One Month Later

 

Tony

 

I never woke up next to the women that I fucked. Ever. Either I left their place or they left mine—half the time, I didn’t even fuck them in a place that belonged to either of us.

 

I’d woken up next to Evie damn near every day for the last few months, and I was slowly falling in love with it.

 

Her hair would always spill over my pillow. And she was always soft and warm, and she smelled like something that I could bury my face in for fucking days. It was that sappy, lame-ass romance kind of shit that I honestly never really bought into, but with Evie, it was hard not to. I loved the way she felt pressed against me, and I loved the way that she wiggled and whined in her sleep when it was time to wake up.

 

I was falling for her, hard.

 

Between the usual shit with the family business—doing deals, running some smack here and there, and under-the-table shit—I spent a lot of time with her. I guess you could say that we dated. We were dating. It was only a few months, but I was damn near hooked on her. My father, I knew, thought it was silly. I always caught those patronizing-ass looks that he would give me. Usually, it would bother me, but I didn’t really care anymore.

 

I was fucking happy. Could you believe that?

 

As much as I loved waking up with Evie, though, I had shit to do. It was getting a little later and I had some business that I needed to handle—I was meeting with Evie’s father.

 

I disentangled myself from her. I had gotten a text from a number I didn’t have the day before. It’d asked me if I was available today, and if I could be alone and discrete. Naturally, I’d asked who the fuck it was and got an interesting reply.

 

The father of the woman you defiled. We need to talk.

 

I had contemplated if I needed to tell Evie this, but over the months, anytime her father was mentioned, either explicitly or on the news while his campaign was running strong, she would get this look on her face, and it wasn’t a good one, either. I would see what the bastard said and would figure out what to do from there.

 

I got dressed quietly. The further along Evie got in the pregnancy, the more and more she would sleep. I thought it was precious, but there were mornings like this where it was more than beneficial to myself. I left without even waking her up, pecking her on the forehead. As I made my way downstairs, I saw my father waiting. I scoffed.

 

“I have shit to do, Dad. Whatever it is, it can wait—”

 

“You’re going to meet with Rick Brown, are you not?”

 

I stopped. I turned and faced him, my eyes narrowing.

 

“So what if I am? How do you know that? Did you tap me or something?”

 

My father rolled his eyes.

 

“I hardly have the time or the patience to tap your phone, Tony. I know because I was the one that suggested it.”

 

I narrowed my eyes further.

 

“What?”

 

“In the coming months, there are going to be … many factors that decide how everything plays out with you and sweet Evelyn,” my father said. “I want to make sure we’re on the same page and that things start being set into motion—that those who come out on the top of this situation are the ones who should be out on the top of it. Do you understand me?”

 

I glared at him.

 

“This isn’t about whatever beef you think there needs to be between you and Rick Brown,” I said. “Evie and that baby are to stay out of your bullshit. Do you hear me?”

 

My father smiled enigmatically.

 

“As long as Evelyn is carry and raising an Esposito child, she and that baby are my bullshit. Just remember that the better things turn out for me, the better they turn out for you, boy. You best get going. You don’t want to be late for your meeting.”

 

I considered telling my father that he could go fuck himself. But I knew better than that. I also knew that I needed this meeting with Rick Brown more than I thought. My advantage here was my father thinking that I was going to be going into it with his best interests at heart. Bullshit.

 

# # #

 

Rick had us meet in a lot at the edge of the city. I’d have been more nervous, but knowing that my father had suggested this move, I had less of a feeling that Rick would try to do something underhanded—like kill me. It was only a small thing, but it was a thing. Nevertheless, when I pulled up, I was surprised to see that he was actually alone. Seemed he could be at least halfway trusted. He was leaned against his car as I pulled up beside it. I got out and leaned against mine.

 

“You wanted to talk?” I said. “What do you want? I thought we weren’t gonna be doing this bullshit.”

