Page 76 of Captive Vows
I glanced up in time to catch Emil and Ivan entering my office.
Word had to have spread by now. Ivan would’ve told Emil that he would no longer be my only child. But I wasn’t in the mood to talk it out with him. Business matters still had to be dealt with first.
“I want you to figure out what the fuck Miguel Lopez is plotting by aligning with the Riveras.” Those Italians would forever be a thorn in my side, but I required more intel before planning any retaliation. I had to know what the end game was here.
“Of course,” Emil replied, nodding at me before turning to leave.
“Anything else you need at the moment?” Ivan asked, hesitant to go.
They’d likely just come to check in with me. I appreciated the support, but there wasn’t anything else that could be done for me at the moment.
“I need to speak with her.” I stood, letting all my anger simmer and fuel me to seek her out.
Only after I’d heard her explanation for why she’d fucking lied to me would I be closer to deciding how to handle this grievance.
In turn, it would most definitely push me further from falling into this idea of loving her.
28
GABRIELLA
Luka hadn’t dismissed me like that since I’d gotten here. No matter what, he infiltrated my space and my mind until I had to cave. Until I would cave and give in to him and accept that he was my owner. My master. It later turned to accepting him as my lover.
Or so I thought.
Being sent to my room like that was a cruel punishment. The fact that he wanted to put distance between us was enough of a sign that he had heard that Rivera man. That he was clued in to the fact that I was pregnant.
And from the stern set of his jaw and the cold anger in his dark eyes, I could only believe he was furious.
Of course, he’s mad.
He was surprised in the worst way imaginable.
I should have just come clean and told him!
These past few weeks of hiding my pregnancy had been hell. Now, it was all out of my hands. It was beyond my control how he might perceive the situation. With him busy elsewhere and not even slowing down to ask me about it, he’d made it clear that he didn’t want to hear me out. He wasn’t interested in whatI could say to elaborate about the fact that I was expecting his child.
All I could do was pace.
Back and forth, I walked in my room like a caged animal. This feeling of being trapped and stuck wasn’t anything new. I felt like this back when I first woke up here, lost and confused when this big brute of a Mafia boss came in here to tell me that he owned me because of my dad’s problems.
All I could do now was vent this nervous energy.
Because that was all I could embrace. The anxiety. The unknowns. The threat of his anger being funneled toward me and no one else. Being the enemy of a Mafia boss was an incredibly stupid thing to let happen, but there was no erasing time now. I couldn’t go back and clarify.
Nope. He expected me to stay in here and stew. To wait for him.
When he at last appeared, entering my room without so much as a knock, fear claimed me. My nervousness escalated to outright trepidation as he walked in, closed the door behind himself, and stared me down.
His hands were shoved into his pockets, but that seemingly relaxed and casual stance wasn’t fooling me. That intense look warned that he was livid. The tension in the air between us proved he was still mad, here to expect answers that would probably not appease him in the end.
A fleeting conviction rolled through my mind that I was in the wrong. That it had been my fault to hide my pregnancy from him. But I wouldn’t take back my actions. I wouldn’t apologize for acting out of fear and dealing with this the best I could.
He wasn’t some standard, upfront kind of guy. He wasn’t an ideal book boyfriend of a fictional hero I could lean on.
Luka Dubinin was a cruel, hardened, lethal Mafia boss.
But he was also the father of my child.
