Page 82 of Intimately Faithful

It had to be wrong.

Misha was Aoife’s baby.She’d said so.

Hadn’t she?

He worked back through every conversation in hopes of replaying the words, “Misha is my daughter.” he came up empty.

Either because those words didn’t exist at all, or he was too damn surprised to find them.

“You have to be wrong; can you check again?”

“I’m never wrong. Your girl isn’t the mother and if the underboss emissary is the baby daddy, then he isn’t putting his name to his mistress’ kid.”

Danny cursed and raked a hand around the back of his neck, meeting the sinister blue eyes of the man on his doorstep. “I see you’re catching on, holy man. If she’s not the baby mama, then she’s snatched a Russian mobster’s kid and your trouble just got a whole lot worse. I’d consider both of you getting the hell out of dodge for a while.”

He cursed again.

For days a heaviness sat on Danny’s chest because he had a feeling she wasn’t telling him the whole story, but assumed it was to do with her previous relationship and he’d been in no rush to know those details until five minutes ago.

The years separation meant nothing in comparison to how he knew Aoife deep down. He’d felt it, she’d never concealed anything very well from him before.

The secret lurked this whole time and he hadn’t taken a second to see past his jealousy to discover the truth.

“I need to go inside and talk to Aoife.”

“Sounds like a plan, holy man. But so you know, we can consider favor paid in full. You might just be in luck if the Orlov clan hear about their dutiful daughter’s murder by thepakhan’ssecond in command. I know how to drop the right words in the right ears, if you get my meaning. It could be the distraction needed to have Grigori forget all about your girl. If not… you know how to pray.”

Danny absorbed all the new information like a sponge and felt the weight of them. Powerless to do anything. He couldn’t take on a world-renowned crime organization, let alone two.

Behind him, the door creaked open and one look at Aoife’s stricken face let him know she’d been listening.

Her eyes pleaded. He felt his heavy heart thud.

Turning back to Lawless, Danny offered his hand and the other man grasped it briefly. “I appreciate everything,” Danny told him.

“If I were you, I’d get my family involved. Talk is those Murphy’s are known for more than just importing illegals. Catch you later, holy man.” Turning on his heel, Danny watched Lawless prowl down the pathway and climb onto his powerful bike. Already his brain was two steps ahead, wondering if it was too late to call his father back home.

“Danny?” Her voice sweet as could be with a slight tremor stroked down his spine as he turned to head back in. “Will you give me the chance to tell you everything?”

Standing in just his shirt, the material skimmed her curves and hung around her thighs, she looked so tiny with her hair poured down over her shoulders and unease in her beautiful eyes.

Airless and with his heart throbbing, he walked inside without taking his starved gaze from her and locked the door behind them.

TWENTY

“Your soulmate will always come to you at the right time.” - Danny

The very last thing she expected Danny to do was lift her into his arms.

In fact, she was braced for him to tell her she had to leave.

When he swept her up, she laced her arms around him and didn’t know what to think as he walked her through his house to the twin sofas.

She loved his living room, but the only comfort she needed was right there in his lap. The moment she heard the biker tell Danny about Yelena and Misha; her heart sank.

“I was going to tell you tonight; I swear I was.”

“I hate that you’ve been in danger for all this time and I couldn’t take you in my arms and tell you it would be okay,” he rasped. His soft lips roamed across her cheek. “I hate knowing how scared you must have been being around those kind of people. But I hate it more how you’ve been alone to take responsibility for your friend’s baby after you watched her lose her young life, and to then to hold onto that secret all this time.”

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