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“God, you’re such an asshole.” I shook my head, at a total loss. “But you know that already and you probably don’t care.”
“You’ll stay here,” he said, as if that was final, and stood. “I’ll set up the guest room for you, then I’ve got to run some errands.”
“You’re leaving me alone?”
He nodded. “I figured you’d like that, right?”
“Matteo—” I started, then stopped myself. The idea of being alone right then was strangely unappealing, but he was right, I should’ve wanted it.
And I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of knowing that I needed him around.
“I won’t be long. Make yourself at home. There’s food in the kitchen if you’re hungry.” He walked over toward the stairs. “But stay here and wait until I get back.”
“I should run back home, you know. You’re a lying bastard Valentino.”
“That’s true,” he said. “But you’re the mother of my baby. So you’ll stay right there and you’ll wait.” Then he climbed upstairs and I heard him fussing around for a few minutes before he came back down, shot me one last look, and disappeared outside.
I sat alone on the strange couch surrounded by houseplants and hugged myself. I grabbed my phone and read a text from Nessa. Don’t get yourself knocked up a second time LOL.
If only she knew.
God, if only she knew, maybe she could help.
But I couldn’t tell her right then. I loved Nessa like a sister, but she cared about the Healy family more than I did. She had her loyalties, and if she knew that Matteo was Valentino then she might do something stupid.
I couldn’t take that risk.
So although it drove me crazy, I stayed right where I was, and I waited for him to come back.
5
Matteo
I knew I shouldn’t leave Sam alone in my apartment.
But I also knew I had to figure out what I was going to do with her and quick.
She wasn’t the sort of thing I could hide from the Valentino family. She was much too important—and much too dangerous. I couldn’t just keep her at my house for the next nine months until she gave birth. Sooner or later, her family would find out about me, and then hostilities would only get worse.
No, I had to tell the Don, and I had to tell him right now.
I drove out of the city, going faster than I should’ve. I sent a quick text to Don Valentino’s phone, which was an emergency-only sort of thing, just to tell him that I was on the way. He didn’t respond, and I had to hope he was at home.
The Valentino mansion was out on the Main Line where all the rich, old families of the Philadelphia region lived. It was set back down a long driveway in the middle of a heavily wooded region. The house itself was big with a white vinyl and stone facade, and a massive wrap-around porch. It was a huge house with more rooms than I could even count, plus a gorgeous pool in the back and more grass and hiking trails through the forest beyond.
I grew up a poor Philly kid. The only thing I knew about hiking was how to get from Broad Street to just about anywhere as efficiently as possible. I loved concrete and brick, not grass and trees. The house was worth more money than I’d ever see in my life, even with this lucrative damn Valentino job working undercover to kill as many Healy guys as possible. I was richer than I ever dreamed I would be, and I still wasn’t in the same league as the Don.
But that was how life went. I had what I wanted and what I needed, and it was enough. I wouldn’t know what to do with a house like the Valentino manor.
I walked up the front steps and knocked at the door. An older woman answered, white hair, bright eyes, big smile. Bea wore an apron over her white shirt and khaki pants, and always seemed excited to see me, like I was her favorite mafia guy in the whole world.
“What a pleasure,” Bea said.
I kissed her on the cheek. She was the Don’s housekeeper, but everyone knew she as much more than that. She practically ran the family when the current Don’s father was still alive, though I suspected she had less pull now than she used to. Still, she sat in on most meetings I attended, and I knew the Don listened to her.
“Is he around?” I asked.
She nodded. “He’s expecting you. Did something happen?”
“It did, but it’s not necessarily bad.” I smiled a little, rubbing my head. “You mind if I tell him about it?”
“Right this way,” she said, and led me into the entry hall. It was wide open with a big crystal chandelier hanging from the room. My steps echoed off the tile as she took me down a hallway, over thick carpets and past wood paneling, ancient statues, and oil paintings. There weren’t enough plants for my taste, though. We stopped outside of the Don’s office, she knocked once, and then opened the door.
