Page 8 of Forbidden Pregnancy (The Buffalo Italian Mob Family #2)

Chapter Five

Cosima

M y hands shake as I construct the scene.

Getting information about the correct cocktail of drugs to use for this job was pretty easy, scarily enough.

I snuck out a couple weeks ago and didn’t let Michael find out about it.

Getting out of the house has been crucial to surviving this round of captivity.

When I snuck out two weeks ago, I saw one of the muscle guys for the family drinking at Belladonna’s.

One low cut top and a couple drinks later, he was giving me tips and tricks for drugging anyone.

I guess he does it all the time and when you kill people for a living, the demons sometimes weigh on you in ways that you wouldn’t expect.

I don’t even think Nick remembers what he told me, but I took notes.

Thankfully, I can trust Rachel to be discreet about the number of times I’ve escaped Michael’s clutches to sneak out to the bar.

It’s about picking the right nights when Michael has his guard down and when he isn’t showing up here with Peter. The only other man in the family I trust is Peter. He can keep a secret without snitching to my unreasonable, misogynistic father.

The drugs worked exactly as I planned.

Myra signs her life away after giving me a clear and audible recording stating that she was of sound mind, not under the influence of drugs, and fully consenting to signing the following document…

Then I had her read the title. Getting her the next dose was a little more complicated.

I told Nick I needed the tabs to sell to college kids, but really I needed something that would absorb quickly through the skin.

Nick mixes the specialty compound himself and it works exactly as he promises it will. Within seconds, Myra becomes glassy and even easier to suggest. She signs the document on my phone with a hand-drawn signature and in her drugged haze, she shows some resistance to the ideas.

“I can’t get pregnant, CC. It’s my last day… It’s my last chance… Ever… ”

It’s sad to see her like this. I always liked Myra.

When I was a little girl, I used to have this dumb fantasy that she would be like Maria from The Sound of Music and turn my evil brother into a more docile father figure instead of a brutish monster.

At one point, I thought she really was softening him up.

It was hard to be alone in that house. After tonight, I won’t ever feel alone in Michael’s house again.

I know Flora wouldn’t approve of me going this far, but she’s not here to stop me.

She abandoned me too, even if she would call me “sensitive” for putting it that way.

I’ve always been the “weaker” twin, except right now I feel like a badass because I know I’m going to get away with this. I can feel it.

I get Myra all the way out to my car before I place the second patch on her shoulder, delivering a dose of a heavy sleep aid throughout her body before I “gently guide” her into the trunk. I must have had unholy amounts of adrenaline coursing through me as I got her into the trunk.

I know I’ll have to be a lot more careful with my brother.

Luckily, Michael has a mild alcohol dependence.

He doesn’t question the flask for longer than a second before greedily guzzling enough of my potion to turn him into my human puppet.

I doubt he’ll remember a single thing after leaving Belladonna’s tonight.

He won’t remember stating out loud on a voice recording that he was fully sober and consenting to my contract, just like Myra.

I don’t bother trying to stuff him in the trunk too.

I just get him in the passenger seat and lean the seat all the way back, just in case we stop at a traffic light and run into Uncle Leo or something.

I’m too far into this plan to screw up.

Getting them out of the car and into the bedroom requires using an even more questionable cocktail of drugs.

My heart races as I start my car and turn out of the parking lot, past the point of no return.

I see Peter’s car at the first stoplight, but he’s gazing into his phone and not paying attention to my left turn.

That means he’ll get Michael’s car out of the way and my little jaunt out of the house will remain undetected by my crazy ass dad. I almost have a real drug-induced high from how good it feels to get away with this much of the plan. You’ve done the hard part, CC. Just keep going.

For my entire life the men in my family have tried to control me. Whenever I took the slightest bit of freedom, they put me in my place.

Let’s see how Michael feels having his control stripped away. Myra won’t just be collateral damage either. The contract I wrote ensures my former teacher will spend the rest of her days living like a queen. I’m breathless with excitement as I speed down the highway towards Michael’s lake house.

It’s a couple hours out of town, far enough away to let the first cocktail of drugs work through their system so I can suffuse them with the rest and get what I want with absolute certainty.

My brother and my former nanny are going to have a baby. A niece for me, a daughter for him, and a little new life to bond us all together again.