Claimed Mafia Bride by Mae Doyle
Jane
It’s every little girl’s dream room. There’s a twin size bed against a wall of windows that’s absolutely covered with every type of stuffed animal known to man. In the corner there’s a swing—an actual indoor swing—hanging from the ceiling. I recognize the fluffy white rug as the same one that’s in the room I woke up in and I suck in a breath, taking in the rest of the details.
It’s gorgeous, with cute prints on the wall that I have a feeling Annie helped pick out and a bookshelf loaded down with books taking up one whole wall. I can’t see in the closet, but if the room itself is any indication, it’s going to be packed with clothes and more toys.
“What is this?” I repeat, stepping inside to get a better look at everything. Trevor stays in the door, leaning against the frame as I walk in and turn in a circle. “When did you do this?”
“I had a little help while I was saving you,” he says. “You didn’t think that I was going to let Annie have a boring room in her new house, did you? She had a little help picking stuff out online, then we had some guys run out and gather it all up so that she’d have her dream room right away.”
I don’t know if I can breathe. This is what I wanted for Annie—a home with a father who really loved her—but is it too much to ask that it could be with her actual father? Trevor scares me. I don’t know if he’s a good man, don’t know if he has the capacity to really love her the way that I do, but if not, then what’s he doing?
“You can’t mean this,” I say to him, taking a step back from him. My body responds to his in a way that I’ve never felt with another man, and I know that to keep my head on straight, I need to keep my distance from him. If I’m too close to him then I feel like I get caught up in his orbit and suddenly am unable to think for myself. “This is a joke, Trevor. Don’t play me like this.”
He frowns, his gorgeous face twisted as he looks at me in confusion. “A joke? What the hell are you talking about, Jane? You think that I would let a little kid set up her dream room as a fucking joke?”
I don’t know. I honestly don’t know what I think right now, but I do know that I need to put some space between the two of us. How he can feel so confident about what he’s saying and doing and I feel so lost doesn’t make any sense to me, but I can’t seem to get my mind around what’s happening.
“I don’t think it’s a joke,” I manage, backing up until I’m sitting on the bed. Annie’s bed. “I just don’t know if you’ve thought this through. I don’t want you to think that you want us and then change your mind later. I can’t do that to Annie.”
“And you think that I can?”
I look up at him, which is a fucking mistake. Trevor Bonanno is perfection. He’s beautiful and strong and scary. He terrifies me and makes me wonder if I even have my head on straight. There’s something about him, something dark and dangerous in him that calls to me, and I don’t know if I can allow myself to let that part of me out.
“Listen, Jane, I don’t know what you thought was going to happen when I figured out that Annie was mine, but there wasn’t any way that you could hide the truth for me once I saw her. I know that. You know that. She’s my mini-me, Jane, and I’m never going to stop protecting her. You have to believe me. When have I ever lied to you?”
I hesitate, thinking fast. As much as it terrifies me, he hasn’t ever lied to me. He’s scared me, sure. He’s made me feel like the world is dangerous and he’s the only thing that can protect me, but I don’t think that he’s ever lied to me. In response to his question, I shake my head, and he grins.
“Right. And you think that I would start now? Even if you begged me, Jane, I couldn’t let the two of you go. I want to be her dad. I want to make a family with the two of you.”
Before answering, I drop my head down into my hands. It’s difficult for me to think straight. Being caught in this room like this, with him in the door so that I can’t sneak out, I feel trapped. But safe.
He won’t let anything happen to me.
“You really want this?” I ask, dragging my gaze back up to his face. “All of it? Me and Annie? The pain and drama that will come? The work that we’ll have to put into making this a good thing and not just something that you feel like you have to do?”
“You have to believe me,” Trevor says, crossing the room to pull me up from the bed. “I know that you’re scared, Jane, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but you can’t turn your back on the family that I want to give you.”
I want to believe him. God, I want to believe this man more than anything in the world. Trevor stands in front of me, his hands on mine, his eyes searching my face, and I still have to swallow hard to even try to remember how to speak. It just seems crazy to me that someone like him would actually want someone like me.
That we could build a life together after all of these years.
I thought that running when I found out that I was pregnant was the best thing that I could do for Annie, but what if I was wrong? I hate the thought that I was punishing her by keeping her father out of her life, but I thought that I was doing the right thing. I thought that I was saving her from a lifetime of pain.
That I was saving her from who her family is. The Bonannos are not kind. They’re not loving. They don’t give of themselves to other people to protect them, and yet that’s exactly what’s happening right here with Trevor.
I have no idea if what I’m about to do is a huge mistake or not, but I do know that I can’t wait any longer to find out.
“Okay,” I say, and that single word takes all of my power and self-control to utter. Even as I say it though, as I force it out from between my lips, I’m sure that I’m making the right decision. Trevor smiles at me and immediately kisses me, his lip gently against mine as we find our rhythm.
We don’t know each other well enough to kiss each other without first making sure that we’re on the same page. I’m sure that other parents could skip by this step and immediately feel at home touching and tasting each other, but Trevor and I are different.
“Trust me, Jane,” he says, and his voice cuts through all of the thoughts and worries swirling through my mind. “I’m going to take care of you and Annie. You’ll see.”
“I believe you.” There’s more that I want to tell him and more that I think he deserves to hear, but before I can say anything, my mom clears her throat.
“Thank God you two finally talked,” she says, looking from me to Trevor. He turned around when he heard her at the door and she gives him an appraising look before her eyes fall on me. “You and I have some things to talk about,” she says, and I feel my stomach drop.
It doesn’t matter how old I get, I think that those words coming from my mom are still going to strike fear in my heart.
“I’ll be watching TV with Annie,” he tells me, squeezing my hand before leaving the room. When he leaves, it feels like he takes all of the oxygen in the room with him and I sink back to the bed, tucking my knees up to my chest as I wait to hear what my mom has to say.
“When were you going to come clean with me about her father?” Without waiting for me to respond, she walks into the room and pulls me into a hug. “Did you think that I was going to be angry?”
I nod, not trusting that I can speak right now without crying. “Why wouldn’t you be? He’s dangerous, mom. His family runs this town with an iron fist. He kills people.”
“He saved me. And you.”
I pull back from her and notice for the first time the huge bandage sticking out of the top of her shirt. Sucking in a breath, I reach up and touch it, making her wince. “What the hell happened, Mom?”
Like it’s nothing, she flaps her hand at me, but when I keep staring at her, she finally speaks. “They shot me when they came for you,” she says. “Annie, thank God, was still in her room and they didn’t know that she was there. I can’t imagine what would have happened to her if they’d realized that she was in the house, but they didn’t.”
“Mom.” Tears spring to my eyes but I fight them back. This isn’t time for me to be sad. It’s time for me to support my mom.
“I’m fine. Trevor saved me. Got me care. Brought me here and I’ve been resting while Annie plays. I know that you’re scared, Jane, but you’re going to have to get over that, if not for you, then for Annie. She deserve a father—”
“I know,” I say, cutting her off. “But I don’t—”
“You didn’t let me finish. Jane, she deserves a father who will go to bat for her every single day, if that’s what she needs. She deserves someone who will always have her back, and so do you. Don’t even try to tell me that you don’t think that Trevor is that man.”
