Page 83 of Stolen Mafia Vows
Olivia tips her head back and laughs. “You’re still in the first trimester, but it’s pretty damned obvious… To everyone but you it seems.”
“First trimester?” My voice shakes. “I’m taking the contraceptive pill.”
But even as I say the words out loud, I recall the two days I lost on my first road trip with Eoghan. How many other pills have I missed? I don’t even have them with me now. But this can’t be happening. This can’t be happening to me…
Without warning, Olivia leans forward, pinches my left nipple through my T-shirt and bra, and twists. I yelp with the pain and cover my breasts with my arms.
“Oh, this is too fucking brilliant.”
A woman with short dark hair turning silver at the roots approaches the sun loungers then with a jug of iced water and two glasses. She sets them down on the table between us and walks off without a word.
Olivia fills her own glass, the ice clinking against the sides, and takes a sip. “I couldn’t have planned this better myself.”
I pour water into the second glass and swallow several mouthfuls. It gives me a few moments of breathing space without her perfume filling my senses. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You can’t fool me, Emily. I’m the only woman in my family who hasn’t had a baby yet. I learned to recognize the signs when I was a little girl.”
I don’t want to think about Olivia as a child. I don’t want to know anything about her. She is my captor. She wants something from my family. And when this is over, I hope that I never have to set eyes on her again.
“This doesn’t change anything.”
It changes absolutely everything.
Because if I’m pregnant, this baby is a Murray and a Byrne, and our families are forever entwined.
“That’s where you’re wrong.” Olivia is still talking, unaware that we’re on separate pages. “But by the time they find out, it’ll be too late.”
A chill runs down my spine. “What do you mean?” The ice cubes in my glass clink together as my hands shake.
“Your family and his, they already hate each other. All I did was give them a little shove in the right direction.”
What is she talking about? The fuzziness in my head from Olivia’s perfume is slowly fading, but my brain is taking its sweet time keeping up with the conversation.
Then it hits me like a blast of cold air. “You killed Ruairi?”
“Not me personally. But anyway, it doesn’t matter who killed him.”
I stand abruptly, dripping water onto my pants from the glass. “A man is dead because of you. How can you sit there and?—”
Olivia is on her feet in a heartbeat, and the water from her glass hits my face before I can blink. “Don’t get all holier than thou with me, bambina. We’re the same, you and me. We want what’s rightfully ours, and we’re willing to fight for it.”
Ishake the water from my hair and raise my eyes to meet hers. “I don’t see you fighting. I see you murdering innocent people and sitting back while someone else takes the rap. It must take a whole lot of guts to do that, huh?”
“Shut up, Emily. You don’t know the first thing about me.”
I know that she’s greedy. Power-hungry. Deluded. And possibly borderline psychotic. But I can’t back down now.
“Why did you frame Caleb for Ruairi’s murder?”
“Why do you even care?” Her expression twists into a sneer that makes her perfect features appear ugly. “They lied to you. Your own family lied to you. Do you want to know why they’re so angry that you married a Byrne?”
My pulse is racing and I’m starting to feel lightheaded, but now that she has dangled the carrot, she knows that I can’t walk away. I can see it in her eyes that she’s not accustomed to losing a fight, and she already believes that she has won.
“You’re a mafia princess. Your sweet pussy was being saved for the highest bidder.” The glint in her eye confirms how much she is enjoying this.
“No. You’re lying.”
“Why would I lie? It’s the way it is. They kept it a secret in case you started getting fancy ideas about having a career instead of marriage and babies. But you’d better believe they’ve spent years planning the best alliance you could bring them, and then you go and marry a Byrne. Their biggest rival. And the frosting on the cake: he has already impregnated you.”
