Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Daria
We’ve been married for nine days. Nine hard but blissful days. Patrick has been amazing. He’s extremely loving and supportive.
I’m working today, and he’s in meetings all day because his other aunt has finally made it to Vegas.
Jordon had to drive out and meet up with her and her escort to help them lose a tail they had.
Patrick is hoping that by this evening he’ll know who the lynchpin in all this war talk is.
He wanted to make his aunt feel comfortable, so they’re questioning her on neutral ground, somewhere her husband, Broderick, won’t look.
She’s at Lyric and Aleksei’s house with Andrei and Uncle Barone. His oldest son, Riccardo, is with him.
The hard part has been keeping our marriage a secret from my family, and now it feels like us getting married when we did was perfect timing.
I’ve been struggling over the last few days.
I’m sure I’m pregnant. Patrick and I talked about it this morning.
We decided to take a pregnancy test tomorrow morning to confirm.
Today, out of nowhere, Mr. March called and set up a solo reservation, throwing me off because it’s two days before the Christmas holiday.
I don’t normally have any whales this close to Christmas and usually spend the time prepping for New Year’s reservations.
So I’m rushing around, trying to get everything arranged.
My assistants are getting his suite perfected. He only gave me an hour’s notice.
Alek wanted me to tell him that because he didn’t plan early enough, he’ll have to settle for standard service. But I don’t believe in giving subpar service.
“Hello, Mr. March,” I greet him as he steps into the grand entrance.
I had to have Hayes run an errand for me, so it’s just me.
Mr. March grips my arm tightly and drags me to the elevator. I try to break free from his hold, but he won’t give. I look up at the cameras, hoping someone will see me and send help. As soon as the doors open, he shoves me inside. The doors close as security rushes to help.
“Is there a problem?”
He swings his hand out and backhands me so hard I hit the wall beside me.
“Is it true? Did you give that fucking Mick your virginity? It was supposed to be mine. Now, I’ve had to buy used good.” He swings at me again, and I shield my stomach, taking the punch to my back.
When the doors open, there’s a gun aimed at his face, and Hayes is standing there. He shoots him in the knee as more security arrive. Mr. March falls to the floor, and Sloane steps in to lift him over his shoulder. Hayes reaches out a hand to me.
I hobble over to him, and he takes one look at my face and arm before he notices me holding my back.
“Paddy is going to kill him.”
“He’s too rich. He could make things bad.”
“He touched you, and this time Paddy will handle it.”
Security shows Hayes and Sloane to the back of the house elevator, and we head up to the security floor. I move slowly, worried about the baby and what’s going to happen.
We get off and head for my office. Mr. March is blubbering about being shot, and tech security is scrubbing the footage showing Hayes shooting him. Most of the people who work on this floor know the importance of privacy and the people we’re all involved with.
I sit down in my chair and open the drawer to find my mirror. I need to see the damage he did to my face when he hit me, but my back starts spasming and hurting. Tears are on the verge of flowing.
“Bitch led me on. She said she was mine, and then she cheated on me,” Mr. March is barking now. “I’m extremely rich. I’ll pay you off, and you can forget all about this. I’ll go away and never come back.” He keeps trying to get out of his fate, but it’s going to be bad.
I limp to my private bathroom and lift my lacy mocha blouse to see the damage in the full-length mirror. I’m already bruising and worried about the baby I’m possibly carrying. As I reach for my phone to call my doctor, I hear the explosion of Patrick’s voice.
“Where is she? Where is my wife?” The bathroom door is thrown open, and he sees the bruising. “Ah fuck, sweets.” I look up to see tears in his eyes. He’s worried too. “Call a doctor. Now,” he orders Hayes, who peeks in and sees the bruising.
My brother is rushing into the room now.
“Did you say your wife?” he yells and starts to go for Patrick, but Sloane holds him back.
Alek’s eyes move over my body, and he sees where Patrick’s hand is on my lower belly and the bruising in back.
In the blink of an eye, my brother is fighting Sloane, and in the next, Sloane is on the ground and Alek has a gun at Mr. March’s head.
“I should kill you. You knew the rules. I warned you, but it will be his revenge.” He nods toward Patrick.
Bratva soldiers come into the office, and Andrei is standing there now. He takes in everything and looks to his men.
“Take him to the warehouse.” Andrei touches Alek’s arm. “Aleksei, it’s her husband’s right. Plus, you don’t want this on the property. Gray wouldn’t want that, even though he would kill him too.”
