Chapter 14 Sienna
SIENNA
My CozyScape villagers were not cooperating. I was trying to build an ice cream empire, but they kept leaving mid-shift to run into the ocean. I wasn’t sure if they were trying to surf or drown themselves, but either way, it was totally annoying.
“How will you upgrade the ice cream machines if you don’t maximize your profits?” I muttered.
A knock at the door made me groan in frustration. I wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone who wasn’t my own creation. I was the god of the CozyScape universe, and my minions had to obey me.
After the second knock, I switched my screen to the hallway’s surveillance camera feed. Huh. I had expected Sofiya and Juliet, but standing next to a seriously put-out Dante was Leona.
“If you don’t open this door in the next thirty seconds, I will strap explosives to it.” Leona’s tinny voice came through my laptop speakers.
“What the fuck? You can’t say shit like that. I’m her bodyguard,” Dante snapped.
Leona’s lip curled. “Wow. I am shaking. What a threat.”
I instructed my villagers to have recreational time, my eyes narrowed in warning. “Don’t get used to this. Tomorrow it’s back to work for all of you.”
I was still scowling when I threw my apartment door open.
“About time.” Leona pushed past me and stomped inside.
I glared at Dante. “I said no visitors.”
He held up his hands. “You try and stop her.”
“Some guard you are.” I slammed the door in his face.
After a slow breath, I opened it. “Sorry for being rude. But you owe me one.” I shook a stern finger at him, and he had the audacity to smile as he pulled a small box out of his pocket.
He opened it to reveal one of Sofiya’s strawberry cupcakes.
I snatched the box from his hands and took a huge bite.
“This is a good start.”
I shut the door again and faced my intruder. The assassin lounged on my couch in a barely there black dress and killer high heels.
“Who ratted me out?” My words were muffled by the cupcake, but it didn’t stop me from taking another bite. It was so freaking good. Fresh strawberry filling topped with a mascarpone frosting. Sofiya was a genius.
“Sofiya called me.”
And a fucking traitor.
I shoved Leona’s feet off my couch and sat down beside her. “This is all your fault, by the way. You’re the one who told me to get laid in Paris and sent me to that club.”
“I know, and I’ve been feeling endlessly guilty about it.”
I rolled my eyes and Leona burst out laughing. “Okay, fine. I don’t feel guilty at all. But I am here to save the day, starting with taking you out.”
I pointedly looked down at my outfit—PJ shorts covered with ice cream cone illustrations paired with a baggy NYU sweatshirt.
“If only you had a closet filled with clothes,” Leona lamented. “Oh, wait.” She hopped off the couch and headed to my room, her dress barely covering her ass.
I gazed longingly at my laptop before reluctantly getting up to follow her. She was already laying out dress options on my unmade bed. She gave me a discerning once-over before lifting up my sweatshirt.
“What are you—”
“Just seeing if you’re showing. Put this one on.”
It was a tiny silver dress covered in rows of sparkly beads and gemstones. The skirt was just as short as the one Leona was wearing and, if I remembered correctly from when I tried it on a few months ago, the bust pushed up my tits, giving me pretty exceptional cleavage.
I remembered trying it on at Fifth and Quartz before I went to Paris and feeling so sexy in the dressing room. Now I just felt like a tired, frumpy mess.
“I really am not in the mood to go out.”
“Well, too bad. You’re pregnant, not dead.” Leona pushed the dress into my hands and nudged me towards the bathroom. It was only the flash of hurt in her face, which she tried to hide, that made me follow her orders.
Leona was leaning against the wall when I emerged from the bathroom. I tossed my sweats in the general direction of the laundry basket and leaned against the wall beside her, our shoulders brushing.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.”
Her lips twisted, but she stared straight ahead. “Why didn’t you?”
I rested my head back on the wall and closed my eyes. “I’ve mostly just been hiding from...I don’t know. The world, I guess. I wanted to tell you, but that would mean facing it.”
She took my hand and gave it a hard squeeze. “I know I’m not always great with feelings and shit, but I’m always on your side.”
I nodded. “I know. I’m so lucky to have you.”
She tugged me away from the wall. “Yeah, you are. Now I’m going to fix your hair and makeup. You look like a disaster.” As she dragged me back to the bathroom, she added, “Also, I did tell you to buy condoms.”
“I swear to god,” I muttered. “I fucking did! We used them every time.”
She met my gaze in the mirror with her signature smirk.
“Where are we?” I asked, voice low as I followed Leona down a creepy dark hallway.
Dante muttered something under his breath, his body lined with tension. He’d protested us going out, but it was almost impossible to win an argument against Leona, so here we were.
The instigator in question glanced over her shoulder, winking as she pulled open a heavy metal door, revealing…
“What the—”
I blinked as I took in the moody bar that looked more like an old gothic library. Dark wooden shelves with old leather-bound tomes lined the walls, notes of cedar and citrus hung in the air, and patrons lounged on the plush leather and velvet seats or lingered by the old-fashioned bar.
Leona led us through the room, stopping at a secluded table with a small reserved sigh.
“Is this a speakeasy?” I asked.
“Yes, it’s Manhattan’s newest and most exclusive bar.” Leona lowered herself gracefully into a blood-red velvet chair that matched her hair cascading out of her high ponytail. She patted the seat beside her, and I sank down.
