by Bethany-Kris
Well ...
August clicked out of the email, half aware of the time that was ticking by with every second she wasn’t on the road to the airport. Only half, though, because Beni was still kissing the back of her neck, and her email had her attention again.
Or rather, the newest email.
A notification, it seemed. Sent from one of the apps on her phone that she used to track her cycles. It would also let her know if something was up or didn’t look right. The app also sent email reminders when she forgot to log her period. Which was what it had done.
Except ...
August blinked at the screen, seeing the dates and understanding what it possibly meant.
“I gotta run,” Beni said behind her, obviously not reading over her shoulder. If he did, he would realize the app email said she was five days late. “I need to catch up with Theo and Tommaso.”
August was never late.
Ever.
Her mind ran the gamut of reasons how this might have happened and why she missed it. Of course, it all boiled down to the same thing—she was late, and the rest was unimportant if that meant she was pregnant.
“Love you,” he told her.
She clicked out of the email, murmuring, “I love you, too.”
But also thinking, that might explain the crazy.
Just a little.
Was she pregnant?
32.
Beni
ONE of the better things about getting his button—his in—to the Chicago Outfit was that Beni no longer did the grunt work. He wasn’t so prideful that he couldn’t admit he was a bit of a spoiled bastard. Something that more than one person had pointed out to him over the years.
The privilege and wealth that he grew up surrounded by was not actually afforded to him when it came to the mafia. There were no servants to do his work. No one to answer to his many bosses when he didn’t want to be the one to do it. No, it was just him.
And his spoiled ass.
Just because he was a born millionaire with Guzzi as his last name didn’t mean he wasn’t expected to get his hands as dirty as everyone else when it came to a Capo’s crew. Especially when he was supposed to be part of the crew. Everyone was treated equally, for the most part, unless they were someone’s favorite.
That had not been afforded to Beni.
His uncle might have been the boss of the Outfit, but at the end of the day, he was the same stupid fuck as anybody else trying to get his button. The only difference that his raising and last name allowed him more than others was trust. He knew this life. They knew that he knew it. There was no question about his loyalty to their life, the cause, or the family. Shit, he took a bullet to the chest trying to protect this thing of theirs.
He was here until he was dead.
That was that.
Which was why, he knew, his button had come rather easily compared to so many others who still weren’t any closer to getting theirs than they had been years ago. Men vouched for him when the time came because they trusted him.
Where he came from.
Who he was.
His last name.
And yet, despite no longer having to do the grunt work when it came to a job, Beni still found a certain respect and dignity when he got down and dirty with the rest of the crew. Which was why he found himself waist-deep in packing peanuts surrounded by ten other guys in a rundown warehouse as they packed boxes.
Boxes of guns, that was.
For the run.
“You look like you’re having a grand fucking time,” came a voice from Beni’s left.
Sticking his middle finger high, Beni replied to his cousin, “Eat shit, Tommaso.”
“Not my style. What are you doing?”
“Helping. Give it a try. Makes this go faster.”
Tommaso made a noise under his breath before saying, “I think not, yeah.”
Right.
Well, Beni didn’t blame or fault Tommaso for his desire to let everyone else handle the dirty work of packing the guns and getting them ready for transport. Like him, his cousin had been born into more privilege than he knew what to do with when it came to the mafia. And at the same time, Tommaso had also been given very little of that privilege when it came time for him to earn his button. If after everything, as a made man, he didn’t want to fuck with the bullshit and just be the man who made the calls ...
Who was Beni to tell him not to?
Different strokes for different folks.
He liked that motto.
“Let’s go, let’s go! Faster, boys! I want this shit done before the sun sets!” Theo’s shouts bounced off the warehouse’s walls, echoing back to Beni’s spot. He gave Tommaso a shrug, but then laughed when Theo came into view, pointing at Tommaso. “And you ... you fucking help, too. Stop standing around like a cafone.”
Tommaso gaped. “But—”
“Work! Nobody’s kissing your ass tonight, Tom.”
That was that.
In the next second, Tommaso had grabbed a box and a bag of packing peanuts. His grumbled complaints flew over Theo’s head when the man spun on his heel and headed for the same office he had just come out of to yell at the rest of the crew.
“That’s some shit,” Beni told his cousin, laughing. The sight of Tommaso in his designer suit with pink packing peanuts stuck to him as he dumped a bag into a box was one he wouldn’t soon forget. That was for sure. “Now fucking look at you.”
This time, Tommaso gave him the finger.
Beni only shrugged.
It was good, too, though. Working like this with his cousin, the rush of the gun run coming up with time ticking down ... all of it, Beni lived for it. He was sure Tommaso felt the same in a lot of ways even if the asshole whined a bit while it all happened.
So was their life.
They asked for this.
“This is the last run for a while,” Tommaso said.
That perked Beni up. “Yeah?”
