“Amazing.” Gracie grinned.
“Hopefully everyone in Hawthorne thinks so,” I replied, sharing one of my fears. If after all of the club’s hard work the bakery wasn’t a success, I’d be heartbroken.
“Everyone will love it,” Wren assured me. “Especially if anything is half as good as these bars,” she added with her mouth full.
“It’ll be better,” I replied. Baking was one area where my ego wasn’t fragile. I was hell on wheels in the kitchen and I’d been working on some new recipes I couldn’t wait to share.
I watched Emmie’s eyes grow wide and then narrow at something behind me. I turned to see Gunner sliding onto a stool beside Maddox and Max at the bar.
“He’s supposed to be wearing a sling,” Emmie growled. “Stubborn man.”
“He’s probably doing it just to piss you off,” Liv put in. She likely wasn’t wrong. Those two loved to get a rise out of each other.
“Well, he won’t be so stubborn when he can’t use his arm.” She huffed, rising from her seat to go give Gunner an earful.
“Their babies will be a handful.” Gracie grinned.
I laughed. “Yep.” It seemed everyone had accepted the two of them as inevitable. Well, everyone except the two of them. Though, looking over at the adoring yet challenging look Gunner was giving Emmie, I tended to think he was coming around to accepting his fate.
Hell, maybe he had a long time ago.
“How goes the apartment hunting?” Grace asked Olivia. Ever since Liv and Wren had moved back to Hawthorne, Livie had been living at home. Everyone knew she was more than done with that.
Olivia sipped her drink with a nod. “Amelia and I just talked the other day. She’s about to graduate and move home. We’re going to find a place together.”
“Amelia?” I asked. It wasn’t a name I’d heard before.
“Wes and Connie’s daughter,” Wren put in. “She’s been away at school.”
“Geez, there are so many people to remember,” I marveled.
Gracie laughed. “I guess you’re right. For me, it’s just been this way my whole life.”
I looked at her meaningfully. “You’re lucky.”
She smiled warmly. “I am. And now, you are too.”
“I am,” I echoed her words, feeling my belly warm.
If only that feeling could have lasted a little while longer.
Chapter 22
FRANCESCA
“What are we looking for?” Emmie wanted to know a few days later as we perused the mall with a grumbling Gunner trailing behind. During our girls’ night I’d reluctantly admitted that there were some clothing items missing from my arsenal. Of course, Em had been quick to volunteer herself as tribute. Since Maddox already had plans to accompany Cole to Vegas, Gunner was our unlucky bodyguard for the day. Or, maybe since Emmie was involved, not so unlucky.
I shrugged. “Nothing special, but I need a few more tops, and a cute dress for a date night wouldn’t be a bad idea.”
“Excellent,” she agreed as she appraised me curiously. “You feeling all right? You look a little green.”
I grimaced. “I’m fine. I’ve just been feeling a little off the past few days,” I admitted. What I didn’t share was that I’d thrown up before leaving the house, thankful Maddox was in the master bathroom showering. If he’d known, he would never have left, and though I didn’t know everything about his trip to Vegas, I knew it was important and didn’t want to stop him from going. Knowing Maddox and his overprotective nature, if I told him I had so much as a sniffle, he’d stop everything.
I had just emerged from the dressing room to get a better look at the green dress I’d put on when a familiar snort sounded behind me. “I don’t think that’s your color,” Stephanie sneered.
I whirled to face her, wishing Emmie hadn’t stepped away to grab me a few more things. “What, are you stalking me now?” I demanded, marching back to my dressing room to get my clothes back on.
She rolled her eyes. “Don’t flatter yourself.”
I was dressed in record time, wanting to be rid of her. “He knew who you were before he met you, you know,” she shared casually, her words like a bomb detonating, stopping me in my tracks.
“Get lost, Stephanie,” Emmie growled as she appeared ahead of me, her glare pointed at Stephanie.
I held up a hand for Emmie to back off. “What do you mean?” I demanded of Stephanie, eyeing her satisfied smirk with a mixture of apprehension and condemnation.
