Chapter 6 - Adrian’s MotherAdrian refused to tell me at first.
Adrian did.
He crossed Rebecca’s living room in seconds, caught me around the waist, and pulled me behind a brick support wall as glass rained across the hardwood floor.
“Stay down.”
I shoved him.
“Don’t order me—”
Another bullet struck the wall.
Fine.
Argument postponed.
Rebecca crouched behind the kitchen island with her handgun.
“Shooter across the alley!”
Adrian pulled out his phone.
“Marco. Lincoln Park. Rebecca’s house. West-facing building. Sniper.”
He disconnected.
I stared at him.
“How did you get inside?”
“Door.”
“You broke the door.”
“Yes.”
“That’s still not normal.”
“Elena.”
Even during an assassination attempt, his expression managed to say not now.
A strange laugh escaped me.
Adrian looked almost offended.
“What?”
“I told you I wanted a normal marriage.”
“This is not the moment.”
“No kidding.”
Another shot.
Then silence.
Adrian waited thirty seconds before moving.
His body stayed between me and every window.
I noticed despite myself.
Marco and six armed men arrived two minutes later.
One of them called from the alley.
“Shooter gone.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
Rebecca rose.
“Congratulations. Your security is impressive after the bullets start.”
Marco looked offended.
Adrian ignored the comment.
He turned to me.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
He looked me over anyway.
Hands at my shoulders.
My arms.
My face.
When he reached for my stomach, I stepped back.
His hands dropped.
Pain crossed his face.
Good.
Maybe that made me cruel.
I didn’t care.
“You can’t stay here,” Adrian said.
Rebecca nodded.
“For once, we agree.”
“I’m not going with him.”
“Elena.”
“No.”
Adrian breathed through his nose.
“Someone just fired at you.”
“And somehow you still think that means you get to make decisions for me.”
“I think it means we relocate.”
“We?”
His eyes held mine.
“You’re my wife.”
“For the moment.”
That landed.
Rebecca looked between us.
“We can have the marital collapse after we’re somewhere without bullet holes.”
I turned to her.
“Where?”
“I have another property.”
Adrian shook his head.
“Compromised.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Whoever found this place knew Elena came here.”
Rebecca’s mouth tightened.
He had a point.
I hated when he had points.
Adrian continued.
“I have a safe house nobody in the organization knows about.”
I laughed.
“That sounds believable.”
“Not even Marco.”
Marco turned.
“Excuse me?”
“Not now.”
Apparently Adrian had secrets from everyone.
Comforting.
“Where?” Rebecca asked.
“Wisconsin.”
“No,” I said immediately.
Adrian looked at me.
“Why?”
“Because getting into a car with my mafia husband and disappearing across state lines while pregnant sounds like the beginning of a documentary where everyone already knows I end up dead.”
Rebecca coughed into her hand.
Adrian stared.
“I have never hurt you.”
“No. You just built an entire life where people might.”
His expression changed.
The anger faded.
Because that was true.
Finally, he said quietly, “Then choose somewhere else.”
That stopped me.
“What?”
“Pick the location.”
“I don’t trust your men.”
“Then Rebecca chooses security.”
“I don’t want your organization following.”
“They won’t.”
“You.”
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
“Elena.”
“I said no.”
Adrian looked toward the bullet hole.
Then back at me.
“Someone is trying to kill you and our child.”
“Our child?”
His eyes flashed.
“Yes. Our child.”
“Interesting. Last night Serena was apparently more urgent.”
His face tightened.
I knew it was unfair.
I used it anyway.
He deserved some of the pain.
Rebecca stepped between us.
“We’re wasting time.”
She suggested a lakeside property owned by one of her corporate clients under a confidentiality trust.
Two hours north.
No obvious connection to me, Adrian, or Northstar.
Adrian agreed.
I agreed only after establishing conditions.
“No guards inside the house.”
“Fine.”
“No phone tracking.”
“Fine.”
“No telling Serena.”
His eyes hardened.
“She is no longer receiving anything from me.”
That should not have made me feel better.
It did.
“And separate bedrooms.”
Adrian stared.
Rebecca abruptly became very interested in her laptop.
“Fine,” he said.
