Page 73 of Trapping His Darling

He pointed up above us. “She did.”

It was then I knew what he meant. All our lives we were pitted against each other. In this one moment, I could see the resemblance Alexie had to me. United in this one stance. I reached out my hand, and Alexie slowly let go of the gun in his holster on his hip. We shook each other’s hands warily. It was a truce.

“Don’t get comfortable,Pakhan,” Alexie spat before letting go like I scalded him.

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” I muttered. I wouldn’t either. Alexie still had a lot of growing up to do before he became the leader I was today. It was why the men so easily turned against him.

They needed more than dreams. They had families to take care of, and they needed more money. For the ones who couldn’t be bought, I found ways to gain their loyalty, orchestrated or not.

We went our separate ways. I went for a long swim to clear my head. It was rare that I had any emotional outbursts. But with this impending birth, Tiffany going missing, and not knowing who to trust, paranoia rested on my shoulders.

By the time night had fallen, Tiffany was tucked in bed resting, and I had to go on a late night mission. I hoped that everything remained alright. I sent Tiffany a brief overview of when I would return, then I set off.

The Italians had reported that half their shipment was missing. They blamed us, stating that we had messed with their supply before in order to gain their loyalty. Though they weren’t wrong, this time it wasn’t us. We had too much beef with the Italians right now, and we couldn’t afford another mishap. The alliance was tenuous at best, due to me marrying Tiffany without anyone’s approval.

But what did they expect? For me to bow down and obey their every rule? That was the antithesis of how I was raised. I scaled the wall in front of me and met at the spot. It was a secluded area with not much foot traffic. Perfect for shady business dealings.

“Why did you bring me out here, boy?” Don Ricci stepped out of the shadows.

“I have come to make a deal.”

He scoffed, “another back end deal that will hurt my people?”

“No,” I tried to find some patience. “I am offering you our first born daughter.”

“Whose?”

I shrugged. “Be it mine or Alexie’s, does it matter? The first to have a girl, since both of our women are pregnant.”

“What if you both have boys?”

I clucked my tongue. Greedy bastard. “We can cross that bridge when we get to it. In addition, we will take our soldiers out of Sicily, giving you your home operation back.”

“No spies?”

I shook my head. “None.”

He spat in his hand and held it out to me. I did the same to mine and kept a straight face as we shook. We walked backwardaway from each other, not wanting to show the other our back. As soon as he was out of sight, I wiped my hand off on my pant leg. Disgusting Italiansvoloch.

I headed to the docks to find out what had happened to their shipment. There I met the dirty foreman, who informed me that there were some intruders on the docks late last week. They’d taken out the camera system, so we had no idea who stole the shipment.

I took Jeremy the foreman out back, and showed him exactly what we did to men who slipped up. Cleaning blood off my hands, I speed dialed Roger.

“What do you need?”

“A cleanup crew down at the docks.”

“Is it messy?”

I chuckled. “Isn’t it always?”

We hung up without any more conversation. We never spoke too long when it came to business. It was easiest to keep those calls short, just in case. I headed home after laying a towel down on the seat of my Ferrari.

I’d burn these clothes when I got in.

Tiffany was laying down, when I got back in the house. Her hand was resting on her belly, with a book on birthing laid open on her chest. It was an adorable picture she made. Before touching her, I headed into the bathroom and stripped off all my clothes.

I stood in the shower, cleaning off until the water ran from red until clear. I dried off my body before wrapping the towel around my waist. Once I stepped out of the shower, I bent forward and grabbed the clothes along with my shoes. I took them outside, uncaring of the chilly air, and dropped them in the burn bin. Then I grabbed the matches right next to it and set them ablaze.

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