Page 24 of Secret Baby for the Mafia Don

If someone had told me that being kidnapped would be so boring, I wouldn’t have believed them. As the child of a famous mob family, I had lived in fear of being taken from my family and beaten, or maybe even raped.

I had never considered dying from boredom after being kidnapped.

At first, I had thought that the Baldinis were naïve to allow me the complete run of the house. I had waited two days before I tried simply walking out the front gate with Mateo.

When we were stopped by the guards, I had regrouped and attempted to hide in one of the cars with Mateo, waiting for someone to leave to run errands. Mateo thought that was a fun game of hide and seek.

While I had been able to get us outside the gates of the house for a few moments, the security team had done their usual search of the vehicle before permitting it to leave the property and we had again been discovered.

After my second escape attempt, once Mateo was back with the other kids, Luca had slapped me around to reinforce his point.

He had reminded me that they would be willing to hurt Mateo if I kept on trying to leave without permission, and so I had stopped trying to escape for the moment.

I understood now why they allowed me to go where I felt like inside the compound. The walls were so heavily fortified that there was no way that I could climb over them, and the razor-sharp wire atop every square inch of the compound surround made getting over the walls incredibly risky, even if I could climb them somehow.

Between the security guards and the walls, the compound was as effective at keeping people in, as it was at keeping people out.

I tried not to let my spirits flag, but it was hard. I hadn’t been told anything further about Elio and I was beginning to think that he wasn’t going to agree to their demands to give up his trade routes for my safety.

While I knew that he might not care about my life that much, I had hoped that he would care about Mateo’s enough to attempt to deal with the Baldinis. Now that it had been two weeks, I was starting to lose hope.

I climb to my feet and stared at my reflection in the mirror. I look wan and my face is pinched with worry.

I haven’t been able to eat much. A lump of worry that feels as big as a softball has been lodged in my throat ever since I heard that the Baldinis told Elio that Mateo is his son.

I don’t even know if I would feel better if Mateo ended up with his father or not. There’s a very real possibility that I might not make it out of this situation alive, so it may not matter if I want Mateo to end up with Elio or not.

I have to admit that I don’t really know what kind of parent Elio would be. Certainly, Elio’s father was not a shining example of what a dad should be like. I remember him as a cold, handsome man, who treated his son like a sword he was sharpening before battle.

But I had always loved Elio’s two brothers. They were kind and gentle with me. I had been heartbroken when I heard that his youngest brother, Gianni, had died trying to iron out a trade deal in Russia.

Elio had been strained for weeks after Gianni’s death, but we had never talked about it. He didn’t share his feelings with me. I was only fit to share his cock, it seemed.

“Fuck,” I mutter to myself, turning away from the mirror. I need to stop thinking in this endless, frustrating loop. It’s not making things any easier for me.

“Get cleaned up.”

The male voice startled me so much that I gasp, and stumbled back against the sink. I glare at Luca Baldini when I see him standing in the doorway.

“Ever heard of knocking?” I spit at him.

He makes a bemused face. “I don’t knock to announce myself to maids.”

I sigh and straighten away from the sink. “Why should I get all gussied up? You tired of looking at the sad face of someone who has been kidnapped?”

He laughs lightly. “Nope. I don’t give a shit what you look like. You’re not my type.” He pulls out his phone and glances at it. “I thought you might want to look your best for your visitor.”

“Visitor?” I echo numbly. I wonder which Baldini family member he’s hoping to have me meet now.

“I thought you’d be more excited,” Luca says. He shrugs and turns to leave the room. “Maybe with some imagination La Rosa will be able to pretend that’s a sexy maid costume you have on.”

“Elio?” I say, coming to life a little. “Elio’s coming here?”

Luca grins like a predator at my interest. “Yes. Should be here in about fifteen minutes.”

I curse Luca roundly in Spanish, calling him every name in the book as I glare at him. I slip by him in the doorway, and hurry toward my room to make myself presentable.

“You forgot to call me a motherfucker!” he shouts after me in Spanish, and I hunch my shoulders. I forgot that he speaks fluent Spanish. However, he deserved all of the insults I just hurled at him and more.

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