CHAPTER TWO
I looked down at his fingers around my arm incredulously, then back up at his face. "Are you kidding me?"
"You're not going anywhere until I let you." He repeated.
"You must be a big joker." I retorted, then struggled to break off his grip, but he was resolute. "My mother is in the hospital, dying! I need that money!"
"Is that what you think this is? Something you can do in the space of a few minutes and scarper with the money?" He asked, his eyes narrowed dangerously. "Right now you might be carrying my heir. The future of my family might be growing inside you already, and you will be under my watch for the next nine months till you deliver it. Do you understand that?"
"And in nine months my mother will be long gone, you miserable—" I gasped and stopped short as his fingers tightened around my arm.
"Do you understand?" He asked again, his eyes gleaming with warning.
"Yes." I replied, sighing. He released my arm slowly, then turned to put on some clothes. I was suddenly aware of his naked body, and my insides clenched with desire again.
As soon as his back was turned, I stared wildly around the room and my eyes fell on some dollar stacks on a shelf. Before he could react, I dashed towards the shelf and picked up a handful of stacks, then turn and ran towards the door.
I heard him give a muffled yell as I raced out of the room, but I didn't look back. I slammed the door behind me to give myself some headstart, then looked around wildly for a means of escape.
Thankfully the corridor beyond his room was empty. I sighted the staircase I'd climbed and scrambled towards it, hurrying down the stairs. I didn't dare to look back, didn't even stop to imagine what he would do to me if his guards caught up with me. All I could think of was my sick mother, and how best to leave this building and get to her.
I skidded to a stop at the front door, then kicked it open, just as the man stumbled out of his room. I turned back with a start and watched as his eyes bulged with rage, beforee he yelled. "Guards!"
As though on cue, four men poured out of a door to his left. Immediately they sighted me, they came running towards me. I stumbled out of the building, then ran to my car, slipping into the driver's seat and placing the dollar stacks on the seat beside me. As I started the ignition, the guards raced out of the building. I didn't give them the opportunity to catch up with me. I turned the steering and maneuvered the car towards the gate of the mansion, then raced towards it.
"Ciao!" I called after the guards as I passed them, wiggling my fingers.
I drove out of the compound of the large house, watching through my rearview mirror as the guards all scrambled into a car to chase after me. I knew they'd catch up to me in the end, but by then I'd have given the money to the doctor and I'd be assured of my mother's good health.
My mother was all that mattered. I was doing all of this for nobody but her.
The guards kept up the hot pursuit as I deftly steered my car through traffic, towards the hospital. They didn't back down, try as I could to lose them in the heavy traffic. Too bad my car was painted a bright red colour that could be spotted from a kilometre away: it was almost like a beacon.
"It's fine, Emily." I whispered to myself in the safety of my car, trying to calm my thundering heart. "He has a ton of money. I'm sure he could spare a few stacks. Besides, it's rightly yours anyway."
I stopped with a loud screech in the parking lot of Beth Israel hospital, where my mother was being treated. I unfastened the seatbelt, then stepped down from the car with the stack of bills in my hands. I glanced apprehensively behind me, taking a breath of relief as I saw that the guards hadn't arrived yet.
I stepped into the air-conditioned waiting room of the hospital, then frantically looked around. The doctor treating my mother was nowhere in sight, but I knew the way to his office like the back of my hand. I ignored the front desk nurse and turned towards his office, then barged into it without so much as a knock.
"—the patient in ward 17. She needs—" He was saying to a nurse. He stopped short as I stumbled in and looked at me with a frown.
"Miss Davis." He called. "I wasn't expecting you—"
"Doctor, I have the money." I interrupted him, then dumped the dollar stacks on his desk. "It might be too little or too much, but at least we have something, right? You can continue her treatment now."
"Oh, about that." He said, then and dismissed the nurse in front of him with a wave of his hand. Then he turned back to me. "Please, have a seat."
"This is not the time for sitting, doctor!" I said, my voice raised. "My mother, she's—"
"Yes, I know. But first, there's something I need to talk to you about."
I narrowed my eyes, staring at his bright blue ones. A sense of dread settled in my chest as I stared at him for long seconds, trying to deduce the truth from his gaze. I sat down slowly and frowned. "What is it, doctor?"
"Well, um..." He started, then cleared his throat and continued. "See, we tried all we could—"
I sat up, the feeling of dread spreading in my chest like a dark, hateful virus. "Doctor, what is it?!"
"Considering how long it took you to source for the money and how deteriorated your mother's health was before you brought her in—"
"Doctor, what the hell are you saying?!"
"You brought the money in too late, we're sorry." The doctor said. "Your mother is dead."
