“Our bid was accepted for Olympus.”
I gave him a matching smile. Now that Ricci was dead, his Power of Attorney was beginning to sell some of his less legitimate businesses. As Ricci Enterprises crumbled alongside the demise of their leader, the expansion of my own empire began to come to fruition.
Not only did I have eyes and ears everywhere looking for Sarah, but I was also taking any chance I could to take down all the businesses that she would be overseeing now that Ricci was dead.
Maybe tonight wasn’t going to be as bad as I thought.
“What do you say we go celebrate?” I asked Machine.
Machine replied with a huge smile on his face. This was such a contrast to the man I found on the floor. I wondered if part of his good mood was due to a beautiful blonde?
I wouldn’t ask. I knew full well how that conversation would go.
“How about we go see our new club?” I asked instead.
“Fuck yeah! Let’s do it!” Machine fist-bumped me and off we went to scope out what we’d just acquired.
SEVENTY
EVELYN
Alfredo weaved through my legs as I heaved my breakfast into the toilet. “For fuck’s sake!” I grumbled. I rinsed out my mouth and sent Badger a text, asking for her to bring me some soup and saltines. She called me seconds later, talking a mile a minute.
“Do you think it’s the flu?” Badger asked over the phone. We were on number five of questions to determine why I was sick.
I rested my head on the backrest of the sofa and placed my cell phone on my chest with Badger on speaker. “No. I don’t have a fever or anything.”
I had no energy. In fact, I had been feeling run down for over a week.
Badger went silent on the other end of the phone. I pulled the phone back from my ear and looked at the screen to make sure she was still on the line. “Badge?”
“Yeah, I’m here. I need to ask you something, but you have to promise not to freak out.”
I rolled my eyes. “We both know you are going to ask regardless.” I laughed at my joke.
“That’s beside the point.”
“Badge, just ask! Sheesh!”
“Is there any chance you’re pregnant?”
I scoffed and let out a laugh. “Pfft! Please! No way!” But even as I said it, doubt tickled my brain. My heart pounded as I opened the period-tracking app on my phone. “Shit.” I swore under my breath, too softly for Badger to hear. I was nine days late.
Badger let out a curse under her breath before saying, “I’m going to take your silence as my answer. One piss test, coming up!”
I paced my living room until she arrived twenty minutes later with three different brands of pregnancy tests, saltines, and chicken noodle soup.
Grabbing the tests, I walked into my bathroom, did my business, and set a timer. I sat on the toilet and ran my fingers through my hair. The three minutes it took for the tests to give an answer felt like an eternity. But when my alarm chimed, suddenly I didn’t want to look.
The three tests in front of me all said the same thing. Positive. I felt the blood drain from my face.No, no, no! This couldn’t be happening!
Badger knocked on the door. “Evie! Open up!”
When I didn’t respond, she tested the knob to find it unlocked and let herself in. I braced myself on the bathroom counter attempting to take deep breaths. My vision began to tunnel as my breaths came in short heaves. I was going to pass out.
Badger peered over my shoulder before letting out a whistle and quickly getting into Elite Squad mode by helping me sit down and instructing me to put my head between my knees.
She rubbed her hand in soothing circles on my back as Ifollowed her instructions. But all the deep breathing in the word couldn’t change my new reality. I was pregnant with Kade’s baby! Kade, the head of the Italian Mafia, and the man I wanted to forget!