“Maddox.” She shrugged. “I heard him talking to him at the club months ago.” She gestured to Gunner, who looked uncharacteristically worried as he appeared at Emmie’s side. “He knew who your family was. He went to Vegas to check you out. It was no accident he wandered into that shitty little bakery of yours.”
My already churning stomach sank like a rock as I tried to make sense of her words. “What are you talking about?”
“Maddox would never do that,” Emmie broke in vehemently. “You’re full of shit.”
Stephanie turned to Emmie, looking far too confident for my liking. “I’m not. Ask him.” She turned eyes toward Gunner, her brow raised in challenge.
“You’re done,” Gunner growled at her. “In Hawthorne. You’re done,” he repeated.
She shrugged. “I could give two shits about this podunk town anyway. But I wasn’t gonna be run out of town with her thinking Maddox is all starry-eyed over her. She’s a means to an end. That’s all.” She turned to me, her full lips twisted into a cruel smile. “Have a nice lie.” With a parting smirk she sashayed off, disappearing from view.
I turned to Gunner in dismay, already knowing the truth from the worry in his gaze. “Is that true?” I demanded. “Did Maddox know who my family was before he met me?”
Gunner shifted on his feet.
“Gunner?” Emmie demanded in outrage. “What the fuck!”
“You’ll have to take this up with Mad,” he replied quietly. That said it all.
My world tilted and I nearly lost my footing despite standing on flat ground. Maddox had sought me out because I was a Rossi. Everything about our first meeting, hell maybe everything after it had been a lie. Hurt so visceral that it blinded my every sense made it impossible to make sense of anything.
“I want to go,” I managed quietly, the fear that I was going to lose the contents of my stomach suddenly all too possible.
“Frannie, he loves you,” Gunner shared quietly.
“I want to go,” I repeated, desperate this time.
Emmie wrapped an arm around me. “Okay, honey, we’ll go.” She guided me gently from the mall, away from the bustling people going about a normal day while my reality had changed in an instant.
“I don’t want to go home,” I told her urgently when we reached Gunner’s car.
“Okay.” She nodded. “Where do you want to go?”
“I don’t care.” I sighed, looking out the window, not sure I cared about anything other than not puking all over Gunner’s classic muscle car.
“Is May still staying with you guys?” Gunner asked Emmie, referring to Piper and Ryker’s oldest daughter who I’d heard about but not yet met. At her nod, he fired up his engine, its throaty growl nearly deafening. “I’ll take her to Max and Wren’s,” he decided.
I didn’t hear anything they said after that, my forehead pressed to the glass in a bid to remain somewhat grounded. How could he not have told me? What had he really wanted from me that day? What did he want now? Everything I knew about Maddox, everything I’d entrusted him with, my heart included, felt suddenly airborne—floating somewhere between betrayal and hurt.
When we pulled up to Max and Wren’s beautiful home, I opened the door just in time to throw up all over the gravel drive.
“What’s wrong, is she sick?” Wren demanded, materializing at my side as Max looked on in concern.
“She hasn’t looked good the last few days,” Emmie put in as both women guided me toward the house. “And she just got some
surprising news. Let’s get her settled.”
“I’m fine,” I managed, frustrated that they were talking about me as though I wasn’t even there.
I lay gratefully on the soft sheets in what I assumed was a guest room as Wren and Emmie fussed over me. “Should we take her to the hospital?” Wren demanded.
Emmie sat on the edge of the bed appraising me thoughtfully. “Frannie, could you be pregnant?” she asked quietly.
“No.” My first instinct was to deny. Then reality crept in. “I mean, I don’t think so.” I thought back to that first time together. “I don’t know, maybe?” I groaned. “My cycle has always been haywire, and I just figured I’d been feeling off because of the stress of everything.”
“I’ll have Liv pick up a test.” Wren was already typing furiously on her phone. “She’s already on the way here anyway.”
