Sera“Where’s my husband?” Penelope said, her voice shaking. She looked between me and Killian with a pleading expression that shattered my heart. Killian looked like a menace in his bloodied, torn clothing. It had to make Penelope think the worst. “I shouldn’t have come. I’m sorry, Mr. Ricci. I just felt like something was wrong. Mikey usually checks in. He called while I was sleeping earlier to tell me that he had to go out. But now, you’re back. If you’re home, then he should be too.” She worried her bottom lip between her teeth, and bent at the waist, her hands on her swollen belly.“Penelope?” I stepped forward, my fingertips prickling with adrenaline as I looked her over. “Penelope, what’s wrong?”She gasped, her eyes squeezed shut before she blew out her breath and steadied herself against the wall.“Oh, my God,” I whispered to myself. “Pen, are you having contractions?”“I’m just stressed,” she whimpered. She met Killian’s gaze, tears welling in her eyes. “Where is he? Please?
Sera“I need boiling water, antiseptic, towels,” I said hurriedly as I followed Killian down a hallway as he carried Penelope like she weighed nothing. Two maids I’d never even seen before walked on either side of me, listening intently. “Anything you can get your hands on, okay? Heating pads, uhm, anything you can think to keep her comfortable. Ice chips? A comb!” Isn’t that what they always got laboring women in the movies? I stared at the older of the two maids with pleading eyes. Help me, I have no idea what I’m doing. I prayed she’d understand.The maids broke off and disappeared into the recesses of the house to grab the items I’d requested. Penelope whimpered and hissed in Killian’s arms. She was in so much pain. I could almost taste it in the air. I thought this night couldn’t get any worse than it already was, but I’d been wrong.I’d rather be elbow-deep in Tommaso’s bleeding chest again than risk losing Penelope and her baby.Killian laid Penelope down in a large bed in one
SeraOlivia gripped Penelope’s hand and whispered assurances into her ear. I stood at the foot of the bed, trying not to shake. Joyce stood on one side of me, and Fiona on the other, the two of them holding Penelope’s legs as her son came into the world.The scene felt like something out of a movie, except I wasn’t cozy on a couch eating popcorn and delighting in the drama. I had Penelope’s life in my hands—and the life of her son.I’d never experienced anything like this, but I was doing it. Time stood still and the room blurred as I coached Penelope through contraction after contraction.“You’re doing it, Pen,” I said, my voice cracking. I reached down, feeling the baby’s head in my hands. I could see the crown and knew it wouldn’t be much longer before she had him out. With every push, he became a bit more visible.Without letting go of Penelope’s leg, Joyce leaned down to have a look as well. She sighed in relief and said, “That’s the right presentation. She’s doing fine. You’re
KillianI felt like I hadn’t taken a breath in over an hour. Watching the paramedics leave was like a shock to my entire system, like I’d been dunked in frigid water and fought my way to the surface. That first breath brought me back to reality, and at the moment, reality sucked.During the twenty minutes it had taken for Penelope to have her baby, nothing had gone right. I’d paced in front of the door the entire time, my phone pressed to my ear as I called Tommaso, Alonzo, and whichever capos had feet on the ground at not only the warehouse but the safehouses.No one had seen Francesco or Bixby until the moment I heard that baby cry for the first time. At that moment, I got the news I’d been waiting for.Tommaso had called and told me Francesco was on the lam, which I expected. What I hadn’t expected to hear was that Bixby’s car had been found twenty miles north of Philly, its tires shredded and Bixby hanging halfway out the open driver’s door with several bullets in his chest.He di
SeraMy fingers fanned over Killian’s bare chest. His frame shielded me from the spray of the water as he towered over me, his eyes closed as he pressed his forehead to mine.Bruises peppered his skin all the way down to his hips. I winced at the sight of his injuries, my chest convulsing painfully as I closed my eyes against the fury that someone had hurt him.“Sera,” he whispered into my hair. He dragged his hands down over the swell of my hips. “I’m fine.”“I don’t want to hurt you.”“You could never hurt me.”He lifted his head, and I tilted my head back to look at his face. His eyes were dark, hooded with fatigue, but his hands rested on my hips and squeezed as he pressed his body against mine.Every time we’d come together like this it had been hungry, desperate, hard and fast. I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him gently, tasting him, my fingers tracing the angles of his face, of his jaw and neck. I took my time touching him as if memorizing him, burning him into my
KillianThe words I’d whispered to her were a lie. Sera could hurt me. She could hurt me more than she realized, though not physically.Maybe she saw that knowledge in my eyes, even when they were shielded in near total darkness, because she pulled away and perched on her knees, looking down at me.I winced as I sat up, sensing a conversation was coming that I wasn’t in the mood to have. “Lie down, Sera. You should try to get some rest.”“What is this between us?” She pulled the shirt I’d given her back on and frowned at me.I ran my tongue along my lower lip and sighed, pulling on my boxers as I discarded the used condom. “What do you want it be, Sera?”“That wasn’t what I asked.” I reached for her, but she pulled away. “You almost died tonight. We lost Mikey.”“You don’t have to remind me.”“I do, because you just fucked me like you loved me, and I can’t just sit here anymore and pretend like everything is okay. That I’m okay, or that you’re okay.”I sat up straight, ignoring the bi
SeraSleep lingered just out of reach as I flipped over in bed, curling myself around a pillow. Killian’s abrupt rejection tangled in my grief-stricken brain while I shut my eyes and prayed some semblance of sleep would find me and take me under into a dark, dreamless abyss.Why did he always do this?Being with Killian was like a cruel, complicated dance where the steps changed every time I finally felt confident in them. After the night we’d had together, I felt confident that I’d learned the new version of our same old dance, but now, everything had fallen apart again, leaving me clumsily traipsing around the dance floor unable to find my partner.Every time I got close, he pulled away. I did my damnedest to pry the deepest, most hidden parts of him open just to have him snap them shut again. Every layer of himself involved breaking through another lock. Another layer of iron. I hated it.I hated myself for falling for him. I’d allowed myself to do the one thing that could kill me
KillianThe bottle of whiskey sitting across the room on the bar called to me, but I fought the urge, remembering what I’d told Tommaso about sobering up. We needed to have our heads on straight to deal with this. Mindlessly, I drummed my fingers on my desk, staring at the piece of paper we’d found in the warehouse, the one that indicated my worst fear as a mob boss—other than death itself—had become a reality.We had a fucking rat in our family.Adrian had been able to work through the encryptions, finding a massive amount of information about not only me, but other bosses, and this particular paper was proof beyond a shadow of a doubt that none of the troubles we’d been experiencing lately were bad luck or coincidence. They were the very intentional attempts at sabotage orchestrated by the lowest scum on the face of the earth, the man who dared to call me his friend, his boss, and then shove a knife in my back.Cursing under my breath, I lifted the paper to go over it all again, eve