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16
Bain
Sweat trickleddown my back as I listened to the report from the man who had been watching over Ciana all day. Because of all the cameras inside the medical center, he and three other men had been stationed outside and across the street, watching everyone who came and went from the facility.
Until Darcy had called with her daily check-in on Ciana, I’d had no idea someone had sent my woman flowers. Neither had my men. After I’d gotten off the phone with the NP, I’d sent my people on a quest to find me answers. The flowers had come from a shop twenty blocks from New Hope, but they were closed by the time the men arrived.
One of my men was a skilled hacker and easily found the order receipt.
Jealousy was gnawing at me, making it impossible to think past the death of whoever had dared even to look Ciana’s way, let alone send her fucking flowers. That the sender had claimed to be the one who loved her most only made me sweat more. The guy was a dead man.
“The bodyguard?” I growled when my man finished his report.
“Ralph—”
“I know who he is,” I snapped. “Why isn’t he dead already?”
“The guys we had watching the house as Conor instructed must have missed him leaving,” Brody hurriedly explained. “There has been a new guard with her this week when she went to work. No one thought anything about it until she received the flowers.”
“Find out where that fucker Ralph is. When you find him, you know where to take him.” Hanging up, I went through the pictures Darcy sent me after our earlier conversation. I hadn’t had a chance to look at them yet because I’d been focused on finding out who had sent Ciana the flowers.
There were a few random pictures caught while Ciana was working, but what really grabbed my attention was the ultrasound picture at the end. Darcy had written on it with a silver Sharpie, circling three little spots and labeling them Baby A, Baby B, and Baby C.
The air felt as if it was being forced from my lungs, and I stumbled to the sofa where I dropped like dead weight onto the cushions. Three babies? That was… Fuck. Emotions tried to overwhelm me. I’d only planned for one baby, not three, but I couldn’t say I was disappointed. The more to tie Ciana to me, the better.
But I also knew she must have been scared out of her mind. During our time together on the island, she’d confessed to me that she was terrified of having more than one baby at a time. Because her mother was a twin herself and had a history of birthing twins, the possibility had always existed that Ciana or her sister would end up having twins of their own.
She hadn’t mentioned her pregnancy when we’d spoken earlier, but I knew she wouldn’t. Ciana was still too angry with me and, no doubt, still digesting all these surprises. I wished she would share everything with me, but I had to be patient. As quickly as we’d come together in the past, now I had to take things considerably slower to win her back.
The waiting might kill me, but I would withstand the torture if it meant having her willingly with me once again.
I sat there staring at the ultrasound picture long into the night. I was still in the same spot as the sun came up, and I finally texted the NP with all the questions running through my head. Was Ciana okay? Would this put her at risk? Were the babies healthy? What special care would they all need?
I had a hundred more questions I needed answers to, but those were the most pressing. Thankfully, Ciana’s boss was one of the most experienced ob-gyns in the country, so I knew she would be in good hands with the doctor. That didn’t mean there couldn’t be complications, however.
Fuck. I had to make plans, ensure that all bases were covered so that Ciana and the babies were safe. Not only from complications that might arise in the pregnancy, but from those who would harm them all. I couldn’t let Sheena’s vendetta against the Vitucci family touch the four most important people in my life.
That evening,Darcy sent me her usual report, including the pictures that were my only way of seeing Ciana for the moment. With the pictures was one of another bouquet of flowers.
This time, they were pink camellias, and according to the picture Darcy sent of the message on the card with the flowers, they expressed longing for the recipient. At the bottom of the card was a personalized message.
I have waited for the day we could be together.
Our time draws nearer with each passing hour, my Ciana.
Soon.
“Soon, you will be dead, motherfucker,” I snarled at the picture. Hitting connect on the most recent contact in my call list, I waited impatiently for Brody to answer. “Tell me you found him.”
“We’re on it, boss,” Brody rushed to assure me. “Our hacker has his location narrowed down, but he isn’t currently in the country.”
“Then where the fuck is he?” I demanded.
“Canada,” he muttered hesitantly.
Clenching my hand around my phone, I bit back a curse. “Drag his ass back here.”
“That might not be so easy, boss. We’ve been going through his personal emails, and with the information the hacker got from that, he dug into the guard’s finances. It took some work, but—”
“Spit it out!” I yelled into the receiver, fed up.
“Sheena has been in constant contact with the guard for the past year, and according to his financials, has been regularly depositing money into his account from her personal funds.” He spoke so fast that the words were jumbled together, but I still understood him.
“Ralph was her inside man,” I muttered to myself. I should have known she had every base covered, but I hadn’t figured she would have someone quite that close to Ciana. But if Sheena had suspected the guard’s feelings for Ciana, then she would have been able to easily use him for her own gain, no doubt promising the man he could have Ciana when it was all over.
But that didn’t mean shit in the long run. None of it did. Because I was in charge.
“What about any of this would make it harder for you to get that fucker back here?” I seethed. “You work for me, not Sheena. I run this family. Me and no one else. If you want to continue breathing, you will do as I tell you. Now, get it done. You have forty-eight hours. If he’s not in front of me by then—”
“Yes, sir,” Brody cut in, his voice unnaturally higher than usual in his panic. “I’ll bring him to you personally, boss.”
After I hung up on him, I realized something needed to change. I’d allowed Sheena to think she had control for a while just to keep a closer eye on her. But in allowing her to believe she held some semblance of power, she’d actually wielded it with some of my men.
And now I didn’t know which ones thought she was the one in charge or how far up the chain of command it went.
Which was more dangerous than I ever could have imagined.
