My Sam. My baby.
“My family’s going to kill me,” she whispered. “Do you have any clue what they do to girls like me? They’ll ship me back to Ireland and make me become a nun. Or they’ll force me to give up the baby, or worse. My dad is Colm Healy’s brother, I just call him Uncle Colm like everyone else, but you know who he is, right? I mean, you were at that party, so you have to know who Colm Healy is, right?”
“I know him,” I said softly, and felt a pit of dread open up in my stomach.
The girl wasn’t just a member of the Healy family. She was straight up in the Healy family, one of the damn blood relatives. I didn’t think any of them went to those fuck parties, but clearly I was wrong.
If her dad was Colm’s brother, that meant she was important.
And I’d gotten her pregnant.
“What am I going to do?” she asked. “I can’t tell my dad, but I can’t keep this secret forever. I’m freaking out and I’m so sorry I’m dumping this on you, I know you didn’t ask for it, but—”
“Come stay with me,” I said. “You can stay with me for a while. I can protect you.”
Her mouth opened then closed. She looked like she wanted to say something, but only shook her head. “They’d come looking.”
“They won’t find you.” I put a hand on her leg. “Come stay with me, for a little while at least. I’ll keep you safe until you figure out what to do.”
This was a mistake. That much was obvious. The girl was blood Healy and I was a Valentino. The Don would kill me for getting her pregnant, and he’d kill me twice for bringing her back to my place, but I couldn’t leave her here to suffer. If her family was going to do something awful to her, then I had to help her.
She was my Sam and she was pregnant with my baby.
Even if bringing her home with me was a massive mistake and could have some serious consequences, I didn’t care. She needed help. I needed to take care of her.
That was all that mattered.
“I can’t ask that from you,” she said. “You don’t get it. They’ll come looking.”
“Let them,” I said. “Come to my place, at least for tonight.” I squeezed her leg gently. “One night, remember?”
She smiled a little. “One night,” she said. “The last time we did just one night, I ended up pregnant.”
“Can’t get pregnant again. Not for a while, anyway.”
Her smile faded. “God, I don’t know.”
“Go talk to your friend, see what she thinks. But I promise you, Sam, I can keep you safe. Even if you just need a place to crash for a night, or a few days, or whatever you want. Come back home with me.”
She stared into my eyes like she wanted to read something there then jumped up from her stool. “I’ll be right back.” And she left me, marching back over to her friend. She sat down and the girls began talking.
I drank down my beer fast. The Healy guys were staring at me now and it was time to get the fuck out of there. If Sam was blood Healy, then those goons knew exactly who she was. Once I walked out of this place with her by my side, there was going to be trouble. No fucking way those guys wouldn’t do something stupid.
My mind raced, thinking back to that night, trying to remember what I told her about myself. I didn’t say much—but I did heavily imply that I was in the Healy family. She likely thought I was a member, but god, she was so wrong. The guys sitting at that table knew the trust, they knew I wasn’t one of them, and the second I walked to that door with a blood Healy girl, they’d be fucking on me.
I asked for another beer, dropped some cash on the table, and started to plan. Sam and her friend kept looking at me, and I kept thinking, trying to pretend like I was waiting.
The young Healy guys, four of them in total, one with a shaved hair, the other two with faded buzz cuts, and all of them in baggy clothes like a bunch of fucking street idiots, they were all watching me carefully.
Suddenly, I was interesting.
Sam got up and came back over. She lingered next to my stool and I turned to face her. “Okay, Nessa thinks I should go with you and maybe we can—you know, talk about what to do.”
“Good,” I said, standing up. I finished off my beer and nodded to Nessa, who smiled back at me. “You’ve got a good friend there.”
“She’s the best.” She looked nervous. Fuck, it was cute. “Should we go?”