CHAPTER THREEI knew I was screaming, knew incoherent words were pouring out of my mouth, but it didn't sound like me. Never had I produced that kind of inhumane, guttural sound. It was alien and foreign to me. The sorrow tore at my heart and left it in shreds, and I slid to the floor in despair, a boneless, bereft sliding.I vaguely registered the doctor leaving his seat behind the desk and coming to console me. "No!" I screamed and fought against his grip, but he held me to his chest, murmuring words of comfort.I couldn't accept that she was dead.Not until I saw it with my own eyes. I pushed the doctor aside and dashed out of his office, staring around wildly. A nurse approached me with concern in her eyes. "Ma'am, what do you need?" She asked."Take me to her." I yelled, grabbing the nurse by the shoulders. "Fucking take me to my mother!"The doctor had followed me outside, and he was gently prying my fingers from the nurse's shoulders. He gently steered me away from the nurse a
CHAPTER FOUREthan's POVIt was afternoon already, and I was sitting in my office, trying to sort out the bills and files that had piled up during the week, feeling the stress press down behind my eyes. My eyes roamed the large figures on the pages of the files.Sucks to be a Mafia Lord on a Saturday.My hand found the glass decanter on my table and I poured myself a generous glass of tequila, then poured it down my throat in one swig. My thoughts wandered dangerously to the young woman I'd left on my bed several hours ago, and I felt guilt spread in my chest.I couldn't get over the hateful look I'd seen in her eyes, and only several years of carefully mastering my emotions had saved me from it.She'd dozed off shortly after our sex, and I'd had to leave her to rest in my room. I knew she'd had a long, stressful day, and I didn't want to be a monster by disrupting her rest. Besides, I was sure she was carrying my baby now. The least I could do was make her feel comfortable.I slammed
CHAPTER FIVEEthan's POV Days began to run into weeks as the woman spent longer living with me. I got to know that her name was Emily Davis, which was a moment too late for me. She never got to know of mine and never deemed it fit to ask, and however much I tried to bridge the gap between us, any sort of friendship between us remained sadly out of reach.I moved her to a room at the very back of the house, so I wouldn't get to see the wariness and hostility in her eyes, yet it burned at the back of my head and kept me awake at night. To all and sundry in the house, I hated her as much as she hated me and I tried to make it known that I only tolerated her presence, but that was a lie. She was an attractive woman: slim, petite, with that thick brown hair I craved to run my fingers through, those freckles that dusted her nose and her cheeks, and damn, was I attracted to her!However, I knew my place as a mafia boss and the leader of an empire, and I knew that she wasn't worth my time. S
Ethan pov I rushed into the ward where Emily lay, my men closely following me. She was on a bed on the far end of the room, and her back was turned to me, but I didn't care. My heart was simply bursting at the seams with happiness.I'd finally have a child of my own.Giddy with joy, I called out. "Emily?"She turned her head to look at me. Her eyes were full of hope, as though she'd been expecting someone else, and I watched as the hope filtered away and her eyes hardened."Good morning, Mr Brown," she said dully and turned back to the wall. I felt the joy in me come down a notch. I walked forward and sat on the chair beside her. "How are you feeling?" I asked."Very well, thank you."The smile on my face faded at the tone of her voice. Regardless, I pressed on. "The doctor said you're pregnant. Have you heard?"Her breath hitched as she took in the news. "Is that so?" She asked, her voice shaky."Yes," I answered. "Since our...act proved successful, I would have to tighten security
Emily's POVI watched as Ethan Brown walked out of the hospital, leaving me with his men. We were all plunged into silence for a few minutes, then the man whom I supposed was his second-in-command cleared his throat."Miss Davis, if you will," he murmured, and I nodded, then stepped forward. Two guards were at my sides, with two others behind me. The second-in-command himself was at my front, leading the way. I felt utterly protected, and yet vulnerable and bare—so, terribly bare. They would never be able to shield me from what I felt inside.The ache of my mother's death gripped my heart as tightly as a wrench, made even worse as this was the very same hospital where she'd died. She was the only thing that mattered to me in this world, and that vile beast of a man had yanked her from me in only a few hours of knowing him.We reached the front door in a matter of seconds, and the second in command reached out to open the door. "After you, Miss Davis." He murmured, and I nodded in than
Ethan's POVI was in my room, a cup of coffee in one hand. Zadok was sitting opposite me, and we were surrounded by a chaotic mess of papers and scattered thoughts. The soft ruffling of papers filled the room, but my attention was elsewhere. I was thinking about Emily: the last time we'd seen was when my mother had visited, and that was two days ago already. I knew my mother was capable of killing anyone's spirit with her words, Emily not excluded."The records are good, boss." Zadok commented, pulling me out of my reverie. "Things have been looking up."I nodded absentmindedly and took a sip of my morning brew. Sunlight filtered through the window behind me and warmed my neck. I rubbed my hand over the warm patch of skin, then picked up a file on the coffee table. I opened it and stared in satisfaction at the numbers on the sheaf of papers.Three million fucking dollars spent on shipping a couple of arms across the Atlantic, much less than we spent only three months ago. I was extrem
Emily's POV Someone was knocking intermittently on my door. I buried my face deeper in the pillows and tried to block out the noise, but it was persistent, pressing against my eardrums annoyingly.I groaned and turned to the other side, dragging the sheets with me. The bed smelled of days-old sweat and several sleepless hours. I hadn't showered in two days, or eaten, or stepped out of the room. And I wasn't planning to do the latter anytime soon, not as long as Ethan Brown was in this house with me. I didn't want to face him just yet; I knew what would happen if I did. My body would fight against my will, and I would remember just how perfectly we'd fit together when we were producing this baby. My insides would clench with desire when I see his bright blue eyes or those long, dexterous fingers; I would remember how they'd played with my nipples, how they'd flicked around inside my folds and given me pleasure.And I would hate myself for it.I was a sucker for the man when it came ri
Emily's POVI gave him a silent stink-eye, then crossed the dining room to where my plate of lasagna still sat. As I passed by him, our shoulders brushed and I felt a spark of the desire I thought was loat, reignite. His tamarind scent wafted into my nose again, and I sniffed aporeciatively. Fuck, what was wrong with me?I pulled my seat back and sat behind my plate of food, then slowly looked up at him. He was a few feet away, his blue eyes fixated on me, his expression stony and unreadable. I turned my gaze to the lasagna before me, which had gone cold and uneatable. Swallowing an angry retort, I picked up my fork and digged in, then raised it to my mouth. The smell of cold food hit my nose and nauseated me and I dropped the fork in defeat. I wasn't hungry, despite having starved myself for two whole days."I can't do this," I declared and stood to my feet, then walked towards the door. As I walked past him, Ethan Brown grabbed my arm and pulled me back. A feeling of deja vu washed