 

“We weren’t,” he said. “Your father, however, is a very persuasive man when he wants to be.”

 

“He told me he arranged this little meeting. What did he give you? You can’t possibly need anything from him any more than he needs something from you.”

 

Brown shrugged.

 

“My business deals are my own. Suffice to say, it was persuasion and little more. Mostly, I wished to see how my daughter was.”

 

I raised my eyebrow; I didn’t believe that for a second and Brown could tell.

 

“Despite what you might think, I do care about my daughter,” he said. “I love her dearly and haven’t heard from her in a while.”

 

“It’s a little hard for her to get in contact with you when you didn’t allow her a phone, you know.”

 

“She knows my phone numbers, and I’m certain that you’ve not had her live without one for very long, no?”

 

“You’d think the radio silence would have been an indication that she doesn’t want to talk to you.”

 

“I’d actually assumed that that was your doing.”

 

“Unlike you, I don’t control Evie.”

 

Brown smirked at me like he didn’t believe me. It didn’t really matter what he did or did not believe; it wasn’t my concern, and as far as I was concerned, Evie was a grown-ass woman. She was my woman, but I wasn’t going to have her on a leash like a dog. I didn’t have time for shit like that.

 

“Why did you really want to meet me out here, Rick?” I asked, finding myself bored and annoyed with this meeting. “What do you want?”

 

“I wanted to discuss what was going to happen after Evelyn has her baby.”

 

“She’s staying with me, obviously,” I said. Brown smiled, like he knew something that I didn’t.

 

“Is that what you think is going to happen? Did she not tell you, then?”

 

My brows furrowed.

 

“Tell me what?”

 

“The arrangement that Evelyn and I had was that she would be placed into seclusion until such a time that she had her baby. After that, we would draw up fake adoption papers, then claim that she’d been off with the real mother of her baby, helping to prepare herself for motherhood. You didn’t honestly think that you would just be able to keep my daughter there, under wraps, for the years to come after the birth of this child?” Brown laughed. “No. I came here to see where the two of you were on those preparations, or if my daughter had even bothered to mention these things to you, though I see that she has not. The fact remains that these are things that will be addressed in the coming months—”

 

“What makes you think that I’m just going to let you take my child away from me like that?” There was a rolling anger in me for a number of reasons, but right now it was directed at this asshole, and he was prime target for it just on merit of who he was.

 

“What makes you think that I’m going to just let you take away mine?” He shrugged his shoulder. “I think on this we understand each other, but know this: there’s not a pretty end either way for this. I will pay you handsomely to comply, but I can and will ruin you if you choose to go against me—”

 

“Are you threatening me?”

 

“Hardly. I’m laying out terms and conditions, like a businessman. You understand that, do you not? But it appears as though you and my daughter have a lot to contemplate over the next few months. Perhaps you should consult with her and see what she has to say about the matter.”

 

With that, Brown gave me one last smile. I could have ripped his fucking face off for looking at me like that, but I held my shit together as best as I possibly could in this situation. I glared in his direction and watched him as he slid back into his car and drove away.

 

Evie and I had a lot to talk about.

 

# # #

 

She was getting some sun when I got back to the compound. She was lounged out by the pool, hanging out with some of the other girls who liked sticking around the boys. She looked up at me with a smile that quickly faded.

 

“Tony …is something wrong?”

 

I nodded to the other girls instead of answering her.

 

“Get lost.”

 

They knew better than to argue with me, and I did care that some of them were put out by the way that I talked to them. They didn’t need to be here for what was Evie’s and my business. She looked at me like I was crazy.

 

“What the hell was that about, Tony? They weren’t doing anything—”

 

“What was the arrangement with you and your father after you found out that you were pregnant?” I asked, interrupting her. “Hm? What was the arrangement that you made with your father regarding our baby?”

 

She paled and looked at me like I had slapped her.

 

“Have you spoken to my father?”

