Page 50 of Secret Baby for the Mafia Don

I feel Luca quiver at Enzo’s words.

I presume that everyone in the Baldini family lets Luca throw his weight around because they recognize that his psyche requires this in order to thrive.

I doubt that Enzo very often lets the devil off the leash in front of Luca. In this way, my father offered me a very different kind of training for this life. I was never sheltered from the capacity of the dangerous men around me to lay waste to those who threatened them or the things that they wanted.

Carping at himself in Italian, Luca shoves the gun back into his holster, and yanks the door open. I hear his footsteps as he crosses the hall, and calls for Kate. There’s a small delay before I hear both of their feet on the marble floors, returning to the office.

I see Kate in my peripheral vision as she enters the room, and I can practically feel the terror washing off of her in waves. I’m sure she considered finding me dead on the office floor was a very real possibility.

She clears her throat and says, “Am I needed for something here?”

I look away from Enzo for the briefest of moments, allowing my gaze to get soft, to be open to her. “I want you to look at the deal that the Baldinis want me to sign. They forgot some important details, the ones about you and Mateo’s safety. I added them. I think you should check to make sure that there is nothing else missing.”

I hear her swallow. She darts a look around at the two Baldinis, then meets my gaze again. There is an open question hovering in her caramel gaze, but I don’t answer it. I just draw the papers closer to the edge of the desk and wave my fingers toward them in invitation.

She takes a tentative step forward and reaches for the documents like they are a snake that might bite her.

The silence in the room is thick as she shuffles through the documents. I feel proud of her that she is being so thorough.

If nothing else, the Baldini boys deserve to be uncomfortable for a few minutes. Luca is already just about to unravel solely due to this small delay. It makes my heart sing with pleasure to force him to be patient for a few more minutes.

“I want to add something else about Mateo,” Kate says. She coughs partway through the sentence as if her throat is too tight to speak.

“Enzo…” Luca starts to say, but Enzo cuts him off immediately.

“Shut up, Luca,” he says sharply. He doesn’t even look at Luca. Luca’s irritation fills the room but he shuts his mouth and subsides to lean against the wall behind the desk, with a surly look on his face.

“Here,” I tell her, passing her a pen. Our fingers brush as I give her the small item and the zing of pleasure that skips across my skin surprises me. I realize that she is staring at me, and I manage a tiny smile for her which she returns with wobbly lips.

The pen scratches as she writes another sentence below my handwritten clause. Her looping, open penmanship looks very different from my spiky, elegant cursive. I see Mateo’s name in the sentences that she has added to the document, but then it’s yanked from her hands by Luca, who has swarmed over to look at what she has written. The pen in her hand leaves a long mark on the page and I hear her suck in a sharp, irritated breath.

“The fuck is this?” Luca demands, skimming the new sentences that Kate has added to the document. “Enzo, we are NOT going to concede to this bullshit. She cannot legally give her child to Marco if she dies! He’s not one of us. We don’t have to take him in by way of Grazia. He would be a threat to us all, the child of this monster living among us for the rest of his life.”

Even I am surprised at what Luca is saying. My composure is shaken and I look at Kate. She is staring at me with a hard look in her eyes. She doesn’t trust me, even after today, even after last night.

The pain of her rejection feels like a knife scoring my skin.

How could she add something like this to the document? Why would she want our child to be left to Grazia, of all people? And the hell of it, I admit to myself, is that she is right that her life is in danger.

Ever since I found her in Mexico, and the Baldinis learned who she was, her life has been in grave danger. Every day of her life in the future will be the same.

Enzo takes the document from his brother and reads it hastily. He shakes his head. “Kate, we can’t add something like this to a business document. I will need my lawyers to draft something that will document your wishes in this regard.” He gives her a level look. “Are you sure that this is what you want?”

She nods sharply, her lush mouth set in a firm line. “I’m sure.”

“Let me get my lawyer on the phone,” Enzo says, digging his cell phone out of his pocket. “We can pick this up tomorrow when the new documents have been drafted.”

“No,” I hear myself say, my voice harsh. “I will not consent to the deal with this added caveat. I will never consent to my child being handed over to a Baldini.”

Kate lifts her chin and gives me a stern look. I see her lower lip trembling, however. “You have no choice, Elio,” she says to me. “You cannot prove that he is your son. I have legal custody of him. You cannot stop me.”

The demon, which I had quieted enough to face signing documents for a deal I would never have agreed to in all of my life, rears its ugly head again.

I feel the rage transforming me as I lose hold of the devil within me and it rises to the surface. I see the moment that my appearance changes reflected in Kate’s terrified eyes.

She takes a step back, colliding with the edge of the desk and curling her fingers around it to steady herself.

“Kate,” I hiss, rising from the chair. “I can promise you that I will do terrible things to get my son back. Do not force my hand in this way.” I dip my chin and suck in a deep breath, trying to stop the words from falling from my lips. But I cannot. She has to know. “I will destroy anyone who hurts my son. Even you.”

---