Page 13 of Secret Baby for the Mafia Don

“Actually, no,” she says, dodging away from me. “I just want you all to leave me alone.”

“You’re still my betrothed,” I say, narrowing my eyes. My skin feels hot and tight. “I have remained faithful to you all this time, even if you haven’t been so loyal to me.”

I see some emotion flicker in her gaze. I’m not sure if it is regret or longing. My traitorous heart, the soft part that I keep hidden from sight, is desperate to know if she has remained celibate all these years, just like I have.

It’s not that I didn’t try to find comfort with other women. Believe me, I tried.

The trouble was, that they always fell short. No one else is like Kate, and my traitorous emotions and body haven’t stopped wanting her despite everything that has passed between us.

I hate living like a monk, but I cannot force myself to sleep with women who are not worthy of me and who don’t measure up to Kate.

“I’m not going anywhere with you, Elio,” Kate says again, backing up with her hands stretched out behind her. I can tell she’s feeling her way toward the double doors that lead from the reception area to this hallway area.

I start to move to flank her, only to come to a sudden halt when Luca Baldini places an arm around her throat and a gun to her head.

I swallow the immediate burst of anger that coils through me at his presence and the audacity of threatening her in this way.

Doesn’t he know that she’s mine? And no one takes what belongs to me.

“Baldini,” I say warmly, tucking my hands into the pockets of my slacks.

I need to play this right. Luca Baldini is one of the only people on earth who I know to be as capable of unthinking rage as myself.

Luca and I have equally bad reputations in our business. I fully believe him to be capable of shooting Kate in the head and then going back to dancing with his wife.

“La Rosa,” Luca says, a note of surprise in his voice. “Didn’t think you were on the guest list.”

“He wasn’t,” Grazia says with irritation.

I glance back over my shoulder and realize that it was the bride that I flung off me earlier. The little pinging noises were beads from her wedding dress scattering across the floor.

She is scooping the little decorations up off the floor with single-minded attention, but she does spare me a furious gaze. I turn away negligently, returning my attention to the woman I was supposed to marry who is now firmly imprisoned in Luca’s grasp.

“And yet, here I stand,” I say with a little smile.

I pace to the side a little so that I can see behind Luca. I note that his older brother, Enzo, is standing behind him, silently watching the action unfolding before him.

Enzo is Luca’s polar opposite; cool, calculating, slow to act. The fact that he is here means that Luca will likely behave himself.

“What do you want?” Enzo says to me, his eyes tracking my slow movements.

“Kate,” I say simply. “Marco can keep the bastard child. Kate is still engaged to me and I still intend to marry her. Many things depend on our marriage. Nothing has changed during the last seven years. She’s mine.”

Luca barks out a slightly unhinged laugh. “The mother of Marco’s bastard child? Oh, this is really getting interesting. Grazia, did you know about this?”

I don’t look back at Grazia, but I can positively feel the anger and frustration emanating from her small form. “No. Kate just told me who she was moments before…all of this happened.”

“It’s true,” Marco says, his voice sounding a little muffled. I hope that I broke his nose again. He deserved much worse, but I will have to be satisfied with causing him some pain for now.

Luca’s eyes narrow on Marco’s face. “Bastard,” he hisses. He must have tightened his grip on Kate, because she makes a strangled sound of alarm. “You lied to us! What makes you think I won’t just shoot her now, and then we can all be done with this little bit of theater?”

“Luca,” Enzo says soothingly. “We don’t know enough about what is going on here to risk that.”

“Just let her come with me,” I say to everyone in the room. “I don’t want to ruin this wedding, but I am perfectly willing to cause a scene to get what I want.”

“Don’t give me to him,” Kate pleads, her voice thin. My heart twinges with pain. I hate that she doesn’t want to leave with me.

She cannot still love Marco, not if he is getting married.

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