Page 6 of Devil Seeks Nanny

BRUNO

“Are you coming out tonight?” Raf asks as he and Leo make their way toward the front door of my place.

Leo scoffs like he already knows my answer. He most likely does. I fix Raf with a look, unbuttoning the cuffs of my shirt and rolling the sleeves up my forearms. “I’m staying in with the kids,” I tell him.

I prefer staying at home with my kids over going out for a drink or two, and I haven’t been able to do so these last few nights because of a business I had to take care of. By the time I’d get home, Monica and Matteo would already be in bed, so I wouldn’t get to see them until the next morning.

As Raf opens the door, Leo glances at me and asks, “Did Diana reach out about being the nanny?”

My jaw clenches in mild irritation, remembering this headache that’s been pulsing for days. I still don’t have a replacement for Gloria. “Not yet,” I say, but I’m unsure if she ever will. She seemed pretty firm in her refusal, which is unfortunate for me.

Realistically, I could threaten her into the job, but then again, I wouldn’t want someone I forced into my home to take care of my kids. It would bring their safety into question, which is why I’m trying to find a good, qualified nanny in the first place.

Truthfully, while part of me hopes she’ll take the job for the sake of my kids, I’m also wondering if it would be a good idea to have her here. Living in my house. It has been difficult to get her out of my head—from the moment I saw her picture in the file to seeing her in person in my car, she has been stuck in my head. She had been more stunning in person than I could’ve ever imagined, and the idea of her living in my home, seeing her all of the time, could be dangerous.

But whatever my issues, I’ll have to put them aside if, by some miracle, Diana takes the job. Even if she rejected my initial offer—although, her doing so to my face was impressive. The other nannies that rejected the offer hadn’t even met me, but they heard my name and immediately ran in the other direction. But Diana did so while looking me right in the eye, not even blinking. Interesting, indeed.

Once Raf and Leo are gone, I walk to the living room where Monica and Matteo are sitting on the ground around the coffee table, crayons and markers strewn about as they color. Opposite of them, the TV is playing one of the Ice Age movies, which they watch at the same time.

Monica spots me and grins, sitting up on her knees as she asks, “Daddy, you wanna color with us?”

I smile. “Sure, sweetheart,” I say, my sock-clad feet padding softly against the carpet as I make my way over to them.

I sit down on the ground in between them, and Monica rips out a page from her book and slides it over to me. It’s a picture of a bunch of planets and stars, and I contently sit between them and grab a marker, beginning my coloring. It’s a typical yet contrasting end to my day compared to what I do throughout the day. The morning started with shooting a former employee in the leg for stealing from one of my properties, and the night is ending with coloring with my kids.

Quite typical, honestly.

“Daddy, can we get McDonald’s tomorrow?” Matteo asks, peering up at me with dark green eyes that both he and Monica inherited from their mother. They have dark hair like me, but the two of them look so much like their mother that it tugs at the part of my heart that only belongs to the three of them.

“McDonald’s, huh?” I hum as if I’m giving it considerable thought. As if I could say no to him or his sister. The twins rarely ever ask to do something, and when they do, I always give them what they want. The day they find out that there’s very little I’ll say no to them for, is the day I’m in real trouble. “Yes, I think we can do that.”

Matteo whispers out a triumphant, “Yes!” which only makes me grin while we continue coloring and watching the movie playing on the TV.

About fifteen minutes later, my phone rings, and I catch Raf’s name flashing across the screen. “What?” I answer, always avoiding the pleasantries.

“Boss, one of your properties just got burned to the ground,” Raf informs me, his voice stoic and steady.

My jaw clenches, eyebrows pulling together as I lean back until my back is against the couch. I bring one knee up, elbow propping on it as I rub my lower lip with my fingers. “Which one?”

“The bakery off the sixteenth street.”

My frown deepens. That bakery is the one where I get the kids their cookies every Saturday night. It’s not that significant of a property, nor is it significant for my business. I bought the building it’s in for other business ventures, and rather than shutting down the bakery and getting the previous owner to move, I just bought the whole thing. It’s less of a headache that way.

But either way, the bakery is one of my properties, so it’s my responsibility. “Find out what happened,” I tell Raf, voice clipped. Was it an accident, or done purposefully with malicious intent? Who would be stupid enough to burn down a property that is known to be owned by me?

My jaw clenches. There are a few people ballsy enough to do something like that.

“Got it, Boss,” Raf says before hanging up.

I exhale sharply, tossing my phone back on the couch. Monica glances at me. “Are you okay, Daddy?”

Kids. They pick up on everything.

I force out a smile, reaching out and briefly cupping her chin. “I’m fine, sweetheart,” I say before leaning forward once more. “Let’s finish coloring.”

A few hours later, the kids are in bed, so is Gloria, and I’m in my home office. There is a stack of files off one side of my desk, but one remains open in front of me. Diana Elliott’s smiling face stares back at me, blonde hair framing her heart-shaped face. The kindness that’s set in her features lightens up her entire face, and there’s something in my head that tells me if she were to become my kids’ nanny, they would get along really well.

And the longer I stare at her picture, the more I wonder if she and I would get along. How it would feel to see her in the hallways of my house. With my children.

---