MOBSTER’S BABY_Esposito Family Mafia

by Nicole Fox

  I sighed.

  "I made some mistakes," I said.

  "Yeah, well, we both did, but I'm gonna fix that shit."

  "Tony—"

  "That baby in you is mine," he said. "And that makes you and it my responsibility. You think your dick-head of a father is gonna keep me from what's mine—"

  "I don't belong to you, Tony—"

  "I'm coming to get you, Evie—"

  "Tony, no, you're not!" I hadn't realized I'd raised my voice, but when I did, I blushed. I saw a couple of patrons looking at me and mouthed 'I'm sorry' at them for disrupting their meal. That was rude of me; I shouldn't have done that.

  "Listen, Tony, please. You don't understand," I whispered. "My father made me swear not to tell you about this. I'm going to be out here for nine months. I'm going to have this baby. And then I'm going to give this baby away. I was only calling so that you knew that you have a son or daughter out there somewhere—"

  "Is that what you chose, or what your father chose?" he demanded.

  I swallowed. "Tony, you don't know my father."

  "And your father obviously doesn't know who the fuck he's dealing with."

  Then the line went dead.

  My hand trembled and I felt sick. I hung up the phone.

  What the hell had I just set in motion?

  # # #

  "What did we agree to when I sent you out there?"

  "That I would keep my head down, that I would listen to your rules, and that I wouldn't cause any trouble."

  "Then why did Mary Ann have to call me, informing me that you ran from her today, going who knows where to do God knows what?"

  I rolled my eyes.

  "It's not like I can get pregnant again, father, so I don't think you have to worry about another indiscretion."

  My father's sigh on the other side of the phone sounded like he was ready to be done with me. Honestly, I wished he would be. This whole ordeal was insane. It was the twenty-first century; yet here I was like it was nineteen-hundred and I was some good Catholic girl knocked up by the neighbor boy, whisked off into the night so that no one knew her nasty little secret.

  Why had I agreed to this? Why?

  "We talked about this, Evelyn. Remember what we agreed to? Say it. Say it out loud, girl."

  Right. I remembered.

  "This is better for the baby, and for my future," I parroted off. "I can't have a career with a baby this young, and I can't do it with the stain of mafia ilk, either. It wouldn't be able to have a normal life. I wouldn't be able to be happy."

  "Exactly. Think about that the next time you run off. Now. What were you doing?"

  "I just wanted some alone time," I said, exasperated. That wasn't really a lie.

  "Hm. Well remember that you haven't earned alone time, and until you start showing me that you're grateful for my efforts to preserve your image, you won't be getting it."

  He hung up.

  I flung the phone away from me. It was Mary Ann's, anyway. She picked it up from the floor, frowning.

  "Miss Evelyn—"

  "Don't talk to me," I snapped. "I'm going to bed."

  I couldn't find it in myself to feel sorry for being so angry at her. Mostly, I was angry at myself. My father had orchestrated all of this, but it was me who had let him cow me under. I flung myself onto my bed when I got to my room, groaning in frustration.

  I was young, beautiful, and intelligent. I was supposed to be living my life—one-night stands like the one I had with Tony were my right as a young woman! Get it all nice and out of the way before ...

  My hand settled on my belly. I hadn't started showing yet. It was too early. But I still knew what lay inside me. I never admitted it to my father, but the feeling that I’d had when I had seen that little plus sign on my pregnancy test hadn't been one of dread, but elation. I had been excited. I'd always wanted to be a mother at some point. Father had always told me that such notions were silly, though—that children only ever got in the way of the future and that I could entertain my fantasies after I was done getting ahead in life.

  I'm coming for you, Evie.

  I sighed. That's what Tony had said. It was foolish as hell for him to think he was going to, and it was dumb of me to want it, but I did. Just like the night that led to this conception, I knew it was wrong and silly—but it was exciting and dangerous and I wanted it. I wanted him to take me away.

  But ...did I want him? Did I want him to be the father of my child? Did I want him to possess me?

  I had no idea. But it wasn't like Tony would actually come for me, anyway.

  # # #

  Rick Brown got off the phone with his daughter. Irritation colored his aged-yet-handsome face. Stupid, silly girl. Spreading her legs in an alley like some sort of whore, then having the nerve to be indignant when he didn't coddle her for the mistake that came with it. He shook his head, sighing. She should feel lucky that he didn't send her to get it scraped from her belly. She should be grateful that he was being generous enough to welcome her back after her little romp that led to the bastard inside her.

  His eyes fell to a picture on his desk. A beautiful woman, with blonde hair—the same as Evelyn’s. He touched the framed picture fondly. Evelyn resembled her mother in a number of ways. It was merely unfortunate that she didn't behave like her as well. His beautiful wife ...had died to bring their ungrateful child into this world, and now Evelyn dared to throw away that life on what? Some mafia thug?

