers that were still glowing before me.

  “You’re in the dark,” Luke said switching on the kitchen light so it wouldn’t be harsh in the living room. “And you’re getting cold.”

  He walked to the hearth and built a new fire. I watched him move around, stacking logs and lighting firestarters. He hadn’t sounded angry when he’d spoken to me, but it wasn’t impossible to be neutral about a subject and still not be interested in being with someone anymore.

  When the fire was sorted, Luke turned to me. I looked up at him, and tears rolled over my cheeks again. I was unable to stop it.

  “Hey,” Luke said softly, coming closer to me. “It’s okay.”

  He sat down next to me and pulled me into his arms. I let him. The cold from outside still clung to his clothes but Luke and the heat that came with him was underneath, and when I breathed in, the scent of the pines, the scent of the fire and something that belonged only to Luke clung to him. God, how I would miss this smell and that only made me cry harder.

  “Why are you being so nice to me?” I asked through my tears.

  “Because you mean a hell of a lot to me, Anna,” he said.

  I shook my head. Not anymore, I thought.

  “You will always mean a lot to me,” Luke added as if he had read my mind. “And I want the baby.”

  I looked up at Luke, confused.

  “I don’t understand,” I said. “I thought you didn’t want the baby. I thought you were upset that I’m pregnant.”

  Luke shook his head. “I’m not upset about the baby. It’s not what we planned, but I can’t think of anything better than building a life and a family with you.”

  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Is it my dad?” I asked.

  Luke nodded. “I had to wrap my mind around what I’d found out. That he’s your father. It’s not about him being a criminal, either. I can forgive that easily. But your dad had me wrapped up in a prison world much like yours for so long that I lost sight of who I was. It was the reason I ran. I ditched the concept of family to save myself, and to see him again, to realize he is your dad, was a lot for me to digest.”

  “I understand that,” I said.

  “But I also heard what you said when you said you didn’t want to define yourself by who he is, and I agree with you because it’s what I’ve been trying to do the past year. I’ve been trying to figure out who I am without him. I understand you a lot more than you think.”

  I didn’t know what to say to that. I couldn’t change who I was and who I was related to, but Luke knew that.

  “I want you to know that I love you, too,” Luke said.

  I couldn’t believe my ears. I had spent the greater part of the day thinking I had been a fool to fall in love with someone when that love couldn’t be returned. To hear that he loved me was unbelievable and it made me feel warm.

  “I love you, and I want to be with you.”

  I sighed, the happiness that had come with Luke’s confession short-lived.

  “I have to leave tomorrow,” I said. “And I have to marry Sam.”

  Luke shook his head. “Over my dead body,” he growled and the vehemence with which he said it was so sudden and so intense it was almost a surprise. I forgot that because he had worked for my dad, he knew Sam, as well.

  “But if I don’t go, if I don’t marry Sam, my dad will kill you. You heard what he said. I can’t let you die.”

  Luke shook his head. “And I can’t let you sacrifice your happiness for my life. It’s not fair. It’s one life traded for another, then.”

  I nodded. I understood what he was trying to say. “I don’t see a way out,” I said. “If we run together he will hunt us down. If we stay together he will kill you. He will always find us, and he will kill you and drag me back to do what he wants me to do. There’s no way we can get out of this.”

  “Watch me,” Luke said, and he had a determined look in his eye. “I will do anything to be with you and raise our child together. Do you hear me? Anything.”

  I heard him, but I didn’t know what he would do that would create such a lasting impact that my father would change his mind. Sam was my dad’s right-hand man, and he was the only man that my dad trusted with his life. I wouldn’t have done the same, but my dad respected Sam.

  “I’m going to level with your dad. I know who he is. I know what he wants, and I know that he will respect me standing up for myself rather than tucking my tail and running again. It was where I had been mistaken the first time.”

  It all sounded very noble, but I was sacred for Luke. “What if you go to speak to my dad and then he ends up killing you?”

  Luke put his finger under my chin and tipped my head up to kiss me. “I’m not that easy to kill. But in the event that does happen, I know I’ll die a happy, fulfilled man.”

  The latter should have been a compliment. “You’re not making me feel any better,” I said.

  Luke kissed me again. “I want to try, babes. I’ll see what we can do, okay? We can’t walk away from this without trying.”

  “And what if you lose your life?”

  “It seems like more of a punishment to walk away and not have you in my life.”

  I shook my head again. Luke was trying to be sweet and his compliments were flattering. But I was terrified that my dad wouldn’t even hear me out, that he would be furious and kill Luke on the spot.

  “I’m ready to fight for what I believe in, Anna.”

  “It’s not worth your life to fight for me,” I said.

