I should tell him. Right now, in this moment of intimacy, when his guard is down and his arms are around me. I should be honest about the life growing inside me.
"Hannah," he says, his voice careful. "Is there something you need to tell me?"
My heart stops. Does he know? Has he figured it out somehow?
"Like what?" I manage to say.
"You've been different lately. Distracted. Like you're carrying something heavy."
I am carrying something heavy. Your child.
"It's just... all of this," I gesture vaguely at the room, at our situation. "It's a lot to process."
He studies my face for a long moment, and I'm sure he can see right through my lie. But then he nods and pulls me closer.
“Have you spoken to your father?” He asks the question several minutes later.
“You know I haven’t. You have me locked down.”
He sighs and slowly pushes me away.
“I need to get to bed. You need sleep. Tomorrow will bring enough problems of its own."
If only he knew.
16
DANTE
The morning starts with blood on my hands and the metallic taste of violence in my mouth.
Another man Bogdan believed to be part of what was shaping up to be a ring of co-conspirators.
Another series of questions.
More denials.
No one was telling me shit which left Richard in my crosshairs. I was going to have to pull the trigger. This organized embezzlement scheme requires action.
But as I wash the evidence from my skin in the basement's utility sink, I think about Hannah.
When I kill Richard, I kill whatever we might have built between us.
It will be gone.
I finish washing the blood, but this morning’s interrogation had gotten a little—messy. I needed to change clothes before I saw Mila.
I head upstairs and am about to step into the passageway when Hannah appears.
She stares at me with shock and horror. “Are you okay?”
She rushes toward me. I hold out my hand to stop her from touching me. “I’m fine.”
“Dante, there’s blood all over?—”
That’s when the crew emerges from the basement with a body bag. Everyone freezes. I can practically hear the wheels turning in her head. She’s putting it all together.
Her face goes white, then green. I watch her stomach lurch as understanding hits her like a physical blow.
