Liam O’Grady was up on his feet at once, fists clenched.“The f*ck do you mean by that?” he snarled, bristling. He was looming over the doctor, his entire body language menacing in nature.Bianca begged him to sit down and he finally sank into the chair, still looking daggers at the doctor. Dr Ramon seemed unperturbed. He had obviously met a lot of distraught relatives. Sighing, he opened a small screen on the wall and showed them the scan results.Bianca’s hands squeezed O’Grady’s large one as she listened in silence, barely aware of the laboured breathing of the man beside her.When he was done explaining , she sat forward and said, “But what did you mean, doctor, by saying, Only If the patient wishes?”Dr Ramon met her eyes and said gently, almost rebuking her for not catching on,“Did Mr St Just tell you of his condition?”His eyes moved from one to the other of the white-faced couple seated before him.the question caught her unawares and she drew a sharp breath.“Why did he hi
The scene at the headquarters of the Delano mob was tense.Piers was listening carefully to the Capo, Philippe, who also to happened to be his brother, when Hila walked in. One look at her husband’s tense face and she strode across to him.She sat down on the side, behind Piers, hand on his shoulder, kneading his tight muscles.“What’s up?” she drawled in her throaty voice, her eyes fixed on Phillippe. The Capo sighed, he was a large man with black hair tied back in a ponytail, a hairstyle his baby daughter thoroughly approved of; she used to tug at his hair and giggle when he pretended to yelp in pain. Now he met Hila’s direct gaze and said,“There’s word on the street, Perez is stirring.”Hila did not flinch.She had also heard that Gabriela was looking to settle scores. The woman was enraged at the part played by her former lover, Lucien Delano and that of O’Grady and St Just, who had brought down her sex trafficking network Now Hila inclined her head, encouraging the Capo to go
Something about his actions made the man lying on the bed struggle to remember where he had seen the orderly before. True, the man was wearing a mask but his movements- they seemed familiar in some way, a negative way.St Just had been sedated the previous night and he knew that his movements were sluggish. But he was alert enough to know something was off, when the man looked over his shoulder in a desperate way, as though he expected someone to barge in any minute and stop him. St Just frowned as he thought of the other nurses who had come in with confidence and had fixed the bag on the IV stand with no hesitation. This man was fumbling and the patient heard him swear coarsely.Not an orderly, definitely not hospital staff.But St Just’s hands were not moving fast enough to keep up with his thoughts which were sending out alarm bells. The man tried to stab the IV bag unsuccessfully with his syringe. He did it three times, getting more and more flustered with each attempt.Now St
St Just had been put on a ventilator as soon as the doctors arrived. When he emerged form the surgery, he was deeply sedated. The doctor surveyed O’Grady and Bianca grimly as he said, ‘We can’t conduct the tests today, I’m afraid.”He sighed and spoke, almost to himself,“It’s out of the question.”O’Grady rubbed the back of his head, pacing wrathfully. Bianca stood, small and silent, staring at the doctor, an unspoken plea in her large, liquid brown eyes.“Let’s wait, eh?” and he clapped Bianca on her shoulder in a fatherly way before striding away.O’Grady came close, muttering things about ‘unfeeling bas*ard doctors’ and ‘blo*dy fool hospitals.’She said nothing, just sank into a seat, leaning back, her small hand over her slightly swollen belly. Bianca imagined she could feel the hardness of her stomach and almost jumped out of her skin as a larger hand descended, clamping down over hers, warm and reassuring.The familiar musk of O’Grady surrounded her as he leaned into her and sa
The burly Irishman and the woman he loved slept in each other’s arms, and Bianca lay, snuggled and safe as she thought of St Just. He had looked so thin, emaciated even, as he lay in the ICU. Although the two of them had wanted to stay at the hospital all night, the doctors had dissuaded them.“Mrs O’Grady,” said the matron, indicating Bianca and failing to see the blush on Bianca’s face at the words,” She’s pregnant and needs her rest, Sir.”O’Grady had smiled wolfishly, looking dark and dangerous as he nodded, his eyes gleaming as he looked at the blushing girl beside him.“Ah, lass, you’re right,” he drawled.Later, as they were riding home, he held her to his body and murmured,” We need to make an honest woman of you, Bianca Cruz before the babe comes out.”She shuddered at his choice of words but he prevented any retort by kissing her soundly and she subsided.Now they were snuggled in bed, thinking of St Just.She sighed and O’Grady grunted questioningly.Bianca rubbed his stub
O’Grady was in his gym at home, practising when Bianca came down, wrapped in her robe. She looked wan and he sensed that she had not slept well. She had a mug of sweet tea in her hands and he stopped punching, just to look at her. Her hair floated around her face and she looked so incredibly young, he thought, his shaft hardening, despite the fact that he was sweating like a pig and had been going at it for half an hour now. His trainer, Jeb Walderman, looked around and grinned at Bianca. She dimpled shyly and sank on the steps, holding her mug in both hands.“Babe, I’ll join you in a moment,” yelled O’Grady, disconcerted to see the look on Jeb’s face. It was not that he felt insecure; heck, Jeb had a beautiful wife named Cherry and two adorable little daughters. The coach adored his little family. But his openly admiring look annoyed O’Grady.Bianca sent her Master a look and then rose, saying “I just wanted to remind you, O’Grady. We need to be at the hospital in an hour.”She turne