  Luke shook his head. “I want you in my life, but it’s not all I’m fighting for. I was thrown into a world I wasn’t allowed out of, and the moment I left, I was painted as a traitor. I want my freedom back. I want my image back. I want to walk this earth without looking over my shoulder all the time, without wondering who I could have been if I had chosen a different path in life. I want to choose that path, now.”

  “I understand all of that,” I said. “God, there have been countless nights where I wished I was someone else. I know I never chose for him to be my dad, but I wished for a different life so many times. I know what you’re going through.”

  Luke ran the back of his fingers down my cheek, a caress that made me feel warm, but I was still unsure, and the caress didn’t make anything better.

  I looked into his eyes. “The difference between me and you is that if I fight, you die. But if you fight? You die, too. That doesn’t seem like a good situation at all. Isn’t it easier to give up and do what he tells you?”

  “If I give up, your dad would have won, and I would have lost every last part of who I am. I’m going to see this through. Come what may, I will have stayed true to who I am. He can’t ever take that away from me.”

  I wondered if my dad knew that he wouldn’t be able to beat Luke, no matter what he did. He could kill Luke, and my dad would still lose. And it would reach out further than Luke and h
is view of the world. Because no matter what my dad did to Luke, I would always love him, and his child was still growing inside of me. And those were things my dad could never take away from us.

  So in a way, we had already won. But I was terrified that if we stood up to my dad, we fought what he was trying to set in motion, we would still lose enough that the effect would be crippling.

  “I’m ready to fight for you, Anna,” Luke said before he kissed me. “Because I want nothing more in this world than to be with you and raise our child together.”

  Chapter 28

  Luke

  When I woke up the next morning, I was ready to face off with Frankie. I had a whole life to fight for now, a woman and a child that completed me in a way I had never felt complete before.

  Anna was worried that I would end up dead. And the possibility was there. I was aware of it. But I wanted to fight for her, and I knew Frankie. I knew what he wanted and what was important to him, And if I could show him that those things were important to me too, maybe he would reconsider. It was worth a try.

  Anna was worth a try. She was worth a hell of a lot more than that.

  Frank arrived exactly twenty-four hours after he had left and hammered on the door. Anna wanted to open for him, but I insisted and walked to the door, opening it.

  “Where is she?” Frankie asked.

  “She’s not going with you,” I said.

  Frank raised his eyebrows. “Do you have a death wish?” he asked.

  I shook my head and stepped outside, closing the door behind me. Frank and I stood in the snow, the cabin at my back, and it was colder than it had been yesterday. But the adrenaline pumped through my system and I barely felt the chill.

  “I want to have a word with you,” I said. “Your daughter means the world to me. I love her, and I want to marry her. I didn’t take her virginity and get her pregnant only to run away. I have always had honorable intentions toward her, and I ask for your blessing.”

  Frank chuckled. “What makes you think I’m going to give it to you? What makes you think I’m going to let you live?”

  “Because you know me. You know what kind of a man I am, how loyal I am.”

  Frank shook his head. “Running away from your people and your duties is not loyalty,” he said.

  “Yes, I left,” I said. “I admit it was wrong. But you wouldn’t let me out. I told you I didn’t like who this made me.”

  “So? You should have sucked it up. I did.”

  The words shocked me. Did Frank not want to be who he was, either. What were the chances he was stuck in a life he hated the same way I was? How much worse would it be for him as the mafia boss?

  “I know what it means to step up to the plate and accept responsibility, just the way you’re doing,” I said. “I want to do that, too.”

  Frank shook his head. “You see, that’s all fine and dandy. But someone else is already doing that.”

  Frank looked over his shoulder, and Sam climbed out of the car. The son of a bitch was as smug and shady looking as ever. His light brown hair was buzzed short, his green eyes were dull, and he was thin and reedy, but I knew it made everyone underestimate his strength. Sam’s strength didn’t only lie in his natural physical strength but also in his ability to switch off his humanity. Sam could do gruesome things to people without blinking an eye or feeling bad about it, and that made him dangerous. The one thing that stopped us from being monsters was our conscience. Sam didn’t have one.

  “You brought him here?” I asked.

  “I brought him to fetch his bride.”

  Of course, he did. Frank was a bastard, and Sam was right up there with him. Now that I knew who Anna’s dad was, I understood why she had run away. I knew what she had been trying to do.

  “So, let’s talk about this little stunt you’re pulling,” Frank said. Sam started walking through the snow, scoping out the area. I tried to keep an eye on him, but he moved to the back of the cabin, and I lost sight of him.

  “It’s not a stunt,” I said. “I’m trying to level with you. Anna will never be happy with Sam, you know that. Don’t you want your daughter to be happy?”

  “I want her where I can see her. There are a lot of people that will hurt her to get to me, and if I keep her close, she will be out of harm’s way. I don’t care about her being happy. I want her safe. I already lost a wife. I won’t lose a daughter, too.”