I curled into the fetal position as I’d been longing to and wasn’t surprised when it brought little comfort. My friends left me to myself for a few minutes, stepping out into the hall, likely scrambling to figure out what the hell to do.
When they reentered, Liv joined them, her eyes shining with tears. “Frannie, my brother loves you,” she rushed to say, coming to sit at my side. “Emmie told me what happened. I swear I had no idea. He’s a fucking idiot, but he loves you,” she insisted urgently. “I don’t know what he was thinking.”
“It’s okay, Livie,” I told her quietly. “Let’s just figure out if I’m knocked up or not.” I offered a small semblance of a smile, wanting to assuage her torment and to appease my own gut-wrenching worry.
I’d always wanted a baby, but this was a hell of a time to consider the prospect.
She smiled through tears. “Yeah, let’s figure out if I’m going to be an auntie first.”
“Way to make it about you, Liv.” Wren rolled her eyes but her tone was teasing.
“Two lines mean it’s positive,” Liv put in a few minutes later.
“Yeah, we know,” Wren replied with an eye roll. “You’ve said so three times in the last two minutes.”
“I’m just nervous!” Liv exclaimed before shooting apologetic eyes at me, as though realizing her nerves had nothing on what I was feeling. “Sorry.”
I could only laugh. Truth be told, I was grateful for the distraction. Though I’d imagined this moment with Maddox, years down the line, I was grateful not to be alone.
A moment later I couldn’t think of anything aside from the small test strip that had changed my entire life in an instant.
I’d known love in my life. With my parents, my nonna, and with Maddox. But this—it was something entirely different. In an instant I loved someone I didn’t yet know and still would die to protect. It was incredible.
“It’s positive, isn’t it?” Emmie queried gently when I’d been staring at the bathroom countertop for far too long.
I had to clear my throat to speak. “Yeah,” I managed.
“Holy shit.” Liv squealed as Wren wrapped an arm around my shoulders, meeting my gaze in the mirror.
“It’s gonna be okay. Whatever’s happening with Mad and you right now—it’s gonna be okay.”
Despite myself, I believed her—maybe because she was right. Maybe because in that moment I just really needed to. “Okay.” I nodded.
It would be okay, I told myself. I wouldn’t accept otherwise.
Chapter 23
MADDOX
Asa Carpino was younger than I’d expected; not any older than I was. Cole and I sat across from him at one of his clubs on the strip. What the mafia boss lacked in years, he made up for in the confidence that emanated from every move he made. The man was lethal and knew it, that much was clear.
“The men you took out were low level,” he shared, his hands clasped on the table, his dark hair gleaming under the lights.
“We assumed as much,” Cole grunted.
“Still helpful though.” Asa shrugged. “The Rossi organization continues to dwindle. We need to force Angelo and Bruno out of hiding so we can finish this.”
I bristled. “They’re not getting anywhere near Francesca,” I ground out.
Asa cocked his head to the side as though studying me. “I understand. But we need them desperate. You’ve done well guarding your borders. If they come for her, it will be easier to take them out.”
He had a point. I longed for the opportunity to make them both bleed.
“My men have been doing their part here in Vegas. If you need more man power in Hawthorne, I can spare it.” He shrugged.
I knew what Cole would say before he spoke. “Thanks, but we’re good.” The alliance with the Carpino family didn’t mean we’d welcome them with open arms into our territory.
Asa’s easy smile said he understood exactly that without it needing to be said. His dark eyes turned to me. “How is Francesca?”
I fought the urge to growl. I didn’t like her name on any man’s lips. “She’s good,” I managed.
He chuckled. “Not to worry, I have no interest in your woman. But I do respect her spirit. Coming from the filth she does, I want to see her win.”
“She will,” I replied with a confidence I felt to my bones.
“She will,” he agreed. “Any other business in Vegas?” he asked.
“Gonna have a meet with one of the only cops not under Rossi’s thumb,” I shared. “Insurance is holding up Francesca’s claim based on the arson investigation being open. I aim to change that.”
