Page 635 of Not Over You

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 do,” 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.

“Don’t do this,” I breathed out. “Don’t go to him. Even if he believed Gallo, he’s not going to admit it. He’s going to destroy anything to do with this.”

He shrugged. “I’m not hiding. I’m not running. No chains. No locks.”

“What about the baby?” I said, my eyes straining against the tears. He couldn’t give me himself, and this, and then take it away again.

“We know what we’re dealing with this time. The risk from before. We’ll do all we can to avoid them, to take good care of the both of you. You and my baby will be safe.”

“We will?”

“I’ll make sure of it.”

“But that we doesn’t include you.”

“Choices have consequence, baby. Mine just happen to come with ruthless ones.” He came to the side of the bed and gave me his hand. He helped me stand and kept me close as we walked out of the emergency room.

We took the elevator to the ICU floor. Tigran sat in a chair in the waiting room, more men than I could count around him. He was scrolling through his phone, his dark features brightening with the screen.

---