“Are you telling me that you whored yourself out to one of those filthy bikers?” That hurt. He's never said anything like that to me before. He thinks I'm a whore and that hurts. “Where the hell did I go wrong? Did I not raise you better?”
Why is he being so dramatic?
“He might be a biker, Dray, but so is our brother, and if you stand back and look at it, are they really any different from you and your men? You might wear fancy suits and expensive watches, own the whole of Tennessee and half of the damn country for all I know, but you kill at will just as they do. You put the fear of God into people just as they do. Even more so, in fact. You are all monsters in one form or another.”
“That's what you think of me, Principessa? You think me a monster?”
“No,” I close my eyes for a second. My brother is a monster he's a mafia Don for crying out loud. He's done things that don't bear thinking about. However, to me, he's just Draven, my brother, the man who has taken care of me my whole life. He's my hero, and I don't care who thinks of me as childish for it. “You are my hero, and I need your help.”
“Go on.”
I swallow hard again before telling him, “I'm pregnant. Jett is the father.” His face has not only lost all color it's set in stone. I grab his hands in mine. “I want to keep my baby, Dray. I've spoken to Jett, and he wants it too. I told him about tradition and all that, and he asked me to marry him.”
“No! I will never agree to that.” My heart sinks. “You think I'll hand my sister over to those assholes?! If it wasn't bad enough handing Avery over and finding out we have a biker brother, now my baby sister... My life wants me to hand her over, too? Over my dead body, Maria!”
“But what about my baby, Dray? Don't you think...”
“Shut up!” He bellows, and I do shut up. He's more than just angry, and I know not to push when he's like this. He'll come around. He has to! “You can't be very pregnant the wedding was just a couple months ago.” He's not looking at me; he's clutching his desk with his head hanging down.
“I'm three months pregnant, Dray.”
“I don't give a damn!” I flinch. What is he going to do? “The biker is a dead man.”
I open my mouth to speak, but it's pointless, his hand is held up to me. He stands his full height and looks at me, hell burning in his eyes. “I will find you a husband who's willing to take the kid on as his own. You won't fight me on this, Maria. You've disgraced the family and me!” I hang my head. “You'll do what's right to fix this.”
I don't want him to find me a husband. I don't want him to take that choice away from me. The man could be a monster who may hurt me. If that happens, I won't be able to go to my brother about it. That's not the way things are done. Once I'm married, I'll belong to my husband and will have to put up with everything he does to me.
“But what if I don't like the guy, Dray? What if he's horrible and hurts me?”
“You really think I'd give you to someone who'd hurt you? You'd disrespect me further by thinking such a thing of me?!”
God, he's so angry.
This isn't going to end well for me. It might sound stupid when I don't know much about him, but Jett is the one I want to be with. I want my child to know its father, and to be honest, he's the only man I've ever been with that could set my body on fire with desire by merely looking at me. I'm never going to find another man who can do that, and the truth is I have a crush on the man.
“You will marry who I damn well tell you to marry, Maria, and be grateful I don't make you get rid of the kid and send you the fuck to Italy so uncle Piero can deal with you!”
I don’t want that, uncle Piero is so strict he’d have me locked up somewhere dark and never let out. Not to mention he’d send my baby to live with strangers. No, thank you.
I shut Draven out after that. He's letting me keep my baby, but he won't allow me to marry the father. He's going to deprive my child of its father by killing him, and I have no idea how to stop him.
Maybe Avery will have some advice for me. She might be a royal bitch right now, but I know she'll help me.
Chapter Five
Jett
Jesus Christ, Jett! How could you be so stupid?! What the hell were you thinkin'?”
“I wasn't. Obviously.” I thought with my dick that night. What man wouldn't? Maria is so goddamned beautiful it would stifle any man with a heartbeat, that body of hers... Hot damn!
However, that aside, she's pregnant with my kid, and I'll do anything to keep them with me. Do I think Draven Vidal will put a stop to it? He'll try. I'm not scared of any man, Mafia Don's included. I'm not stupid either, and I know the power he holds. I know should he put a hit out on me, my days will be numbered.
When I got to the clubhouse earlier and asked to speak to my father in private, he instantly knew something was up. I didn't lie to him, lying to my father is something I've never felt the need to do. I didn't go into detail with him, but I gave him enough information to know that I'm about to make him a grandfather. He also understands that I haven't been able to get Maria out of my head since the moment I met her. Shepard wanted to know if I had feelings for the girl. I told the man the truth. I'm not in love with her, but I sure as shit feel something special for her. Now he's standing there giving me a damn lecture like I'm a fucking five-year-old or something. I'm not a fuckin' stupid kid. I'm pushing thirty.
Is what I did stupid? Without a doubt. Only an idiot would willingly take the mafia princess and fuck her six ways to Sunday and stupidly get her pregnant.
Stupid should've been my middle name.
“Prez!” Is the only thing I hear before a breeze flies past my face. A fist lands on my jaw, a powerful fist, the fist of Draven Vidal, cage fighter, Mafia Don. Fuck me; the man can hit. I'm no weak man, but Vidal has some fuckin' power behind him.
I get a punch in before he goes for my ribs. Bastard!
“Let him go!” Hammer has Vidal by the arms, pulling him away from me.
“Get your fuckin' hands off me, Sam!” Only Draven Vidal could call Hammer by his given name and get away with it. I have no idea what kind of relationship they've got, but it thoroughly pisses me off that they have one at all when Hammer can't bear to have Maria near him. We're his fucking family, this MC, that motherfucker has been around a few months, and he's taken the fuck over!
I wipe the blood from the corner of my mouth while my eyes scan the room. When did it fill up? Vidal has three of his biggest men with him. I don't know their fuckin' names, and I don't want to they're nothing to me. Hammer's here, Stryker, Hawk, all looking at me like I'm the devil. I'm the damn VP of this club, who the hell do they think they are to look at like that?
“Did you think she wouldn't come and tell me?!”
I fold my arms across my big chest. “I knew she would.” Of course, I did. I knew Maria wouldn't keep it from him, just thought I'd be with her when she did. Naturally, she left the house as soon as I did, and it obviously didn't go well. So where the fuck is she?
“Whatever ideas you had about marrying her and raising that kid, forget it!”
“It's not your choice to make.”
“The hell it isn't!” I let him yell, and I let my father yell in retaliation, it doesn't mean anything to me right now. There's nothing on my mind other than Maria. Maybe I should pull my head out of my ass and appeal to his nicer side.
Ha! The nicer side of Draven Vidal. Is there one?
“You stupid fuckin' son-of-a-bitch!”
“Give it a rest, Hammer! Don't even dare do the big brother thing after the stunt you pulled today!” He has no fuckin' right! None whatsoever.
“That has nothing to do with what's going on now!”
“It has everything to do with it!” I yell. “I get why you're angry, Draven, she's your baby sister. However, I'm trying to do the right thing.”