Chapter 5 #4
I could lie. I could keep the secret I've been carrying for eight weeks, let him believe the same story I've been telling myself. But the weight of it is crushing me, and if I'm going to face Ilona, I need someone to know the truth first.
Even if that truth makes Drake look at me differently.
"I need to tell you something." I take a breath that shakes more than I'd like, my chest tight with the confession building behind my ribs. "And you're not going to like it."
Drake's expression shifts, sharpening into the focused attention of a man who's survived countless crises. He sets his glass on a nearby shelf and angles his body toward mine, blocking us from the rest of the party. "Talk to me."
"Remember that jungle beauty I told you about? The one from Scarlet Thorn?"
"The one you think is a goddess? The one you can't get out of your head, even though you only spent one night with her. Yeah, I recall."
"Her name is Ilona Marchetti." I hold his gaze, letting him see the weight of what I'm about to confess. He takes in the name and his expression turns from amused to calculating. "And I knew exactly who she was before I ever approached her."
Drake goes very still. "Explain."
"I've been building intelligence files on Enzo Marchetti, right?”
“Yes.”
“His territory, his connections, his vulnerabilities blah blah blah, right?" The words taste like ash, but I force them out anyway.
“I’m seeing where you are going with this.”
Although I already told Kon all this, Drake needs to hear it, too. And eventually Rafael. But one brick wall at a time.
“I’m counting on it, but let me finish. Eight weeks ago, I spotted his daughter at Scarlet Thorn. I recognized her from the surveillance photos. And I saw an opportunity."
"An opportunity." Drake's voice flatlines.
"I recognized her and made my move. Seduced her with intent.
" The words land like a blade, and I let them cut because he's earned the right.
"I was going to date her, get close to her, use that relationship as leverage against her father.
Or as a way into his inner circle. I hadn't decided which yet.
" I swallow hard. "It was my play. I didn't bring it to you or the brothers because I knew you'd shut it down. "
The silence that follows is suffocating.
Drake's jaw tightens, a muscle jumping beneath the skin. His gray eyes have gone cold, the warmth of moments ago replaced by something harder. Disappointment. Maybe disgust.
"You went rogue." It's not a question. "You used Syndicate intelligence for an unsanctioned operation, and you targeted an innocent woman as a pawn in her father's games."
Fuck me, but that hurts. "Yes."
"And then?"
"And then my entire plan upended and somewhere between the first kiss and morning, I stopped pretending. It became real. All of it." The confession scrapes out of me, raw and bleeding.
Drake says nothing. His expression reveals nothing.
"I let her go." I shake my head, the motion heavy with regret.
"She slipped out before dawn, and I told myself it was better that way.
Better for her to remember one perfect night with a stranger than to find out the truth about what I'd planned.
I've spent eight weeks knowing exactly where she is and telling myself the operation takes priority over whatever the hell is happening in my chest."
"And now Katriana wants you to hire her."
“You heard?”
“I did.”
Thank god I didn’t have to go over all that shit again. "And now she's pregnant.”
“How do you know?”
Drake’s brows furrow with confusion.
I fill him in on Katriana passing my number, the pictures I just received and the mindblowing caption. I keep my phone tucked away because there’s no way in hell I’m showing the pictures to anyone.
“The number Katriana gave her for the interview is mine, but she doesn't know that. Doesn't know any of it."
Drake processes this in silence, his thumb tracing the rim of his abandoned glass. The party swirls around us, oblivious to the way my entire world has just tilted on its axis.
"So the woman you targeted, seduced, and planned to use as leverage against her father is now pregnant with your child and about to walk into your office looking for a job." His voice is carefully neutral. "That's what you're telling me."
"That's what I'm telling you."
Another long pause. Then he asks quietly, "And are you going to use this information to leverage her?"
The question hits like a knife between the ribs because it's exactly what I deserve. Leverage was the whole fucking point. That was my plan from the beginning.
"No." The word comes out sharp enough to cut. "I'm done with that. I'm going to give her a job, give her protection from whatever her asshole father has planned, and figure out how to become the kind of man who deserves her and our baby before she ever learns what kind of man I am."
Drake studies my face for a long moment, searching for something. Sincerity, maybe. Or evidence that I'm still the manipulative bastard who started this whole mess.
"So what's your play?"
I stare out the window at the city lights, my reflection a ghost superimposed over Chicago's glittering skyline. "I let her come to the interview. I let her see me. And I watch how she reacts when she realizes her one-night stand is about to become her boss."
"And if she gets nervous and walks out?"
I shrug. "Then I follow." The words come out edged with a possessiveness I don't bother to temper. "She's carrying my child, Drake. Whether she wants anything to do with me or not, I'm not letting her disappear again. Not this time."
“The only thing you have going for you is that she has no idea what you planned or what we have planned for her father. But…”
“But what?”
Drake is quiet for a moment. Then his hand lands on my shoulder, heavy with something more complicated than simple brotherhood. Understanding, maybe. Or the weight of holding a secret he didn't ask for.
"This is going to blow up in your face. You understand that, right? When she finds out what you originally intended..."
"I know that too." I set my empty glass on a nearby shelf, the crystal thudding lightly against wood. "But right now, she's running from her father. She's pregnant and alone and scared. And whatever I deserve, whatever reckoning is coming for me, she deserves protection first."
Drake holds my gaze for a long moment. "You should have come to us," he says. "Before any of this. We would have found another way to handle Marchetti."
"I know."
"Be careful, brother. The Marchetti family isn't something to take lightly. If her father finds out you're the one who got his daughter pregnant and she's here..."
"Then he and I will have a conversation." I straighten my shoulders, feeling the weight of what's coming settle into my bones. "I'll burn this entire city to the ground before I let anyone, including her father, take her from me."
Drake's smile is small but genuine, crinkling the corners of his eyes. "Now you sound like one of us." He pauses, then adds quietly, "Just make sure you tell her the truth before someone else does. Secrets like this have a way of detonating at the worst possible moment. Mark my words."
I watch him walk away, returning to Katriana's side with the kind of gravitational pull that defines their relationship. She tucks herself against him immediately, her hand finding his, their bodies fitting together like puzzle pieces designed for each other.
Then I pull out my phone one more time and stare at the image that has rearranged everything I thought I knew about my future.
Ilona Marchetti. My jungle flower. Pregnant with my child.
Monday morning, she'll walk into Redthorne Holdings expecting to meet a stranger.
Monday, I start making amends for sins she doesn't even know I committed.
I pocket my phone and head for the elevator, already planning my next move. The doors close behind me with a soft hiss, sealing me in with my racing thoughts. By the time the elevator reaches the ground floor, the shock has crystallized into something far more dangerous.
Purpose. And the stubborn, possibly delusional belief that I can become the man she deserves before she finds out what I really am.