Jamal Khan had been able to get a job as a lowly assistant gardener on the sprawling Delano estate after a long wait. He had been groomed by Gabriela’s men. The fact that he was also a druggie, heavily dependent upon ‘the juice’, as he called the drugs he took, having picked up the term from his stint with ex-cons, only aided the Perez mob.They had used men like him to launch similar attacks before this and the fact that he knew he might die, did not really affect the gaunt-faced, hollow-eyed tall man. He had been given the task of remote controlling the drone, having helped the men who hid outside the heavily guarded compound wall, to get the small, yet lethal drone into the grounds.It was not difficult to find him, he was zoned out and about to inject himself with a lethal, intoxicating dose of his drug of choice, when Beston’s men leapt upon him.*Lucien was beside himself with rage and worry. Piers had burst into the room on hearing the sound of the firing and had been the fir
Gabriela’s voice came over the amplifiers for Hila and Piers’ men had set up the system to record and amplify the sound. Paddy was seated in a corner, his nose red, tapping away on his keyboard quickly as he tried to detect where the call was originating from. The young man had been extremely disturbed on hearing about his beloved Proserpina’s situation and had been weeping silently in a corner.“Hello my love,” breathed Gabriela and Lucien felt a slow burning rage begin in his chest.“Ah, you are angry, aren’t you my love? Like in the old days when we f*cked like rabbits, my Don. Remember how you used to hold my head down while you…”Lucien Delano realised that she was playing with his mind. She was setting out to humiliate him before the people here, knowing full well that the call must be on speaker, that his family must be listening to every word.Serena glanced at Louis and placed a restraining hand on his hard, muscled arm.“No,” she mouthed silently as her fiancé clenched his f
Bianca’s examination came back with no untoward discoveries. She was fine, the doctor assured them, save for a sprained wrist and a few scratches and cuts to her hands. But apart from the abrasions, she was good to go, as the cheerful doctor declared. Besides, most importantly, the baby was fine. O’Grady sighed in relief and looked at his pet. She was yawning widely and he felt a strange sense of protectiveness towards her. Bianca had been planning to go down to meet her sisters and stepmother, Heather, the next day; she had told them about her pregnancy and Heather had at first been a little perplexed and not so happy.But later, mainly due to the influence of her daughters who thought that Bianca was the coolest person on earth, she had come round. Besides, there was also, as Bianca declared archly, the way Bet and Anna tended to regard O’Grady. In their teenage gaze, he was like a superhero who might just sprout wings and fly out the window, Bianca said drily. The adulation was h
Proserpina looked across at the doorway, sighing. She was in the enormous nursery at her mansion, beside Piers’ two sons, one on her lap, cuddling her, his thumb in his mouth, the other, Luc, already asleep. Her own sons, Gabrielle and Alexander, were giggling as they made funny sounds, mimicking the characters in the book she had been reading to them.Tara’s babies were also asleep, as was Claude’s little girl. Ria’s little one was also sleeping peacefully.Camille said with a huge grin, “Full house, tonight,” before she headed downstairs to bed. Proserpina had been worried when Hila had come to her to ask her to keep her sons here. “Where they will be safe,” she had said.That had been after Piers had gently informed his mother that Hila was leaving to scout for the person who was behind the deaths of so many of the Mafia Don’ associates. Placing his hands on his mother’s shoulders, Piers had looked at her tenderly and said,“We’ll all be safe, Mumma. And don’t fret.”The air seeme
Jana Rudenko looked around herself. She had landed in the United States under the guise of a woman who was part of a group tour, complete with falsified documents and a fake passport. She even had a fake husband along for company, a man who had once been a killer but now served her as her bodyguard.The fictional Mrs Liga Edgars, for that, was the identity she had taken for herself, also had a story to back her up. She had been a dour-faced widow who had been coerced to go on the trip by her children, with her newlywed second husband. But Jana had stepped in and stolen the real Mrs Edgar’s identity after having gotten rid of the real lady in question. Mrs Liga Edgar had been of Belgian ancestry, as her passport said, Now the false Mrs Edgar looked around as she accompanied the other eager tourists who were heading to the terminal.She hung back and her fictional husband, the good Mr. Edgars, slowed down too.“Stay with me,” she commanded in a low voice and he nodded. They joined t
