Page 32 of Forbidden Pregnancy (The Buffalo Italian Mob Family #2)

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Michael

O ur new home is perfect for starting a family.

I don’t care who knows I’m coming back to Buffalo.

If my father or anyone he sends after me comes my way, then I’ll be ready.

The mansion I bought is an old carriage house made out of gorgeous red brick with two white columns, close to a lake.

It’s a pretty old house with a baby room off the master bedroom and a fireplace in every room.

The master bedroom is the best part – a king-sized bed where I can imagine spending cold New York winter nights snuggled up next to Myra with our beautiful baby in the next room.

The new house is a five bedroom, with an en-suite bathroom for all the bedrooms and a powder room downstairs.

CC’s bedroom – the largest of the guest bedrooms – is situated downstairs, directly beneath the baby’s room.

For now, she stays with me. My sister wants redemption for dragging Myra into this situation and I have the perfect job for her. Bait.

The first night we move in, I spend all night awake.

I promised Myra that nothing would happen to her if she came back to Buffalo.

To make sure that happens, I have to make some sacrifices.

The first sacrifice will be my sleep and mental wellness until I complete what very well might be my last mission.

Leandro won’t forgive this. He might allow me to live based on the details of this family affair, but I can’t expect him to ever trust me again. Myra sleeps peacefully – at least I think she does – and I watch her stomach rise and fall as she sleeps with intrigue.

What would life have been like if we hadn’t broken up twelve years ago?

How many children did my father’s actions cost me?

My rage becomes so impossible to contain that I have to go outside for a cigarette.

I face the impenetrably cold Buffalo night with nothing but a plain t-shirt on, a pair of jeans, and a cigarette.

He might come any time. Tonight? Tomorrow? The day after? I have to act quickly.

But how can I find out who attacked my girlfriend twelve years ago? It couldn’t have been Peter. He was in Italy – his one year in boarding school. Renzo would have been my next guess, but he was still a child.

Luigi would have never obeyed my father’s commands and I don’t think Leandro ordered this attack on Myra. It doesn’t make sense. The Corsini Family…

When the sun cracks over the horizon, CC exits the side entrance into the carriage house, where she finds me leaning against one of the wide pillars, smoking my fifth cigarette.

I took a break from smoking to gamble on a few Australian ostrich races.

CC has a blanket wrapped around her shoulders over pajamas.

Puffs of white clouds exit her lips with each exhale. It’s cold out and I only notice because of CC. My body has been numb for hours. I’m wide awake, and Myra’s safe.

“How long have you been out there?”

“A while.”

“She’s still asleep upstairs. I can make you breakfast.”

I don’t want to look at her. But I do. I have always had a troubled relationship with Cosima. I was never kind or gentle enough. I made her into the kind of person she has become. I have to take some of the blame for what she did to Myra.

“Don’t trouble yourself.”

I’m not hungry – for the first time in ages. CC touches my back. I have to struggle not to flinch. Her hand is surprisingly warm.

“You didn’t have to come back here.”

“I did.”

“You’re going to do something crazy.”

“Yes.”

“I’m going to help you.”

I look down at CC, who seems stubbornly motivated to help – or something. I don’t know what to make of her choices now. The only thing I know for certain is that she loves Myra as much as I do.

“I can’t ask you to do that.”

“But I can volunteer.”

“You can’t go to prison.”

“I won’t.”

“We don’t know what could happen after I do this. Leandro could–”

She stops me from speaking with a hand on my arm. Her warm hand makes me flinch this time.

“Don’t think of the worst.”

“We need to find out who attacked her.”

“It was twelve years ago. I didn’t even know you two were…” CC trails off and smirks. I scowl because she’s my little sister and I can tell when she’s about to do or say something annoying. “I guess it makes sense. You were always desperate to get a girl to like you who isn’t trashy for once.”

“Myra is perfect,” I say to CC forcefully.

She rolls her eyes. “I know she is.”

“Beyond perfect,” I mutter to myself. I don’t know when this obsession turned into something so much greater than that, but the intensity of what I feel for Myra cannot be explained by logic. I loathe the vulnerability, only worsened by my father’s incessant threat to her life.

CC pushes me to think carefully with her next words, “So what? Is dad going to come here and do it himself?”

It’s a good question considering her inexperience, but my father wouldn’t handle a firearm when he can get another man willing to take the fall for a little money or a taste of power. There’s always someone stupid enough to get in my way.

“He never does his own dirty work,” I explain to my sister.

CC leans her head on my shoulder and I find it oddly comforting.

When she was a child, I found her clinginess frustrating and burdensome.

Now, I imagine we only have so many moments together to bond as siblings.

I wasn’t always the best man at keeping her safe.

I didn’t always fulfill my duties to her and I especially failed Flora.

“We can’t hunt and keep Myra safe here,” CC says, pulling me out of my ruminating thoughts into the more significant world of action. “So what do we do about that?”

She’s right – What’s next is far more important.

“If I knew, sis,” I mutter. “I wouldn’t be here smoking and thinking…”

CC wraps the blanket around her shoulders and then wraps her arms around me. She doesn’t comfort me as much as she hopes. My sister’s thin and surprisingly warm arms serve to remind me of my duties to her, my family, and my future.

“Have you thought about calling Luigi?” CC asks, leaving her blanket over my shoulders.

Her pajamas are much warmer than what I’m wearing.

I haven’t thought about calling Luigi. I trusted him so far, but he is one of the few people old enough to have information about who attacked Myra twelve years ago.

Her revelation sowed new distrust in my mind, and it’s as if my world has shrunk down to just Myra, the baby, and my sister Cosima. I trust only them and our future, whether it’s sensible or not.

“No.”

“You can trust him, Michael. You know that.”

“I can’t trust anyone in this goddamn family. Not with Myra.”

She can’t blame me for saying or thinking that. Even when I left CC close to Myra, she took it upon herself to slip something in Myra’s drink, stealing her autonomy away from her and putting both of us in this terrifying situation. The baby could come early. The baby could come late.

Anything can happen and I’m not the one with the advantage here, except for the fact that I’m the only person crazy enough to return to Buffalo, NY with a member of a powerful and ruthless mafia family prepared to kill him. And his woman.

My wife. Once this all ends, I will prove to my father and everyone else the truth in my heart by making Myra Brent my wife – Myra Corsini. I want my children to share in my name and my heritage without fear. I never knew what I wanted out of life until now, because it was stolen from me.

“You can trust me,” CC says. “I want to help.”

“Haven’t you helped enough?”

“Trust me,” CC says.

“I’ll admit I’m hesitant.”

She laughs. “You’re crazy.”

“So are you.”

“Exactly,” CC says. “And nobody wants Myra in this family more than I do.”

CC is only partly right. She definitely wants Myra in our family. She loved Myra as a tutor, mourned her absence, and when she met Myra again, she went to extreme lengths to keep her

“I strongly doubt that.”

She laughs again. “Good. Then you won’t question my methods.”