We left twenty minutes later.
Rebecca drove.
I sat in the front.
Adrian sat in the back like a criminal being transported.
The irony wasn’t lost on me.
For forty minutes, nobody spoke.
Then nausea hit.
Hard.
“Pull over.”
Rebecca looked at me.
“What?”
“Pull over.”
She barely reached the shoulder before I opened the door and vomited into roadside weeds.
My knees shook.
A hand touched my back.
Adrian.
I jerked away.
“I’m fine.”
“You’re shaking.”
“I’m pregnant.”
“I noticed.”
I turned.
“Did you?”
The words came out sharper than intended.
He stepped back.
We stared at each other beside a dark highway while trucks rushed past.
Finally, Adrian said, “I failed you last night.”
“Last night?”
His expression tightened.
“You want the entire list?”
“I don’t have enough time before the baby is born.”
For half a second his mouth twitched.
Then he looked down.
“I thought Serena was family.”
“And me?”
He raised his eyes.
“You were everything.”
“No.”
I shook my head.
“I was the person you assumed would always be there.”
That seemed to hit him.
I wiped my mouth with a tissue Rebecca handed me.
Adrian leaned against the car.
“I met Serena when I was fourteen.”
I had heard parts of this story.
Her father worked for Carlo.
After Serena’s parents died, the Vales paid for her schooling.
“She knew what my father was,” Adrian said. “What the family was. She helped me survive it.”
“And that meant every time she called, you ran.”
“Yes.”
At least he didn’t deny it.
“She made emergencies feel normal.”
I looked at him.
“And I made home feel normal.”
His silence answered.
“So I became easier to neglect.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
He stepped closer.
“Elena—”
“You didn’t choose Serena because you loved her more.”
His expression shifted.
“You chose her because you thought I required nothing from you.”
I watched understanding move across his face.
“That may be worse.”
He closed his eyes briefly.
“Yes.”
We returned to the car.
At the lake house, Rebecca checked every room.
Adrian checked them again.
By midnight, rain struck the roof.
Rebecca fell asleep downstairs.
I lay awake in the guest room.
Eventually I heard footsteps outside my door.
“Adrian?”
Silence.
Then his voice.
“Yes.”
“What are you doing?”
“Standing here.”
“Why?”
“Because you told me I couldn’t come inside.”
I stared at the ceiling.
“You’re guarding the hallway?”
“Yes.”
“You have men for that.”
“You said no guards inside.”
I covered my face.
Impossible man.
“Go to sleep.”
“No.”
“Adrian.”
“Goodnight, Elena.”
I should have ignored him.
Instead, twenty minutes later, I opened the door.
He stood against the opposite wall.
Tie gone.
Sleeves rolled up.
Exhaustion visible beneath his eyes.
“You look terrible.”
“So do you.”
I glared.
“Pregnant women love hearing that.”
“I meant tired.”
“Excellent recovery.”
His mouth almost smiled.
Then he looked at my stomach.
The softness in his expression hurt me.
“Can I ask something?”
“What?”
“How far along?”
“Eleven weeks.”
He absorbed that.
“You knew for—”
“Three weeks.”
“And didn’t tell me.”
“I was waiting for you to be present long enough.”
His face fell.
I immediately hated that I felt guilty.
He nodded slowly.
“Fair.”
I stepped back toward my room.
“Elena.”
I stopped.
“I’m going to dismantle it.”
“What?”
“My organization.”
I stared.
“You don’t have to say ridiculous things because you think they’ll save our marriage.”
“I’m not trying to save the marriage tonight.”
That surprised me.
“What are you trying to save?”
His eyes dropped to my stomach.
“You.”
Then he looked at me.
“And whatever chance I have of becoming a man our child doesn’t have to fear.”
I wanted to believe him.
That frightened me more than the bullets.
Before I could answer, Adrian’s phone vibrated.
He looked at the screen.
His expression changed instantly.
“What?”
He handed it to me.
A photograph.
Taken through the lake house window.
Me.
Standing in the hallway.
Seconds earlier.
Below it was a message.
You can run as far as you want, Elena. The baby still belongs to the Vale family.
May you like
And beneath that:
Ask your husband what happened to his mother.
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