Page 82 of Diary of a Mafia Princess

I closed the door behind me and dropped the duffel bag at my feet. “Fuck, Nyah! How long have you been crying? What happened?” A sudden, horrifying thought occurred to me. “Is it the…” I trailed off, not wanting to say it out loud because I’d learned in more than one way that the walls around here were thinner than they appeared.

She shook her head but then nodded, and fuck, I didn’t know what that meant. But the look on her face was pure agony and that cut me deep. So I let instinct take over, went to her bed, and gathered her up onto my lap.

She curled up into a ball against me, resting her head on my chest, a fresh flood of tears and sobs racking her body.

All I could do was wrap my arms around her and hold her.

I pressed my lips to the top of her head, inhaling the scent of her hair, breathing her in, hugging her so tight the shaking of her body had no choice but to subside.

“I hate that you’ve been in here all day crying alone,” I whispered. “Please, Nyah. Tell me what happened. You’re fucking scaring me. Should I take you back to the hospital?”

She shook her head. “No. I’m okay. The baby is okay too. It’s just…” A fresh flood of tears started.

But at least she and the baby were okay. That pushed away some of the panic and worry, and I could think more clearly. Hugging her didn’t seem to be working too well, so I gently sat her next to me on the edge of the mattress and pulled over the duffel bag. “I brought you some things.”

I opened it and started taking everything out. I shook a bottle of pills at her. “Prenatal vitamins. Violet said—”

She looked up at me in horror. “You didn’t tell her?”

I paused. “She knows you’re here and that I’m protecting you. But she doesn’t know about the baby. I still think you should let me tell her—”

Nyah’s expression turned fierce. “Absolutely not. She’s pregnant and has two other children who need her. I’m not dragging her into any of this or putting any more people I love in danger. If Carlos and my father get wind of it, she’ll just be one more person they can use to control me. Do not tell her, Lynx. And do not let her come anywhere near this house.”

I promised again that I wouldn’t. Then passed her a pregnancy and baby book. “Apparently, this one is very popular. I had a flick through it…there’s weird shit and some very graphic drawings of a baby’s head crowning that I kind of wish I could unsee.”

Nyah smiled, and I flipped open the book to point them out.

She covered her mouth with her hand. “Oh my God!”

I laughed, closing it again, but putting it down beside her on the bed. “Glad I got that one now, because clearly you are not prepared for what’s going to happen in a few months’ time.”

“Prepared?” she hissed from behind her hand. “How could anyone prepare for their pussy to stretch like that?! That is like something out of a horror movie!”

I really didn’t want to think about Nyah’s pussy in any context, with a crowning baby head or otherwise.

Because it was the otherwise that was going to get me in trouble. I’d seen the completely bald mound, the little tattoo, the way Carlos had fucked her with fingers I’d wanted to be mine.

I opened the damn book again, because that picture was about the only thing that was going to put a dampener on the ridiculous high school crush I’d developed on this woman.

I pulled more things out of the duffel bag. Everything Violet and Rebel and Bliss had suggested a pregnant woman might want or need. I’d bought it all. “I think I got everything, except the body pillow. I haven’t worked out how to get that in here yet, without raising suspicions, but it’s in the back of the club van. So I’ll work something out for you once you have a bump and you’re getting uncomfortable.”

She stared up at me. “I can’t believe you did all this.”

I shrugged. “You needed it. And it’s not like you can just walk down to a department store and pick it up yourself or even order it on Amazon.” I swallowed thickly. “It’s my job to take care of you.”

Something flickered in her eyes. Something that a dumb part of me thought might have been attraction, rather than just friendship.

But it disappeared quickly, and she leaned in and kissed my cheek. “Thank you, Lynx. This is possibly the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me.”

That just made me sad for her. It was a simple act of kindness. One she should have been used to.

One she’d know well if I’d met her at a different time, in a different way.

If she hadn’t been with Dax that night I’d met her in the restaurant.

If she hadn’t been engaged to Carlos Guerra now.

This crush needed to go. This was just my ridiculous need to get laid messing with my head. I’d go home and fuck a club bunny tonight. Or I’d go to Psychos on the weekend, when they had their party night, and pick up someone there.