Chapter 29 Problems - Vincent
I probably smell like my wife's pussy when I make my way downstairs to the library that doubles as my father's office, but if I could bottle the smell, I would.
He's been doing business less, allowing me to start running things in the event that he retires. I don't always like my father, but I respect him.
"Everything good at the lake house?" He's standing in front of the windows with his hands in his pockets.
He never asks about the lake house, it's a sensitive topic to him. It belonged to my mother's parents, and it was a place that brought her happiness.
In this house, my mother's name never gets mentioned.
"It's still standing if that is what you want to know."
He turns to me, his expression unreadable. "I think it's a great place if you're raising kids."
And in comes the elephant in the room.
Amber being pregnant.
"What the hell were you thinking?" There's disappointment in his voice. "You do all these great business deals, levelling up finances, but you get a whore pregnant. This does not look good for you, Vincent."
I rub my eyes, the smell of Lily's juice still evident on my fingers.
"If she's really pregnant, and if the baby is mine, she tricked me in some way." It sounds stupid, getting tricked by a girl like Amber.
I honestly thought she wasn't the smartest in the bunch, she was certainly not in my bed for the conversation. I guess the joke is on me.
"Then you fucking trick her out of it or do something." Father says harshly. "Because trust me, you don't want me to handle it. I won't be so nice, especially since this is fucking with the deal we have going on with the Irish."
"What do you mean?" I narrow my eyes.
As far as I'm concerned, the deal with the Irish is done and dusted since Lily and I said I do. Yes, it becomes set in cement when she births a child, but both families know a child doesn't just happen overnight.
"Well, maybe your girlfriend is smarter than you think, because this morning I got a phone call from Lily's father asking for information about an alleged child that you fathered." Father goes to the bar and pours a stiff brandy, obviously agitated. "A baby that is not with his daughter."
When exactly would Amber have done all of this? And how should she know how to get in contact with the Sullivans in the first place?
"So you better clear this up very fast, before Sullivan comes through these gates and takes back his daughter."
Panic rips through me, the thought of Lily being taken from me enough to make me want to kill someone.
"He can't do that, can he?"
"He can if we don't hold up our end of the bargain." Father throws back the brandy. "You getting someone else knocked up is definitely not part of the bargain."
I honestly don't care about Amber being pregnant, even if it might be my child. She has to get rid of it, I'll pay her if she wants.
Maybe she thought this child was her big paycheck, she didn't want to work anyway. Or maybe she thought I would take care of her for the rest of her life if she had my child.
Whatever her plans were, she can kiss them goodbye, because I'll get a doctor myself to abort that baby.
Lily doesn't know this yet, but I could be a bad, bad man, and I don't let people get in the way of what I want.
"I'll take care of it."
"Good." Father gives me a rare smile. "I quite like the Sullivan girl, she has a lot of fire, pun intended."
I have to smirk, liking that he appreciates her the way I do. Some men might have thought she would be a little too high maintenance, but she's just perfect for me.
I should go check on her, she's probably burning the house down as we speak, but instead I call Elio who escorted Amber from the house.
He doesn't pick up.
I probably call him three more times, and he still doesn't answer, so I call out to Frank, my gut telling me that something is wrong.
"What did Elio say, where was he taking Amber?" I ask Frank.
He shrugs. "I assumed he would be taking her back to her place. Why?"
"He's not answering, let's drive there."
He joins me and I quickly drive into the city to the apartment that I got for Amber. I take out two guns from the concealed compartment in my car before heading up.
The first suspicion is the unlocked door. Nobody leaves their door unlocked in the city.
The apartment looks like it hasn't been cleaned properly in a while. Dirty dishes are piled up in the sink, and there are laundry strewn over the couches in the living room.
That's why Amber didn't want to leave me, because there's nobody to clean up after her ass now.
I pull out my gun, making sure that Frank has my back. He's guarding the door, with his gun out as well and nods at me.
The apartment is quiet as I make my way to the bedrooms. The first bedroom is actually clean and tidy, that's probably the one she isn't using. There's nobody in the bathroom either.
I withdraw my gun when I get to the back bedroom and find my cousin sprawled on the bed with his shirt open and his pants unzipped, seemingly unconscious.
"Elio!" I go up to him and slap his face, but he doesn't respond.
Was he trying to fuck Amber while I was fucking Lily?
"Elio!" I slap him harder, but there's still no response from him. He's breathing, and I check his pulse. It's there, but it feels a little weak to me. "Frank! Get in here!"
I hear him running to the bedroom, his gun still pointed when he enters, before dropping it when he sees Elio lying on the bed.
"What the fuck?"
"Something is wrong with him, call 911."
There are no wounds that I can see, so I turn him over so I can inspect his back. There's a huge bump forming on the back of his head.
Somebody hit him. And hard.
And fucking Amber is nowhere in sight.