Mr. March starts babbling, trying to talk his way out of his death.
“I didn’t know she was pregnant. I didn’t know she was married to him.”
“He said he purchased me,” I sob in Patrick’s arms. His body is vibrating from his anger.
“He what?” Patrick and the rest of my family, as well as the men with them, all stop and turn from me to Mr. March. “Hayes.”
Hayes moves toward March as more people crowd my office.
“It’s Broderick. That’s what I was getting ready to tell you. He did this.” A woman waves her arm around to all of us. “He won’t allow you to have a child or lead any longer. He killed them all,” the beautiful light strawberry-blonde says. I’m assuming this is Patrick’s aunt.
“Killed who?” Andrei asks.
“First it was leading Jimmy down the path to kill Sokolov and Belyaev. Then it was Rowanne.” She pauses before sitting down on a sofa.
Patrick’s other aunt, Morrigan, sits with her and wraps her arms around her.
“He was so mad that Patrick wouldn’t allow him to marry you.
” She points to Morrigan. “But he allowed Jimmy to have you. He set up the plan for Patrick to meet him at the restaurant. When he and Jimmy shot up the car, they didn’t realize Patrick hadn’t taken his personal car.
He said when he opened the back door, Rowanne was lying across the seat, her sightless eyes looking at him and her brains splattered all over the interior. ”
A sob breaks free from her. “He told me for years I was going to die the same way if I ever told on him. He sent me to the hospital in New Mexico, where I was kept drugged for so many years. I finally started cooperating, and a new director started, so I wasn’t given medications any longer.
I started remembering, and I’ve been praying you’d come for me. ”
She looks up at my husband. “After he finally had your father killed, he thought he could manipulate you. I guess you grew into your own.” She shifts her gaze to me. “Broderick must have found out about you. Patrick said he was trying to keep your relationship quiet.”
“A man approached me online,” March adds in. “Said I could have her. Said she was available to purchase, that I could acquire her myself. I just had to get her out of Las Vegas by tonight.”
“What’s the plan for tonight?” Andrei asks the room, and it’s Harry who speaks up.
“He told us to be prepared.” Harry uses two fingers to pull his gun out and hand it to Sloane. “I’ve been listening to him, but I don’t tell him anything about the mistress. I didn’t tell him about the marriage. Someone else told him that. I didn’t know about the baby.”
“We don’t know if she is pregnant, but we suspect. It’s why we got married right away,” Patrick says as he explains to my brother. “You told me to marry her before I got her pregnant. I assumed that was your consent. I married her nine days ago.”
“I should shoot you or beat the shit out of you, but I get it,” Alek says. “I did the same thing with Lyric. I just ask, did you tell her you love her before you married her? And we’ll be throwing a big wedding for her so her mamma can be a part of it.”
“A priest married us, but I will consent to another bigger wedding if that’s what she wants. I told her I loved her when I proposed.”
“Good.”
“Paddy, I have a private doctor waiting at the house to check on Daria.”
Patrick pulls away from me and looks at me. “I have to stay here and deal with him.” He points to March. “I want you checked out, sweets. Please go with Hayes and Sloane.” Patrick pauses again and looks at Harry. “Then I’ll deal with him.”
I feel a bit betrayed that Harry was working with Broderick. But the fact that he volunteered the information and gave up his weapons shows he’s trying to cooperate.
I look up at Patrick. “I want to know if the baby is okay, and if there really is a baby in there. I’m in a bit of pain too.”
“I’ll make his death painful, my love.”
I lean up, and he leans down until our lips touch. He kisses me gently but thoroughly.
When he pulls away and squeezes my hand, I tell him I love him. Then I turn to Hayes, who walks with me as I slowly walk from the room.
My brother stops me. “I love you. You made a good choice.” He kisses my forehead.
When we’re in the elevator, Hayes turns on Sloane with his gun in hand, and places it under his chin. “If you betray us, I’ll kill you myself.”
“I didn’t know he was working with Broderick. He tried to talk to me about the direction Paddy was taking the family, but I always said I supported the head of the family.”
“Good.” Hayes puts his gun back in his chest holster, and the elevator doors slide open to the garage.
Hayes looks at the SUV we came here in and moves past it to the next one. He opens a door to help me into the back while Sloane gets in the driver’s seat.