Vengeance Aside (Wanted Men 0.5)(40)

Screw it.

She went left, and by the time she reached the end of the hall, she was kind of trotting, and her breath was coming too fast considering she was in great shape. Fucking Mr. Murdery had screwed her up. Prick bastard and his sweet but psychotic ass. She wanted to go back to his bedroom for a piece of it. But not only that. She wanted to cuddle with the prick. Then she wanted him to breed her! To give her a dozen pups. She wanted to make him laugh. Maybe run down to the kitchen and bring back some stupid snacks that she would feed into his idiot mouth before crawling on him and doing some nasty things to his moron body that she’d eye-fucked for twenty solid minutes when she’d first woken up. She’d been happy to see him laying next to her! Happy! Excited, even! Content! Because it had felt right! What was right?

“Goddamn him,” she growled as she rounded the corner.

“I’m sure many have,” Farah said from her slouch on a brocade loveseat that sat beneath a massive mirror overlooking the curved staircase. She let her phone that she’d been tapping into fall to her lap. “But you’re the first I’ve seen try it from inside this house while doing a pretty pissed walk of shame. So he did kiss you last night. And…” She looked at the chunky silver watch on her thin wrist. “Probably did a hell of a lot more considering the time.”

Dale went over and tried to compose herself as she planted her feet in front of her boss. “I met his father, if that’s what you mean. Can you call me a taxi, please?”

The irreverent humor twisting Farah’s lips disappeared as she hopped to her feet. She and Dale were similarly dressed, Farah in white shorts and a black tee, and Dale in black shorts and a white tee that she’d found in the closet that was as big as the bedroom she’d had growing up. There hadn’t been a few things for her. The right side had been fully stocked! With clothes, shoes, boots, coats, pajamas, bathing suits, underthings…all in her size! All beautiful! All bought for her!

“What do you mean ‘you met his father?’” Farah demanded.

“Just that. He took me to the hospital at four in the morning, and I told his poor dad that Lukas and I weren’t going to talk when we got home because we were going to be too busy making babies! I said that, Farah! Oh, Gooood,” she moaned as she banged the palm of her hand on her forehead. “Am I even supposed to be talking to you? Is someone going to kill me for being disloyal? Or will he just deny me sex? Because that would do it. Ugh…I don’t know what the fuck is happening to me.”

Farah pulled her down to the loveseat. “Okay. Let’s back up. And, yeah, you can talk to me, you dunce. Why do you think someone’s going to kill you for that?”

“Because your in-laws are the fucking mob,” she mumbled as she rubbed her prickling eyes.

“What?”

She dropped her hands and looked at her boss’s shocked expression.

“What did you say?” Farah breathed.

“Uh…I…um…” Oh, no…

Farah dropped the expression and grinned as she punched Dale’s shoulder—her massive wedding ring nearly punctured the skin. “I’m just fucking with you. I know who my husband and his band of merry men are.”

Dale moaned and clutched at her stomach, not appreciating the warped humor. “You people are so messed up.”

“Guess you’ll fit right in. Now. Tell me what happened. Everything. And don’t worry about Lukas. He knows I’ll get the story out of you at some point so it might as well be this morning. Maybe I can help.”

Dale wasn’t sure about that, but she started talking anyway, telling Farah about bumping into Lukas, kissing him, the murder, waking in his bed, the dogs, the hospital visit. “Is he mentally unbalanced? Do I need to disappear because he’s going to come after me when you call me that taxi?”

“Uh, sorry, sweetie, but Mama ain’t risking that man’s wrath by calling you no yellow car.”

Dale gaped. “What? But I just explained to you how crazy he is! He said he wants to combine his DNA with mine! He talks about love and fate the way we talk about makeup and donuts! He thinks he loves me!” she hissed.

An excited light appeared in her boss’s eyes. “He does? Wait. You guys are going to have babies? In this house?” She jerked Dale against her in a spontaneous hug. “That’s the best news I’ve heard in forever. You don’t know how badly Kostya wants grandchildren. I wonder what he said to move Lukas along. He told us he was going to put a scare into…” She looked down toward the door, and a slow smile came over her face. “Ooooh. That’s what Sammy meant…wow. What a low blow,” she murmured. “Poor Lukas.” She focused on Dale again. “Sorry. I just realized my father-in-law isn’t above using a near death experience to his advantage. What I can’t believe is that Lukas fell for it. But our guys do love their papa.” She looked down the stairs again. “I can’t wait to get to the hospital so I can see what he thought of you.”

“You do realize I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Dale said as she tried to control her temper, which was coming to a nice simmer. “But back to my problem; if you want babies in this house, why don’t you have them?”

“How I wish.”

The wistful note in Farah’s voice popped Dale’s all-about-me bubble. “You wish? What does that…does Samuel not want kids yet?”