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“What?” Giorgia’s nostrils flared. “I’m putting myself out there to help her and she looks at me like I’m scum underneath her shoes. And I’m supposed to just take it?”
Elena smiled. “Well, you got the scum underneath my shoes part right.”
Giorgia’s eyes turned a catlike vile. “You’re pregnant.”
Crap. “How did you…I…”
Ricky waved that away. “I told her when I suspected it the last time we spoke.” She gave him a dirty look, but he shook his head. “There’s no time for that. Whatever happened before, we’re still family. The good and the bad. We still help each other out. It’s what Mom would have wanted.”
She was ready to tear him a new one when he dropped those last words. Yes, it was what mom would have wanted.
Family is everything. They’re the foundation you build your life on.
Her mom’s words echoed through her mind, calming her enough to swallow her hateful remarks.
“You say that as if you mean it,” she croaked, feeling vulnerable that they knew about the secret she had yet to tell Viking. She had yet to tell anyone.
Ricky sat next to her and held her hand. “I do, Lena. I’ve told you before, you can count on me. Always. I’ll protect you and the baby from Viking.”
She pulled her hand away. “What makes you think we need protection from him?” Viking would cut off his right arm before hurting his own child.
Sensing he’d made a mistake, her brother backtracked. “I don’t mean it like that.” He nodded at Giorgia, who rolled her eyes.
“I can see you’re still as blinded by love as before. It’s sad, really. Worse, you got knocked up by him, again.”
“Get to your point,” Elena grounded. “I’m just one step away from kicking you out.”
Giorgia put her hands on her slim hips and leaned over as if she was about to tell a big secret. “I was at Flux the other day and overheard Viking talking about you. Long story short, he means to get you pregnant and then take away your baby. I believe he said you owed him one.”
Her stomach churned, and she clamped her mouth shut, desperately fighting the urge to puke. All those times he told her he’d take his revenge came rushing back to her. The moment he’d called her a backstabbing, baby-stealing bitch. The times he vowed he’d keep her locked up for the same amount of time he hadn’t been in Vicky’s life. Of course. Viking was an eye-for-an-eye kind of guy. Why hadn’t she realized that before?
Because you love him and trust him.
Because, so far, his big revenge plot has been mostly bluster.
And because Giorgia can’t be trusted.
“I don’t believe you.”
Giorgia shrugged. “I don’t care what you believe. I told Ricky because we’re still family. Do with it what you want.”
It didn’t make sense. Viking wasn’t some loose-lipped man who would discuss his private life for anyone to hear.
“So you’re telling me Viking was just sitting around the table at the club discussing his baby-snatching plans?”
Giorgia flushed. Then her eyes turned cynical. “Come on, read between the freaking lines. When I said ‘overheard,’ I meant ‘pillow talk.’ I was trying to spare your feelings, but you didn’t really think I only slept with him that one time, did you?”
Naive as it may have seemed, yeah, she kind of did. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Giorgia might be a vicious snake, but she was drop-dead gorgeous. What man wouldn’t come for seconds?
After that little tidbit of poison Giorgia spewed, she walked out leaving Elena alone with her brother.
She felt as if the floor had dropped away from underneath her feet.
“I can get you out of here,” Ricky said.
“I’m not leaving.”
“Lena…”