Bianca was beside the window overlooking St Just’s bed, her eyes intently fixed on his as his lids fluttered. She looked around to her other lover, Liam O’Grady who stood behind her, hands in his pocket, his jacket open as he studied his brother’s pale face.They were on the other side of the thick glass pane.“He’s…getting better, isn’t he O’Grady?” she asked tremulously and he smiled tiredly. Now that his brother was in hospital, O’Grady spent most of his time shuttling between the casinos, the loan offices on High Street and the hospital. He looked forward to seeing Bianca at the end of the day, to fold his arms around her and be enveloped in her embrace, her lips on his.But this evening, the doctor had looked a little tense when he came to the hospital.“He’s contracted an infection,” the doctor had said grimly and went on,” We need to shift him.”And at Bianca’s alarmed look, he added kindly,“To the ICU, young lady.”Bianca had slumped down on the seat, close to tears and O’Gra
Many years agoFather Pavel Rudenko looked at his sister who was weeping wretchedly. The brothers had gone to meet their newly widowed sister. As a man of the cloth, the Monk had accompanied Dmitri Rudenko. “Take my son, take this monster, my brother,” she had begged with hands clasped before her, as she wept,“I cannot handle him anymore…”Her husband had been an abusive man; the boy was following in his footsteps, a cold-hearted brute who was terrorising his mother and sister.The Monk had stood silently and looked at his nephew, the son of his only sister, a half-sister, but still, his blood. Dmitri Rudenko had walked to him, gripping his chin firmly and he studied the teenager.“Duska?” he had queried and the boy had looked at the sinister-looking man, slim as a reed, with his menacing eyes.“Yes, uncle,” he had said, a feeling of exhilaration arising in him.That was how he had been left in the care of Dmitri Rudenko, the man who was regarded as a dangerous warlord, a gun-runne
Danielle, thought Proserpina as she sat in the large limo gliding over the streets silently, covering the distance as soon as possible. The woman who had seen her from the time she was the young, naïve, innocent mistress of Lucien Delano; the one who had become the bulwark of her life at a time when Proserpina was torn between leaving the Mafia Don for good…Proserpina had been with her Mafia Don when the call from Louis had come. The Don’s demeanour had altered in a flash.He had pulled her into his arms and growled,‘I have to leave, Woman. Danielle…” Breaking off, he had been scowling as he turned to make a call to Schwartz on the intercom, for James Schwartz had a set of rooms, a suite of his own, in the Delano mansion.But Proserpina’s small hand on his arm arrested him.In a firm voice, she said,“I’m coming too.” He swung around to slam her, to insist she stay home. But the determined look on his little Woman’s face made him stop. His Proserpina had grown, and how!She had be
Perhaps, the relief of knowing that St Just was out of surgery, and more importantly, that he was not going to leave them, added to their excitement.They made it to the bed for O’Grady was adamant, scooping her up in his arms and wrapping her in a towel as he carried her to the bed.“My child will not be manhandled, I refuse to f*ck his mother in the shower cubicle,” he grunted as he laid her down on the bed carefully.Bianca pouted crossly, reaching up to grab his head, and kissing him frantically.O’Grady chuckled as he knelt over her, his powerful arms supporting him as he looked down at her eager, flushed face.“You’re demanding, little Pet,” he teased,” Ask your Master nicely and we’ll see what you get.”She arched her back in response and he inhaled the smell of her arousal, his hard staff, stiff with desire, leaking profusely onto her thighs now.“Ah, Sweet Jaysus,” he groaned and lowered his head, kissing her fiercely, their tongues engaged in a combat that was as old as time
The surgeon stepped out, his face grey and looking exhausted. Six hours had elapsed. He stood and looked at the sea of anxious faces, Bianca in her lover’s arms, clutching him tightly, almost afraid to breathe.The surgeon smiled tiredly.“ It went off well. St Just’s out of surgery.”Disregarding the look of horror on his face, O’Grady strode over and enfolded the man in a bear hug.Bianca was sobbing in relief, her arms around Rani and Serena as she wept in abandon.They helped her to sit down, and she held her face in her hands, saying over and over again,‘Thank you, God, thank you…!”Rani knelt down on the ground before her and said in her heavily accented sweet voice,‘Here, drink this, drink some water, Bianca.”Serena was on the seat beside her, holding her shoulders.The Delano boys, Claude, Louis and Dom were beside the overwhelmed-looking doctor.‘He’ll still need rest, a lot of rest,” warned the surgeon before he managed to walk away.O’Grady’s eyes were shining with tears
When St Just was being wheeled into the surgery, both his loved ones were with him. Bianca and O’Grady had arrived at dawn and stood, holding his hands as they waited for the nursing staff and doctors to arrive to take him in for his early morning surgery.“It might take some time,” the doctor curtly stated as he strode to the theatre, once St Just had been wheeled away.Bianca’s face whitened and O’Grady held her as she seemed to sway. But her hands gripped his arm and she stood stiffly.“I’m ok,” she said softly and he studied her face carefully.Louis Delano and Serena Kingston came down the corridor, hurrying towards O’Grady and he smiled slightly. Claude Delano was not a man who believed in early mornings. But Louis and his lover had come to hold the fort.Serena and Bianca hugged effusively and Serena asked her in a low voice if she was up to some food.“Mumma rose early, well, she always does, and fixed some buns for you, the both of you,” She smiled as she produced a large pap