Deadly Embrace by Jackie Collins (best 7 inch ereader .TXT) 📗

was very young. I guess he wasn’t that much older than me, although he had no idea I was only sixteen. I imagine he thought we were the same age. He was probably nineteen or twenty. Unfortunately it turned out to be a one-night event.’

‘And when you informed him you were pregnant, what did he do?’ Gemini asked.

‘I didn’t tell him.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because after our one night together, I never heard from him again. So…I decided to marry Sam.’

‘And pretend that Vincent is his?’

She nodded shamefacedly. ‘Yes.’

‘Perhaps something happened to your one-night lover. Life is like that.’

‘Maybe.’

‘At least if you’d told him you were pregnant, he could have helped support your son. Or do you not think he’s entitled to know he has one?’

‘No,’ she said fiercely. ‘He’s not. Vincent is mine. I’m the one who’s always been there for him, and I always will be.’

‘If that’s the way you feel…’ Gemini said.

‘Yes,’ Dani said, nodding vigorously. ‘That’s exactly how I feel.’

‘So…tonight, you will come?’

‘I don’t think so.’

‘You’re sure?’

‘Very sure.’

A few weeks later she threw Sam out. He staggered home at four in the morning, completely drunk, falling over furniture and spewing obscenities. Wearily she got out of bed and hurried downstairs, hoping to shut him up before he woke Vincent.

He wasn’t alone. There was a woman with him, a painted whore chugging from a half-full bottle of whiskey while draping herself all over him.

‘Whassamatter?’ Sam mumbled, giving Dani a bleary-eyed look. ‘Dontcha wanna join the party?’

‘Get out!’ she screamed, suddenly losing it. ‘Get out of my house and never come back!’

He left without a fight, the woman clinging on to him like a leech.

The next day Dani waited for him to come home, begging her forgiveness. Surprisingly, he didn’t.

A few months later Gemini suggested dinner with her friend.

This time she agreed.

And so she met Dean King, and almost fell in love.

Chapter Twenty-four

Michael: 1971

‘I’m getting an abortion and you’re paying for it,’ Beth announced, tossing back her long black hair, a defiant expression on her young face.

‘What?’ Michael replied, in shock. She’d invited him over to the house, and this was what she’d had to lay on him.

‘You heard,’ she said, as if she’d casually mentioned she was about to have root-canal work.

‘You gotta be kidding me,’ he said, pacing round the room. ‘I only slept with you once, and that was months ago.’

‘We did it twice in one night,’ she corrected. ‘You knocked me up, and now you’re paying to get rid of the kid.’

Christ! How had he ever got involved with this wild child? She was fucking insane! And so was he for going anywhere near her.

‘What the hell makes you think it’s mine?’ he demanded.

She threw him a scornful look. ‘Of course it’s yours. If you don’t believe me, we can take a blood test.’

He stared at this seductive child-woman, who was accusing him of knocking her up, and attempted to get his thoughts straight. Everything seemed to have happened so fast. It wasn’t Tina who’d been carried out to the ambulance that fateful night a year ago, it was the twins’ Aunt Gloria. She’d suffered a fatal heart attack in the middle of a sexy tango with Max. Poor Max had been plagued with guilt ever since.

After Gloria’s demise, the twins were on their own. The lawyer representing Gloria’s estate had arranged for them to remain in the house next door, with Max and Tina as their legal guardians.

By this time Michael had found a small apartment, and moved out. He’d decided it wasn’t worth trying to get back in with Vito Giovanni when he could be making good money elsewhere, so he’d taken the job Gus had offered him, and after a few successful runs, he’d become part of Gus’s crew in the Lucchese family.

He’d also finally contacted the number Karl Edgington had given him. A woman had answered the phone.

‘Michael Castellino,’ he’d said. ‘Karl told me to call.’

‘About time,’ she’d said. ‘Discuss nothing on the phone. Meet me tomorrow, four o’clock, outside the Plaza.’

‘How’ll I know you?’

‘I’ll find you.’

And she had. Her name was Warner Carlysle and she was a definite uptown beauty, tall, with auburn hair and a confident attitude. It turned out, much to Michael’s surprise, that she was Karl Edgington’s mistress. She was also the keeper of his cash, a million dollars in unmarked bills that the detectives who’d arrested him had known nothing about.

‘Karl wants to legitimize this money,’ she’d said, ‘and obviously he can’t. So, for a return of ten per cent, he wants you to slowly invest it in the market over a period of time.’

‘What if I blow it?’

‘You won’t. I’ll give you Karl’s instructions and a certain amount of cash at a time. This is a no-lose proposition.’

‘How come he trusts me?’

‘Karl is not as mild as you think. Screw him and you screw yourself. Follow instructions and everyone turns out a winner.’

Which is exactly what he’d done, and he was making plenty.

Christ! His one night with Beth had been a big mistake. However, it was his mistake, and now he had to pay the price.

She was seventeen and pregnant.

He was twenty-six and pissed.

‘Take the goddamn test,’ he said, reluctantly doing the right thing. ‘If it’s positive, I’ll marry you.’

‘Big deal,’ she said, thrusting out her lower lip. ‘I’m too young to sacrifice myself to marriage, and I’m certainly too young to have a baby. I’m getting rid of it, Michael, and you’re paying.’

This girl had balls bigger than his. ‘No,’ he said sharply. ‘I don’t believe in abortion.’

‘Who cares what you believe in?’

She was too much. ‘Are you listening to me?’ he said angrily. ‘No abortion.’

‘My plans do not include getting stuck with a baby at my age,’ she said, brown eyes flashing. ‘If you really want to know, I’m going to be a dress designer. The biggest and the best.’

She’d already dropped out of school, and was attending a fashion