“You won’t be smirking long when you learn Riona is pregnant with Damien’s baby.”
Nausea swirls in my stomach each time I repeat those words to myself.
She can’t be pregnant yet.
Cernach would lose his shit if they consummated their marriage without saying their vows first.
The other contract he signed.
Just like he agreed to marry Riona, he’s also agreed to knock her up.
My phone vibrates on the bed.
I snatch it to find a text on the screen.
Damien: I heard you need a ride to NY. You can ride with me now. I’ll be there in 45.
Forty-five minutes.
That’s how much time I have to get out of here.
I’m not riding back to New York with him.
I wince while putting on my heels from last night. It’ll be a bitch, walking in these, but it’s an uncomfortableness I’ll deal with. I hurriedly open the Uber app on my phone and book a ride.
Cernach isn’t in sight as I rush out of the house. As I walk outside and down the drive, I feel guns and eyes on me. No one attempts to stop me, but I’m sure I look like a hot mess, doing the walk of shame.
It takes me ten minutes to reach the gate. A guard approaches me, giving my body a once-over in approval.
“Where are you going?” he asks in a thick Irish accent, hitching his gun over his shoulder. “Bad news for ya. The closest Starbucks is a forty-minute walk.”
Don’t flip him off.
Don’t give him attitude.
I tuck my hands in front of me and sweeten my tone. “Can you give me a ride?” I practically stole my tone from Riona from breakfast.
“Fuck no,” he automatically says, tugging on his hoop earring. “I take orders from Cernach, and last I checked, you’re not him.”
Another man approaches us. “You suck my dick, I’ll take you.” He thrusts his hips forward and gives me a crooked-tooth smile.
I swat my hand through the air. “Just open the gate, please.”
“Are you allowed to leave?” Hoop Earrings asks before pulling a radio from his pocket. “No one comes and goes without his permission.” He hits a button on his radio and speaks into it. “Dark-haired woman, wearing a sexy pink dress, is asking to leave.”
“She’s good,” a staticky voice says on the other end.
Hoop Earrings peers at me. “Have a nice walk. Your feet will hurt in those shoes.”
As soon as I’m outside the gates, I sit on the ground. Hoop Earrings was right. No way am I walking miles in these heels. I’ll have my driver pick me up here. I just couldn’t stay inside Cernach’s walls any longer.
My Uber driver, Fred, moved the air vent in his face when I slid into his car. He’s hardly said a word since picking me up at Cernach’s gates.
I am grateful he arrived in twenty minutes, giving me plenty of time to flee before Damien arrives at Cernach’s.
Damien even going to Cernach’s is risky. It’s obvious he blew up Igor’s car, and as a man who grew up in the mob, he knows how dangerous pissing off a mob boss is.
Cernach is a brutal leader.