Patriot and his Secret Baby (The Rossi Family Mafia Book 1) (7 page)

A sigh escaped my lips and it shook with the aftermath of my previous sobbing. Of course I wasn’t well. I was pregnant and felt trapped in the Rossi family. One thing I did know, was that if Regina knew the truth, everyone in the family would know. She was a horrible gossip. I had to come up with a lie and quickly.

“I’m just …” I ran a hand through my hair and turned so she couldn’t look me in the eyes, “feeling really bad about what happened with Auntie.”

I could tell from the mirror that Regina wasn’t buying it, probably because it was something that she wouldn’t cry about. She raised her eyebrows and then crossed her arms.

“How much did she leave you?”

“Regina!”

“What?” She tapped her foot, her voice like ice. “Did she not give you enough money?”

“I don’t want to talk about it, alright?”

“Fine then. Soooo why are you crying?”

“I’m just on my period Regina. Even pictures of puppies in baskets will make me cry. I’m tired and stressed from the funeral and you just need to LEAVE ME ALONE!” I was yelling. I never raised my voice. Regina became a statue as my voice echoed off the walls of the large mansion.

This time, tears filled Regina’s eyes. She hadn’t gotten her way and was yelled at in the process. I should have known the crocodile tears would start.

I brushed past her before she started howling like a banshee. There was nothing I wanted more than locking myself up in my room. My need for my family not to find what was underneath the toilet paper in the bathroom garbage would have to be squashed. I hoped that Regina wouldn’t get curious, or was too distracted by her own sobbing to string together a few thoughts.

The door to my room closed behind me with a soft thud and I leaned against it.

I would have to tell Lance about the pregnancy. Across from the door in my room was my desk. The papers I had been given about my part of the will were strewn this way and that. I didn’t remember them being disheveled like that.

Regina.

Of course. She’d known all along how much money I’d been given and just wanted to bother me about it. Locking the door behind me, I shuffled over to the wooden table and sat down. All around it were framed pictures of me and various friends from high school. They were all from sports teams and clubs at school. Most, I only kept in contact with online. For some reason, friends didn’t seem to stick to me. “The plight of the introvert,” my mother called it. That was a nice way of saying I was a shut-in. Though, it had been easy for me to coast on the edges of lots of groups, solely off of my family name and looks. Ugh, it all sounded so childish and superficial now.

I rubbed my stomach and looked at the documents beneath me. Just glancing at them made me angry. Yes, it was great to have received such a huge fortune, but I was letting that money all turn to dust. My dreams were falling apart all around me. There had to be some way, something that didn’t involve getting an abortion.

 As I was adjusting the papers and reading over the text, a spark ignited in my mind.

If there was a way to get my freedom and keep the baby, I’d try my hardest to take advantage of it.

“Finally,” I sighed as I wiped the sweat from my brow
, probably leaving a dirty mark in its wake. It had taken a week of scrambling to get the right parts, taking apart the door mechanism and bloodied interior, scrubbing everything until it was spotless, putting it back together, and triple-checking my work. From what I had gleaned from the process, someone had their brain bashed in multiple times against the door. I kept finding large chunks of pink in the crevices and strings of black hair that had been pulled from the root.
 

Holy shit
, I thought, 
the rumors around town were true
. Now I was stuck in this mess. The larger problem was that it was my parents and their business that would suffer if I fucked it up.

So I had worked, night and day, without stopping. Ma would come through after dinner and hand me some leftovers and a large thermos of coffee for the night. I told myself I was doing this for them, for their business. However, whenever my mind wandered I would find myself thinking about Rosabella. Being more involved with her family’s business meant that I would be closer to her, that I had more opportunity to screw her.
 

It also gave more opportunity for her brothers to find us out.
 

I stepped back from my work. The Maserati had just been washed and waxed. The exterior looked smooth as butter. Sunbeams hit the curves, almost as sexy as the curves on Rosa. It was a beautiful car and now that it was free of human remains. It was difficult and morally ambiguous work, but it had to be done.

