Page 85 of Mafia King's Surprise Baby

I read the unspoken words:join us. And ultimately,marry her.

Over my dead body will I ever go near Paloma Salvatore. Even if she’s the last woman on Earth. Never mind Bianca has returned now, so this question is moot. No other woman, much less Don Salvatore’s daughter, will ever land me as theirs.

Thinking of Bianca reminds me why we are here. As Dons, we all sit at the table, ourconsigliere, if we have one, or our second in command standing behind us against the wall. Mattia’s thus here with me. We’re waiting for his father to arrive now. The Dons always settle in first.

Mattia and I went to his house last night, to discuss the strategy for this meeting. We’d agreed the news of Bianca’s reappearance should be delivered by him, as her elder and closest of kin. Never mind that Mattia’s at the head of their family now—as long as an older person is alive, they’re the nominal patriarch.

My mind hadn’t been on this meeting, though. Or it had been, just not as we planned for it to go. The USB stick Bianca hadgiven me had sat in the pocket of my suit. I’d already forwarded the files to my brothers. Sergio and Emilio are computer whizzes—there’s nothing they can’t find online. But as they always say, you need a red thread to cling to when going down the dark web. They actually call it a white rabbit, and that’s exactly what I provided them with the information on that key.

Bianca has done well to keep it securely. The fact she came back partly so she could deliver this intel to me? It warmed a part of me. She cares. She wanted to help me in this shaky position I’m in with the other Dons. Knowing what it’s like to be at their mercy, she didn’t want me to experience this. I get that she mainly came back because Enzo is my heir. She’s protecting her child. But she also thought of me in there, and I’m clinging to this notion. Having our son in our lives now, it’s thrown an unpicked grenade into our midst. The repercussions of that blowup are about to come.

I don’t know yet how to shield her and my child from them. She gave me a possible solution—with this intel from the Accountant’s diaries, I have something to go on with regarding the Dons. My brothers will also uncover all there is to find on them now they know where to look and for what. But blackmail? It’s something my father never did, a level he didn’t ever stoop to.

Will I have to, though? I hope not, but this, only time will tell.

A hush falls on the room when Roberto Bonucci is escorted in. Glances are exchanged, a few of the men looking at Mattia and consequently at me. Silence thrums, until Don Salvatore throws the gauntlet.

“To what do we owe the honor, Roberto?”

Anyone can hear the sarcasm dripping from his words. After all, it’s because Roberto Bonucci’s daughter didn’t marry an Abrashi that the war started. Too bad the man preening like a cocky peacock doesn’t reckon he also had the means to put a stop to said war, if he’d married his precious Paloma to one of them.

To his credit, Roberto seems unfazed. I never liked the smug countenance he could affect so easily, but today, this is working to his advantage.

He nods softly at all the Dons at the table, one by one. When his gaze returns to Don Salvatore, he starts to speak.

“As a member of this syndicate, my allegiance is to it,” he begins. “It is the reason why I felt it necessary to apprise you all of a development that has just happened.” He pauses, as if for emphasis. “My daughter, Bianca, has been found. She has returned home, safe and sound.”

It’s almost as if I can hear a ringing in the air, like the remnants of a stun grenade going off inside the room. Everyone is stunned, until everyone is in uproar. The questions fuse from all sides.

“What do you mean, she’s back?”

“So she was alive all this time?”

“How? Who hid her?”

“Why did she run?”

“She has to answer for this!”

This last one, of course, comes from Don Salvatore, who seems to have appointed himself as ourcapo di tutti capi, our godfather, the one at the head of what’s supposed to be a roundtable.

His words land onto me like the crack of a whip, and I’m speaking before I can even think about it.

“She owes you nothing.”

My quiet tone has somehow breached through the furor blanketing the room. Every pair of eyes turns to me.

“You don’t get a say,” one of the Dons says. “This is something the Bonucci family has to answer for. Roberto and Mattia.”

“It’s because she left that the war started,” Don Salvatore throws out. “We thought she was dead. And all this time, she was alive. Is it a coincidence she is suddenly back when the war is over? When good men have been killed over it, over her?”

He all but spat that last word, which got my hackles rising.

“It’s because ofyouthe war began. You could have married your daughter into their family,” I counter without raising my voice.

The fucker’s face turns red. “As if I would ever subject my daughter—”

“But he was?” I chin-nod to Roberto Bonucci.

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