There was a long silence.
“Emzee, are you saying…” Stefan began.
“Yes,” I said. “I’m pregnant.”
There was another silence.
“That’s…great,” Luka said hesitantly. “Holy shit, sis.”
“Congratulations,” Stefan added.
Their response was about as sober as I had expected. After all, we were essentially in a fight for our livelihoods and possibly our lives, and I had just announced something that could very much be seen as another liability. Even though I knew my brothers wouldn’t think of the baby that way, I knew that they knew the Bratva would. And that was scary.
Luka echoed, “Yeah, congrats. I hope this is happy news?”
“It is,” I assured him. “Ford and I are…talking. Just swear to me you won’t tell your wives. I want to surprise them later. At least I can havethatas an exciting reveal.”
“Of course,” Luka said.
“Sure,” Stefan agreed. “As long as you promise not to tell them what’s going on with the mob. I managed to make up some excuse when Tori asked why some Russian guy showed up at our door, but I don’t want to risk her knowing more than she should.”
“Same,” Luka said. “Brooklyn does not need this kind of stress so late in her pregnancy.”
It seemed to confirm that we were all on the same page as far as what we told the wives, which was nothing.
“I understand,” I said, choosing not to mention that I’d already told Ford everything. “So what are we going to do?”
“I have an idea,” Stefan said. “But I’m not sure either of you are going to like it.”
“If it gets the fucking Russians off our back, I’ll like it a lot,” Luka said with passion.
“Same,” I said.
Stefan let out a long breath. “Okay,” he said. “Our obligation to the Bratva is reliant on them believing our business is still ripe for their use.”
Already I could tell where he was going with this, and even though it made me a little sick, I also knew that it was probably going to be our best option. Especially since I no longer had the leverage I’d been counting on to get the Malones to pay off our debts. Once they found out that Ford and I weren’t getting divorced, and that I was having his baby, the whole deal I’d tried to arrange would be off. This would be our only option.
We were going to have to take it.
Stefan continued, “If we can sell the business and give them the proceeds, it ought to clear us. They can find themselves another patsy. Because they won’t keep coming to us if they know the well is dry. If there’s no money or business in it for them, we aren’t useful anymore.”
There was a long silence as Luka and I absorbed what Stefan was saying.
“Okay. So we sell Danica Rose,” Luka finally said. “I can’t see another way out of this.”
“Yeah. Agree,” I said, pulling Munchkin closer. “But it still fucking sucks.”
Stefan sighed heavily. “I know, but it’s our chance to truly start over. Fuck, I might even recommend those assholes at Elite Image just for the pleasure of turning them in later.”
Luka chuckled at that a little.
“But if we’re really going to do this, we all have to agree that a sale is the only way forward. Even though it means no more family business,” Stefan went on, and I could hear the disappointment and resignation in his voice. As the oldest brother, I was sure he felt like he’d somehow failed Luka and me by not being able to come up with some magical solution.
I felt the disappointment, too. Our father had built KZ Modeling, but after it had crumbled in the wake of the trafficking trial, my brothers and I had banded together and rebuilt the business from the ground up as Danica Rose Management, rebranding the agency and naming it after our late mother. It was the first big thing we’d ever really done as a family, and there was something utterly heartbreaking about knowing that our only option for a normal life, a safe life, was to give up something we’d all worked so hard to make happen.
“No more family business,” I echoed in agreement.
“No more unlimited income,” Luka said, but there was a dry humor to his words.