  Rick Brown shook his head and was ready to stand and leave for a meeting when his phone rang. Perhaps it was Evelyn, calling to apologize for her poor behavior, but—no. An unknown number.

  "What's this ..."

  He answered with caution.

  "Rick Brown," he said. "Who is this?"

  "Tony Esposito. We need to talk."

  Rick grimaced and sat down. He alluded nothing to his mood, however, playing calm.

  "And what does the great Tony Esposito want with me?"

  "I want you to hear it from me when I tell you that your attempts failed, and I'm getting what's mine, Rick." The boy sounded so confident with himself. Rick scoffed.

  "And what, exactly, do you think is yours?"

  "Your daughter, for one," he said. "And that baby that you tried to keep from me."

  "So Evelyn did contact you."

  "I found out about the baby before she called me. You see, she left such an impression when she was suckin' my cock—"

  "You will not speak about my daughter like this. She may have let you slither inside her and plant your little bastard, but Evelyn is a Brown, and she will get more respect than that—"

  "You mean the same kinda respect that makes a father send his daughter away to some little Podunk town in the middle of nowhere so she can have her baby in secret like it's a shame, then give it away? 'Cause, lemme tell you, I think that's pretty fucked up, and you know what I'm capable of."

  "That I do."

  "Then you know better than to stop me when I take your daughter and that baby."

  "You touch my daughter and I'll have you killed—"

  "You so much as breathe in my direction and I'll cut off your balls. And that's before I let one of my boys at your ass for thinking you were gonna fuck with me and mine, Governor. We'll call it even-stevens if you leave me to get mine, I'll make sure that any dirt the family has on you stays as far out of the spotlight as it has been lately."

  "You're blackmailing me? Do you want to start a war, boy? I could crush you."

  "You decided to start a war when you thought you were gonna hide my child away from me."

  The phone went dead.

  Chapter Four

  Tony

  "He's keeping his daughter out here? In this rinky-ass town?"

  "I told you this guy was obviously fucked up beyond a reasonable doubt."

  I had Allan with me. He was the only one I trusted to be right there up front with me. We were tailed, though, by a couple other guys who Allan had rounded up. Other tha
n that, this was all on us. I hadn't even told my father—he wouldn't understand, for one, and for two, he wouldn't be able to say no when I brought Evie back.

  She had her baby in me. That made her mine. My father always said a real man took what was his.

  I had it planned out—take out the undercover, then take out the guards. It was night, so it wouldn't be that hard. We were going to leave the maid—I didn't kill old ladies. Even I had some Goddamn standards—get Evie and whatever the hell she wanted and needed from that house, and take her back to the compound. She could say no, but I wasn't going to take no as an answer from her, not by a damn long shot.

  "You know, man, I know you have this all in your head that you gotta do this because there's a baby involved and everything, but you ever think that this is a trap?"

  "I trust Monroe's info—"

  "Dude I'm not talking about Monroe. He says that the girl is out here and got a pregnancy test and shit, then she obviously did; he knows the game. I'm talking about this girl's daddy. You've heard shit about him—"

  "He's not gonna get in the way of this."

  After our little conversation, I knew at the very least I would get away with taking her. If Rick Brown knew what was good for him, he'd let me keep his daughter without a damn fuss. If not ... well I knew what I had in store for him.

  I pulled us down the road where Evie's temporary home was. It wasn't too far out of the cut, but enough that it was obvious her father had tried to make shit hard on her. What a bastard. We rolled on slowly.

  "Look up there."

  There were two cars flanking the road. I looked to Allan, and he nodded at me. He already had his hand in his jacket, fingers on his gun. I was doing the same. I kept the slow roll. One person came out of each of the cars, and our windows went down. We reacted first, guns out the windows before the two men could react. We shot; there was no sound, though. We were smart enough to have the silencers. The two wouldn't die, but we hit our marks true and they fell to the ground; I sped up and away, down the road.

  "Well that was easier than I thought it would be," Allan commented.

  "Yeah, easy for now. Stay on your toes. There's supposed to be an undercover around, too, remember?"

  "Aw, yeah ..."

  Oddly enough, we didn't come across the undercover. I kept my eyes peeled as we pulled up to the house. There were a couple of lights on in front of the house, and I sat in the car for a moment before getting out.

  "Watch my back."

  Our second car pulled up behind us, and by my order, the people in it stayed their asses put. I walked up to the front of the house and knocked.

  "You're gonna be polite about all this?"

  "I was raised half decent."

  Allan snorted.

