Page 40 of Mafia Don's Secret Baby

He pulled back just long enough to gather me in his arms again.

In my ear, he whispered. “Do you have the panties we bought at the last store?”

I jerked back slightly, a laugh rushing from me as I hit his chest.

“You didn’t have any problem with the idea of trying them on in private,” he teased, hooking a thumb into the waist of my pants and pulling me closer.

“When I said later, I didn’t mean a half hour later.”

I ignored the tingling between my legs at his proximity, even as he lowered his head for another long kiss. I soaked it in, refusing to allow my mind to linger on the coming days and weeks of this war.

We were together, and for now, everything felt right. I didn’t know how long we’d be able to have moments like this, so I allowed myself to be fully present.

I allowed myself to ignore what was to come.

Chapter Fourteen

Lilianna Genovese

Matteo sat on the driver’s side of the old beat-up BMW with blacked-out windows, glancing around the street that we’d been scoping out for the past two hours in near silence. This was familiar. This was something I’d grown accustomed to in my years as a PI. Sitting in a car and staring at people’s houses and businesses were my specialty, and I found myself keenly focused on my surroundings.

Matteo seemed just as intent as he continued checking the rearview mirrors.

My eyes caught on the same man who had strolled down the sidewalk three separate times in the past twenty minutes. He glanced around, eyes sweeping over all the cars in our vicinity. He couldn’t see us inside—not with the blacked-out windows—so his eyes veered right over us as he continued forward.

His lips moved as if he spoke to someone, and I squinted to make out a small bud in his ear.

“It looks like they have a lookout,” I mentioned, pointing discreetly to a man. “He’s gone by two other times, and he’s looking for something.”

“On the rooftop behind us,” Matteo gestured.

I ducked in my seat and peeked behind us. The top of someone’s head peeked over the roof’s ledge.

“They’re going to be here.”

I didn’t know why I spoke the words out loud. We knew they’d be here. It was a routine for them, but a part of me hadn’t believed it entirely. It felt impossible to believe that we were this close to getting the justice that we were owed.

Matteo reached into the backseat of the car and grabbed a long rifle with a scope. I eyed it warily as he began checking over the weapon and situating it in his grasp. This was why we were here. Matteo had made it clear to the Russian boss what would happen if he continued pursuing me, and he had continued. He didn’t care.

He deserved this.

Yet somehow, this didn’t feel right.

“You’re just going to… kill him?” I asked.

“That’s the plan.”

He said it so nonchalantly, like this was everyday business for him. Hell, it likely was.

I had had plenty of time to consider how today would go. I knew that Matteo would want to end it, and a part of me wanted that, too. I wanted to guarantee my son’s and my safety, but there was so much more to it. I still didn’t have my brother or father’s bodies, and these were likely the only people who could tell me where to find them. I needed to lay them to rest.

My eyes flashed to two people striding down the sidewalk and toward the tech shop doors, the smaller one carrying an empty bag as usual.

“There,” I whispered, pointing.

Vlad walked with a confidence that had me gritting my teeth, and Aelita strode coolly at his side. They walked as if they had no reason to be concerned. As if they hadn’t made two dangerous enemies in the past weeks.

Matteo leveled the rifle, training it on the figures on the sidewalk.

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