Page 43 of Mafia Don's Secret Baby

I shook my head and tossed my hat into the back seat. Nothing. They hadn’t spoken about anything of significance. “Something about the Trenton Event Center, but I didn’t get more than the name of the place.”

He made a sound of acknowledgment as he pulled onto the street and continued tailing them.

I didn’t expect him to speak again, so when he did, it jarred me. “You would make a good Don.”

My brows shot up my forehead in surprise. “Why do you say that? I thought I had too soft a heart.”

He glanced in the rearview and both side mirrors before taking a turn. “You do. But your outlook is different. Refreshing. We need someone like you. Someone who cares.”

“You care,” I reminded him hesitantly. Maybe he didn’t care about his enemies, but Matteo wasn’t heartless. “About some things, at least.”

“I would have shot them both in cold blood back there and never thought twice about it. I wouldn’t have cared that the little girl would have watched a grown man’s head explode. It wouldn’t have mattered whether they knew I pulled the trigger or not. I’m desensitized to the carnage, but you… It means something to you, and that’s what we need.” He nodded to himself. “A fresh perspective is what we need.”

“Maybe, but the issue remains. I can’t guarantee Callum’s safety here. Especially not once I make more enemies.”

Matteo glanced over at me. “Because of your blood, he won’t be safe anywhere you go. Not for long. At least as Don, you’ll have the resources to make him safe.”

The words struck a chord, but before I could consider them further, a car behind us caught my attention. I gnawed on my lower lip as it grew closer. Was it the same car that had been parked behind us at the market?

“Matteo, that car…”

“We’ve been made,” Matteo agreed. His posture straightened as he looked around the car rapidly, veering to the left and breaking away from Petrov’s car.

The car I stared at in our rearview gunned the engine and charged toward us. In a matter of seconds, I felt the impact of a car crashing into ours.

Chapter Fifteen

Matteo Costello

The impact threw my head forward, and I barely managed to swerve past a light pole before crashing the car into the side of a building. Screams from the street beyond brought my attention back to the present as my head swam. I moved a hand to the back of where my neck had cracked a handful of times and winced.

I glanced over at where Lilianna had already unfastened her belt. Her pained grimace grounded me as I grabbed for the handle of my door and pushed.

It didn’t budge.

The hood of the car smoked, and my side had taken the brunt of the impact. The mangled metal kept my door closed securely, but Lilianna managed to prop her door open far enough to squeeze through.

Gunshots exploded from behind us, and she squealed, ducking back into the car.

On instinct, I flung my body over hers. I glanced through the still intact rear window and saw the driver of the other car reloading a rifle in the front seat.

I grabbed my sidearm from my holster and lifted it, pulling the trigger twice. My ears rang from the sound inside the enclosed car, but the man jerked back and went limp.

“We’ve got to go!” I bellowed. Lilianna nodded, but she was already on it, slipping out the car door that she had managed to push slightly ajar again. I followed, using my body to shield her as much as possible. “I don’t know how many hostiles there are.”

“They got away,” Lilianna whispered, staring toward where the Petrov’s car had vanished with narrowed eyes.

“We’ll worry about that later.”

A few pedestrians rushed toward us to ask if we were all right, but I ignored all of them as a distant gunshot sounded. The sound of metal colliding with the car had me shoving Lilianna forward and toward the nearest building. The pedestrians around us scattered immediately, taking cover as if they were the ones being targeted.

She stumbled forward, and I noticed a jagged cut across her thigh. “Can you walk?”

“I’m fine,” Lilianna shouted as she continued on. Another gunshot.

This time, I heard the bullet graze by my ear as we opened the side door to the building and threw ourselves inside.

The dimness of the hallway made me blink a few times as my eyes adjusted, but Lilianna didn’t seem to notice. “Do we have a plan?” she asked.

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