She smiles sweetly at him. “No. Just my daddy issues.”
All humor and teasing drops from Acid’s demeanor, and he puts his beer aside. “That fucking sucks, your highness. All right, what’s your business here?”
“I want to set a bounty. Two, actually. One for a hunter to handle. One for Thane.”
“If you wanted to set a bounty, you should have said. I’ll get Zag.”
He starts to get up, but Chiara holds out her hand. “No, I want to talk to you two first.”
Acid sits back down again, his brows drawn together. “Strife bounties don’t come cheap, and neither does Thane. Can you pay?”
Chiara hesitates and then takes her diamond ring off her finger.
“No!” I reach for the ring but she holds it out of my reach and gives me a meaningful look. That ring belongs on her finger. I love seeing it there, fuck-off big and sparkling. I helped put it on her finger and I’m proud of that. I look at it sometimes while I’m balls deep in her and it reminds me that she’s mine.
That she’s ours.
Chiara explains what she wants done while sirens are blaring in my ears. She’s not offering up that ring. I’ll pay for her goddamn bounties myself.
“That’s part one. What do you think?” Chiara asks.
Acid is shaking his head. “I think you’re fucking crazy.”
“Will you do it?”
“Hell, yes. I’ll handle it personally.”
“Thank you.” She turns to Thane. “What I want to ask of you might be more difficult, but Vinicius has told me about the things that you can do. I don’t know if this is possible, but can you please look into my father’s emails and text messages and see if there’s anything that might connect him to the Black Orchid Killer?”
Chiara explains about the mayor ambushing her and the reason she suspects he might know the killer and is protecting him.
Thane rubs a hand over his jaw. “The mayor got to you? Where were you?”
“At a doc—at an appointment.” Chiara’s poker face has been firmly in place since she stepped into Strife, but suddenly it slips, and she blushes.
Thane’s gaze flickers to her belly, and my hackles stand to attention. One word, one fucking innuendo and I will leap over this table and punch his teeth out.
He gives a lazy shrug. “That’s not hard. If something’s there, I’ll find it.”
“Thank you.” Chiara puts her ring in the middle of the table.
Acid contemplates it and shakes his head. “Keep your fancy rock. Just consider us even after this.”
“All right. I’ll consider us even if you get my bounty for me, and if Thane scours every corner of every device that my father owns.” Chiara picks up her ring and puts it back on her finger.
“Pleasure doing business with you, your highness.”
She stands up to go, and I cup her lower back and murmur in her ear, “Could you give me one moment, princess?”
She nods and heads for the door, and I signal one of the bouncers and he moves to stand beside her.
I turn back to Thane, grab a fistful of his tank top and yank him toward me. “You say one word to anyone and I’ll cut your fucking balls off.”
I don’t need everyone and his dog at Strife knowing Chiara’s pregnant before she even starts to show.
Thane smirks up at me. “I wouldn’t dream of it. Congratulations, daddies.”
I release him with a shove, shoot a poisonous glance at Acid and head out of the bar, holding Chiara’s hand.
When we reach my car, I push her up against it and my mouth descends on hers. “That was so fucking hot. You handled them beautifully, princess.”
She smiles and kisses me back. “Thank you.”
“I don’t know how you do it. They get so far under my skin I can’t think straight.”
“You do realize that Acid thrives on pissing you off? Pissing everyone off, come to think of it. If you let it roll off your back he’ll stop trying.”
“I was letting it roll off my back! For the last few years, I’ve barely threatened to punch any of them or even thought about it. Then you came along and they’re looking at you and smirking at you and undressing you with their eyes. And they fucking kidnapped—”
She kisses me again.
I huff angrily. “You’re ours. We don’t share. I should just fucking tell them that.” I turn toward the bar and she grabs me, laughing.
“Lorenzo, there’s no need. They know I belong to the four of you and no one else. You don’t have to go in there and lay down the law.” She runs a finger down my cheek and smiles. “Though I have to say, you’re pretty sexy when you’re all possessive like this.”
If that’s what she wants then she can have it. From all of us.
“In. Get in the car. Just because you’re pregnant doesn’t mean we can’t run a train on you.”
“What’s a train?” she asks.
What’s a train? The innocence of this girl.
I give her a devilish grin. “Guess.”
15
Chiara
“You could just tell me.”
“I’d rather show you. Where are the others? Send them a text. Lorenzo invites you on a train.”
I get out my phone. “It’s a sex thing, isn’t it?”
“Why would you think that?”
It’s definitely a sex thing. “You won’t embarrass me, just so we’re clear. Pregnant women can’t be embarrassed by sex. We know too much.”
“Sure, princess.” He’s still grinning as I type a text message into the group chat.
Chiara: I don’t know what he means but Lorenzo invites you on a train. We’ll be back at the compound in twenty minutes.
Salvatore: Lorenzo, you crude fuck.
Salvatore: On my way.
Cassius: Bambina, we will all be there. You’re beautiful and I love you.
Vinicius: A FUCKING TRAIN. I can’t with you, Lorenzo.
Chiara: Will someone please tell me what it means?
Vinicius: It’s what we did on the hood of my car.
“Oh, so one after the other,” I say, and feel my cheeks heat. Maybe you can embarrass a pregnant woman.
“You’re so cute when you blush. I’m sorry, I’m an asshole. I have to take advantage of your innocence while you still have it.”
I reach out and touch his cheek. He’s still smiling, and my heart feels very full. “Look at you. You’re happy for the first time all day.”
He glances at me, his expression astonished. “What?”
I run my fingers down his muscled arm and hold his hand. “You’ve been so angry and upset and I wanted to make you smile. Mission accomplished.”
“You little brat,” he murmurs, still smiling.
When we arrive back at the compound, Lorenzo marches me upstairs to his bedroom and tells me to take off my clothes. I sit on the bed with my arms around my bare legs.
Lorenzo pulls off his T-shirt. “Look at you. So fucking cute.”
When the others arrive, Lorenzo paces up and down in front of them like a general giving orders.
“Those Strife fucks have been staring at our woman. Their eyes have been all over her, so we need to get all over her.”
“They might have gotten their eyes all over her, but we’re inside her,” Salvatore points out.
I wince as Lorenzo’s temper ratchets up to twelve.