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“A neighbor I babysit for.” The lie slips free before I can stop it.
The soldier clears his throat, and my heart plummets to my stomach. “We found something else when we searched the house.”
“What?”
“There’s a nursery down the hall and ultrasound photos on the fridge.”
Dad examines the outfit before his eyes take in other baby items he overlooked when he first arrived. Like the baby blanket draped across the couch and the tummy mat rolled up beside the coffee table. Realization dawns on him. His jaw tightens as he studies me with cold and calculating eyes.
“You had a baby.” There’s no question in his words because there doesn’t need to be one. The truth is obvious and clear as day.
Dad’s face twists in anger, his eyes burning with restrained fury I’ve seen one too many times. And the first was when I snuck downstairs as a child and witnessed my dad kill a man for the first time.
“Get me Connor,” Dad demands.
“Connor’s here?” I ask foolishly. Of course, he’s here. He’s Dad’s right-hand man. Where Dad goes, Connor goes.
Seconds later, my brother-in-law walks in, and if he’s surprised to see me, he doesn’t show it. I think I see a flicker of concern when his eyes land on me, but it must have been a trick of the light because his eyes are vacant of emotion a moment later.
“Yes, Boss?”
“I need you to get Jose on the phone immediately.”
“What would you like me to tell him it’s about?”
Dad looks at me once more and smiles. The sight fills me with dread because there isn’t an ounce of love or affection in it. Something in his expression tells me the wedding to Igor is no longer on the table, and it’s been replaced by something far more sinister. “Tell him I have a girl to add to the roster.”
What the fuck?
Connor straightens his back in surprise at the news, his eyes widening a fraction. “Sir?” He sounds confused.
“Is that a fucking problem, Connor?” Dad asks, venom lacing his words.
“No, sir.” He nods, pulls his phone out, and steps outside. All without looking at me again.
Again, what the fuck?
Dad spins on his heel to face me. “Igor will not marry a slut for a bride, especially one who got herself knocked up. He wanted a virgin bride.”
I snort. “Really? A virgin? I haven’t been a virgin in quite some time. If you promised Igor that, he would have been wildly disappointed on our wedding night.”
Dad’s face grows dangerously red, bordering on purple, as he processes the news. “What?”
“I said I wasn’t a virgin when I came back to Miami.”
“That son of a bitch brother of mine,” Dad growls. “He was supposed to ensure your innocence.”
“Well, it’s a good thing he didn’t,” I snap. “Uncle James didn’t care who I fucked because he wasn’t going to sell me off like some virgin cow at slaughter.”
A guard walks in, and Dad looks at him. “Sir, the child is nowhere to be found in the house.”
I fight hard to keep a straight face as Dad turns his hard gaze back on me. “Where is it?”
“I’ll never tell you.”
Dad’s nostrils flare at my resistance. “With the father, perhaps?”
“Can’t say I know who that is.”
