Page 53 of Mafia Baby

I stared at the phone for a moment, trying to decide how to handle this. The only option available to me was to play The Cobra’s game.

I needed to get to Gianna and the baby as soon as possible or they might not make it out alive. I would have to act like I was giving up willingly.

I do, I sent back.

I tapped my fingers on the table impatiently, watching the three little dots jumping as The Cobra messaged me back.

As I waited, I thought about Gianna and I having a baby. Would it be dark-haired like me, or have her light brown hair and light green eyes?

My heart pinches in my chest at the thought of a little me running around. Would I be able to be a good dad to our child? It had just been my mother and I until I was nearly grown and Vince took me in. While Vince had been kind to me, he wasn’t a conventional dad. No mob boss was.

Would I be able to take care of a baby and keep it safe? For that matter, could I keep Gianna safe? I hadn’t done a very good job of either one thus far. I scraped a hand down my face in frustration.

Was this bastard sending me a novel? Why was he still typing?

I will give you an address. No guns. I have a proposition for you that I just know you’ll love. It will make sure that Gianna is safe.

The three little dots showed back up, and then an address appeared below the message.

I’ll be there, I sent back.

I slammed my laptop shut, then hesitated. I didn’t want to put Gianna in danger, but I needed to tell Vince that I had a lead. It would probably be far too late by the time that he arrived, but at least he’d have a trail of breadcrumbs to follow.

I sent him a message saying I had a lead and was going to the address I had been provided via text. I told him that I would be there in about twenty minutes and that I understood if they were too late to help.

I saw that Vince was typing something back, but I had already wasted too much time. I locked my phone screen and raced out the door to get into my car.

I pulled out of the driveway with a squeal of tires, and drove much faster than the speed limit as I followed the navigation to the address I had been given.

I felt like every second that I was on the road was like a grain of sand slipping through the hourglass for Gianna.

Chapter Twenty

Gianna

I felt terrible.

They had given me a single bottle of tepid water and left me in what might have been the basement of some kind of warehouse.

They had blindfolded me before we arrived, but before they covered my eyes, I could tell that we were heading into the industrial part of the city.

By the time they tore the blindfold off my head, I was car sick, and my eyes hurt from the pressure of the cloth pressing against them.

“You should have stayed in the UK,” my brother had said to me, irritation in his voice as he threw the bottle of water at me where I was sprawled on the floor.

I had looked up at him as I struggled into a seated position. I felt a significant amount of satisfaction when I saw that he was sporting an impressive black eye from when I headbutted him in the SUV. I hoped it hurt.

“Nothing to say for yourself?” he goaded me. I remembered this game all too well. He had always been able to make me angry enough to bicker with him.

This time, I wouldn’t give in to him. I honestly had no idea who he was, this person who I had grown up with and loved. It was impossible to reconcile the memories of my brother with my knowledge of The Cobra.

How could he kidnap his own sister?

Will had started to pace back and forth in front of me, clearly enjoying holding court. “You have made this all so much easier than I thought it would be,” he told me. “You see, I knew that Reaper had come looking for The Cobra. However, I didn’t have any idea that you would be with him. I thought he would be smarter than that. He imagines himself to be a top-tier assassin. No professional would make such a stupid mistake.” He shook his head ruefully and then looked at me with disdain.

“And you,” he said, “sullying yourself with a low-life like that bastard brat. His mother was a crackhead, you know that? She danced at some dirty club until Vince took pity on him and took him in. He probably has no idea who his father is. He’s nobody from nowhere, but you, you’re a blue-blooded, full-Italian woman. You could have been married to any of the sons of the other powerful families in our line of work but you always acted like you were too good for the family business. If I had known that your flavor was mob boss, I would have found you someone who held real power.”

“I didn’t know our money came from this kind of thing,” I shot back. “What is it that we’re selling? Drugs? Prostitutes? Guns?”

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