Page 93 of Ruthless Consequences

“I can’t believe you just did that!” I hissed at him. I could, but it was a good point to start the argument.

“Give me a name,” he said. “Who told you that.”

“Shawna,” I said with a sigh. I didn’t want to think about her, though. Or her sisters. It was too hard. And just went to prove how cruel the world was. “But she didn’t really tell me that, exactly. She said, ‘You’re his wife?’ But I couldn’t tell if she meant it like,You’re his wife, but I thought he had another one,orOh shit, you’rehiswife!”

He grinned at me, and I slapped him in the chest.

“I thought you were keeping up, baby?”

“Separate lives, remember?”

“Not that separate,” he said. “You’re it. None before. None now. None after. Done deal.”

I couldn’t help the grin that came to my face. He leaned in and kissed me. The doctor cleared his throat at the door, and we pulled apart. He gave me a clean bill of health and told me I was okay to leave in a few.

Lilo grinned at me. “Good thing you have a hard head.”

I rolled my eyes but grinned too. It didn’t feel so hard. I had a massive headache and five stitches.

“Also,” the doctor said, looking over my chart. “Looks like you’re pregnant, Mrs. Valentino. Very early, I assume by the date you gave us, but the test came back positive. Are congratulations in order?”

I looked at Lilo and he looked at me. We stared at each other for so long that the time melted the minutes into only the two of us. The door had been shut.

At first, Lilo’s eyes had gone soft, but it was like something had settled in his brain, and it turned them hard.

“Time to go,” he said, standing.

“Lilo,” I said. “Are you happy about this? Pissed? What’s going on?”

“They keep saying your head’s okay, but I’m not believing them.”

“It is!” I said, sitting up too fast. The world spun before Lilo took me by the shoulders and had me sit back. “I just don’t understand what’s going on. Last time you were so—”

“I wasn’t involved then,” he said. “I thought I was free, but this isn’t over, baby. Ghetti was a setup job. I’m sure Gallo told Joe Messina that I had reason to do it. The cops are after me for the same reason. Gallo ran after the bakery. He’s on the loose with nothing left to lose. He’s desperate. He’s hoping he gets to me before I can get to Messina.”

“Yeah,” I said, slowly sitting up. “But you have the proof.”

“I have the proof.” He nodded.

“What? What are you not telling me?”

“It’s up to Messina if he believes it or not.”

“You mean, if he accepts it or not.”

“Yeah. He’ll decide.”

“Between you or Gallo? Who’s worth more in his books?” I knew that was the bottom line, who brought more money to the family table.

“I am,” he said. “But he has a longer history with him.”

Something dawned on me then.

“He might kill you both,” I breathed out. “To solve the issue between you and him and the one with the Russians. Because you know.”

“And if Gallo gets to him, he might tell him that you do too. Everyone closest to me. There were gaps in Gallo’s story, but the recording fills them in. There’s no disputing who it is and what he says. It’s all there. He’s laughing about it. And that flash drive would be worth more than money to the Russians who want blood. It would be worth a street war. Unless Messina would admit it and come to the table with money and blood—Gallo’s and the men who went along with it. If Messina believed his story about what happened?” He shrugged. “Wouldn’t look too good on him as the boss either.”

I could see the wheels turning in his head.

---