Page 19 of Surprise Baby for the Enemy

“Rules written by you don’t sound like they’ll benefit me.”

“They will so long as you follow them,” I say sweetly.

Silver is quiet for a long moment, but I hold my breath until he says, “All right then. Where should we meet?”

Shit. Shit, shit, shit, I can’t believe this is working. “Where else? I’ll see you at Cooper’s.”

CHAPTER 11

Raleigh

I spendthe rest of the morning practicing my speech for Silver- and fighting the need to want to throw up. God I’m so nervous. As much as I don’t feel like eating, I need sustenance before the big event. I go out of my way to get some breakfast from the kitchen- something that makes Iris look at me with total shock when I pass her in the hall with a plate of scrambled eggs and bacon.

We haven’t talked since I stormed out of the office, and the guilt of keeping my plan from her is definitely starting to gnaw a hole in my stomach.

But what happens when I come out on top?

Will Iris be proud of me when Silver leaves us alone for good? Will she congratulate me on a job well done, maybe even call me a “true Warwick”? I can almost picture it- her beaming with pride, her hand on my shoulder as she tells me I’m more than just a pretty face.

And Thomas… could he actually see me as more than his kid sister? Maybe he’d give me a seat at the table, trust me with bigger decisions. I can practically hear him telling the family, “Raleigh handled Silver, she’s proven herself.” I’d finally havethat respect- my name spoken in the same breath as his, not as a side piece, but as a real player in the game.

Enough, I can’t get lost in this. I need to focus. I need to be ready for Silver.

And if I keep overthinking it, I’ll make myself sick with anxiety.

Instead, I focus on the bright side. This is my first real negotiation- hell, my first time running any kind of deal like this. I should be taking it more seriously, but part of me is… well,thrilledthat I’m taking this reckless chance.

Dear ol’ dad would be rolling in his grave if he could see me now.

The place I told Silver to meet at, Cooper’s, is the neutral spot on the map chosen by the Warwicks and the Speares during the ten years of war between our families. Well, now that Morgan Speare is dead, it’s just the shittiest little bar you’ve ever seen, on the dingy corner of Cock Lane and Hackney Street. The color has all but leached out of its red brick walls, and even at night I doubt the neon sign would light up at all.

So really, I’m elevating it once again by bringing back a glorious tradition. Silver’s playing so hard at being a mafia boss, so fine, I’ll throw him that bone. He can feel honored to stand where his stupid father stood.

And in the most uncertain corner of my mind, screaming that this whole thing is a bad, bad idea, I’m hoping that fact will remind him to keep this civil.

I’m about as thrilled to leave my Bentley alone in this parking lot as I would be to stick my hand in a snake hole, but needsmust. I scan the lot, wondering which car might belong to him. I make a mental note to spot it before he leaves.

Every head in the bar turns to look at me when I enter. I’m the only woman, and every one of these men is balding, beer-bellied, and blearily drunk. I wrinkle my nose against the rancid smell of spilled alcohol and the unwashed bodies of the day drunk, and step high over the sticky wooden floors toward the back of the bar. Through a door that hesitates when I try to open it, there’s a private pool room filled with the old smell of cigarette smoke. The pool table sits smack in the middle of the sagging floor, under a shabby chandelier that bathes the room in about a third of the light it needs.

And in the shadows on the far side of the room, the pool table a pitiful obstacle between us, Silver is already waiting for me. He’s flanked by two identical goons, just like he was the last time I saw him, standing with his arms crossed over his chest and his feet shoulder width apart. At least in this pose I can tell they’re not holding any guns, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t still armed. For a second, I wonder if this could be another lookalike, one of the ones Derrick’s been supposedly chasing all over the place.

But when Silver tilts his head back just enough that the hazy light from the chandelier hits his gray eyes, I know he’s the real deal.

I have to lock my knees to hide the shiver that runs down my spine when I see him again. As much as I want to crack a joke about how he and his thugs look like a grungy boy band about to break out in song and dance… the words get caught in my throat.

The last time I saw this man, he had a gun in his hand and his goons were telling me to get fucked,literally. He didn’t know who I was then, but now that he does, I want him to start feeling just a little of the fear that I did.

Silver gives nothing away, of course. He only nods, as if to himself, recognizing me with more humor than terror. I don’t like that he’s not immediately cowed. And then his raspy voice chills me all over again.

“If I’d known I had Raleigh Warwick in my company last time, things could’ve gone very differently.”

That’s not an apology, not remotely. My stomach churns, and it’s not nerves this time. He wasn’t supposed to get the opening remark, and he’s already shaken me. Anger and disgust help me find my voice.

“You mean you would’ve been threatening me directly, instead of Derrick?” I shoot back.

Silver dips his head. “Believe me, Miss Warwick, I meant to handle that situation with more… subtlety. You were not supposed to be involved at all.”

Still not good enough. I lost my virginity in front of his henchman’s little domination stunt, and that’s all he has to say? He hoped for moresubtlety?!

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