“I did.”
Thank god I didn’t have to go over all that shit again. "And now she's pregnant.”
“How do you know?”
Drake’s brows furrow with confusion.
I fill him in on Katriana passing my number, the pictures I just received and the mindblowing caption. I keep my phone tucked away because there’s no way in hell I’m showing the pictures to anyone.
“The number Katriana gave her for the interview is mine, but she doesn't know that. Doesn't know any of it."
Drake processes this in silence, his thumb tracing the rim of his abandoned glass. The party swirls around us, oblivious to the way my entire world has just tilted on its axis.
"So the woman you targeted, seduced, and planned to use as leverage against her father is now pregnant with your child and about to walk into your office looking for a job." His voice is carefully neutral. "That's what you're telling me."
"That's what I'm telling you."
Another long pause. Then he asks quietly, "And are you going to use this information to leverage her?"
The question hits like a knife between the ribs because it's exactly what I deserve. Leverage was the whole fucking point. That was my plan from the beginning.
"No." The word comes out sharp enough to cut. "I'm done with that. I'm going to give her a job, give her protection from whatever her asshole father has planned, and figure out how tobecome the kind of man who deserves her and our baby before she ever learns what kind of man I am."
Drake studies my face for a long moment, searching for something. Sincerity, maybe. Or evidence that I'm still the manipulative bastard who started this whole mess.
"So what's your play?"
I stare out the window at the city lights, my reflection a ghost superimposed over Chicago's glittering skyline. "I let her come to the interview. I let her see me. And I watch how she reacts when she realizes her one-night stand is about to become her boss."
"And if she gets nervous and walks out?"
I shrug. "Then I follow." The words come out edged with a possessiveness I don't bother to temper. "She's carrying my child, Drake. Whether she wants anything to do with me or not, I'm not letting her disappear again. Not this time."
“The only thing you have going for you is that she has no idea what you planned or what we have planned for her father. But…”
“But what?”
Drake is quiet for a moment. Then his hand lands on my shoulder, heavy with something more complicated than simple brotherhood. Understanding, maybe. Or the weight of holding a secret he didn't ask for.
"This is going to blow up in your face. You understand that, right? When she finds out what you originally intended..."
"I know that too." I set my empty glass on a nearby shelf, the crystal thudding lightly against wood. "But right now, she'srunning from her father. She's pregnant and alone and scared. And whatever I deserve, whatever reckoning is coming for me, she deserves protection first."
Drake holds my gaze for a long moment. "You should have come to us," he says. "Before any of this. We would have found another way to handle Marchetti."
"I know."
"Be careful, brother. The Marchetti family isn't something to take lightly. If her father finds out you're the one who got his daughter pregnant and she's here..."
"Then he and I will have a conversation." I straighten my shoulders, feeling the weight of what's coming settle into my bones. "I'll burn this entire city to the ground before I let anyone, including her father, take her from me."
Drake's smile is small but genuine, crinkling the corners of his eyes. "Now you sound like one of us." He pauses, then adds quietly, "Just make sure you tell her the truth before someone else does. Secrets like this have a way of detonating at the worst possible moment. Mark my words."
I watch him walk away, returning to Katriana's side with the kind of gravitational pull that defines their relationship. She tucks herself against him immediately, her hand finding his, their bodies fitting together like puzzle pieces designed for each other.
Then I pull out my phone one more time and stare at the image that has rearranged everything I thought I knew about my future.
Ilona Marchetti. My jungle flower. Pregnant with my child.