My mom straightens and pats my hand. “I’ll go with your father tonight.”
My mom hates those pretentious birthday parties. She never attends them.
I try to hold fast when she lets my hand go. “Mom.”
Fresh tears roll down her cheeks, but her gaze is serene. “You know how your father gets when he’s like this. The bratva will challenge him tonight. If they insult him, he’ll leave.”
“Don’t,” I plead. “Please.”
Her smile is brave, her mind made up. “I know how to handle him. I’ll make sure he stays there until tomorrow. That will give him some time to cool down. Otherwise, he may get it into his head to go looking for you. As long as he’s there, busy with those problems, he won’t think about this.” She caresses my cheek, looking at me as if she’s trying to burn my face into her memory. “I love you, honey.”
“Stay.” The word slurs on my tongue. My vision becomes fuzzy, and my head turns dizzy. “I feel… funny.”
“The doctor gave you a sedative, but don’t worry. It’s safe for the baby. I asked him to up the dose so you can rest.”
“Stay. Please.”
“I have to go. Whatever you do, don’t come home. You understand, right?”
She’s telling me to run, to save my baby. If I don’t do as Leander has said, my father won’t let it go. He’ll hunt me down and finish what he started. He’ll kill my baby and force me to marry Joni Stein. And eventually, he’ll beat Dante’s name out of me.
Taking the chain with the cross from around her neck, she presses it into my palm and closes my fingers around it. “You’ll find everything you need there.”
Then she bends over me and whispers in my ear.
Chapter
Three
Tatiana
* * *
When I wake up again, Jazz sits in a chair next to my bed. Her face is as white as the walls closing us into the small room.
A monitor beeps somewhere behind me, beating out a steady heart rate in the space. The television that’s mounted on the wall is turned onto a news channel, but the sound is off. My best friend is staring at the screen with glassy eyes while bouncing her knee.
“Jazz?”
She gives a start and leaps to her feet. “You’re awake. Can I get you something? Food? Jello? Morphine?”
“Where’s Dante?”
She bites her lip.
I frown. “He didn’t come?”
“Your mom didn’t dare call from her phone. She says your father checks her calls. She didn’t want me to do it either.” Wringing her hands, she shrugs. “You never know. She said she left you a burner phone with the other stuff, whatever that is. She didn’t have time to explain.”
I curl my fingers around the chain in my palm, fisting it until the edges of the cross cut into my skin.
Jazz hesitates. “She told me you’d be better off not calling him at all.”
I shake my head, not wanting to go there again.
She jumps into action, lifting a travel bag from the floor. “She packed you clothes and toiletries as well as a few essentials for the baby.” She points at a big stuffed dinosaur sitting in a visitor’s chair in the corner. “And this.”
Absently, I wonder if that means my mother knows the sex of the baby. Did the doctor tell her? Is it a boy? If it were a girl, my mom would’ve gotten a unicorn or a mermaid. That’s just how she is. I can’t help but smile.
