As I walked the dark streets searching for a late-night cab, I thought about Dax and LA. Maybe I'd move there so I'd have more support. I knew my cousin would help me any way he could. I could probably find work there if necessary. My blogging career would have to go on pause for a bit. I had residual income from my YouTube channel and enough savings for a move and a few months of figuring shit out. I could totally do this.
Right? Right. Yep. I could do this.
By the time I made it to Satin Sheets, it was empty of patrons. I let out a shaky breath and doubted what I was doing. Maybe I should have found an email address? Instagram? Sent a letter? Tried coming during the day? Holy shit, this was a mistake. What the hell was I thinking, coming here in the middle of the night?
I was about to knock on the front door and face the music, when the sound of crashing glass and a pained scream drew my attention. I was trembling when I circled the building. I could feel the fear deep in my gut, my intuition pleading with me to turn around and stop this. But I couldn't stop. My feet dragged me toward the sound, toward the cries of anguish and the stark bark of an angry man—a man I knew.
Nico.
“You're pathetic,” he cursed. I pressed my body against the brick and peered over the edge, looking down the dimly lit alley with wide eyes and a racing heart. There was a bloodied man slumped over on the ground. One of his fingers was bent at an awkward angle, likely broken. He coughed up blood, and Nico reared back his leg, then kicked him in the stomach. I pressed my fingers to my mouth to stifle a gasp.
Nico looked like the devil, wearing a black suit with his burning eyes on his target. The scowl on his perfect lips—lips I knew intimately—terrified me.
“You think you can take a bit off the top, old man? You think you can steal from me—from the Moreno name? You think you can hurt us? You hurt the wrong person. You're a dead man.” Nico pulled out a gun that was holstered to his side and aimed it at the man.
I should have squeezed my eyes shut. I should have run the fuck away. But I watched. I stared as Nico pulled the trigger, lodging a bullet in the stranger's skull.
I'd expected a boom, but his death was silent and swift. My heart raced. Shock coursed through me. I didn't feel an instant sense of horror. It crept up on me as the disbelief slipped away.
Fuck. I just witnessed a murder. Holy shit. This was bad. So bad.
“Clean it up,” Nico ordered to a suited man standing by, and I worked up the courage to leave my spot against the side of the building and walk back to my apartment.
I couldn't let Nico anywhere near my child. I was right to think he was into some criminal shit. He just killed a man. I wasn't a mafia wife. I wasn't prepared to raise a child with a monster. Even though Nico saved my life, I still didn't know him well enough to trust that we would be safe in his world.
And I wasn't all too familiar with criminal politics, but the mafia didn't like to leave any witnesses. What if someone saw me watching? I couldn't go to the police. They wouldn't protect me and my unborn child from Nico's wrath. What if—
“Hey, who are you?” a gruff voice asked as I passed the front door to Satin Sheets. I looked over my shoulder and nearly tripped over my feet when a bald man with bulging veins at his temples glared at me.
“Just going home...”
I picked up the pace and he took a step closer to me. I felt stuck. If I ran, he'd know I was suspicious. If I stayed...
I walked faster and he started following me.
“Stop. Let me talk to you for a minute.”
I swallowed and started to run; thankful I'd worn tennis shoes. Nausea rolled within me, the adrenaline and shock at seeing someone murdered finally settling in. The blood. The silence. The slumped form of his body. I pressed my hand to my mouth and kept going, until a rogue taxi came into view. Flagging it down, I got into the passenger seat just before one of Nico's goons caught up to me.
I was shaking. My skin felt like ice.
“Where to, miss?” the driver asked as he drove.
Where to? Where to? I couldn't stay here. A man like Nico had connections. He'd find me. What if there was security footage outside the club? What if they saw me watching? What if?
I had to leave. I had to pack a bag and get the fuck out of town. Say goodbye to my apartment, my belongings, and everything I knew.
“Los Angeles,” I whispered to myself before giving him the address of my apartment building. I was going to pack a back in ten minutes flat and head to the airport.
I was leaving the city and raising the baby far, far away from Nico Moreno.
Chapter Seven
Two years later
“Who is your favorite uncle? Hmm? Who is it?” The brightest little giggle broke out and I rolled my eyes. Dax loved making Viviana laugh. My daughter had him wrapped around her little finger. “Are you going to be a good girl for the babysitter while Uncle Dax and Mommy go out, hmm? I know you are. I know you are! You're such a perfect little girl, right? You can do no wrong. I don't care what anyone says.”
I was putting on my earring as I turned the corner to stare at my cousin as he cooed at my baby. She was a little over eighteen months now, and she could charm anyone into doing anything. She had dark hair, light brown eyes, and thick lashes that cast shadows on the plump little cheeks. She had her father's devastatingly good looks and my gentle heart. My cousin looked silly with all his tattoos and muscles falling at the feet of a one-year-old.
“You're going to give her an ego,” I joked. Dax turned to see me and tossed me a friendly smile.
“I haven't seen her in six whole hours. I was just trying to remind her that she's perfect.”
“Oh. She knows,” I replied with a grin before walking over to my baby and picking her up out of her crib. She rested her head against my chest and mumbled something incoherent.
“I'm excited for tonight. Lydia Love is back in business, and now I get to go to all the hottest clubs in LA.”
Dax knew all about Nico and what I'd witnessed. Two years ago, I showed up on his doorstep crying and carrying everything I owned in a suitcase. He got me a job as a cocktail waitress at the bar he worked at and when I had my daughter, he was sitting outside the room with his ear pressed to the door so he could hear her first cry. I had the best family in the world, and he stepped up to care for my daughter and me.
And Dax was now the reason I was going to start working with clubs again—this time as a consultant instead of a blogger. I missed my following and the platform I'd built from the ground up, but it was worth it to be safe for my daughter. Even though Nico or his men never chased me down, I couldn't risk getting on their radar. I wasn't sure if they knew I'd seen what happened that fateful night in the alley, and I refused to risk it. Being a single mom was difficult, but her safety was the most important thing to me.
“You ready?” I asked Dax. Our babysitter had just arrived.
“Ready,” he replied.
I hugged my sweet baby and reluctantly set her back down. I felt off about leaving tonight but chalked it up to nerves about starting my consulting business. I could do this.
“I'm so proud of you,” Dax said as we stepped outside my apartment building. “You're getting back to it, raising the cutest baby I've ever seen, and just thriving.”