Page 20 of Surprise Twins for the Mafia Prince
This can’t be reality. I must be in the middle of a nightmare. Nothing else explains how I let myself end up here. This is exactly where I didn’t want to be.
Back in Vegas, in the home of an Andretti.
My life was a mess before this, but at least it was my mess. I had control over my decisions. Dario hasn’t forced me to do anything, but I can’t shake the feeling that he only talked me into coming here because it would be easier to have my compliance. I think he was going to bring me here whether I agreed or not.
With a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach, I sit at the foot of the bed and look around the beautiful bedroom that I’ll call my own while I’m staying here. I can’t even appreciate the amazing view from the window.
This place feels like a prison, and I’ve never been more uncertain about my future, even the night we fled Vegas when my mother looked so scared. I thought I understood what she was afraid of then, but I was too young to truly grasp it. She was worried about what the Andrettis would do to her, to her children.
Thinking of the little one growing inside of me, I get it. I’m terrified.
10
DARIO
I slowly openthe door to the spare bedroom—now Paige’s room. It’s mid-morning, but she’s still asleep, dark lashes fanned against her cheeks, her straight black hair spilled across the pillow in stark contrast to the white sheets.
I think about what she said last night about pregnancy making her tired. I looked up normal pregnancy symptoms after she went to bed, and it was the first thing on the list, so there was nothing to worry about.
Not that I was worried. I only looked it up because I wanted to be informed of what to expect if she’s going to be staying with me for a while.
I also looked up paternity tests, wanting to get one done as soon as possible. I learned that they can be performed while the mother is pregnant, but the non-invasive ones aren’t always accurate.
The other option is an amniocentesis, which involves using a needle to extract amniotic fluid from the uterus, but there’s a slight risk of infection or miscarriage from that. I spent almostan hour reading about it, and many people write off the slight risk as worth it, but I’m not going to take a chance like that.
Not with my child. Maybe not my child. Whatever.
I’ll wait until the baby is born to find out the truth. That means Paige will be here at least nine months, longer if the baby is indeed mine. She may not realize it yet, but if I’m truly that baby’s father, she’ll never get rid of me.
Unless she’s willing to part from the child, but I have a feeling that she’d never do that. She already has that fierce maternal glint in her eye. The look of a lioness who would kill for her cub.
She’ll have to get comfortable being here, but I know she’s not there yet. She might have agreed to come back to Vegas, but she didn’t bother to hide her apprehension about it. The way she looked around my apartment last night, you’d think she was mapping escape routes.
That’s why I close the door and pull out my phone, making a phone call to my cousin, Alessio. He’s one of the people I trust the most, so I tell him to come over and watch Paige while I go handle business.
I hope that Paige isn’t dumb enough to try to leave while I’m gone, but I can’t take that risk. Her hatred of my family might make her take unwise risks, and she was hard enough to track down the first time. I’m not playing hide-and-seek with the potential mother of my child again.
Alessio doesn’t take long to arrive, and I leave him with strict instructions to let Paige sleep until she wakes up on her own, and not to let her out of his sight once she does. He’s good at following orders, so I don’t have to worry about anything as I leave the apartment and head to my father’s home.
His place is just outside Las Vegas, in a suburb with large houses and wide streets. It’s one of the more sprawling developments in the area, so the neighbors aren’t close enough to hear anything they shouldn’t.
I park my black SUV in the round driveway in front of the mansion and walk inside without announcing myself. He knows I’m coming. The air in this house always feels different. Charged with power, heavy with expectation. It’s been that way since I was a kid.
I find my dad in his office. He’s sitting behind a large wooden desk, the polished surface covered in papers.
It’s the end of the month, so I know these are financial reports from our legitimate businesses, the hotels and nightclubs, the construction company, and the strip club. Dad hates doing this kind of work, but he rarely trusts anyone else to do it.
Now that I know about Paige’s father, I wonder if he’s the reason behind that. If Keith Foley stole from us, betrayed my father, it would make sense that he’d carry mistrust from the experience.
“I got it,” I say, skipping the pleasantries. This is too important to delay another moment. Striding to his desk, I pull out the flash drive and hand it over.
I come around to his side of the desk as he plugs it into his computer and watch as he reviews the information on the device. It’s all there. The Bratva’s blackmail and bribery, and their plans to push through their casino whether the gaming commission likes it or not. They kept a digital record of it all. Idiots.
“That’ll do,” Dad says, clapping me on the shoulder as he makes a copy of the information before handing the tiny piece of plastic back. “You did good, son.”
The words send a rush of satisfaction through me, even though I shouldn’t still need his approval at my age. Some things never change.
“What do you want to do with it?” I ask.
