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“If they were just after me, I wouldn’t be so worried,” I told her, making her eyebrows shoot up into her hairline. God, she was pretty, even when she was all rumpled and clearly wishing I would disappear.
“Nice deflection,” she said bitterly.
“The software is a side hustle,” I admitted. “I have another business that’s a little more involved.”
“With the mafia,” she said.
“Samantha, do you really want to know?” I crossed my own arms over my chest and returned her sour look.
She slumped, trying to decide what to say next. My phone rang, dragging my attention from her. It was my cousin Ivan, so I answered it.
“Evelina filled me in,” he said without any greeting. “I’m up in Boston right now and can have my plane down to you in an hour. Be at the airport and ready to go. And you’ll stay at my place in the Keys.”
“Thanks, Ivan,” I said, but he’d already hung up. So, my family was pissed at me but were still willing to do whatever they could to help out. That sounded about right.
I started the car but turned back to her before heading to the airport. “So. Do you really want to know?”
She meekly shook her head. “Maybe later,” she squeaked, closing her eyes.
“Whenever you’re ready,” I said, pulling out of the parking lot.
I only hoped she could keep it together when the time came to explain what I’d inadvertently gotten her into.
Chapter 11 - Samantha
I finished throwing up in the small bathroom on Leo’s cousin’s private jet and shakily walked back up the aisle to sit in one of the leather seats. I’d never even been on a commercial airline, let alone a private plane, but the luxury surrounding me barely registered.
I stared out the window at the people on the tarmac. The fact we hadn’t taken off yet was comforting as if I could stroll down the stairs and hail a cab home. Leo crouched next to my seat with an offer of an ice-cold water bottle.
“There are snacks, too, if you’re hungry,” he said.
I took the water without a word but was too shocked to consider eating, even though it might have settled my heaving stomach. Hadn’t I been starving before all this? It was hard to remember such a simple time. Leo eased himself into the seat across the aisle, but I kept my gaze out the window.
While we waited for the plane to arrive from Boston, he tried to explain what was going on. I heard it all; I really did. But it was as if the words bounced off me and didn’t stick. I couldn’t accept any of it.
The software thing was real. Leo did coding in his spare time and hoped to get his company off the ground. But like he’d said in the car, it was a side job. Little more than a hobby. It certainly wasn’t what paid for his high-rise apartment with the private elevator and the kitchen that was as big as the entire place I shared with Gran and my sister.
No, his family business paid for all that.
He wasn’t just targeted by the mafia; hewasthe mafia. The head of the Morozov’s new territory up here in New York. The boss.
How was that possible? How was the sweet, sexy, slightly nerdy guy whose apartment I cleaned and whose dog I walked a mafia crime lord?
And the father of my baby?
And… a killer?
As frazzled as I was, I could swear I didn’t imagine gunshots before he pulled me out of that car. The man who’d dragged me from the alley was huge, at least as tall as Leo and as wide as a refrigerator. He didn’t just roll over and give me up without a fight. But there’d been no fight. It was over too fast. Just those rapid-fire popping noises. Maybe he’d just scared them, though, or shot them in the leg to keep them from coming after us.
My head was spinning, and I squeezed my eyes shut, blocking out the avalanche of memories as I tried to piece everything together. Leo had told me when we boarded the plane that the most important thing was that I was safe now. The baby was safe. He would keep us that way.
I tried to think of what point I would go back to to keep this from happening. No anonymity. That was it. I would have insisted on six meetings and a home visit before I agreed to be someone’s surrogate.
Smothering a groan because there was no time machine available, I glanced over at Leo. He sat leaning over with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. His brow was tightly furrowed, and veins stood out in his muscular forearms. He was used to this sort of thing, and he was still clearly upset.
Everything had changed, but he was still the same man I knew. Kind and good and caring. Wasn’t he? I had to believe that. He must have sensed me looking at him because he opened his eyes and turned to me, his deep green eyes full of anguish.
“I’m so sorry,” he said raggedly. Without realizing I was doing it, my hand went to my still-flat stomach. He shook his head. “Never about that.”
