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“I gave up my life for you! And this is how you repay me? By knocking me up, again, and then trying to steal my baby?”
Then her eyes settled on Viking’s gun on the mantle. Memories of him screwing Giorgia in the same bed where she’d had her first time, popped back into her head. Suddenly she wanted to kill him, over and over again. Unfortunately, murder wasn’t an option here. So she did what any sane woman in her position would do: she pulled a gun on him.
His eyes narrowed to slits. “You really need to quit that bad habit of taking my gun.”
“Then don’t make me want to pull it on you!”
“Put that gun away. We need to talk.”
With shaking hands, she raised the gun at him. “I want to kill you, but I can’t. Because as much as I hate you right now, I love you more.”
He blinked. “Elena, wait.”
“No.”
She was done waiting. Done hearing people out. This time she was going to do what she wanted, what was good for her. This time she chose herself and her baby, who deserved to be raised with a mom.
“No,” she repeated. “You know what’s the worst part? The thing that breaks my heart? You never asked. Not once did you ask why I married Lorenzo. You just assumed I was a gold digger ready to whore myself out. Maybe it was a good thing we never made it. Maybe you just don’t deserve to be a father. I’m not even sure you deserve to be called a good lover. Because guess what? Loving someone more than you love yourself requires sacrifice. It means placing that person’s needs before yourself, even if it kills you.” She grabbed his car keys and her bag from the counter. “Now, I’m going to get my pregnant ass far away from you. Go find another sucker for a surrogate you can steal babies from. I’m out.”
Hardening her heart, she shot him.
CHAPTER 29
VIKING
She’d shot him. Actually shot him. He’d heard of pregnant women going crazy with hormones, but this?
Fire spread across his thigh where the bullet had grazed him. He was bleeding like a stuck pig. Grinding his teeth, he stumbled toward the couch and took out his phone.
He almost called Baran, but then remembered he was still in the basement with Vito Gavese. The bastard had given them two locations where Pedro could supposedly be found, but so far both the warehouse and the motel had turned up empty. He’d sent Yuri out looking for Pedro, telling him he didn’t need any protection tonight. After all, he had been planning on talking to his wife. Get everything out in the open, start with a clean slate and everything.
He forgot all his good intentions the second she told him he was going to be a dad again. If it were possible for a heart to explode from happiness, that would have happened. He’d wanted nothing more than to have a family with Elena.
He never stopped loving her, even when he hated her, which had been tearing him apart. Elena was the fucking sun and moon, she was the ammo to his gun, the blade to his knife. She was what made him want to get up every day and do better. And he’d fucked that all up because he couldn’t deny the truth when she asked him that damn question. He might not have said the words, but he hadn’t needed to. He’d never lied to her before so he didn’t deny that at some point, yes, he’d contemplated hurting her by taking away her baby. He wasn’t proud that in his darkest moment that thought had crossed his mind. It was wrong on so many levels, but at the time it had seemed like justice. His pound of flesh that would make her bleed. Before he got the chance to tell her he was never going to go through with it, she’d pulled a gun on him. In hindsight, he shouldn’t have underestimated her. He should’ve expected she’d turn into Momma Bear. The signs of her loyalty were all there; he’d just been too blind to see them.
Maybe he deserved to bleed all over the couch and carpet for that alone. Gritting his teeth, he got off the couch and stumbled into the bathroom for clean towels. He wrapped them around his thigh to stop the bleeding. When his bad side hit the corner of the sink, it turned black before his eyes. He didn’t know how long it took before he could muster himself up and hop to his wet bar. He needed a drink, badly.
After the initial bleeding had slowed down, turning the white towels red, he texted their on-call doctor. They paid a lot of money to a lot of people to make house visits during emergencies.
Viking had almost dozed off when someone slapped his face. Doc hadn’t come alone; he’d brought Kristoff with him.
“Good. You’re still alive.” Kristoff towered over him, looking curious.
He pushed up only to get pushed back down by the doc who worked on his wound. The old man didn’t say anything as he prodded into his flesh.
“It’s just a graze.”
Kristoff nodded. “Caused by?”
There was no hiding what happened. Kristoff would laugh his ass off after telling him ‘I told you so,’ but it was better to be laughed at by the boss than by a soldier who would spread the word of his downfall. At least Kristoff wasn’t a tattletale.
“Elena shot me.”
“Your wife shot you?”
He winced as the doctor tightened gauze around his upper leg. “It’s a misunderstanding.”
“I’m sure it is.”
