Page 55 of Secret Baby for the Mafia Don

“That’s a stupid question,” I grind out, gripping my hands together in my lap.

Enzo sighs. “Yeah,” he agrees. “Yeah, it is.”

“I wish she had slit your brother’s throat,” I say to Enzo next.

I reach out and cautiously place my hand in Kate’s. Her fingers are chilly, but I am relieved that they aren’t cold like a corpse’s hands.

For a moment, I hate that I know so well what the fingers of a dead body feel like. I wonder in an abstracted way, what it would be like to have never once harmed anyone, to have no idea what taking a life is like.

Enzo chuckles and I shoot him a surprised glance. He drives a hand through his unruly hair. “I have had the same thought from time to time,” he admits. He shakes his head. “Luca is crazy. He can’t be fixed.”

“A bullet to the head would do that,” I say harshly. “That’s what you do to rabid dogs so they don’t bite people.”

Enzo levels a look at me. “I can’t shoot my own brother,” he says.

I scoff. “It’s not easy, but sometimes it has to be done,” I say.

Enzo’s grey eyes go wide for a moment, as he puts the pieces together.

Like everyone in the crime world, he heard about my brother’s untimely death. Now, he’s the first person to know how he died. I don’t care anymore.

I don’t feel anything but a twisting anxiety about Kate. I would probably give him all of my business contacts, all of my connections in the government, everything I knew about my business, just to make him go away and leave us alone.

“This isn’t over, Elio,” Enzo says.

I sigh. I feel like an old man. The energy that used to drive me to want to compete for better business deals and for more money has drained out of me during the past twelve hours. “For me, it is,” I say back.

“We still have the boy,” Enzo reminds me.

I shoot him a gimlet stare. “If you harm a single hair on his head, I will murder you both with my bare hands and I will make your children watch, I promise and I mean it.”

Enzo nods. “I believe that,” he assures me. “For now, he’s staying with us. I’ve called my sister to come stay with us for a while. She’s the only one without kids, so she can help take care of him. Did they say how long…” his voice trails off.

I shake my head. “They didn’t. It could be hours. It could be years. She could die between this breath and the next.”

“I see.” Enzo has the good grace to sound regretful. “Well, I’m going back to the house. You know where to find Mateo when you’re ready to sign the deal.”

I don’t bother responding to him. I don’t care about the deal or the business right now. I already called my brother and told him that he would have to take my place for the time being.

I didn’t go into much detail, but I asked him to have the lawyers start working out what I can do to get custody of my son.

My mother had told me to update her about Kate when I knew something. That was hours ago, so I guess it’s probably time to call her.

I take out my phone and dial my mother’s phone number. I don’t have the number saved as a contact in the burner phone that I brought with me to the Baldini house when I came to visit Kate, but I know her number by heart.

“Elio?” she says as she picks up.

“Mom,” I reply. I squeeze Kate’s fingers, willing her to respond, to react, to do something.

“How is she?” my mother asks me. Her voice sounds strained and concerned.

“She’s….not good, Mom,” I say and instantly I start sobbing.

My grief is uncontrollable, like the sound of my mother’s concerned voice has reduced me to a child again. I hear her asking me different questions, but all I can do is sob and choke.

I drop the phone onto the bed and press my head into Kate’s legs, a river of wrenching sadness pouring out of me.

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