Dante scanned the room before turning back to me. “You good?”
“Yeah, thank you.”
He leveled a nasty scowl at Leona before stepping back into the shadows, where he could watch while giving me at least a tiny bit of privacy.
“I think I’m growing on him,” Leona said.
I shook my head with a grin. Now that we had an official alliance with Ronan and the Irish Mob, I’d told Dante that everyone needed to stop being so antagonistic to Leona.
He’d spluttered and said she was the antagonistic one and that our soldiers not wanting to be around her had nothing to do with her Irish allegiance and everything to do with how intimidating she was.
Well, he didn’t say intimidating, but that’s basically what he meant.
“I’m not sure taking me to some secret bar in a shitty part of town is the way to win him over.”
Leona trailed her finger across her diamond choker. “The men feel lost if they don’t have something to complain about.”
I snorted. “So you’re helping them?”
She held out the drink menu. I pursed my lips and gave my stomach a pointed look. With a roll of her eyes, she tapped the drinks at the bottom of the menu.
“They have mocktails.”
After we ordered, I sat back in my chair, two seconds away from closing my eyes for a nap.
“I am surprised this is where you took me. I was expecting something…I don’t know, louder.
” In our college days, we had been regulars at the city’s hottest dance clubs.
We’d been wild and fearless, flanked by bodyguards even though Leona could easily take care of both of us.
Those nights were hot, sweaty, alcohol-soaked blurs, and I knew they would forever be a highlight of my twenties.
“Thought I’d take it easy on you in your delicate state.”
I stuck my tongue out at her and she winked.
“Besides, I needed to scout out this place. I have a feeling it will come in handy in the future.”
I hummed. Leona was Ronan Finnegan’s right hand, his top assassin and spy. She was fully capable of taking care of herself, but I still worried about her.
I thanked the server when she dropped off our drinks. Mine was a passionfruit concoction with a bright umbrella.
“So…” Leona took a long sip of her cocktail, buying me a few extra seconds. “Are we going to talk about it?”
I shrugged. “There’s not much to say. I went to see Aria two days ago. She did an ultrasound.” I’d told Dante I needed to see our family doctor for something to help with period cramps. He had asked no further questions.
“Yeah?”
I glanced around before pulling out my phone and pulling up the ultrasound photos.
Leona stared intently at the screen, a slow smile spreading across her face. “Look at that weird little blob.”
I’d memorized every black and white line of my blob. “I’m eight weeks. Baby is the size of a raspberry.”
She handed my phone back and I tucked it into my purse.
“What did Aria say?”
“We went through my options. She said if I decide to keep it, I need to stop the energy drinks and cut my caffeine intake a lot. And I should consider going off my Adderall, at least for the beginning weeks.”
Leona arched an eyebrow. “No energy drinks or Adderall? Your worst nightmare.”
“Yeah, it has been.”
That was enough to make both of her eyebrows shoot up. “You stopped both of them? No more energy drinks?”
My cheeks heated, and I stared at the pink and yellow drink umbrella.
“Wow. I mean…that sounds like you’ve decided,” she said gently.
“Not necessarily,” I mumbled.
“Sienna, Aria has been begging you to give up the energy drinks for as long as I’ve known you.”
I leaned back in my chair. “Maybe it was just the right time.”
Leona wrapped her arm around my shoulders. “Do you want to have this baby?”
“It’s a stupid idea.” I twirled the festive umbrella, creating a small whirlpool in my drink. “It could threaten Matteo’s authority as Don. And what do I even know about being a mom?”
“You have a great example to follow.”
I swallowed the hard lump in my throat and nodded. That was true. My mamma had been the best.
“And it’s not like you’ll be alone. Your baby will have the world’s best godmother.” She tossed her ponytail over her shoulder. “I’ll teach her to destroy all her enemies, which is basically the most important thing she needs to know.”
I snorted. “You don’t know it’s a girl.”
“It’s called manifesting. There are enough boys in the world.”
She didn’t push me when I fell silent, letting me sit with my racing thoughts as they flitted through my mind too quickly to comprehend.
The drink was tasteless as I gulped the rest of it down. I didn’t realize I was continuously rattling the ice in my glass until Leona placed her hand on mine.
“Am I being an idiot about this?” I looked around to make sure no one could hear me before continuing. “I don’t have a problem with abortion, but...”
“But?”
I pressed my lips together. “But I feel weirdly attached to little Raspberry.”
“Thank god you have months to figure out a better name.”
I flipped her off, but warmth suffused my body at Leona’s easy acceptance. Could I really do this? Choose what I wanted instead of what was best for the Family?
The Mafia had given me so much, but it had come at a cost. I’d lost my parents.
My relationship with my brother had been forever changed.
I couldn’t move around the world freely, at least without bodyguards or constant concern for my safety.
Besides my short-lived Paris rebellion and my secret hacking, I’d complied.
Followed the rules. Stayed in my apartment. Didn’t cause trouble.
After all these years, I’d finally found a sacrifice I was unwilling to make.
I wanted this baby.
The tightness in my chest that had been my constant companion since that day in the dressing room bathroom eased as I finally made my decision.
“We’re doing this?” Leona asked.
My cheeks split into my first real smile in weeks. “Yeah. We’re doing this.”