Chapter 7 #2
“What?” he snarled before tapping the rim of my plate. “Hurry up and eat, you get nauseous when you don’t and I’m not cleaning up your vomit.”
I shrank in my seat.
“You might want to calm down, boss, I wouldn’t want you to take me anywhere acting like that,” Benji laughed before looking at me. “Isn’t that right, Munequita?”
Clearing my throat, I grabbed my phone. It would have been quicker to sign, but Vinny never attended the ASL lessons he paid for, and I didn’t want Benji to translate.
I typed out a quick Actually, I called my brother, he’s taking me.
Then I turned the screen toward them.
Benji’s eyebrows shot up. “Ah, shit.”
At first, Vinny didn’t react, he just stared at the screen as if I’d presented him with hieroglyphics. Then, slowly, his gaze slid to me.
“…Your brother,” he said flatly.
I nodded.
“Is taking you,” he continued, the words coming out as slow as molasses. “to your appointment.”
Another nod.
Benji elbowed him lightly. “I told you you were smothering her, boss.”
“Benji,” Vinny growled without looking away from me, “shut the fuck up.”
I typed again: He said he’d pick me up from the porch. I told him not to come inside.
Benji choked on a laugh. “Smart. He would’ve walked in and Vinny would’ve—”
Vinny held up a hand to silence him. Then he leaned forward, elbows on his knees, staring me down like I’d attempted to murder him
“Violet,” he sang my name, but it did little to conceal his irritation, “why would you call him instead of me?”
Because you terrify me, because I don’t trust male alphas, because you don’t like me, you just want to own me.
Because I didn’t want him in the room when the doctor inevitably told me I was losing the baby. I’d been through that enough with Logan, and even if the child wasn’t something I’d wanted, the loss always stung.
If Serena would have offered to come, I would have said yes, but she and Skye were out with one of Serena’s friends and shopping for Skye’s baby.
Saying any of that wouldn’t have helped, so I typed: I didn’t think you’d want to come.
“You didn’t think I’d want to be there? For my own fucking kid?” he scoffed, gesturing sharply toward my stomach. “Violet, I didn’t even know you had a brother.”
“She has a twin,” Benji supplied unhelpfully as he stole a triangle of my toast. “Reed. He’s an alpha.”
Vinny’s eyes flicked between me and my beta.
Benji shrugged. “What? I listen to her.”
Vinny threw his hands up. “Oh my God. That’s what’s fucking wrong with her.”
I blinked.
“Vinny,” Benji warned.
“No–no. This makes sense,” Vinny muttered, pacing a slow, murderous circle behind my chair. “That’s why you’re so fucking stubborn. You shared a womb with an alpha.”
I instinctively curled my arms around my stomach.
Vinny groaned into his hands. “Tell Reed not to come.”
My spine stiffened.
I typed: No.
Vinny froze and Benji choked on my toast.
Vinny lowered his hands and bent over, coming nose to nose with me.
“What,” he said quietly, “did you just type to me?”
I tilted the screen toward him, making sure he saw my no.
Vinny inhaled slowly.
“Violet,” he said, his words verberating around the dining room. “I don’t like repeating myself.”
I typed faster: You’re not my alpha. You don’t get to decide.
Serena was my alpha, Vinny just so happened to be the one who got me pregnant.
Benji made a sound somewhere between a gasp and a delighted wheeze.
“Munequita,” he whispered, “you’re gonna give him an aneurysm.”
Vinny’s body went rigid.
“Violet,” he said again, I could tell he was trying, and failing, to keep his cool. “I am going to that appointment.”
No. I showed him my phone again.
“You really think,” he growled, “I’m gonna let some random alpha show up here and take you somewhere alone when you’re pregnant with my kid?”
I lifted the phone. He’s not random. He’s my brother.
If anything, Vinny was the random alpha.
“I swear to fucking God, Violet,” he growled. “If you don’t call your brother and tell him not to come, I’m breaking that fucking phone.”
My heart thudded once and for a second the dining room blurred like I’d fallen back into my nightmare.
That wasn’t real, and Vinny wasn’t Logan. One bad alpha was worth a good pack, at least, that’s what I told myself.
My fingers tightened around my phone as Vinny somehow leaned in closer. The smell of coffee and cinnamon flooded my nose, and while my instincts told me to climb that man like a tree, my pride kept me rational.
“You are pregnant,” he bit out, “with my child. You don’t go anywhere without me.”
My fingers shook as I typed: You don’t own me.
Benji choked on air. “Munequita, maybe tone it down—”
Vinny pressed a finger to his lips.
“Say that again,” he rasped. “I fucking dare you.”
I held the phone up so he could read my message loud and clear. You don’t own me.
Vinny’s hazel eyes bounced around the phone as his tongue pressed against his cheek. After a beat, he straightened his back, smoothed his shirt, and plucked the phone from my hand.
He tapped the phone against his palm once twice then tucked it into his back pocket.
“Okay,” he said softly. “I’m not paying for a phone for you to undermine me with it.”
I used sign language to call him poor.
He looked to Benji for a translation. Benji’s scruffy blond hair swayed as he shook his head no and Vinny patted him twice on the shoulder.
“So, I’m gonna take it that you insulted me, which is fine.” Vinny stopped to roll his eyes, and I sank further back in my chair. “Will your brother be here soon?”
I nodded.
For a second, it looked like Vinny was going to snap at me, then his forehead creased.
“Good,” he shrugged, sounding far too calm. “You can go with him.”
I cocked my head, because I was going with Reed no matter what Vinny said.
“But, I need you to understand something,” he continued. “This conversation isn’t finished. Not even close.”
My stomach clenched and I nodded.
“Get dressed, but make sure you take your bunny. She calms you down and doctors can be stressful.”
Vinny scooted my chair out for me, but the second I tried to stand, he pushed me back down.
“But when you get back,” he murmured, “you and I are going to talk, just us, and you’re going to tell me why you really didn’t want me there.”
My mouth went dry, but I thought that was something I could manage. Afterall, knowing my luck, I wouldn’t be pregnant much longer.