Now, I was working in a position I’d always wanted, and I wasn’t going to turn my back on my responsibilities, on the things that had brought me a little joy when I’d been at my lowest.Not for anyone.
“I’ll follow you anywhere, Vay,” Ryder vowed.
“Sure,” I scoffed.“That’ll last for a hot minute.”
“I already made the arrangements,” Kane said, lightly stroking his hand from my belly to my back and down to my hip.
“No, you didn’t,” I denied, more just to argue, because giving in yet was too easy for them.“You don’t even know where I live now.”
Burying his face in my neck, he kissed his way up to my ear then casually listed my address.
“Easy guess,” I muttered, fighting the whimper building in my throat.“Anya Vitucci probably gave you that information.”
“Anya Vitucci would sooner slit my throat than give me anything,mo réiltín.That woman hates me on principle alone.”He snipped at my lobe then pulled back enough to smirk at me.“Long before my parents got married, Ma and Cristiano Vitucci hooked up.Supposedly.That was at least a decade before I was even a gleam in my da’s eye.”
My mouth dropped open, gaping at the man.“Okay, I’ve never met your mother, but something tells me that Anya would annihilate her.”
“Without a single doubt,” he agreed with a laugh.
“If she didn’t give you the details, then how do you know where I live?”I demanded.
“I have friends in interesting places.”
“Undoubtedly,” I grumbled.“Well, if you made ‘arrangements,’ what would you do about your ‘jobs’ here?”
Ryder caught my hands in both of his, probably to stop my air quotes.“What jobs?Sorry to break it to you, baby, but we’re unemployed at the moment.”
Kane nodded.“Yeah, I finished my last shift about an hour ago.”
“You mean cleaning up whatever mess you made down at that barn, where people follow you inside but, weirdly enough, only you return?”He shrugged.“I’m being serious, Kane.I’m not dense.You two are freaking kingpins.Oh, sorry, lieutenants.That’s what Papa’s men call you.I’m still not sure if that’s slang for a CEO-level position or if you’re just hired muscle.”
“We are not teaching you the hierarchy of the fucking mob, Vay.So don’t even try that bullshit.”Ryder gave me a stern look that quickly turned into a smolder that ended in him kissing me.Lifting his head, he dropped his hand to the other side of my belly.Another kicking limb greeted his touch.“Hello in there, little one.”
Damn him and finding ways to instantly melt my heart.
“Back to the subject at hand,” I redirected.“I want to know what’s going to happen.Your lives are here, in Philly.”
“Our lives are wherever you are,” Kane corrected.“If you’re concerned about our family businesses, Vega has full control over them.We signed over full power to him weeks ago.”
“Oh.”I didn’t know what else to say.All along, I’d thought the whole point of the secrecy, the wedding, everything, was for the ultimate power shift.The Bianchi-Brennan-O’Machain legacies would create some untouchable family that everyone else would have to bow down to.
And now, they were walking away from it all.
Ryder searched my face for a long moment before kissing me again.“You’re worth more than all of it and then some, Vay.”
Ryder
Openingthe door for a very pregnant woman with dark hair and glasses, I waited for her to exit the women’s center before entering.It was a Friday, the end of the first week since Vega had returned to work, and I was hoping to take her to an early dinner.
The place was empty, except for the woman behind the reception desk in scrubs the same pale pink that Vega had been wearing when she’d left that morning.Spotting me, the woman’s eyes got large.“Can I help you?”
“Is Vay free?”I asked.Vega insisted that was her name now, but it wasn’t like it was something I had to get used to.I’d been the first person to call her Vay, damn it.
“I think she’s just finishing up with a patient.”She walked into the back for a moment before sticking her head back around.“Come on back, handsome.”
Opening a door that led to the exam rooms, I heard Vega’s laugh and moved toward it.I was almost to where I could see her shadow half in the corridor, when I heard a male voice.Deep, not rumbly.Definitely not Kane’s.He laughed, and then Vega giggled.
Fucking giggled.
