Page 46 of Vicious Betrayal

"I understand that."

"With his child. Do you understand that part?"

"Yes." She doesn't look away. "I understand that too."

"And you still want me to⁠—"

"I want you to continue the work you've been doing." Her voice is painfully flat. "You've made some small progress. And this could actually make things much, much easier. For you to get us what we need, that is."

I stare at her, suddenly feeling like I'm several steps behind. "What… how?"

"Oksana." She looks at me like I'm not catching up fast enough. "You're going to tell Cormac you're pregnant. Even if we told you to, I don't think you could hide it. You'd collapse from the strain. And I don't want you to. A man like him, with his standing in that organization—he's going to want to formalize things."

Something in my chest goes very still.

"He'll want to marry you," she says, plainly, just in case I still don't understand. "Which means you'd have access to his life that you don't currently have. You'd move into his home. You'd have much more access to his world. Trust from his associates. As his wife, you'd have even better opportunities than you would as his girlfriend. This might be exactly what you need to finish the job and get your family what they need."

I can't believe I'm actually hearing this. "You want to use my child and make me marry the man I'm supposed to betray."

"I want you to keep your word." Her voice goes cool. "We want Murphy's organization nailed to the wall. But your family will do just as nicely, Oksana—for now, at least. I can promise you that pregnancy in prison is not pleasant. And you won't be allowed to keep your baby after it's born."

My stomach clenches, and for a moment I think I'm going to be violently sick all over her. My hand moves instinctively to my stomach, protective, even though there's nothing to see yet. Nothing to feel except the nausea that's been plaguing me for days.

"You can't—" My voice breaks. "You can't take my baby."

There's something almost like a flash of sympathy on Reyes's face, for just a second. So fast I almost miss it, like the actual human woman inside of her showed through briefly. Then her expression flattens again, going cold. "I won't be doing anything of the sort, Oksana. But the system will. If you're convicted of conspiracy, obstruction, or any number of charges we could bring against you and your family, you'll give birth in a federal facility. The child will be placed in foster care immediately. You won't even get to hold it."

I gasp. I can't help it. The cruelty of her words, especially coming from another woman, is beyond belief. I can't fully fathom that she's actually saying it.

Brennan shifts his weight beside her, arms still crossed. "Unless you finish what you started," he says coldly, as if he can't stand to not be the one talking any longer.

"I didn't start anything." I can't stop the words from coming out. "You made me do this."

"We gave you an opportunity," Reyes says. "You took it. And now you're going to see it through."

My throat is so tight I can barely breathe. I look down at my hands, trembling in my lap. I think about Cormac's face when he looks at me. The way he's started to let me in, bit by bit, past all those walls he keeps up. I think about telling him I'm pregnant, and him wanting to marry me. They might be right about that. Cormac is an honorable man.

But he's also the kind of man who wouldn't want to chain a twenty-year-old girl to a lifetime with him unless he really thought it was what I wanted. Even then, he'd try to tell me it was a mistake, that I'm doing the wrong thing. That I deserve more. I've heard it all already just from trying to sleep with him. Marriage and a child are a thousand times more serious.

I think about standing beside him at an altar and promising to love him and be faithful to him, and knowing it's all a lie.

"I can't do this," I whisper.

"You can." Reyes's voice is firm. "You will. Because the alternative is your mother and father and brother, yourself, in prison, and you losing your child. Is that what you want?"

I close my eyes. The room feels like it's spinning.

Reyes stands, motioning to Brennan. "Think about what I've said. And then go tell Cormac Murphy that you're carrying his baby. Let things work themselves out. We'll be in touch."

Brennan follows her to the door. He pauses and glances back at me. "You're in too deep to back out now, Oksana. The sooner you accept that, the easier this will be."

Then they're gone, and I'm alone at the table. My phone buzzes.

Cormac: I'm sorry I had to cancel. Dinner tonight? I'll make you something good.

I stare at the words until they blur together. And then I get up, hurry down the hall to the nearest guest bathroom, and vomit.

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