Page 32 of Menace

That he had been duped, for years.

He had mourned someone who actually never existed.

She had been a spy, a rat sent in to weaken him.

And she had succeeded.

He had been a total fool for her.

A sucker who mourned a ghost, a deceitful ghost at that.

In doing so he destroyed the possibility of having his ice queen.

He was a fuckin’ asshole.

TEN

Harper

As the weeks flew by my bump grew and grew. I was in my final trimester and starting the countdown to the birth.

I was still confined to Asa’s compound but with all the preparations for the birth and the move to the US I didn’t feel stifled. I did miss being able to walk or hike as I used to do in Cape Town. I was only allowed out under strict supervision.

I had my check up with my doc today and she had been pleased with both my and the baby’s progress. I’ve picked up weight, as you do when pregnant, but it was in what my doc said was normal parameters. I’ve been eating healthy even though I wanted to drown myself in juicy burgers, pizza and cake.

Asa’s chef, yes the badass crime lord had a chef, kept an eye on what I ate. He spoiled me with my favourite dishes and salads, things I liked eating before I got pregnant. Before I started craving cake.

It was weird to think that I was living with a group of men in a secured compound with a chef cooking my food and ladies coming in to clean every day. I was being spoiled by the five star treatment. I knew once this was over I would be going back to being on my own and it was going to suck.

On the work front there had been a couple of glitches. Pixie had wanted me to leave for Savannah with Zane but Asa had put a stop to it. He had warned her that the Italians still had all of us under surveillance and that it would be safer for me to stay with him for a few more months. She had backed off but I knew it wouldn’t be for long.

Asa, my self-appointed big brother, was making sure I got what I wanted.

I wanted to have my baby here, not in a strange country surrounded by strangers. He was making it happen.

Rider had been adamant about wanting to be with me when the time came and Asa had assured me he would step in if for any reason he wasn’t available.

It settled my mind that I wouldn’t be going through it alone.

Something I wasn’t happy about was that I had no idea what was going on in Lucky’s life, he had no social media presence. No Facebook no Instagram, nothing. I checked on the Shadow Wraiths MC’s page but there was nothing there. Just a couple of notifications of charity runs and so on. The page was hardly ever updated.

I was totally in the dark about what was going on in his life. If he had a woman.

Just thinking about him made me restless and I paced around my room and the upper floor of the mansion, trying to settle down.

Did I mention that Asa’s house was a massive mansion? It was huge and all his men lived here.

Unfortunately I wasn’t the only woman living at the mansion at the moment.

I’m not being a bitch but the new addition to the family wasn’t working for me.

The woman was a distant relative of one of Asa’s men. Sinead Murphy was from Finn’s mother’s side of the family and apparently came out to South Africa to explore the country. But the worst of it was that she was the bitch who had accused Bren of doing awful things to her and of being a drug addict. Why Asa allowed her to stay was a mystery. Bren was almost never home and I wanted to kick Asa’s ass for allowing it to happen.

When I called him on it he explained that her father was a powerful man in their organisation and he couldn’t afford to piss him off right now. Stupid excuse as far as I was concerned and I told him so.

I was so mad that his decision made Bren feel unwelcome in his own home I’ve been giving him the cold shoulder. He didn’t like it much but he deserved it.

She’s been here two months and has yet to travel outside of Johannesburg. She was constantly trying to get Asa to go places with her. The more he said no the more she insisted on his company. He has yet to take her further than the pool in the back yard.

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