Page 54 of Mafia Baby

He laughed in the face of my anger. “If you’re asking about Dad, he just transports things for other people. He actually was happy to transport and move all kinds of things for The Cobra. Money is more important than good sense for Dad. He did draw the line when The Cobra asked about shipping people from overseas, but I found other people to handle that.”

I had gulped. People. I thought of the brother who had helped me learn to ride a bike and shoot hoops.

I thought about the time that he came to visit me at school and we had gotten ridiculously drunk at a pub and then wandered around the city people-watching until the sun came up. I thought about riding the London Eye with him and then going on an impromptu trip to Italy one weekend to get some sunshine.

That same brother had probably been trading human souls for cash even then. The thought was horrifying, but inescapable.

I realized for the first time, that Will had truly been my only friend for most of my life. Knowing what I knew now showed me just how wrong I had been to trust him.

I felt betrayed. Everything about those memories was sullied and ruined for me now. There was a bitter taste in my mouth, and I realized that I was biting the inside of my cheek so hard I had drawn blood.

I knew one simple truth in that moment: I could never let him know about the baby.

The Cobra would never tolerate the thought of the Reaper’s baby being born into his family. It was clear how little he thought of Dom despite all the years that he had pretended to be his friend.

I also knew with sudden clarity, that he would see my child as a great threat to his empire. The baby in my womb would be the heir not only to Dom’s personal fortune, but to the Romano family name and legacy.

He would never be able to let my child live.

I swallowed hard and tilted my chin up, trying to remain defiant in the face of my sudden intense fear of my brother. The monster pacing before me with a black eye and a bloody nose was not my brother.

My brother had just been a sweet fantasy that I had held in my head. William Bianchi had never existed. There had only ever been The Cobra.

“All of that mob money provided you with a very nice life, you know,” Will went on. “You got to go to school overseas, and you never had to work. You were pampered and spoiled and so was mom. You two have it so good, but only she understands that.”

“None of you gave me a chance to understand anything,” I hissed at him. “You kept secrets from me and sent me away. I don’t know any of you at all, apparently.”

“You ungrateful little bitch,” William snapped. He took two quick steps and slapped me forcefully across the cheek.

I cried out in spite of my desire not to. I stared at the blood dripping onto the floor from my split lip, feeling shocked and numb.

My brother was fully capable of killing me, I now realized. And he would be happy to do so if it served his purposes.

I wondered if Dom had noticed that I was gone. He had to have by now. It had probably been an hour since I was kidnapped. I wasn’t sure that he would have any idea where I was, however. Maybe that was better.

If I could keep William from reaching out to Dom, maybe I could spare his life. I wasn’t sure that I could save myself or the baby, but maybe I could keep Dom from being hurt.

“You are mistaking my feelings for Dom,” I told him, the lie painful and jagged in my throat. “I don’t care about him at all. He’s a good lay. We’re just having fun together. Surely even you can admit how hot he is.”

Will curled his lip in distaste. “If swarthy Italian is your kind of thing, I guess,” he said dismissively. “Honestly, I thought you’d be happy with Guy. I figured you two would be the perfect couple, and you were…for a while anyway.”

I looked away from the blood spots on the floor, my eyes wide. I stared at my brother in awe, which was tinged with horror. “Guy was spying on me, wasn’t he?” I had said to him in wonder.

Will winked at me. “Smart girl. He made sure you didn’t get too smart or too busy with anything but partying and going to school. It was a good way to make sure that you were doing what I wanted you to be doing and that you were safe. But then you broke up with him and came home and everything went to shit.”

My mind raced back to all the times that Guy told me I was too young or inexperienced to apply for a job, all the times that he had wheedled until I chose to skip going home for vacation, all the times that he had belittled me and told me that I was just a rich girl who didn’t understand anything.

I thought about him coming after me and demanding that I come back to the UK with him. He hadn’t done any of that on his own.

My brother had orchestrated all of it.

“You killed him,” I said next, the thought arriving in my brain with perfect clarity.

Will nodded. “Yep,” he said back, as if was talking about having Sunday dinner with our parents. “He was a snively shit. I never liked him.”

“Oh my God,” I said. I started to tremble. Everything in my life had been a lie. Everything. But then I thought of Dom and his deep blue eyes, and gentle hands.

Dom wasn’t a lie.

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