Page 28 of Mafia King's Secret Baby

“She held herself with resolve, Elio. She was a woman who knew what type of decision she made, and she was prepared to do it anyway.”

I had noticed that.

But if Caterina had agreed to this of her own accord, the question remained of why. There wasn’t any way she had been expecting to rekindle our former romance.

Was there?

“Now you see what I’m saying?” Gia sits back with a little smirk. “Baby girl wanted to have another shot at being your wife, and now she’s just a captive in a mansion in Florida.”

My heart gives a tiny, incrementally small, shudder.

Was it true? Had Caterina been hoping for another chance at us together?

No.

I crushed the thought as quickly as it popped in my head. I turned back to my sister. “You need to get back to Florida. She’sour most valuable asset, and she’s unguarded because you’re here instead, bothering me.”

“Elio,” Gia whined, drawing out the last vowels in my name. “It’s boring. You go watch her.”

“I can’t,” I snap.

On top of the rage that I have for the De Lucas, I run our regular enterprises as well. In my world, there is very little time to rest or relax. Even if our marriage had been real, I wouldn’t have been able to step away from the business.

While my father had largely only dealt with fellow Italians or Italian-Americans, my world had expanded substantially. Luxury goods from across Europe were still the main face of our organization, but beneath that, I dealt with every lowlife and gangster in multiple countries. Interpol would have a field day should they ever access my servers, and between them and the FBI, I would be eaten alive.

It takes a lot to keep the plates spinning that I do, especially when those plates are filled with the hardest criminals that Europe has to offer.

Gia sighs like I am somehow deeply offending her. “Elio. At least come with me so I’m not so bored.”

“I don’t exist to entertain you, Gia.”

“You hate it here. At least in Florida it’s warm.”

I grit my teeth. She has me there. The cold makes both of us angry. We share our mother’s need for sunlight and warmth.

It was always father who excelled in the darkness.

“Gia…”

I’m interrupted by the unmistakable rap of gunfire.

Instinctively Gia and I duck. The window shatters as bullets spray through it, and glass rains down on us in a glittering cloud.

The spray lasts all of ten seconds before I hear shouting, one more crack of a bullet, and then it’s just the whistle of the cold winter wind through the open window.

I glance over at Gia, who is under the chair. “Are you hurt?”

“No, I’m good,” she calls out and stands. Cautiously, she peers down at the scene below us and curses. “Fuck. Looks like it’s just one guy, and he’s dead.”

Fuck.

My phone vibrates and I grab it. Nico, my second in command.

I pick it up.

“Who the hell was that?” I snap into the phone.

Nico growls his response. “I don’t know, boss. Whoever it is he’s dead now, and he looks… like a nobody. Just a guy in a coat and shit. No ID, no markings, no nothing. Do you think it could be the De Luca’s?”

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