  He was worried about losing her, I realized. Frank’s intentions were not to control her but to keep her where he could see her, to keep her from slipping away. But it was like a handful of beach sand. The tighter you held onto beach sand, the more it slipped out of your fingers. It was when you held it loosely in a cupped had that it stayed.

  Frank was squeezing the shit out of Anna, terrified of letting go and losing her all the same.

  The door opened, and Anna stepped out.

  “Get back inside,” I said.

  “Don’t tell me what to do. This is my life we’re talking about.”

  She was stubborn, and I understood why Frank felt the need to tame her. Anna didn’t make things any easier.

  “This is all very touching that you’re here to fight for her,” Frank said to me. “But I don’t approve of her choice in a man.”

  It was supposed to be an insult. But before I could respond, Anna spoke up.

  “That’s not for you to decide,” she said. “I don’t care if you don’t approve. I can do whatever the hell I want, and I’m going to keep doing it.”

  The words were barely out of Anna’s mouth when Sam appeared from behind the cabin and grabbed her. Anna yelped, looking frantically over her shoulder, and she paled when she realized who had grabbed a hold of her.

  “Sam,” she said in a panicked voice. “What are you doing here?”

  She was scared of him. It was plain to see. How could Frank push her to marry a man she so obviously feared?

  “Let her go, Sam,” Frank said, but Sam shook his head and pulled a gun out of his pocket. Things had escalated very quickly.

  “Sam,” Frank barked. “What the fuck are you doing? Unhand my daughter.”

  Frank had lost control of his boy, and that was never a good thing.

  “I’m so sick of Luke being a pussy, talking shit like life is a problem that can be solved. Anna is coming with me, now. You can stand here and chat as long as you like.”

  “Sam,” Frank warned again, but Sam shook his head and pressed the barrel of the gun against Anna’s temple. She whimpered, her eyes squeezed shut, her hands clawing at the arm that was slung over her shoulders.

  “Let me go, Sam,” she cried.

  “Not until you agree to come with me,” he said.

  The man was crazy. He had a wild look in his eye, and I didn’t trust that he wasn’t going to pull that trigger.

  Frank didn’t trust him, either. The situation was new—he had always seen Sam as a son. But Sam had clearly stepped out of line in a big way. “Put the gun down, Sam. We’re going to take care of this.”

  Was Frank going to give Anna to Sam for the sake of keeping her alive? I knew now more than ever that Anna couldn’t go with Sam. He would kill her. Maybe not physically but he would snuff her out until she was only a shell of what she once used to be.

  Frank and I were suddenly on the same side, trying to get Anna back alive and in one piece. We both stood, facing Sam.

  “You can’t play the game this way, son,” Frank said, and his voice was low like he was trying to talk someone down from a ledge. “Let’s think about this.”

  “What is there to think about?” he asked. “You’re fucking around with small talk when you should have shot the bastard and gotten it over and done with. That doesn’t sound very boss-like to me.”

  “Careful, Sam,” Frank warned. The mafia boss had to be respected by his men. But Sam laughed.

  “Careful? I have a gun pressed to your daughter’s head, and you can’t do shit about it, and I’m the one that has to be careful?”r />
  He had a point. Frank glanced at me and something passed between us. I had to save the situation. I had to save the woman I loved.

  Sam was talking to Frank, monologuing about the power of persuasion. I inched closer to him. Frank moved in the opposite direction, so Sam faced further and further away from me. As soon as I was able to get close enough, I jumped forward and knocked Sam off his feet. He let go of Anna and the gun fell into the snow. I pulled Anna against me and held her close.

  “Thank you,” she said letting out a gasp of air.

  Frank walked toward Sam. I saw it all happen in slow motion. Sam reached for the gun that hadn’t fallen too far. He picked up the gun and aimed at Frank. I lunged for Frank at the same time Anna jumped toward Sam. Anna hit Sam, knocking him so the gun pulled to the right. At the same time, I jumped in front of Frank.

  A loud sound echoed through the trees, and I fell to the ground, my arm burning like a bitch.

  “Oh, my God,” Anna cried.

  Frank blinked at me on the ground and at Sam who had just tried to shoot him. Something came over him, his face changed, and I knew there was hell to pay.

  Frank marched toward Sam and picked up the gun that had fallen out of his hands when Anna had tackled him. Frank lifted the gun and pointed it at Sam’s face.

  “No, no, no,” Sam said. “Please.” He was begging for his life.

  “Honey, look away,” Frank said to Anna. “Sam,” he said to the dead man. “Begging is for pussies.”

  He pulled the trigger and the second shot rang through the trees, the splatter of blood a bright crimson in the snow.

  Anna ran to me, stumbling through the snow and falling next to me on her knees.

  “Oh, my God, you idiot,” she said. “You jumped in front of a bullet. What the hell were you thinking?”