Jett

7 - This was a bad idea

Maria

As much as Jett told me to stay in the house and wait for him to get back, to wait for him to talk to his father about this, about us, I just can’t. I cannot let my brother find out that I’ve let him down from anyone but me.

That’s why I take a shower and change into a modest black dress that falls nicely on my knees. I don’t know whom it belongs to, but I found it in Jett’s closet. It probably belongs to one of his hookups or maybe one of his sisters.

I do not particularly appreciate wearing clothes belonging to other women, especially sluts, but I can’t very well see my brother in the dress I had on. It was far too short for a start, and he’d throw a hissy fit. I am his baby sister, after all, and he seems to think I’m some virginal princess.

Luckily, the dress fits well enough, covering everything I don’t want anyone to see. I don’t have to wear it for long. Jett will bring my things back to his place, and I can change into something more comfortable, something that’s mine. If Draven doesn’t kill him first.

Don Vidal is a very respectable man. Thirty-six years of age and probably the most dangerous man I have ever known, but he’s also a good man, my big brother, the man who raised me, the man who loves me and has protected me my entire life. There is nothing I wouldn’t do to make him proud of me. However, what I did with Jett at Avery’s wedding, what I have been left with, will bring him anything but pride.

After styling my hair, curling the ends, and leaving it loose, I apply light makeup to my face, then a little perfume to my neck. Less is more; that’s what Draven always told me growing up. A little perfume goes a long way. Good job I carry compact stuff in my purse, or there’s no way I’d leave the house!

I stare at myself in the mirror, my hand on my stomach. No matter what happens tonight or how scared I may feel, I’m doing this all for my baby. I have no idea how Jett is getting on, but I know that I may never see him again after I tell my brother.

I may not be in love with Jett, but I do like him. As crazy as that sounds, when I was raised never to so much as speak to a biker. But he’s so handsome it stifles me. It’s not just about his looks; I like his personality too. He’s charming and knows how to make me smile easily.

I may never love him, but there will be something between us. We’re having a baby, and we both want it. We’re going to give this baby the best life we possibly can. We have a connection that cannot be broken.

Doesn’t that deserve my brother’s blessing?

“Yeah right, Maria. Keep dreaming.” I tell myself out loud.

I grab my cell and call Lorenzo, the man who usually trails me. The man to whom I gave the slip earlier. The man whom I have no doubt told my brother as much. I’m shocked Draven hasn’t sent a search party out looking for me. I’m even more surprised he hasn’t killed Lorenzo for losing me again.

Maybe the text I sent him eased his mind. The text I sent from my car outside the clubhouse after Hammer pushed me down was to let Lorenzo know that I was going home. I told him I would get some work done on the restaurant books I’m supposed to be looking over. Something I often do for Abrianna. Her uncle has worked for the Vidal family for years. We grew up together. She owns her own hotel and restaurant, and I sometimes go over the books for her.

Lorenzo arrives at Jett’s ten minutes later. He’s not happy because he knows who lives here.

“What the hell, Maria? You take off on me, and now this is where I find you? At the house of a damn biker! What the hell is going on?”

“Don’t, Lorenzo.” Is all I say before climbing into the back of the limo. I’m not in the mood to explain myself to him. I need all my strength for Draven.

The drive over to my brother’s restaurant, once belonging to my uncle, the Don, before my brother, Avery's father, goes all too quickly. Sooner than I’m ready for.

I’m standing outside his office, worrying myself to death. My heart is in my throat, my stomach is tight and turning over and over so much I feel it in my hips.

I can do this. My brother is not going to hurt me physically.

Jett?

I’m afraid that he will, and not in a good way. Not that there is a good way to be physically hurt.

Maybe I should’ve waited for Jett to come with me to see Draven, but I know in my heart that would have been the biggest mistake of my life. Draven would’ve shot him in the head without one word.

Then where would I be?

Disgraced even more than I already am.

I knock on the door with my knuckles and wait for Draven to yell for me to enter. However, he doesn’t. Tony, his top guy, answers the door with a smile on his face. “Hey, short stuff.”

I roll my eyes, and despite myself, I smile.

Tony is the guy I should have been with, the man who made no secret that he wanted me. He obviously never said anything in front of Draven because he would’ve killed Tony if he’d known.

But Tony has never been inappropriate with me, never touched me in any way he shouldn’t. He has told me he loves me and would do anything for me. Even when I said that I didn’t love him in the way he loved me, he told me he would still be there for me, and he has been. I can count on him for anything. But I bet he’ll distance himself from me once he finds out what I’ve done. I’m going to lose everyone I care about because of this.

Is it really worth it?

