Page 32 of Marrying the Underboss

“Shut the fuck up, Jacob! You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

He grips my side and turns me around, pushing me up against the door. Placing one hand above my head, his other holds a knife against my throat. “Maybe I made a mistake by leaving you pure. I should have taken a taste of you when I had the chance. There’s nothing stopping me now,” He murmurs, trailing the knife down my chest, he uses it to cut my shirt open. “I see whythe monsteris so obsessed over you, you’ve got a fantastic pair of tits, Baby.”

Knowing I don’t have much of a chance, I take the opening when I get it and knee him in the balls while he stares at myboobs. He stumbles backward. “You fucking cunt! I’m going to kill you!” He roars as I make a run for it.

I don’t get very far. He catches me in the hallway by tangling his fingers in my hair and snatching me back. Tears prick my eyes in pain, but I fight him off as best as I can, knocking some knickknacks and a picture of Kane and I off of the side table. Glass shatters and splinters across the floor. I roll to my side and crawl to the glass, trying to get something to defend myself with. Jacob pulls me away by my leg as I’m about to grab it. I twist and turn and eventually break free of his grasp and kick him as hard as I can. When I don’t feel his weight on top of me any longer, I crawl back over to the glass and grab it just in time for Jacob to get to me again and turn me over on my back.

Waving the glass around wildly, my hand gets cut up as I hold it in a death grip and try to attack Jacob. He laughs at my effort and tries kicking it out of my hand. He only succeeds in getting cut along his calf. The next time he kicks me, he succeeds in knocking the glass out of my hand. He leans over me and pulls me up toward him by my hair. “If you want to live long enough to say goodbye to your husband, you’ll stop fighting me and submit like the bitch you are!” He snarls.

“No,” I hiss.

The last thing I see before blacking out is his fist coming straight for my face.

Chapter Eighteen

KANE

I checkmy phone for the hundredth time and try calling Jennifer again. No answer. Again. I don’t want to act like the overbearing bastard I know I am, but I haven’t heard from my wife in over two hours. When I check her location, I see she’s at home, so it’s probably nothing for me to worry about. She likely just fell asleep for one of her afternoon naps like she’s been doing lately. But I’ve got a nagging feeling something isn’t right. Since we’ve been back home in Jersey, I haven’t gone this long without speaking to her.

I stand and pocket my phone.

“Where the hell are you going?” Perrelli asks.

“I have to run home for a minute. I need to check on Jennifer.”

“Why? What’s wrong?” He looks up and growls from his desk.

I shake my head. “I don’t know, just a feeling I’ve got. I haven’t been able to get a hold of her.”

He gives me a knowing look and stands. “Let’s go.”

Johnny and Nico are talking out in the hall when we walk out. They immediately stop their conversation when they see us and follow us to the elevator and get in.

“What happened?” Nico finally asks.

“Kane has a feeling something’s not right. I trust his gut. If he says something’s wrong, I believe him, especially if it has to do with my daughter.” Perrelli responds.

We get down to the parking garage and all pile into my SUV. It takes me less than ten minutes to get home, speeding and weaving in and out of traffic. As soon as I pull into the driveway, I know something’s wrong. “The door’s open,” I say quietly.

“Fuck,” Johnny says. “Rossi, you need to keep your head in there. Whatever we find, we’ll get through it together.”

“Fuck you. I promised Jennifer I’d keep her safe and not let this life touch her like it did her mom!” I shout.

I run into the house and find it wrecked to hell with groceries still on the counter. “Jennifer,” I yell. Even as I do it, I know she won’t answer me. The house is too quiet, too still. I just hope to God she’s okay wherever she is. When I walk down the hall I find some blood smeared on the walls and the floor. I know blood, that amount isn’t enough to kill anyone and I’m relieved when I don’t find blood anywhere else. I enter our bedroom and walk into the bathroom and find her phone on the counter. When I pick it up I see she had a timer set that’s been going off, but is silent now. What the hell was she timing? That’s when I realize what is next to her phone. It’s a fucking pregnancy test. I grab the stick and look at it. It’s positive.

“What’s that?” Perrelli asks.

I turn around and show him the test, and his eyes narrow.

“She’s fucking pregnant?!”

“I guess so. Fuck!” I growl loudly. “Does she even know?”

“What do you mean?” Johnny asks, joining us in the bathroom.

“I think she was attacked while she was waiting on the results. Her phone has a timer notification on it.”

“Jesus Christ,” Nico exhales. We all look up at him. “Rossi, whatever you need, we’re here for you man.”

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