Tommaso shrugged, moving one box out for another. “Yeah, Theo wants to lay low for a bit after this one. Let any heat die down, you know? Anyway, we’re looking at a few months or more before he’s even going to entertain another deal, and then it’ll be a while before we’ve got to run the guns, right? A break is good.”
Really fucking good.
“Think I might slow down, too,” Beni said. “After all this, I don’t know.”
Resting his arms over the boxes, Tommaso grinned. “Why? Ready to really settle down, Beni? What, are you thinking two-point-five kids to go with that picket fence you painted white for August last summer? Never took you for the type but I mean, your twin did it ... I guess it’s only expected that you were next, right?”
“Fuck you.”
The two laughed.
But yeah.
Beni shrugged, adding to his cousin, “Probably exactly what’s gonna happen. I mean, what else was I going to do?”
Right?
33.
August
“SHE is definitely your wild child,” August said to her sister-in-law, Ginevra.
She laughed in response, not the slightest bit offended at August’s observation of her oldest child, Coraline.
“I blame the boys,” Ginevra replied, an easy shrug falling from her shoulders as she grinned at the sight of her four-year-old daughter running across the monkey bars. On top. Like the kid had no fear of slipping and falling. Down below, her two-year-old brother, Lev, stared up at his sister in total wonderment. As though he planned on being the next one up there doing the exact same thing. As soon as he figured out how. “Corrado and Les let them ... do whatever.”
On August’s right, the other woman who had joined them for their day out laughed lightly. Cara, her mother-in-law, had the idea of the park earlier when the kids wouldn’t settle long enough for them to eat a late breakfast at a restaurant nearby.
They just need to run off some energy, she had said.
She wasn’t wrong.
It was also i
ncredibly endearing how much Cara Guzzi loved her family. Not just her sons, no. Their wives. The grandchildren they gave her, too. All of them. In fact, her mother-in-law made it one of her first priorities to make sure each of her five sons’ wives knew how much she adored and appreciated all of them in her own ways. Usually by spending individual time with the women in a way that was specific to something they enjoyed.
For August, Cara never missed a thing that was published with her name attached. She was always one of the first people to congratulate August and was forever wanting to chat about her articles and accomplishments beyond the surface. Because she cared and she wanted her daughter-in-law to know it. They also shared a love of fiction, and regularly kept up on what the other was reading and what they thought of the book.
If anything, it showed August that Cara was more than just her mother-in-law. She was also someone she counted as a friend. One of her very best.
“The word no doesn’t exist, hmm?” Cara asked, still smiling over at Ginevra.
“Not in our house, apparently.”
Cara only shook her head, still seemingly amused, while she fixed the cashmere shawl around her shoulders. Turning her attention back to the playing children, she said, “It’s not a bad thing to let children find their own boundaries. There are, however, many times when setting boundaries can lead to bad things. Do we let them find and know safety through exploration or overprotect to their possible detriment? Something to think about.”
“True. Which is what Alessio likes to say, and Corrado agrees, of course. Sometimes, it scares me to death,” Ginevra replied, nodding at her daughter who was currently making a second trip across the top of the monkey bars. “Like now ... Coraline, you be careful up there!” Then, under her breath, she added, “Gonna give me a fucking heart attack, kid.”
“Okay, Mama!”
The sweet, unbothered reply of the four-year-old carried over the park. Little Lev was still observing his sister like she was his hero for the day. It made August think that what Cara said about kids finding their own boundaries through exploration made sense—to an extent—especially if the boy watching his big sister had just learned there was nothing to be scared of when it came to the monkey bars.
Considering he’d cried when she first climbed on them, clearly wanting her to come back down where he thought it was safe. Or, that’s what August assumed.
Who knew what was in the mind of children?
Or babies.
Speaking of which ...
August suddenly found it a lot harder to sit still on the bench between Cara and Ginevra while the pregnancy test she had taken—several, actually—sat in her purse on the ground. Three tests, to be exact. One for each day that she had been in New York visiting with her family and Beni’s, too.
“How’s your mom and dad?” Cara asked at her side.
She swallowed the lump forming in her throat to say, “Good. They want to do dinner tomorrow and since you’re in town ... Ma said the table is open for you to join if you want.”
Cara lit up, beaming. “Of course. It’s been too long since I saw them. And since they’re one of the only in-laws I have ... I try to make time, you know?”
She did know very well.
Sometimes, August wondered how Cara found any time for herself when she spent so much of it with everyone else. Then again, maybe that was where the woman found most of her happiness and peace. The family was something the Guzzis held in the highest of regards. No excuse, the effort would be made for blood. And even those who had been welcomed into their family through marriage, like August’s parents.
“So, when are you and Beni going to get on this train, anyway?” Ginevra asked, the question coming out of the blue without warning.
“What train?”
Ginevra grinned, showing off white teeth. “Kids. Babies.”
Oh, God.
There it is ...
