Lorenzo
THREE MONTHS LATER
It’s been three months since the fucking night when I almost lost my wife and unborn child. Some nights I can’t sleep as the memories of that night invade my dreams. I feel that all-consuming panic, the tightness of my chest, but I turn over and see her sleeping peacefully, and I’ll rest my hand on the swell of her stomach where our baby is growing and that panic recedes.
She’s alive and she’s here.
I glance over at her. She’s sitting on the sofa in my office, reading, her hand resting against her swollen stomach, a solemn look on her face. It’s the same look she had when I found her in the garden about a month after I killed Daire. She doesn't talk about Daire at all anymore. When I asked why she looked sad, she said she wasn't sad exactly, that she was grieving something that never existed, the sister she'd wanted Daire to be. I didn't have anything useful to say, so I sat beside her and let her process. She hasn't brought it up since, but sometimes I catch her with that same look, and I leave her to it.
“Lorenzo,” she says, a smile playing on her lips. “I can feel you staring.”
“You’re my wife, I’m allowed to stare.”
Before she can’t say anything, there’s a knock on my office door.
"I'll go find Vittoria," Quinn says softly as she gets to her feet and moves over to me. She presses a kiss to my lips.
I slide my arm around her waist and pull her close, deepening the kiss. “Love you, baby,” I say as I press one last kiss to her lips.
Her eyes warm and her lips spread into a bright smile. “I love you too,” she says as she moves away from me and walks over to open the door. “Hey Ciro,” she greets and I watch her leave the room and close the door behind.
Ciro sits down on the chair in front of me.
"Bridget," he says quietly.
I lean back in my chair and sigh. Two weeks after Daire’s body was found in her wrecked car at the bottom of the ravine, Bridget Delaney died. "What about her?"
"The official cause was heart failure," he says. "Stress and grief."
I look at him. “I know,” I say. “What about it?”
"There's a rumor that all is not what it seems,” he grins. “Seems as though she may have been murdered.”
I think about Bridget Delaney and all that she did to Quinn, all that she said to my wife.
Maybe if you'd been less difficult to love.
Fuck her, she got everything she deserves if someone killed her.
"No need to look further," I say. “I don’t care and Quinn believes her mother died from the loss of Daire. It’s best we leave it that way.”
She cried when she heard, not for the mother Bridget was, I think, but for the one she never had. I held her and said nothing, because there was nothing useful to say. Some griefs aren't about loss. They're about finally accepting that what you wanted was never going to come.
When Daire’s body was recovered, it came to light that she had given birth just over a month before her death, the question that now remains on everyone’s mind is; where the hell is the child?
Ronan hasn't returned to the head of the Irish Crime Family since Bridget's funeral. Daithí has stepped into the role without ever officially claiming it, and nobody's challenged the change.
Ciro grins. “Now, we need to talk about Erin.”
I sigh. God, that’s a fucking disaster waiting to happen. Three weeks ago, Quinn and Valentina sat me down and they told me about Erin. How she met a man online who lied about who he was. That motherfucker was Gregory Hightower. He beat Erin and hurt her badly. The good news is, that that fucker is dead, curtesy of Landon King, who Erin ended up having a one night stand with while in Vegas.
Bad news is, Frederick Hightower is still hiding, the fucker. But not for much longer. Tempest has been pulling on the financial thread for weeks and he's found movement. Frederick is running, which means he's making mistakes, and mistakes leave traces. We'll find him.
I guess the saying what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas isn’t true. Erin’s pregnant, twelve weeks along and it’s Landon King’s.
The reason why this is a clusterfuck is because Landon has no idea that Erin’s pregnant and both my wife and sister made me swear that I wouldn’t tell him or anyone else. I have kept that promise, which has not been comfortable, because Prior King is my ally and Landon is his brother, but Erin asked and Quinn asked so I gave my word, and I've said nothing. But it’s going to come out and when it does, shit’s going to hit the fan.
Quinn is waiting for me as I exit my office, we have an appointment in thirty minutes. Today is the day we get to see our baby and find out the gender.