Yes, my baby is worth losing everything for.

I should have told Tony first; he would have taken the baby and me on, loved us both and married me. My brother would have been angry initially but would have allowed the union. I know he would.

However, I would never have been able to live with the lie. Every time I looked at my baby, all I would see was Jett.

What would I have told my child when they were old enough to understand?

I mean, if the baby got sick and needed something from their father in order to help them, what the hell would I do?

I’d ruin my child’s life with such a lie.

I couldn’t do it. I’m not a deceitful person. If Jett was a monster and I thought it best my child didn’t know him, I would have gone to Tony. But Jett isn’t a bad person. Not where it counts.

“Hey, Tony. Is my brother busy? I really need to speak with him. It’s urgent.”

He gives me a longing look. It never used to make me uncomfortable, but it does right now. “Come in.” He holds the door open, and I slip past him.

My brother is sitting behind his desk in his oversized leather office chair. His office is nothing fancy, or at least not to me. The tiled floor with a huge Persian rug, oversized, plush couch at the far end of the room, and a small coffee table in front of it gives the place a homey feel. There’s a large potted plant of some kind in the right corner. Then there are the large windows that bring in so much light it’s hard not to smile. There’s also a vast floor-to-ceiling bookshelf filled with books, folders, and even small potted plants. Picture frames of photographs of him, me, Avery, baby Daniel, baby Noah, and our mother sit on his big oak desk.

“Maria? Everything okay?”

I shake myself out of my silly daydream of how odd this office looks in the back of a restaurant, and I turn to look at my brother, so handsome, so strong. Always in a suit to keep up appearances. No one messes with him.

I look just like him; everyone says so. I have plenty of family members, even if they’re not blood-related, even a brother who hates me, but Draven is everything to me.

Without my big brother, the man who raised me, who the hell would I be?

I am so scared of losing him.

“Can we talk? In private?” He looks at me curiously. “It’s really important.” My voice cracks a little. I tried so hard not to let it, but I couldn’t stop it.

That little crack instantly changed the smiling expression on my brother’s face to one full of concern. He’s out of his seat and around the desk, his eyes locked on me while telling Tony, “Wait outside.” He turns to Tony for a second. “No one is to enter this room for any reason. You understand?”

“Boss.” With that, he’s gone, and like the loyal man he is, he won’t allow anyone to enter this room unless the damn building is on fire!

“Hey,” My brother’s voice is calm, his smile sympathetic. Of course, he can see something’s wrong; I have tears in my eyes. He taps my arm before sitting his ass on the edge of his desk. “Wanna tell me what’s wrong?”

“I need to tell you something really important, but I need you to listen to me without getting angry. Please let me finish before you blow up. Because I know you’re going to.”

“Is that so?” He asks me with arms folded across his big, powerful chest.

“I’ve done something, and I know you’re going to be ashamed of me.” I’m already struggling. I have to pull myself together; I need to get this out. As Draven tells me that he could never be ashamed of me, I take a deep breath and blurt it all out.

I tell him about the wedding and how I met a guy there, and it’s so damn embarrassing telling him how I slept with someone. That’s not something I ever wanted to say to my brother. Not that I tell him how many times I slept with Jett; he doesn’t need to know that.

“Who was he? Tell me!” He bellows, making me jump as he gets to his feet. This is precisely what I didn’t want. “I’m not kidding, Maria. Lo ucciderò.”

“No, you won’t kill him, Draven!” I yell in retaliation. “I wanted to be with him. He never made me do anything I didn’t want to do. That I can promise you.”

“Tell me who he is!”

“Jett.” There I said it, but I swallow so damn hard I feel like I’ve got a golf ball stuck in my throat.

“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 whor.e 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, drive expensive cars, and 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. But 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, Draven, and I need your help.”

“Go on.”

I swallow hard again before telling him, “I’m pregnant. Jett is the father.” Draven’s 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 of months ago.” He’s not looking at me; he’s clutching his desk with his head hanging down.

“I’m four 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. Draven stands at his full height and looks at me, hell burning in his eyes.

“I will find you a husband willing to take the kid on as his own. You won’t fight me on this, Maria. You have disgraced the family and me!” I hang my head. “You’ll do what’s right to fix this.”

I don’t want Draven 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 talk 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. Once someone like me, a Mafia Princess, is married, the only way out is death.

“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 would 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 their father, and to be honest, he’s the only man I’ve ever been with who 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 fuc.k to Italy so Uncle Piero can deal with 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 their father by killing him, and I have no idea how to stop him.

Avery may have some advice for me. She might be a royal bitc.h right now, but I know she’ll help me.