Chapter 1 - The Call That Changed Everything
Dominic’s cold, obsidian gaze never left mine even as the private line on his mahogany desk shrilled for the fourth time. The red light blinked with a frantic urgency that usually meant gunfire or millions of dollars vanishing into the Chicago river. Yet he didn't rush to answer it. Instead, he took another slow, deliberate step toward me, cutting off the vast space of his penthouse office until the faint scent of cedarwood and dangerous power crowded out the ginger tea in my hands.
"You’re shaking, Penny," he murmured, his deep baritone sending involuntary tremors down my spine.
"It was an errand, Mr. Bellano. Just personal business," I lied again, clutching my leather tote tighter against my ribs, desperate to shield the tiny black-and-white printout hidden beneath my wallet. Nine weeks and three days. A heartbeat like galloping horses.
The phone clicked automatically to speaker after the sixth ring. A gravelly, unmistakably sneering voice echoed through the high-ceilinged room.
"Dominic. Did you hear the good news from your medical board?"
It was Victor Raines. My breath caught in my throat, freezing every muscle in my body.
Dominic didn’t look at the console. He reached out with one broad, calloused hand, gently curling his fingers around the porcelain mug I was holding. His knuckles grazed mine, blistering hot against my icy skin. He took the tea from me and set it carefully on a side table, his eyes anchored entirely on my widening pupils.
"You're calling on an executive frequency, Victor," Dominic said softly, though the stillness in his frame was deadlier than a raised gun. "State your business before I trace the relay and take the hand you dial with."
Raines chuckled, a wet, rattling sound that turned my stomach. "Just checking on your little bird. Dr. Chen at the Michigan Avenue clinic owes me twenty million in gambling markers, Bellano. He’s very chatty when he’s terrified. Fancy that. Your prim, perfect secretary visiting a discrete prenatal clinic under an alias. Carrying a prize so priceless it could bring your entire empire to its knees."
The blood drained from my face so fast the room tilted. Dominic caught my elbow, his grip ironclad and unyielding, keeping me upright before my knees could hit the polished marble floor.
"She is under my personal protection," Dominic said, his voice dropping into a register that made the glass windows vibrate against the biting Chicago wind. "If you breathe in her direction, if your men even step on the same sidewalk as her, I will dismantle your family brick by brick."
"Protection?" Raines sneered. "Does she even know what she's carrying, Dominic? A target on her back. We’ll be seeing each other soon, little Penny."
The line went dead.
The silence that followed was suffocating. I tried to pull back, to scramble for the elevator and flee into the sprawling crowds of the city, but Dominic’s arm encircled my waist, pulling me firmly against his broad chest.
"You were going to run," he said, not as an accusation, but as an undeniable fact. His hand drifted down from my hip, resting squarely and possessively over my lower abdomen. "You were going to pack a bag and disappear to Iowa with my flesh and blood."
I looked up into his eyes, terrified, defenseless, and utterly exposed. "How did you know?"
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"I know everything that touches you, Penny," he whispered against my ear, his voice dark with raw, possessive intent. "And now, you never leave my sight again."
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