Page 16 of Pregnant By the Mafia Boss

The hospice nurse had quickly looked over some stupid files on her computer. “It’s just that I’ve never seen either of you here before. Normally Luca has the same visitors listed to see him. He’s given us strict instructions not to let anyone else in other than those listed here,” the nurse reeled off, appearing to stick to her guns.

“Oh no.Please don’t turn us away. We’ve come from over three hours away to see him. He’s a friend we’ve beendyingto see,” I pleaded with the dumb nurse. By then, I already had the excellent plan in mind to shoot her in the chest with a silencer ifshe defied us, but even with the ice running through my veins, I know better than to shoot civilians for no reason.

When it comes to such a decision I hold off as long as I can. “Check again,” Andrei demanded in a low voice, while I shot off a text to one of my Bratva brothers waiting down the hall for further instructions.

I watched as the nurse’s demeanor shifted to one of panic as she assessed us, and from the shift of her eyes darting in different directions, I knew we only had a small window of time to get to Luca’s room. And in one quick motion, Andrei drew his gun underneath his jacket, his eyes deadpan.

“I want you to give us Luca Marino’s room number. Now.” The nurse let out an audible gasp, but quickly complied, her bottom lip quivering in fear.

“Luca Marino is in room 4D right across the hall at the bottom of the corridor,” she murmured.

“Good. Now, don’t say a word, otherwise you’re going to get your head blown off,” I tell her, but already my soldier has approached the desk to stand guard. The startled nurse is the only one on duty, beside minimal staff on duty in the private hospital, so I didn’t anticipate too many problems.

And now the mystery file is proving to be elusive to grasp. “Who would have known Luca had a secret kid?” Andrei asks, shaking his head with a chuckle. “It does make sense.”

“How?” I ask him, after finding the phone and seeing a caller ringing.

“He can’t be the only one in the mob who has a secret kid. It’s a dangerous business to be in,” Andrei points out.

“Hmm, a little secret old man. This is becoming very interesting.” Crouching down, I check around the side of his bed to see if there’s anything else we’ve missed, such as additional paperwork or any clues that might lead us to the files, but there’s nothing but a neat pile of clothes stacked on the visitors chair, a leather bag with medication and not much else when we dump it out.

“We’re going to find out who Luca’s special little daughter is, that’s for sure,” I tell Andrei, thrilled by the chase, our hospital visit cut short.

“We are. I’m already speaking to IT to trace the number the girl called from, but if we get the phone back to him, it’s probably going to be faster. He’ll be able to find out everything,” Andrei stipulates.

“Good. Let’s get out of here before I have to shoot everyone in the damn hospital.” We quickly move away from the late Luca Marino, and with no fear, approach the same desk where the hospice nurse directed us from. I pick up my Bratva associate, briskly walking to the exit.

There’s not going to be any problems because even if she does call the cops, we have deep connections within the web of the Chicago police department. And those tentacles are only going to get longer once we can get our hands on the Omerta files.

I drive off smoothly, gliding through the downtown Chicago traffic, and as my fingers tap on the steering wheel, my mind curls around the caller, a knife twisting in my gut. “There’s something about the girl,” I tell Andrei.

“What about the girl? You’ve got girls on the brain from the Destiny Bar. Come on,” he snickers, but there’s more to it.

“No.There’s more to it. I don’t know what it is,” I ruminate, replaying the girl’s voice in my mind repeatedly.

“Okay. You let me know what it is,” Andrei replies skeptically. “She’s a game changer. Now we have even more leverage to play with, knowing Luca has a daughter. We’ll find her. She might not even be in Chicago.”

“Maybe she isn’t, but she’s been in close contact with Luca, otherwise she wouldn’t have been calling him. She has the fucking files. It’s a sneaky game he played to hand them off to her.” I smile, the tapping of my fingers graduating to a tight grip around the wheel as I merge into the slip lane, heading west of Chicago’s main business district.

“She does, and if I had a daughter, I would do the same,” Andrei advises.

“You would?”

“Yes, I would. Being in the mob is no place for a woman. Other than to take a wife under oath.”

I cock an eyebrow at Andrei’s hard-and-fast ruling. “Then it’s no different. If you take a wife, you’re doing the same thing. You’re bringing them into Bratva business. If you have a daughter in the business, then you train her too. You protect her, and if you can’t, then you’re a bitch and not fit for the brotherhood,” I remind him, my cold eyes scanning the street for cops as we reach the underground parking lot of my Chicago office.

“We possess a difference of opinion. I would keep her safe so she can have a normal life, and then it would be her decision or not to enter the business. No?”

“No,” I reply in a clipped tone. “There’s no getting out of the brotherhood once you’re in. That’s not how it works,” I tellhim, killing the engine, my eyes sharpening in the dark parking lot. There’s no room for complacency, especially with such high stakes. We aren’t the only mobsters searching for the highly sought after Bratva files.

“You’re a madman. And you say that now when you don’t have a daughter, but when you have one, you’ll understand.”

“No. I won’t understand. He should have protected his daughter. She could have been a useful asset to him. A woman has the ability to disarm a man, and that in itself is a weapon,” I reply, the girl in the red dress on my mind.

Andrei chuckles as we move through the shadows to the elevator and up to my office. “No. You’re mixing things up with the girl from the club. You only want her because she gave you the wrong number. I know you, Ruslan,” Andrei states.

And maybe that’s part of the reason, but there’s more to it. There’s a deep craving I have to find her and to be closer, even if I’ve only spent one night with the girl.

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