Page 17 of Broken Princess

"She doesn't want her kid to be brought up in this world," Anthony continues. "She doesn't want them to be kept in the shadows, like she was her whole life."

"It's still my baby," I say with a snarl through my teeth. "She had no right to keep it from me."

He rolls his eyes again. "Right, because your behavior thus far is totally an indicator that you would be a responsible father figure."

"I deserve the chance," I growl, still not quite able to believe what I'm saying. Or how fucking serious I am about it.

"Take it up with her," he says. "For the record, I was on the side of her telling you."

"You were?" I ask doubtfully.

"It takes two people to make a baby," Anthony says. "Why should she have to deal with all the responsibility, while you get to sow your wild oats wherever the fuck you want? You owe her. Both of them. Just remember that when you find her."

I set my jaw, but I can't exactly argue, considering he isn't exactly wrong.

I now know exactly what Amelia thinks of me, and I can't say I've given her any reason to think otherwise, but I'm not giving up that easily. I'm not letting either of them go, and anyone who tries to take them from me needs to be prepared to die. Painfully.

"I'm going to get her back," I say, flinging the door open.

"You'd better," Anthony calls after me.

I get in my car and head immediately for the Carrillo family's home. There are a million cars in the driveway and even more in the garage, so it's hard to say whether her father is home or not. A maid opens the door, and I breeze past her into the foyer, heading straight upstairs for Mr. Carrillo's office and ignoring the cries of dismay following me.

I fling the door open to his office, and find him sitting behind the desk, staring at the phone like it just bit him in the ass.

He looks up at me in confusion. "Lorenzo," he says, standing from his desk. I can tell from the irritation in his gaze that if I were anyone else, he would be pitching a fit about me just barging into his office, but I'm not just anyone else. He knows better. "Is everything all right?"

"No, it's not," I reply. It's not the first time we've spoken since Amelia went missing, but I'm done pretending it's not something that affects me more than tangentially. More than it should just by virtue of being engaged to Kayleigh. "Something's wrong with Amelia."

He blinks at me in dismay. "Of course there is. She ran away, and she's embarrassed the family in the process, but I can assure you, she'll be back before it can affect the wedding."

"Fuck the wedding," I spit.

I can tell that isn't the response he's expecting from his bewildered state. "I'm sorry?" he asks.

"So am I," I mutter. "But she didn't just run away."

He frowns harder. "And what makes you so certain of that?"

"Because I spoke with her best friend, Anthony," I reply. "He hasn't heard from her in two days, which is unlike her. And I know where she is, or at least, where she went."

"Where?" he asks hastily.

"Las Vegas," I reply. When I see the disbelief on his face, I answer, "Yeah, I'm guessing that was the point."

"Thank you for bringing this to my attention," he mutters. "I'll handle it from here."

There's something about his tone that puts me off. Something that makes me feel like he's not giving me the full story.

"There's something else, isn't there?" I press.

He looks surprised by the question. "What?"

"You're keeping something from me," I reply, putting my hands on the desk in front of him. "Something about Amelia."

He continues to stare at me for a few moments, suspicion growing behind his frigid gaze. This would be the part where I usually backed off for the sake of not blowing my cover, but I don't give a shit at this point.

"What makes you say that?"

---