“He might not.”
“Right. He might think he doesn’t want kids, but things change. Icon didn’t want a relationship when he and I met.”
Zahra sucked in air as her lips pressed into a thin line. “I don’t know though. Reek has been pretty adamant. His reasons are different. It’s trauma behind all of that.”
I threw my hands up. “Hello?! I’m right here!”
They both looked at me then.
“How many months are you?” Livia asked.
“Almost five.”
She pretended to pass out, throwing her limp body against my bed. “You have to tell him. You cannot keep dragging this out.”
I rolled my eyes at her dramatics. “I know that.”
“Do you?” Zahra pressed. “Because the longer you wait, the worse it’s going to be.”
Zahra eased herself down on the bed with a groan. “She’s right. You need to tell him. Don’t take this experience away from him, in case he wants to be involved.”
I looked between both of them and nodded with a long sigh. “A’ight, I’ll tell him.”
Livia’s eyes brightened. “Today? Right now?”
I sucked my teeth. “No.”
She pouted. “Aw man. I wanted to see the drama.”
I rolled my eyes again, saying, “That’s why I’m telling him in private. Not today, but… soon.”
SIENNA LANGFORD
The walls in my condo had never felt this close before. I had lived there long enough to know every sound it made; the hum from the refrigerator, the soft click in the vents when the heat came on, the city noise coming faintly through the windows. Usually, all of it made my place feel cozy and warm.
Tonight, it felt like a cage.
I paced barefoot from the kitchen to the living room and back again, with my phone in one hand and a glass of wine in the other.
Agent Mallory was done being patient. Every time I thought about the way she had looked at me in our last meeting, like I was running out of value by the second, my stomach turned. She was tired of the scraps I had been bringing her. She wanted a real federal case, the kind of case that swallowed men whole and never spit them back out.
I stopped in front of the window and looked down at the street below. Headlights moved through the dark. People were still out living, laughing, doing regular shit, and I envied them because I wished my life could go back to being that easy.
What started as me trying to protect myself had become something uglier. I had made it look like getting close to Reek was part of smoothing things over for Project 83, part of keeping the relationship between my father and the Cartiers comfortable and useful.
And now I couldn’t tell where the role ended and I began. I set the wine down and pressed my fingers to my temple.
Reek had been distant since Zahra’s baby shower.Toodistant. He had been colder than usual and more absent even when he was in my presence. He had always been hard to read, but this felt different enough to make me uneasy. A part of me kept wondering if he had somehow found out what I had been doing behind his back and was just sitting on it until he decided how he wanted to handle me.
That thought alone was enough to make my pulse race.
If Reek found out from anybody but me, I didn’t know if my father would ever find my body. I knew enough about the men around him, about the way they moved, about what happened to people who got too close and played games they weren’t supposed to play. Even now, with feelings involved, I wasn’t stupid enough to romanticize my betrayal. Reek was not a man you crossed and then talked your way out of it with tears and pretty apologies.
And still, I loved him. Somewhere between the first lie and the last time he touched me, that man had gotten into my soul. I wanted him, wanted more of him than he had ever offered, wanted to be the woman he let his guard down for, wanted a future with a man who barely acted like he gave a fuck if I was around the next day.
Because of that love, I wanted to tell him the truth and just hope that behind that wall around his heart was an inkling of a feeling for me that would convince him to help me.
The Cartiers had intelligence and resources who could bury problems or erase them or whatever the hell gangsters did. Maybe if I came to Reek first, before Mallory forced my hand, before I got dragged into federal court and a prison jumpsuit, maybe he could fix this.
