Page 49 of Secret Baby for the Mafia Don

The thing is, rage is potent, it’s terrifying and it’s powerful. Love makes you vulnerable. It places a chink in your armor like Achilles and the weakness that he was named for.

Love is a distraction that I cannot afford. If I have learned nothing else in this life of danger and retribution, it is that love is not a weapon that you can wield like a club.

When I have hustled the demon away from the surface of my thoughts and desires somewhat, I reach for the folder of documents.

I start to skim through them, a wry smile twitching my lips. These arrogant bastards.

They think to strip me of the most valuable trade that I possess without giving me anything in return. Even if I do have to concede to this deal, as soon as my fiancée and son are safe and secure, I am going to come back to this ostentatious, featureless house and tear them limb from limb. I might even make their wives watch.

“This isn’t a trade,” I scoff, my voice surprisingly level despite the clamor of anger battering around inside of me. I glance at Luca and see that the stupid bastard is smirking at me.

They think that they have me cornered. And in truth, they do, but only for this moment. The demon of violence inside of me licks its lips in anticipation of the retribution that it will get to exact.

Enzo smiles slowly. “Why, yes it is, La Rosa,” he argues. “You give us what we want, and we don’t put a bullet in the heads of your soon-to-be-wife and your little boy.”

I set my teeth and look down at the documents on the desk again. I lift my gaze to Enzo, a sudden thought occurring to me.

“There’s nothing in here about what happens to them if I agree to this deal” I observe. “I’m not signing anything without that condition being added.”

Luca scowls. “You bastard,” he says aggressively. “This has all been through our lawyers. It’s airtight legally. Do you expect us to write new clauses on a business document by hand?”

I slant a bored glance at him. He reminds me of nothing so much as a Banty rooster, annoyed at getting wet in the rain. I decide I won’t offer him any more of my attention. Enzo is the real businessman at the table. Luca is just a slavering attack dog.

“I don’t care if we add the clause with a pen dipped in blood,” I saw, my voice a bored drawl that doesn’t hint at the chaos inside of me. “It’s going into the document or I’m not agreeing to a goddamn thing.”

“You would value your child so little that you would…” Luca snarls, but Enzo lifts a hand to silence him.

“Here,” he says, passing me an expensive pen. “Add your clause about your family.”

Family. The word feels like a gong being rung inside my mind.

Somehow, I have thought of Kate and her child as separate entities for all this time. Now, though, I realize that Enzo is right. I have a family. We are a unit.

If we are torn asunder, our family dies. I set my jaw. No one in my family is going to die if I have anything to say about it.

I pick up the pen and add a clause guaranteeing the safety of my child and Kate as soon as I have signed the documents on the desk. I pause, my hand hovering over the signature line. I set the pen down and lean back, linking my fingers together and placing them on my stomach.

“I want Kate to read this,” I say serenely.

“What?” Luca bolts to his feet, driving a hand through his dark hair.

I see him reach to his side for the gun that I know is holstered under his jacket. “Stop stalling, La Rosa. This game has gone on long enough.” He presses the cold muzzle of the gun to my head, but I never look at him.

My eyes are trained on Enzo.

Enzo and I look at one another in silence, two Grim Reapers standing on either side of the River Styx. I distantly hear Luca blathering on, cajoling me to sign, whining to his brother about something but my focus has narrowed to Enzo’s face.

“Luca, get Kate,” Enzo says softly.

“Enzo, he’s stalling! Don’t give in to his stupid games! I could just shoot him in the leg, soften him up. We just need to make him sign.” He angles the gun down at my thigh, but still, I don’t look at him.

Enzo’s steel grey eyes shift to Luca and he narrows his gaze. “Luca, I swear to God. Are you the biggest fucking idiot alive? Shoot him? With my children in the next room? Do you think that he will be more likely to sign something after he goes to the hospital?”

Enzo mutters to himself in Italian, pressing his fingers to the bridge of his nose. When he opens his eyes again, they are alive with menace and for the first time since I have known him, I see the dangerous intent that has made Enzo the kingpin of this family.

My own interior devil smiles its approval when confronted with the sight of a being it can understand completely.

“Luca,” Enzo says in a measured tone of voice, “so help me God, if you don’t go get Kate, I will shoot you in the head so that the rest of us can live in peace.”

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