Page 46 of Mafia King's Surprise Baby

Leo

I hightail it out of there and head to my apartment in Tribeca. I’m getting out of the shower when a message pings on my phone. It’s an image, revealing an invitation…to the memorial for Bianca Bonucci that’s to be held in two weeks.

Anger flares inside me. The fucker! He’s really going along with this. Just like that, he’s going to give up on her.

I storm out and take my car to Mattia’s house in Lenox Hill. Traffic’s a bitch, but I let it fuel my frustration instead of letting it get to me. I have a destination in mind, and I won’t back down before I’ve made my point.

Finally, I reach Mattia’s neighborhood and swing the car into his driveway. Once out, I storm to the front porch where I bang on the door instead of ringing the doorbell, rage coursing inside me. If I had my way, I would’ve broken something already, but I know I need to contain myself as exploding won’t do any of us any good.

Mattia opens the door. I brush past him inside and brandish my phone, the invite clearly displayed on the screen.

“What the fuck, man? You’re ready to write her off like this?”

“It’s a memorial, Leo. Something to remember her by—”

“I don’t need a fucking ceremony to remember, damn it! And neither should you. If you go ahead with this, no one will keep on looking for her.”

“You will, though.”

Hana’s quiet voice stops my rant in its stride. I turn toward her and frown. I haven’t seen much of her in recent weeks. Ever since the day I found out Bianca had gone missing, actually.

I don’t know why, but warning bells are ringing in my head as I gaze at her. Hana’s nowhere near the wreck Mattia currently is. Even his father is looking worse for wear lately, though I suspect it’s more from seeing his stepping stool on the syndicate’s ladder disappearing from his sight than the actual loss of his daughter.

I don’t know—something about Hana’s not adding up. She’s as calm as always, composed, maybe even harder-looking than before, if that makes sense. There’s a tension at the corners of her lips, a frown that wasn’t there before in between her eyebrows. She looks ready for battle.

Or maybe I have this completely wrong, a little voice inside tells me. Maybe she’s the one holding Mattia up, and she’s reaching the end of her tether. The frustration in her stance? It could be exhaustion, the fact they’re not catching a break ever since Bianca went missing. Mattia was already beating himself up that he didn’t pull her out of that alliance when she found out who Abrashi really was behind closed doors. He’s felt guilt about this, I know it. He was ready to kill the fucker himself in my restaurant.

This is taking its toll. On all of us, not just me. I have my reasons for wanting her back, but they do, too. Bianca is Mattia’s blood, the little sister he promised to protect. While I looked at thetwins as little nuisances, when Bianca was born and we were shown the pink-faced baby, I scrunched my face up. Mattia, he cradled her head in his little palms and kissed her softly on the forehead, already looking out for her.

I glance at my best friend now and take a long, deep look at him. He looks like he’s aged a decade in the past few weeks, since every lead we’ve had on Bianca hasn’t panned out.

This is killing him.

Hana steps up to me and places a hand on my arm. “Leo, you have to stop this. Look at him. Look at what this is doing to him.”

To us.She didn’t add this, but I heard it. There’s hardly any of the complicity they had together after their honeymoon. Mattia told me they were trying for a baby soon after the wedding. Still no good news so far, though.

“Hana, I…”

I was all set to say I’m sorry, but something’s stopping me from uttering those words. From giving up on the search for Bianca.

“Leo, drop it.”

Her tone is so hard, so cold, it takes me by surprise. I never would’ve thought she could even sound like this. Something’s definitely rubbing me the wrong way now, all my senses on high alert. My gut is telling me something’s going on, and I know not to ignore it.

“We need closure,” Mattia says softly.

He exchanges a glance with his wife, and Hana turns and leaves, her mouth a tight line, body tense and stiff. I’ve never seen herlike this.

Mattia’s phone rings. When he answers and turns away, I follow in Hana’s footsteps down the hallway. There’s something not adding up here. My heart starts to hammer away.

Do they know something about Bianca? Something they’re not telling me?

Have they found her but won’t disclose it?

The cold, calculated monster in me? He’s rearing his head up. The other monster, the one who fuels my blood? He’s taken center stage since I left Ardian Abrashi’s broken body in a cellar in Hell’s Kitchen for one of my father’scaposto find.

There’s something here—I know it.

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