Page 29 of Forbidden Pregnancy
I sense him drawing closer to the point and I feel my nerves heightening despite my outward efforts to keep cool. Pino Corsini is a tough old dog raised in the old ways and by the old rules. The mood of this meeting could shift in an instant.
“I received pretty disturbing news the other day,” Pino says, sitting at his desk after Peter and I are properly sunk into our chairs on the opposite side of his CEO-seat.
Large (and illegal) ivory elephant tusks adorn the shelf behind him along with memorabilia from my cousin Mikey’s high school and college football career. Peter wasn’t the hometown sports hero his brother was and to this day, he still kisses his father’s ass constantly to make up for it.
“What was it?” Peter asks. “If anyone insulted or offended you, I can handle it.”
See? Kiss ass.
“I gave your brother specific instructions regarding personal liaisons and it has come to my attention that heignoredthose instructions.”
Peter and I both nod, but Peter’s body language shifts. I hope I’m not that bad at hiding my true feelings… But I can’t blame him for being nervous. Like I said, the mood with Uncle Pino can shift in an instant.
“What sort of personal liaisons? Mikey hasn’t been doing shit but working out and looking after CC at home.”
Well, he must have done something else, or Uncle Pino wouldn’t have summoned us here. The thought occurs to me that my uncle might not want to kill me, but he might ask me to do something almost as horrific as facing my own mortality.He could ask me to kill his own son.
I wonder if money should have been enough to tempt me down here.
“Your brother has been far busier than that,” Pino says calmly, swirling a sphere of ice around his lowball glass. “I have good information that he slept with one of the blacks we hired a long time ago and he not only did that, but he has her at home with him.”
Again, Peter struggles to hide his true feelings. He might be older than me, but it’s hard not to think about him as an imbecile when he betrays his feelings to Uncle Pino of all people without any effort at all to conceal his hand.
“Mikey wouldn’t do something like that.”
Peter’s answer is completely foolish. Does it sound at all believable that an Italian man wouldn’t fuck whomever he wanted? Clearly, Michael is guilty. If nothing else, he’s guilty of not being careful enough. The racial aspect of his break from tradition bothers me, but I don’t personally view the crime worthy of the death penalty.
Uncle Pino might think differently and worse, he outranks me. I accepted this job before knowing what it might entail with absolute trust that Uncle Pino wouldn’t ask me to do something… too difficult.
My uncle notes my silence with a pointed stare before shifting his gaze back to his son, who is far slower to catch on.
“I warned him against breaking his oath of blood purity. It would be one thing if I hadn’t warned him, but to blatantly defy my wishes…” Uncle Pino trails off and shakes his head in disbelief that his eldest son could be the one keeping him in such an unfavorable position.
“You want me to talk to him?” Peter asks.
Again. Foolish.
Would Uncle Pino want to send such a weak message about his bloodline?
“No, Peter,” Uncle Pino says gently. Most likely because of what he’s about to ask.
“I will triple the offer I made to the two of you if you kill Michael and the bitch he knocked up. I want him to watch her die and then I want her left breast cut off and brought to me on ice.”
Peter’s face grows pale. He’s killed before, but he’s never killed a woman. It’s one of those unspoken rules in our family. Women might not have much worth, but they have enough that killing one would be at the very least impractical if not defying some silent code of honor regarding our family’s continued bloodlines.
“Dad…”
Pino returns his pleading gaze with cold indifference. “I won’t change my mind, Peter. I want them bothdead.”
Chapter Twelve
Myra
7 weeks later
The Secret Location
Michael never asked me to leave Buffalo. 7 weeks ago, he returned to my bedroom with a glass of water and my favorite flavor of ice cream after his trip to the gym with his cousin and brother. I foolishly thought he was trying to apologize for how poorly he treated me. Instead, he drugged me and then hedraggedme out to the middle of nowhere.
