Chapter 50

Gabe

I was over the shock of discovering the truth about Faith’s pregnancy. Now, I was just worried about Allegra. I’d tried her cell two more times after leaving the Moreno abode — a.k.a. the house of incest and lies. No answer. Where the fuck was she?

If that Matthew prick had gone near her, I’d rip his testicles off, shove them in his mouth and sew his lips together. Too mafia bad-ass for you? Well, I am Italian. Joe Pesci can just damn well step aside.

I growled low in my throat as I turned into her street, slid to a stop outside the bakery and looked in. All the lights were off. So were the ones upstairs.

“You’d better be safe, Allegra.” The street appeared enveloped in darkness and silence, even though it was still relatively early. No shoppers or diners had ventured out, but I had this sick feeling in my gut. I didn’t like this one bit. Hated it really. Allegra had become my everything and she needed to hear the truth from me. Tonight.

I took out my cell to dial Kelly and check if Allegra had gone to her place for the night. It rang in my hand before I could swipe to unlock. Like she’d been conjured up as a fantasy, Allegra’s beautiful face floated across the screen.

“Are you okay?” I asked immediately. “I’m at the bakery and you’re not here.”

“I’m fine, Gabe.” She paused to clear her throat. “As fine as I can be, given the circumstances.” A woman’s scream rang out in the background. It sounded horrible. Like death. Echoing along the line and piercing my eardrum.

“What’s going on? Where are you?”

“I’m at Abbott Northwestern Hospital with Faith. She’s gone into labor.”

My mind boggled. How the hell had that happened?

“I can smell your brain burning over the phone,” she quipped, “so I’ll make it easy on you, sweetie. She came over to lay down her special kind of pain on me about convincing you to end it with her.”

“Did she tell you about—?”

“Your scumbag of a father? Yeah, it came up in the tirade. Anyway, she went into labor during our conversation and I couldn’t leave her alone since your dad decided to toss her aside like trash. What’s the matter with him?”

Way to go Donovan Moreno. The paternal figure was on a fucking roll today.

“I’ll be there in fifteen minutes,” I said as I turned the key in the ignition to fire up the engine of my car. It stalled and I pumped the clutch and tried again.

“I need you to do something first,” Allegra said.

I revved the engine. “Anything for you.”

“Call your father and get him to come to the hospital and look after Faith. And his son.”

“That won’t be easy,” I replied. If he’d disowned Faith too, it was because he was afraid of public fallout. I had firsthand knowledge that he’d stop at nothing to protect his image. Even reject his new son. He wouldn’t be convinced easily.

“Honestly, Gabe, I don’t care right now. I just want him here. If this had been your baby, I would’ve expected the same thing from you. Get him here. Quickly.” Another mangled death scream from Faith in the background was accompanied by a few choice curse words.

“I’ll do what I can,” I said.

Allegra hung up without saying goodbye. That had me worried. Maybe my psycho fuck of a father had convinced her to let go of what we had. I couldn’t blame her if that were true. It was all like some bad Lifetime movie or one of those crazy taboo novels on Amazon in the romance genre. When I’d left her to get my stuff at home, she’d still been a little withdrawn with me, like she was afraid of getting hurt. She didn’t trust me yet.

I stared at the screen to avoid the dreaded call. I really didn’t want to speak to the old man again.

The car purred beneath me, the vibrations from the engine running through the seat of my chair and directly into my ass. Days like today make me grateful for the seat warmers.

I dialed Donovan’s number and pressed the phone to my ear.

“Donovan Moreno.” The more things changed, the more they stayed the fucking same.

“Hello there, Mr. Moreno, this is Gabe speaking.”

“What do you want?” He sighed, and the shuffle of papers came through on the line. Working late while his next son came into the world. Typical.

“I just thought I’d let you know that Faith has gone into labor. My brother is about to enter this world.” I smacked my lips. “But you’d know that if you gave a shit about anything but yourself and your venal agenda.”

Donovan gave a sniff, an over-the-phone dismissal. “That’s no longer my concern nor my business. I suggest you stay out of it too.”

“You realize you can’t just abandon her. She could take you to court. You’d have to pay legal fees.”

“I’m rich. We’ll settle out of court. I have a cotillion of highly paid attorneys on staff for just this type of mess,” Donovan replied, cool as a fucking cucumber. Jesus, he made my skin crawl. Who could sit and talk about lawyers at a time like this?

“You’re such a bag of dicks.” I shook my head.

“If that will be all…” he trailed off, readying himself to hang up the phone.

“No, that won’t be fucking all.” I inhaled and injected patience into my tone. That simpering patience to be used on toddlers and idiots. “Here’s the thing, Faith is greedy so you’re right, she probably would settle out of court and use vicious sums of money to put the kid through school. Hell, you’ll probably end up giving her half of what you have to keep her quiet.”

Donovan didn’t reply.

“Which is all right, because you can always make more money, as long as your reputation is intact.” I was going somewhere with this, and it wasn’t a place he’d appreciate. “But your reputation won’t remain intact.”

“Gabe,” he said, but his warning tone had a bit of a squeak to it. He knew he was in a checkmate situation.

“So father,” I continued, mocking the title, “either you get your sleazy ass to that hospital and take your place at Faith’s side, or I go to coffee with Tom Lyden and spill the entire story.”

“I’ll sue you for defamation of character.” Donovan grasped at a straw.

“Go for it. You can’t squeeze blood out of a turnip. But guess what?” I paused, long enough to build the tension for him. “The damage will already be done. Your reputation will be tarnished and the results of my paternity test will back up my claims.”

The straw slipped out of Donovan’s hand. He stammered wordlessly, gulped hard. Finally, he croaked, “You wouldn’t do that to me. I’m your father.”

“You won’t go see your son at the hospital, and you’re his father. Yeah, the whole blood is thicker than water thing won’t work in this situation. Get your fucking ass to Abbott Northwestern Hospital. I’ll see you there.”

“Gabe, I—” There was an apology in his voice.

“Save it, asshole. After today, I don’t want to hear from you again. You take that kid and raise it properly, but you don’t come near me again. Got it?”

“Gabe,” he tried again.

“Got it?” I repeated, grinding my teeth against each other. I put the car in gear and let down the hand brake.

“Yes,” he replied finally.

“Good. If you’re not there in twenty, I’m leaving the hospital and going to the media. Fuck it, I’ll post this shit on Facebook too. Give Jerry Springer a call.”

Donovan clicked off the line.

I let out a long, low breath, rolling my head from side-to-side. Allegra had said to get him there and I’d done it. At least, if Donovan didn’t want to be the laughing stock of the society page in the Star Tribune, he’d be at the hospital.

I eased out of the parking lot and took to the road, roaring down the street in the direction of Abbott. My mind was possessed by a single thought. Allegra.