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“You are my only blood in this world. I couldn’t let you live on the streets with me.”
“So you left me to fend for myself? Do you have any idea how many homes I was placed in? How many times my ‘new dad’ thought to pick on me just because I was bigger than him? I don’t know what was worse. The racist assholes or the ones that brought out their belt to ‘teach’ me stuff.”
“You mean Peter Willis, Donald White, and James Pratt?”
That stopped his rant. “How do you know about them?” He didn’t even remember their first names, only their last, because he was always told to call them “Mr.”
“You didn’t think I’d let anyone who tortured my brother live, did you?”
“Fuck.”
I can’t deal with this right now.
Kristoff straightened his jacket and jumped out of the ring. “I’ll make sure Mary has eyes on her all times. Let’s go, Damon.”
“Pay up.” Damon held up his hand to Achilles.
His friend gave Hector a disgusted look. “I can’t believe you lost.”
He would gladly lose a thousand times if it meant he would get the same great news. Mary’s pregnancy gave him a new burst of energy.
“Call off every man you have on me. Decker will know when I’m no longer trailed. And find a way to distract the men the feds have put on me. Decker will come out of hiding when he thinks I’m alone.” From what Gonzales had told him, Decker wanted to look him in the eye before he killed him.
“I don’t think—”
“Don’t care. Just do as I say.” He would be the perfect bait. Walk around town, showing Decker his unprotected belly, so he would finally make a move.
No way was he letting Mary go through her pregnancy alone.
This ended tonight.
CHAPTER 32
MARY
The last thing on Mary’s mind was to go clubbing. She’d been perfectly fine with her butt planted on the couch, accompanied by chocolate and her e-reader. That is, after she’d had a group call with her cousin and Tess, bawling her eyes out like a little girl.
That was sad, really.
I know.
You have to stop sponsoring Kleenex.
If it hadn’t been for Tommie insisting that he needed a “wing woman,” she would’ve stayed home instead of hoisting herself into a dress and driving him over to Flux. She couldn’t even use Zoe as an excuse. The little girl was treated like a princess at Casa Kristoff, with the staff doting on her.
“Are you going to be a sour puss all night?” Tommie asked.
“Maybe.”
“See, this is why I had to get you out of that house. You were becoming a hermit.”
Tommie had turned exaggeration into an art form.
“I’ve only been at Kristoff’s for three days. During which time, yes, I didn’t leave the house, but I would hardly call that becoming a hermit.”
“Do I have to remind you that I literally gave you a nudge and pushed you out of the door?”
“I was mourning.” She took a sip of her strawberry virgin cocktail.