I walked back into the garage and picked up the flyer that Luca had given me. Its neon colors and headliners stared back. The last thing I wanted was to go to some gang-banger’s shitty dubstep party. Instead of thinking about it as the slimy club that it was, I imagined I was going behind enemy lines. It wasn’t a dark dance floor, but some desert compound that I had to infiltrate. Both situations could possibly end with me in a bloody pulp. The adrenaline rushed through me, giving me the balls to make my mind up about going.

I pocketed the invite, and swiped at the car keys, throwing them up into the air and catching them before making my way to the sports car in the driveway.

It purred to life down the road, the radio at full blast. The steering wheel felt smooth in the palms of my hands and the engine revved as I pushed the gas as I turned the corner onto the main road.

It had been years since I had felt this powerful, driving a mafia boss’s car like it was my own. The only things that existed were me and the road. 

The speedometer rose, and I paid it no heed. I knew that the police didn’t hang around these parts to catch speeding cars. If they did, then they’d probably think twice once they recognized who the owners were.

As the engine roared beneath me, an idea popped into my mind. I turned the wheel sharply, the tires skidding on the roadway. Before I went to the club, I’d make a little pit stop.

Talk about infiltrating enemy territory.

As I pulled up to the Rossi house, my hands were shaking. I made sure to park out in front, rather than around the corner, so that the members of the family could see it was the twin’s car.

Their house was the most expensive one on the block, and maybe our town. It was a turn-of-the-century brick mansion, with white pillars that framed a large set of white double doors. The driveway was a round-about, with a fountain that adorned the middle. Bright lights flooded a Romanesque statue of two lovers, water spewing from their mouths down below. I left the engine running and stepped out of the vehicle like it was nothing. As I stepped out, I glanced a camera hone in on my location. While the house hadn’t been gated, there was security, and they were watching. I acted like I didn’t notice and casually walked up to the mansion to ring the doorbell.

It took a few minutes, but finally someone opened the door. I was met with a large man in a black suit. He loomed over me, a hunk of muscle and testosterone.

So that’s what their security was like.

He raised his eyebrows, expecting me to talk.

“Hello, I’m here to pick up Rosabella Rossi on the request of Luca Rossi,” I moved aside to show off the car, “They sent me in their car.”

“One second, I
―
"

Before the large wall of a man could say another word, he was pushed to the side by a girl half his size. Something ignited inside me as I saw Rosa again. She was just as gorgeous as I remembered. She was wearing a light colored, see-through blouse that showed off her figure underneath. Her dark jeans hugged her hips, and I tried to keep my focus as I stood outside. She didn’t look at me, not straight in the eye, at least. Usually when I was around I garnered her full attention, or so I liked to think. Now she only gave me a sideways glance, and even that was unsure.

“Let me confirm with your father, miss,” the large man who loomed over both of us said. Rosabella lightly hit his arm in reply.

“It’s no problem, I just talked with Luca. He’s expecting both me and the car together.” She shook her finger at him, “Also, you owe me one. Unless you want Father to know who accidentally let his precious Fluff-ball escape the house.” She glared at him and I watched as his piercing gaze faltered into one of panic.

“I’ll cover for you. But after this, we’re even. No more favors.” He finally relented and turned his body so Rosa could pass. She slid past him to stand next to me, close enough that I could feel her arm brush against mine. My body stiffened at that. After weeks of being away from her, it was almost too much for me to stand next to Rosabella without kissing her right there.

“Thanks,” she said sweetly to the security guard. Her arm grasped mine, and I looked down to meet her gaze with my steady eyes. She was waiting for me to lead her, wanting me to walk her to the car like a gentleman. I puffed out my chest slightly, nodded at the man at the door, and turned with Rosa in tow.

“Fluff ball?” I whispered in her ear on the way to the car. She giggled back, her voice light and free as the wind. It sent shivers down my spine to hear it, and wished that she would laugh more.

