Page 15 of Knocked up by the Mafia

I get to the kitchen and wait. Daniel comes in from the garage, surprising me. “You ready?” he asks, leaning forward to take my bag. I hand it to him and follow him.

“I’m not fragile.”

“Just get in the car.” He isn’t open to arguments.

He pulls into traffic and starts to drive. He stops for gas twice and changes directions, I don’t know how many times, so even I don’t know where we are eventually.

We leave the city; that’s what I notice before I doze off.

The bumpy road is what wakes me up, and I look around. Trees surround us. He has the heat on in the car, and the headlights are set to bright. It’s already pitch dark around us.

I see an open garage door ahead and ask, “Is this where we’re staying? How far out are we?”

“Far enough.” He pulls into the garage and hits the clicker, closing the door behind him.

I insist on taking my own bag and follow him into the house. It’s a cabin, but a relatively modern one. He turns on the lights and looks around. “This will do.”

I set my bag down and rubbed my stomach, feeling sick again.

“I’m going to make you something to settle your stomach. My ma was great with that sort of thing.”

He walks over to a gas stove and lights a plate, putting a kettle on to boil. I don’t know if I should trust him even though he seems determined to want this child. I don’t even know why I’m fighting it so hard or going with him wherever he tells me to. It just seems that this is the thing we agree on.

I watch Daniel take out some lemons, a bottle of crushed ginger, and other herbs. I sit at the table in the center of the room and watch him. “Is your mom still around?”

“No,” he says, clearly not interested in expanding on the topic. “I know yours is in Europe.”

“You seem to have an unfair advantage over me, you have my background, but I know nothing about you.” I pick at the quicks around my nails, a nervous habit from childhood.

He sighs and nods. “That’s because there’s nothing to know except that I kill people for a living and am very good at it.”

“You didn’t kill me,” I state it as a fact rather than a question.

After he’s filled the glass of herbs, lemon, and ginger halfway with hot water, he takes out some cold bottled water and tops it off.

“That’s so it doesn’t burn when you sip it,” he says as he sets it in front of me. “Sip that. I’ll go run you a bath.”

“I’m not incapable…”

“Don’t.” He looks at me. “I need to process this, and the best way I process things is to help do things. While you’re in the bath, I’m going to get us settled. We are further away from danger. I had been planning to move to this location regardless. It’s out of the city.”

I don’t argue, and he leaves the room. I sip the drink, and it is soothing. I love things with lemon in them, and I think I detect some honey in the drink. I hear the bath running and sigh softly. After the long uncomfortable drive, a soak would be nice. My body feels much more tender lately, probably because of the pregnancy.

After a while, I hear the water shut off, and he returns. “Your bath is ready. I’m going to make a fire to warm the place up. You have a soak, and then come out and get warm. Anything we need, I’ll sort out tomorrow.”

I nod and finish my drink before leaving to soak in the bath. I can hear the distinct sounds of wood being set on fire; the crackling of the fire echoes in the silence of the night. The water is nice and hot, and I rest with my hands on my belly.

Fuck.

Chapter 10 - Daniel

I leave Natalia soaking in the bath and the fire roaring in the living room. She can’t miss it, and I’m sure she’ll like roasting in front of the crackling flames.

I have things to do outside while she is getting comfy. I must secure our perimeter and ensure no one will catch us off-guard. I doubt anyone managed to follow us out here, but you never know; always be weary.

It’s how I’ve stayed alive over the years.

I start on the outer section. The traps are technically already in place. The wires just need to be brought up and activated, and the traps reset. Natalia didn’t ask how I found our first home, so she doesn’t know about Mick. She didn’t ask how I found this cabin; then she’d know that the Quinn family owns many hideaways in the wilderness because that’s where we like to vanish to when things are too hot.

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