 

“Yeah. Yeah, I have. He and my father are on some bullshit. I can smell it. But that’s for another day. Right here, right now, I want you to tell me what the arrangement with your father was.”

 

She swallowed.

 

“Was he going to make you give up the baby, or was he gonna have you keep it, huh? Were you just going to bounce on out of here after living on our dime with my baby, like nothing was happening between the two of us?”

 

“You’re assuming a whole hell of a lot of things right now, Tony,” she said, flaring up. Her face was red. Gorgeous. But I couldn’t even think about settling this argument the way we’d settled arguments in the past. Not even a little.

 

“Am I? So you weren’t going to pretend that this baby was adopted, huh? You weren’t going to just leave me and go back to your cushy, little life, huh?”

 

Evie stood up. She wasn’t my height, but she drew herself up, looking me angrily in the eyes as she went off.

 

“My father forced me off into the countryside, pregnant, to hide this baby in secrecy,” she spat. “The only way that I would have been able to keep this baby in any capacity was to claim that it was adopted after I had it. That was the deal I made with my father, before you decided to come in, guns blazing, and take me away. Don’t act like you’re better than my father; you tried to lay claim on me just as much as he did, so any deal that I made with my father is my business and mine alone—”

 

“It’s my child—”

 

“And I’m the one carrying it!” she screamed out. “Which everyone around me seems to be forgetting. I’m the pregnant one. I’m the mother. I’m going to be the one who lives under all this fucking scrutiny because I dared have unprotected sex and a baby resulted from it!” She threw her hands up in the air. “Yes, I made that deal with my father so that, at the very least, my child would grow up with one of its parents. That was before you got me, Tony, and in case you hadn’t noticed, I haven’t been in contact with my father since the last time I talked to him, which was before you stole me! Whatever my father told you, and whatever he put into your head, I don’t fucking know what it was, but I would have thought that we knew each other a little more over the last few months that I wouldn’t be thinking about whisking myself away in secret after this baby is born, as if all I’m here for is to use you!”

 

She started pacing and as the weight of her words sank in.

 

“Evie—”

 

“Do you know how scary this is? Knowing that I can’t hide here forever? Knowing how much easier it would be to do what my father wants after this baby is born? It would be so much easier and probably so much better to pretend, but if you’d taken the time to come to me and discuss it with me instead of accusing me of being some fucking freeloading bitch, or something, then you would know that I actually have no fucking clue what I’m going to do after I have this baby. Do I go back to my normal life? Do I stay here? I can’t hide my whole life, so either situation is going to be very, very public and potentially damaging for myself and my child either way.

 

“But you don’t care about that, do you?” she went on. “What is it? Did my father make you feel inadequate or something because he staked a claim that’s yours, hm? It’s always the same with men, all the time—”

 

“Evie—”

 

“No!”

 

Evie was very red by now and her chest was rising and falling rapidly. I let her continue.

 

“You come here and you assume you know everything. Well, you know what, you don’t! You don’t, my father doesn’t, and your father doesn’t, either. None of you know what’s best for me, but you’ll sit here and act like you have all the answers. Well, you know what? I thought, at least with you, that I would have you by my side instead of going over me for these things. I thought we were in this together. I was stupid to think that, but I’m not going to be thinking that anymore. Fuck you, Tony.”

 

I was stunned as she gathered her things and walked away from me. I didn’t even try and follow her. What was I supposed to do? Say?

 

Shit.

 

I fucked up really bad.

 

I thought about running after her, but again, I didn’t know what the fuck I was supposed to say. I thought we were in this shit together. I was stupid to think that. That shit hurt. That hit me hard.

 

Was this what her father had wanted? Was this a part of him trying to push us away—was that what my father was trying to do when he set up this meeting to begin with? And what had he even promised Brown in exchange for reaching out to me?

 

I plopped down by the pool. I punched the water—not like it really did all that much good, in all honesty—and knew that I had to fix this somehow. I just wasn’t exactly sure how.