Untamed (A Bad Boy Secret Baby Romance)(130)

“Yeah? When?”

“This morning.”

“I thought they weren’t supposed to be in contact with you.”

“It’s not related to the trial.”

“What did it say?”

“Dad wants me to come and visit him some time. I mean, in prison. He knows he’s not going to get out of this, and I’m sure none of the other families are willing to lend a hand. They all hated him. Dad rubbed people like that.”

“Are you going to?”

I sigh, shrug. “I don’t know. Not yet, anyway. I won’t ever forgive him, but he’s going to be an old man alone in prison, with enemies on the inside. With all his henchmen giving him up for their own deals… snakes, all of them. But he’s going to need somebody.”

“If you ever go, I’ll come with you,” he says. “If you want me there, I’ll be there.”

“Thanks. Honestly, I don’t think it’s going to come to that.”

“But you considered it.”

“Of course. He’s my dad. Let’s change the subject. How was Pierce?”

“Penelope and him are going to have a baby.”

I scrunch up my face. “What, really?”

“Yeah, he told me today. They just found out.”

“Huh. We can be new mothers together.”

“She’ll probably look to you for advice, since you’ve got a head start.”

“Fair enough,” I murmur, and put my hand on Duncan’s thigh. We don’t talk much more on the way home, and I just watch the world go by outside the car.

It’s oddly calm, and I’d be lying if a small part of me didn’t almost… almost miss the thrill. My whole life, I’ve been a mob boss’ daughter. I’ve had a bodyguard shadow me, I’ve had people cower when they found out who I was.

I ran away, lived life for several months constantly looking over my shoulder. It was draining, tiring, consumed every last ounce of strength I had.

And we almost lost it all… Duncan almost died. I came so close to certainly having my baby taken from me.

It’s crazy, now, that everything is so still. I feel like there needs to be some wind, some rustle.

The therapist tells me that’s normal, that there’s an adjustment period. I was glad when Duncan said he’d absolutely go with me to therapy. I almost expected him to scoff at the idea, or act all macho about it, but he was receptive at once.

When I asked him why, he said it’s because he trusted me. If I thought it was a good idea, then he did, too.

I’m glad because there are a lot of things that have happened, and it’s affected us in ways we don’t realize. I don’t want to be carrying around any emotional baggage… for the baby. I need to get it all out, get it all sorted out in my mind, and he does as well, before we start raising a child.

Duncan was never great at examining his own emotions. I don’t blame him, he’s had to keep them locked up tight for most of his life.

But now is the time to figure all of that out. We need to put everything behind us, and look only onward. We can’t be distracted by the past when the future weighs on us heavily.

We’ve got a kid to raise, and we’ve got to raise him right. We’ve got to give him a good life, but not spoil him. He’s got to be our total focus. One-hundred percent.

How could we do that if we were still battling our own issues? I know it’s not impossible, but we don’t need a handicap. I personally feel it’s vital for the health of our family.

The therapist says we’ll need to stay in therapy together for at least a year, and likely more. She says that it’s important we work through it together. She says, in Duncan’s particular case, that he needs to let me know if he still feels anything residual… about me running away like that.

It’s a process, the therapist says, but a good and necessary one.

When we get home, Duncan pampers me. It’s sweet, and makes me laugh, because the baby, the prospect of family has changed him so much.

Truth be told, if you took me back in time to when he walked through our front door, didn’t take his eyes off me, told me he was going to be the best fighter ever, kissed me in the gym room, then talked back to Dad… I would have never thought he could be tamed, least of all by me.

We are both still so young, and yet it feels like we’ve lived a lifetime. I’ve seen things in my youth that people don’t ever see in their lives, and for him it’s the same.

He brings me a hot cup of lemon water, my book, and a blanket. I lie on the sofa, read for a while in the afternoon. He’s said he’ll cook dinner tonight; he’s going to try making homemade sushi. No raw fish, just cucumber, egg, teriyaki chicken, and smoked salmon sushi.