Page 38 of Morally Gray Daddies

But I didn’t have time for them today. I needed to get to the train station. Or the bus station. Or question Hailey to find out where Clara had gone. Which would mean admitting I’d lost my wife. Fuck.

Chapter Sixteen

Gio

Not at any of the local bus stations. Nor the train station. I’d shown her picture around everywhere that I could think of. I had police officers trolling the streets looking for her. Every one of our men that I ran into while I traveled what felt like the whole of New York City was now on the lookout for her.

And nothing.

I even went by her precinct for a second time to check in.

No one had seen her since she’d left.

It was like she’d turned into a ghost.

I came stomping back to the house at dinner time, still holding the black cat that had been with me all damn day. For some reason, I didn’t feel like I could put him down. Like, if I put him down, I’d lose that connection with her.

I’m going to find you.

It didn’t matter if I had to tear up the whole city, the whole state, the whole damn country… I was going to find my wife. One way or another. And then I was going to spank her until she couldn’t sit for a week and fuck her raw, in every hole, so that she remembered who she belonged to. But mostly her pussy. I’d fuck her pussy over and over and over until I put a baby in her belly.

See how easy it was to run from me when she was good and knocked up.

Fuming, I made my way back home as the streets began to darken, people rushing home for the day from their jobs. Maybe she’d said something to Hailey this morning while they’d been whispering. Some kind of hint. Some kind of clue. If she had, Jack would get it out of her. I should have gone home earlier to try to find out, but I’d been hoping to return with my wife… not empty-handed.

The guys were going to give me so much shit about Clara running away. Even more so that she succeeded.

I’d take it all out on her ass once I found her.

Stopping in front of the house, I took a deep breath. Scowled. It wasn’t going to be fun, admitting that I’d lost track of my wife on the very first day of our marriage. Even with imagining the payback I’d eventually get, it was going to be rough getting through the razzing.

Especially from Jack. Though at least my wife hadn’t actually tried to off me. So, I had that going for me.

On the other hand, Hailey had been completely unsuccessful, whereas Clara had managed to disappear while I was fucking with her. Despite my anger, I felt a strange sort of pride in my wife. I might be pissed she’d flown the coop, but I was also reluctantly impressed by her ability to do so.

Gathering myself, I went up the stairs and let myself into the house.

Feminine laughter rang through the house as I walked in, coming from the parlor on the left. I recognized my mother’s laugh and my aunt’s, and the other two were familiar… but…

I frowned, sure I was mishearing.

Light spilled from the open door into the darkened foyer. The parlor was brightly lit by multiple lamps, giving me a clear-as-day view of my wife sitting on a couch between my mother and my aunt. Though I couldn’t see her over the back of the chair, I could hear Hailey, which meant she was sitting across from them.

What…

My mother lifted her head, alerted by something, and saw me standing there in the doorway.

“Gio! There you are. We were wondering what was taking you so long.”

Despite the fact that my mother was talking to me, my eyes were locked on my wife. She lifted her guileless gaze to me, smiling, and lifted the little glass of champagne she had in her hand to her lips.

“Taking me so long…” I repeated, trying to understand what the hell was happening. I’d been caught flat-footed, and I didn’t like it.

I’d been ready to roust the household to go looking for Clara with me, to interrogate Hailey as to where she thought her friend might go, to rage and pace and gnash my teeth… and instead, my wife was sitting in the parlor with my mother and aunt, sipping champagne and nibbling on what looked like cookies. My stomach rumbled, reminding me that I hadn’t eaten since breakfast, too busy running around the streets of New York City, searching for my runaway wife.

Who had run all the way back to our house.

I still wanted to rage, but I couldn’t do so in front of my mother and aunt, who clearly didn’t realize anything was amiss. And I couldn’t do so until I knew what was going on.

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