  There were a few moments of waiting before footsteps sounded, and I heard muffled voices. The door opened, and I was greeted by the face of an old woman. She opened her mouth to try to scream, and I held my gun up under her chin. I wouldn't kill her, but that didn't mean that I was above threatening her.

  "Don't do that."

  I stepped forward, pushing her back into the home as Allan and I entered. There was a television on that I could hear in the background and what smelled like food cooking.

  "Making me dinner?" I asked, amused. She didn't answer me, only stared with wide eyes.

  "Mary Ann, what—Tony?"

  I kept my gun on Mary Ann, but turned my eyes to Evie. She was as gorgeous as she had been the last time we'd seen each other and obviously surprised that I had actually come. I didn't see why; I had told her I was going to come and get her, and I wasn't the kind of man to back out on something that I'd committed to. Especially when it came to someone like Evie.

  "I told you that I was gonna come back for you."

  "Tony—what the hell? Take that gun away from her. What are you ... what ..."

  She approached me slowly, as if she couldn't believe that I was actually there. She reached out to me, brushing her fingers on my face. She was so warm and soft, and it was my turn to be surprised when she suddenly wrapped her arms around me in a hug.

  "Well, that was unexpected," I muttered. I wrapped my arms around her, though, and drew her close to me, keeping her there. Fuck if I didn't love the way she felt pressed against my body. Even knowing that she was pregnant, it sent a fire through me, nice and low.

  "You have to leave, Tony," she said against my chest. "My father—"

  “I don't give a fuck about your father," I said. "I told you that I was coming to get you. I came to get you. Pack up your stuff. We need to leave."

  I gave her no room to protest. There was an order there—me needing to have her do this thing for me. She looked up at me with those big, blue eyes of her, and for a moment, I thought she was going to tell me no.

  "Okay."

  She pulled away from me, retreating to a room. That left us and grannie, who hadn't moved nor spoken a word. She was pale as a sheet.

  "Mr. Brown won't let you get away with taking Miss Evelyn," she said, not wholly meekly, but not sure of herself, either. "He cares about her. He won't let you—"

  "He cares about her so much that he left her out in the middle of a desert to rot until she had her baby, and then was planning to throw that baby to the wayside? I don't think so. The man is a selfish prick, only thinking of himself."

  "Do you think this is good for Miss Evelyn? You're only thinking about yourself. I bet you don't even care for her. This is all about putting Mr. Brown in his place—"

  I raised my gun up again.

  "I ain't gonna kill you, but I'm not in the mood for a lecture, old lady. That's my baby, and as far as I'm concerned, that’s my girl now too. You shut the fuck up and let me take her, and I won't have you meet your maker anytime soon."

  She paled even more, but didn't give me another lick of bullshit, which was good for her. I nodded to the couch, and she moved over there to sit.

  "Watch the woman," I told Allan. I followed through where Evelyn had walked off to, going to stand in the doorway. She had a suitcase and was throwing in clothes randomly from the drawers and the closet. It might have been a little creepy, but I just watched her, taking in the curve of her back as she leaned over and the way her ass jutted out as she bent. I bit my lip. I remembered how nice that ass was when it was bent over.

  "You know, you're gonna make me wanna give the old lady a heart attack by making her hear how you sound when I'm fucking you if you keep showing me your ass like that."

  She jumped a bit, turning around. Her cheeks were red; it was a nice color on her.

  "You scared the shit out of me."

  I smirked.

  "I could always make that up to you."

  "Tony ..." She shook her head and turned from me, going back to filling up her suitcase with clothes.

  "What?"

  "You're a lot more relaxed than I thought you would be."

  "Why would I be uptight?"

  She cast an incredulous look over her shoulder, gestured to her belly, then turned back around.

  "I'm not the kind of man that shirks on his responsibilities, if that's what you mean," I said. “Not in the slightest. I'm not like that."

  "I didn't say you were. A baby is still ...big."

  "And? I have money. I have power. That little thing isn't going to want for shit—"

  "So you want to raise it?"

  I tilted my head.

  "Why wouldn't I?"

  She went to open her mouth, but stopped. She looked outside, and I heard it too.

  Sirens.

  "Son of a bitch ..." I went to her suitcase, zipped it up, grabbed it, and grabbed her, too. "We can talk about this later."

  Allan was already by the door, holding it open.

  "He must have had them following us, or one of them at the front called it in or some shit," Allan said. We both saw the police lights coming our way. "We gotta hurry the fuck up, man."

  I didn't hesitate as I pulled Evie along with me.
We left the old woman in the house. She shouted after us.

  "You'll never get away with this! You hurt Miss Evelyn, you'll pay!"

  "God, I wish that old bat would shut up."

  I pushed Evie into the back of my car, and Allan slid into the front. I didn't bother buckling as I peeled off down the road, and the other car with our backup was already following along behind us.