Page 28 of Mafia Don's Secret Baby

Lilianna Genovese

I followed Matteo down an oceanside alleyway on the wealthiest part of the coast.

If anyone looked too long at us, they’d know we weren’t here for vacation. Despite the heat, I wore a long-sleeved black shirt and a bulletproof vest beneath it. Matteo wore something similar, combined with black cargo pants and boots.

I couldn’t stop myself from eyeing his form as we walked. I envisioned it as I’d seen it a few nights ago. In all the positions we’d explored. All the interesting ways he’d moved it. I bit my lip as my eyes caught on his ass.

I needed to focus on wherever he was taking me, not on his ass.

It was fortunately late enough that all the people in the surrounding hotels and apartments had hunkered in their rooms for the evening.

The only sound was the crashing waves that permeated the two rows of buildings and still reached us here.

We rounded the corner and found a handful of men in the dead-end part of the alleyway. One sat in the back of a van, legs swinging back and forth as he scanned the screen of his phone. Two stood to the side in a hushed conversation that didn’t reach my ears, and the last two—Matteo’s men—watched the other three keenly.

“What do we have here?” Matteo asked, clapping his hands together and disturbing the silence.

The three men surrounding the van stood taller, the central one tucking his phone into a pocket.

“These are all the weapons we could get our hands on from the remaining Genovese warehouses,” the person in the center said. I looked more closely at her, realizing that she wasn’t the man I’d assumed her to be in the dark. She had short hair and a wide build, but feminine curves rested beneath her black clothing.

Matteo moved closer, and I followed. “This is all?” he asked.

The man on the far left came closer, smacking his lips. “We did our best, Costello.”

The woman spoke again. “Any weapons that were salvaged by the remaining Genovese family and employees won’t be seen again. Not without an agreed-upon leader. For now, they’re disbanded.”

“We need more,” Matteo said, clicking his tongue. “We’re taking out Vlad and his family. He declared war on us, and we don’t take that lightly.”

“We heard,” the third man said. He looked familiar, and I stared for a moment before the name fell into place.

“Jay,” I whispered.

He looked at me, his eyes hard for a moment before he recognized me, too. His face lit up. “I’ll be damned,” he said with a chuckle. “Lilianna, I didn’t expect to see you back after this debacle.”

I smiled sadly and nodded, but didn’t say more. I wasn’t even sure why I was here.

I’d told Matteo that I wanted to be involved in taking vengeance, not in random arms deals. But now that I looked into the eyes of Jay and two of my father’s soldiers, I knew there was a reason Matteo had insisted I come.

Matteo squared his shoulders as he talked to my father’s men. “What will it take to reunite your people to stand against Vlad with us?”

“They won’t reunite,” I told Matteo, shaking my head. “The people who worked for my dad were either loyal to him or indebted to him. They wouldn’t work for a stranger.”

I didn’t need to explain this to him. He knew the dynamics of the mafia better than anyone. Part of Dad’s employees were distant family members. The majority were the people who needed extra income—people willing to serve him for a paycheck. The people who trusted him with their lives, those people were usually related or connected to our relatives.

The others wanted him dead.

They were the people who knew their debts would be gone if he died.

“Not true,” the woman said, shaking her head. “Rumor has it, Alessio’s daughter is back. You, Lilianna. People would reconvene under you. Your whole family would. You have Alessio’s blood, and that’s all they need to trust you.”

Blood meant everything to our people. “I’m not his heir. I can’t be Don as a woman.”

“According to some,” she admitted. “But most people see your blood over your gender. It gives us more of a chance than someone else stepping up. Trust me, girl, someone will step up before long. You don’t want it to be Vlad or one of his allies.”

I glanced at Matteo and then back at my father’s people. My people.

“I left for a reason. I’m not taking over for my father.”

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