Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 141255 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 706(@200wpm)___ 565(@250wpm)___ 471(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 141255 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 706(@200wpm)___ 565(@250wpm)___ 471(@300wpm)
“Alrighty.” I put my arms around his neck. “I love you. I need to run to the store now, actually. Do you mind if I dash out?”
“Uh…” He looked a bit flipped out. “You don’t even have your full license yet.”
“It’s just the drug store around the corner,” I said. “It’s like… two minutes.”
“What do you need at the drugstore? Maybe me and Marley will just tag along.”
I smiled, took a big breath, and then I said, “I think I need to buy a pregnancy test. I’m a week late.”
His eyes bulged.
“I did the math and my birth control implant has been in now for over three years so it’s possible it’s stopped working.”
His eyes bulged some more.
“Are you okay?” I reached for him. He grabbed me, squeezed, and swung me around. He said nothing, but his eyes were shiny. He reached into his pocket and handed me the keys and then whistled. “Marley, come. We need to go to the drugstore. And then maybe the cigar store.”
I opened the door to my new Jeep and started it while my husband put our puppy in the back seat.
While Tia was in the bathroom doing the pregnancy test, I got a text from Ben Goldberg with confirmation of the final date for Fete’s grand opening. He wants me and Dare there. We own 34%, Ben owns 34%, my buddy John Lewis owns the rest. It’s happening a week before Christmas, two weeks after the Kruna partner summit, which got rescheduled due to Gan Chen’s injuries.
I replied to say I’d be there and I paced, waiting for my wife to come out and tell me whether or not we were going to be parents.
Me, a father. The idea of sharing Tia with anyone else doesn’t sit well. But the idea of being a father, being responsible for molding a kid into the kind of person he’s gonna become? That’s huge. Am I really ready for that shit?
I’m still trying to keep my head together after the events of the last few months. And there are going to be some rocky months ahead what with the Kruna bullshit. But the idea of her carrying my baby? The idea that our love created life? It’s fucking beautiful.
While pacing, I saw that the pup had something. I leaned over. Shit, Tia’s not gonna be happy. The dog has chewed one of her favorite red-soled heels. I grab the shoe from the dog.
“No. Bad!” I told him and heard the bathroom door open. She stood there, flushed, smiling, holding the stick.
“It’s positive,” she said. “It’s supposed to take two minutes, but the second I peed on it, it went positive. Do you think it’s right?”
I smiled. “With my strong swimmers, no surprise. Oh yeah, it’s right.”
She wrinkled her nose at me, looking adorable. “You’re so full of yourself.”
I laughed. “Come here, wife, so you can be full of me.”
She walked over, blowing out a long breath. “We’re gonna be parents, Tommy.”
“I know, baby girl. You’re gonna be an amazing mother. Come here.” I dropped to my knees, tossing the shoe behind me and lifted her sweater to kiss her bare belly. She put her hand in my hair and smiled, eyes shining with tears.
“I love you,” she said.
“Love you, too, baby girl.”
“Thanks for the puppy.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Thanks for the new wheels.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Thanks for the baby.” She giggled.
I smiled. “Thanks for loving me despite my flaws. There’s a lot of them.”
“You’re welcome. Now go buy me some vanilla ice cream. And some pastrami.”
I laughed. “You’re the boss.”
“Dario, I might know where Holly Mooney is, but I need your and Tommy’s help. There’s a very good chance she’s in a Mexican brothel. It’s run by the cartel your brother worked with to take down Juan Carlos Castillo.”
“Fuck, seriously?”
“Yeah, man. One of the partners of Kruna is part-owner in this one, too. It’s very likely that’s where they took her after they blackmailed your wife. Listen, we’ve gotta talk, too. I’m in the lobby of your hotel. I know it was your wedding night last night, but can you come down?”
“Yeah man.”
When Dario Ferrano walked into my office three weeks earlier and sat with me I told him the truth. I’m affiliated with a government task force, an organization working to take down places like Kruna.
I admitted I made myself available to the Ferrano family due to Tom Ferrano’s suspected ties with human slavery. I’d been undercover for 2 years, working for the Ferranos for 8 months and befriending them as well as working with them to figure out the inner workings of their father’s business as well as his leisure activities.
“I’m not out to put you or Tommy in prison, Dario. You’ve both been products of your upbringing and I can see, my superiors can see as well, that this is not who you are anymore. Being close to you both throughout the mess with your father has been very enlightening. We can get you both a deal where you’re immune to any prosecution if you both act as freelancers and help us out with bringing the Kruna resort down.”