“My father has … HAD a pure bred Russian Blue. He’d take her to competitions, brush and take care of her every day.” She tugged at my arm and pulled me closer. I leaned in, straining to hear her as an excuse to get closer. I could feel her breath on my neck. Damn, I wanted to kiss those lips and take her in my arms, but I also didn’t have a death wish. I could still feel the burn of the guard’s eyes behind us.

Rosabella went on, “One night, Georgie back there, had one too many from my father’s bar while on the job. When he went out to have a smoke, he forgot to close the door and the cat got out.” She shrugged her shoulders. “It took two weeks to find her and by that time, something had taken a chunk out of her ear. She’s never been the same since.”

“What would happen if your father found out?” I asked as I opened the passenger side door on the Maserati.

“He would probably kill him.” She said it like it was an everyday thing. Killing people. Maybe in her world it was, like it had been in mine. Kill or be killed.

 I glanced down at the door handle that I had fixed and Rosabella slid into her seat. The image of blood and brains flashed in my mind, but I pushed it to the back of my thoughts to give Rosabella a warm smile.

“What would he do if he knew about what we we’re doing?”

I watched as red flushed over her cheeks before I closed the door to the car. I grinned at her, even though I knew in my mind that her father would have a fate for me worse than death. She didn't need to answer that for me, I saw it in those beautiful, big eyes of hers. As I walked around the car, I didn't look at her, I wanted her to stew, to watch me, to wait for me to take the wheel. I could feel her gaze and it made me hard thinking that I had made her blush.

In some ways, I felt like that boy in high school, head-over-heels with a hot girl. In other ways, I had changed. I had faced so much adversity while overseas that the threats of her brothers no longer bothered me. In some ways, the threat invigorated me and made me want her more.  I cringed at the thought of the boy who had run away from the threat to join the military in high school. But it made me the man I was now, one who wouldn't back down.

Whatever happened, I would take what I wanted, and what I wanted was Rosabella.

I opened the door to the car
and started the engine. Rosabella watched me, looking like something was on her mind. The music start blaring hip hop, letting the entire house know that we were leaving. She smiled at the bass filling the space, even if she winced a little from the sound. Her nose scrunched up in an adorable way and made me crazy for her. Fuck, I could feel my dick starting to get hard. This time, it wasn't from her body, but from her expressions. How she smiled at me, the way she sat, so lady-like and proper. I didn't know how much she had changed since high school, but I was starting to appreciate her for who she was more than some teenage boy with a hard-on had. Now, I was just a grown man with a hard-on.

The car raced out of the round-about and down the winding road toward the city. We were around 30 minutes away from the club and I had all night to deliver the car. All I wanted was to give Rosabella what she needed on the way. The last time we had seen each other was more than a good time, but the venue was a bit of a downer. With the lights of the city zooming past us and the worry of her family left behind, I was ready to give her the time of her life.

As we headed onto the highway, I glanced over to her. Rosabella was fingering her hair gingerly, like she did when she was stressed. I guess old habits do die hard. I reached over and placed one of my hands on her thigh, firmly but not hard enough to make her uncomfortable.

I could feel her heat, the warmth beneath the denim. She sighed and let her hand rest on mine. Her fingers were so soft and small. She was colder than me, but the contrast was refreshing, invigorating me. She brushed her soft palm against the top of my hand then grasped it, like she had been waiting for that hand for days. I was happy to finally touch her and wanted more.

I ran my hand slowly up her thigh, moving it inward, toward the heat that I knew existed between her legs. I couldn't help myself, her body drove me nuts with passion, desire. I wanted her more than I wanted anything in this world. That was the true reason I had agreed to her brother's car repair without so much as a fight. It meant I would be connected to Rosabella and have an excuse to see her and touch her like we had in her garage. My hands slipped further up her leg, but before I was able to touch her cunt, she squeezed my hand and pushed me away.

I looked at her from the side of my eye, trying to keep some amount of attention on the road. It was a losing battle and I knew that I'd have to find somewhere to pull off soon. I could feel my dick in my pants, hard and ready for her. There wasn't much longer I could take her game of cat and mouse.