The panic must have been written clearly on August’s face because her sister-in-law was quick to reach over and grab her knee overtop the denim skinny jeans she had pulled on that morning. Might as well wear them while she still could, right? Well, there were some cute maternity clothes that she could probably pull off.
“I was just kidding!” Ginevra said, her remorse tugging away at her smile. “I’m sorry. I know you guys are really focused on work, and you have so much going on. I didn’t mean—”
“I think I’m pregnant,” August blurted out.
There.
She said it.
It wasn’t the first time, though. She told her mom while sitting in the airport where she had grabbed her first pregnancy test. It wasn’t that she wanted to keep it a secret, but it was one of those things ... how exactly should she bring it up?
August didn’t know.
So, she just said it.
The responding silence from both women sitting on the bench on either side of her had August drawing in a long breath before she said, “So yeah, that’s a real thing right now.”
“You think?” Cara asked quietly, her tone kind and warm.
As it always was.
“I keep saying think,” August returned.
“But?”
That time, it was Ginevra encouraging her to keep going.
August’s cheeks pinked as nervous happiness split her lips with a smile. “Three positive pregnancy tests ... I probably shouldn’t be using think anymore, right?”
Ginevra’s laughter coated her next words. “Definitely not.”
On her other side, Cara reached over to envelop August in a one-armed hug that pulled her close and felt like love. “Is this a new thing? How long have you—”
“So new I haven’t even told Beni.”
Her mother-in-law’s embrace didn’t loosen up even a little bit. “Not even hinted?”
“I started to figure it out right as I was leaving for here. He was rushing, too. It just ... didn’t seem like the right time. And we’re both busy, you know? I never stop with my job, and he’s always going from one thing to the next with the Out—”
“Mmm,” Cara interjected, stopping August before she could blurt out the name of the criminal organization her husband joined. She was still learning how to be the mob wife she needed to be for Beni. Sometimes, it wasn’t easy. “That will keep a man on his feet and running for a long time. It doesn’t get easier, I’m afraid. They simply learn how to manage it better.”
August released a hard sigh. “At first I thought maybe this—a baby—would make things worse. We’re already stretched thin ... sometimes we’re spending weeks away from one another. But I’m so happy, too. Scared to death, but happy.”
Cara hugged her tighter.
August really needed that.
Even Ginevra joined in, their laughter coloring up the park and ripping away all of August’s worries. For the moment, anyway.
“It’ll be great,” Cara assured.
“It will,” Ginevra agreed.
Yeah.
A part of August knew that was true. Of course, she did. How could it not be wonderful and perfect? A child made from love with the man of her dreams?
Now, she just had to tell him.
But how?
And when?
34.
Beni
Two weeks later ...
THE gun run took longer than anyone expected. A common hazard of their business, unfortunately. Beni wasn’t even able to get word to his wife that he would be gone for a week longer than he originally said because once the run started, everyone’s phones were confiscated in place of safe devices that couldn’t be traced back to anyone working with smugglers. By the time he had been able to contact his wife, Beni was almost home.
Not that August seemed to mind.
Reason number one hundred why he adored his wife beyond measure.
Despite her anger, before he left because he hadn’t been able to keep his promise about the New York trip, that had all seemed to go away the second he stepped inside t
heir Melrose home. In fact, he barely remembered anything between the front door and where they found themselves in a sweaty, tangled, breathless mess on the couch.
Shit.
They hadn’t even closed the blinds.
Yet, Beni couldn’t find it in himself to care as he had the best view of his wife on top of him, her brown skin damp with sweat, and those dark eyes of hers locked on his stare while she rode him to heaven. Total fucking bliss. Every swivel of her hips tested his control. Each time she lifted on his cock and slammed right back down had air rushing out of his lungs before he sucked it right back in like it might be his last breath.
“Fuck, you look ... look at you,” he groaned.
August had a way about her when she was fucking him. It was in the way the corner of her lip lifted; a daring smirk that said I know without ever actually saying a word. It was how she would bite her lip, show her teeth, and tease him with nothing more than a look. She loved being on top. Craved control. He swore it was because she liked to make him lose his whenever she had the chance to do so.
She got off on it.
He kind of liked that.
His wife was perfect.
Sexy as fuck.
And he was the lucky asshole to have her.
Beni knew, trust that.
As the telltale tremors started to work their way over his wife’s shoulders and down her spine, Beni knew she was close to coming again. Oh, this wasn’t their first round. Hell, it wasn’t even the second. It sure as fuck wasn’t going to be the last, either. Not if he had any say about it.
Which was why when he knew she was going to come again, and quick, he lifted his back up from the couch, grabbed that tiny waist of hers, and pushed her down to the cushions. Her low whimper—he knew that meant her orgasm had been taken away—had him chuckling.
Pulling his cock from her sopping pussy, he was able to turn her around on the couch so that she was bent over the arm. With his hands tight to her ass, spreading the plump roundness wide, so she could really feel him stretch her wide, he had to hold himself back from pounding into her all over again.