“Cooper?” Asa guessed correctly the detective who’d been a long-standing friend of the club. At my nod, he continued. “A good man. Hopefully he can help you.”
“Hopefully,” I agreed as we stood. The meeting was intended to be short, the face time important in continuing our alliance as we worked to take down the Rossis together.
The text from Gunner came in just as Cole and I were preparing to ride to the station.
She knows. Get home, man.
I took in Gunner’s message, knowing exactly what he meant, dread exploding in my gut with a sickening boom. I should have told her. Why the hell hadn’t I told her?
“Everything all right?” Cole asked as I fired off a response to Gun telling him we were hitting the road.
“Nope,” I gritted out, firing up my engine, knowing I was in for an excruciatingly long drive. “But it will be,” I added with determination. “I need to get home, this’ll have to wait.”
He nodded, accepting my statement without argument.
By the time we hit Hawthorne city limits it was close to midnight. With a two-finger salute, Cole peeled off, headed for home, while I continued my journey up the mountain to Max’s where I knew my girl was.
The lights were still on when I pulled up the drive and cut the engine. The front door swung open and both Max and Gunner strode in my direction.
“What are you still doing here?” I asked Gun in confusion.
He rubbed a hand over his shaved head, looking stressed in a way that put me immediately on edge. “We just got back.”
“From where?” I demanded.
He and Max shared a look I didn’t like one fucking bit.
My fists clenched at my sides. “From where?” I demanded again.
“From the hospital,” Max admitted. “She’s all right, Mad—”
I was already striding for the house, determined to get to Francesca as every horrible scenario played on a loop in my brain.
A firm grip pulled me back as Max tried to reel me in. “She just fell asleep and she needs it. Cool it, man.”
Max being protective of Francesca when that was my fucking job set me on edge. “Love you like a brother,” I growled, “but you keep me from my woman, I will put you down.”
“Don’t doubt you’ll try,” he rumbled, and I knew he understood my state of mind. He was half crazy over Wren the majority of the time. “But the stress isn’t good for her. And regardless how you’re feeling, I know you’ll put her needs before yours.”
“Fuck!” I ro
ared, mad at myself and no one else—there was no one else to blame, after all. I shoved out of Max’s grip and paced the gravel driveway in torment. “Is she hurt? You have to tell me if she’s hurt.”
“She’s not hurt,” Gunner assured me quietly, something flashing in his gaze that I didn’t understand.
“But she’s sick?” I demanded. “I know I fucked up. But you know that woman is my world, Gun. It’s killing me not knowing what’s wrong with her. What the fuck is going on?”
“What the hell, Maddox?” Olivia’s screech rent the air as she came storming out of the house.
“Calm down, Liv,” I ordered.
She glared at me, her hand on her hip. “Don’t tell me to calm down when you’re the one being an idiot,” she hissed before visibly taking a breath. “You hurt her, Mad.” The disappointment in her gaze cut me twice as deep as her anger.
I swallowed hard. “I know.” I put my hands on my sister’s shoulders, meeting her gaze, knowing she saw the utter torment in me. “Livie, what’s wrong with her?” I rasped desperately.
“She’s finally asleep—” Emmie’s voice sounded inside the door a moment before she appeared in the doorway, her brown eyes popping wide. “Oh, Mad. I didn’t realize you were here.” She closed the front door behind her and joined us on the driveway.
My hands clenched in fists, my entire body taut with worry and frustration. “If someone doesn’t tell me what the fuck is wrong with my girl in about two seconds I’m going to lose it,” I growled.
Everyone looked to Liv, as though deferring to her for what to do. She drew in a breath. “You have to be calm, Maddox. She needs calm,” she told me firmly.
I nodded, all too happy to agree to anything as long as I knew what the hell was going on.
“She’s pregnant.”
Despite how life altering the news was, something instinctive kicked in immediately, as though I’d been waiting for this baby my entire life. Hell, maybe I had. “Why was she in the hospital? Is something wrong with Francesca? With my baby?” I demanded urgently.
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