Page 44 of Deadly Intentions

“You’re—” his voice hitched, and he wiped at the tears gathering in his eyes. “We’re having a baby?”

“Yes.”

His hand looped behind my head and tugged my face toward his. Donny’s lips moved against mine, his hand never moving from my abdomen. When he finally broke the kiss, he rested his forehead against mine.

“You’ve given me more than I could have ever asked for.”

“It’s you who’s given me the world, Donny. You brought me back to life after everything that happened in Lake District and then Reno. I thought I’d never be whole again. But you breathed life back into me with your love. And now…” I pressed our hands into my belly. “We’re going to have a baby.”

Donny tugged me into his arms and simply held me against him. We stayed like that for minutes, enjoying the silence of each other. This was the life I’d tried to run from. The life I was desperate to erase. But being wrapped in the warmth of a man who would walk through hellfire for me proved what I needed had been here the whole time. I didn’t need to run from being an Anastasi—I just needed to become a Russo.

“I love you, Cuore Mio.” Donny pressed his lips to my forehead.

I pressed into him harder and breathed in his scent. He was my air, my soul, my everything. I whispered the truth I’d fought against.

“You heart forever.”

epilogue

CELESTINA

What in the fuck?

My head pounds like a thousand horses are stampeding through a ravine, and it takes me about three seconds to realize why. I’m inside a truck that’s moving… a truck I don’t remember getting into.Where am I? What happened?Panic cuts through me.

“What the fuck?” I jerk upright, my arm flinging out and catching the driver across the face before the seat belt locks, keeping me secured in place.

My eyes come into focus just as Chris, if that’s his name, jerks the steering wheel. The truck swerves wildly across the interstate. He tightens his hold, his eyes focused straight ahead as he fights to get it under control. My breath is rushing in and out as I start to hyperventilate in the seat beside him. My mind’s racing with the realization I’ve been kidnapped. Desperate to get out of the vehicle, I twist around, trying to get the fucking seat belt off.

“Sit still, you’re going to fucking get us killed.” I watch in horror as his hand connects with my face, making me halt in shock for a brief moment.“Fuck,”he mutters into the cab just as he manages to get us onto the shoulder and slam on the brakes.

My fingers latch onto the handle, and I jerk with all my strength, what little I have, and fling the door open before it comes to a full stop. Obviously, he drugged me, because my legs wobble as soon as they hit the pavement, and I’m going down like a newborn calf just learning to walk.

I cry out in pain as I collapse and smack into the ground. No matter how I reach out to stop myself, I slide over the embankment and a short hill. Of course, I don’t avoid the barbed wire that once stood erect along the forest edge. My skin rips as I skid over the metal spikes before finally coming to a stop at the bottom of the drainage ditch. My dress, or what’s left of it, is tangled in the metal spikes I’m lying beside. Ripping the fabric to free myself, and despite the pain I’m feeling, I attempt to push off the ground only to collapse. My arms are weak, my body’s heavy, and some of the mud covering most of me made it into my mouth.

The sound of heavy footfalls filters into my conscience. I turn to seehimsliding through the dirt towards me. Turning back, I dig my fingers into the wet grass and pull myself through the mud. Spitting out the debris lining my bottom lip, I pant, stretching my arms out again, trying to gain space in a desperate attempt to get away. Tears burn my eyes. I can only move inches at a time, while his long legs are eating up the ground between us.

He reaches out and snatches at my foot. I throw my leg out with what little strength I have remaining in a feeble attempt to stop him. “Get away from me!” My aim is pathetic and only gives him the leverage to grab me.

“No. Noooooo!”

He is hand wraps around my throat, “Stop, Celestina.”

Sometimes even in the bleakest of situations, you find love. Is this Celestina’s end or just the beginning?