Page 127 of Poison and Wine
“The doctor’s appointment I went to today?” At my nod, she said, “I found out I’m six weeks pregnant.”
As I processed Caterina’s words, the world around me slowed to a stop. Fuck me. Caterina was pregnant. I was going to be a father. The pride and pure happiness that surged through me was indescribable. “We’re really having a baby?”
Caterina shuttered her eyes as if in pain. “Yes.
My hand brushed across her cheek. “You can’t imagine how happy this makes me, Kitten.”
Her anguished eyes opened to stare daggers through me. “So was I. But now you’ve ruined it. Do you have any idea how demoralizing and disgusting it is that I’ve been reduced to telling you you're going to be a father in a strip club? It’s one thing having a mafia boss as my baby’s father, but it’s quite another having one who deals in sex.”
“Fuck,” I muttered as I ran my hand over my face. Quinn had been right. My lack of honesty had truly fucked things up. I had no clue how I was going to get myself out of this one. “Kitten, I’m so–”
She held her hand up in front of my face. Normally, I would’ve lost my shit at someone doing that, but I knew better than to react. “There is nothing you could possibly say right now that will ever make this right.”
“At least let me try.”
A maniacal laugh tumbled out of her lips. “Do you want to know what’s crazy? Your secrecy about this place caused me to pull a gun on Owen.”
My eyes bulged. “You held Owen at gunpoint?” Each and every time I thought I had Caterina figured out, she went and shocked the hell out of me. He had already earned a strong conversation from me for allowing Caterina to come here. But now I realized why he had disobeyed my orders.
Caterina nodded. “Because he was sworn to obey your orders and to cover your dishonest tracks.”
“He was just doing his job.”
The unadulterated hate that flashed in Caterina’s eyes caused a stab in my chest. “I can’t do this with you anymore. I’m going home now.”
“I’ll take you.”
She shook her head wildly back and forth. “I don’t want to be anywhere near you.”
“Please, Kitten, let me take care of you. Let me show you how sorry I truly am.”
She jabbed her finger at me. “Stay the fuck away from me!”
Whirling away, she started sprinting through the club. “Caterina, wait!” I called.
As I started to follow her, a group of businessmen came between us, talking and laughing and ignoring everyone and everything around them. “Get the fuck out of my way!” I bellowed as I began fighting my way through them.
When I finally busted out of the front door, my gaze spun left and right to try to find her. At the sound of a scream, my blood ran cold, and I fought to breathe. Down the street, two men had Caterina. My feet pounded into the pavement as I tried to get to her. Just when I reached them, the men shoved her in a black-paneled van.
As my eyes locked with hers, her scream pierced my heart. “Callum!”
Chapter Thirty-Six: Callum
My wife was gone.
The mother of my child was gone.
My life was gone.
I shook my head as I tried shaking myself out of the nightmare I currently found myself in. Her scream echoed through my ears, piercing my heart. Someone had taken my wife. They’d stolen her right in front of my eyes.
Turning on my heels, I raced back to the club’s door. Shouting at the bouncer, I called, “Get my brothers! Now!”
He nodded and spoke into the radio on his shoulder. Before I could even process trying to get her back, I had to know who took her. It was for emergencies like these that I had injected a tracker in her upper arm. Since I knew she would lose her mind that I was tracking her, I’d done it while she was asleep. The negative in the situation was if it was any clan or any mafia member who had taken her, they would know to examine Caterina for a tracker and then remove it. I knew we had to start tracking her as soon as possible.
Dare appeared on the sidewalk. “What’s wrong?”
“Start following Caterina’s tracker,” I commanded.