Page 55 of A Seed Of Peril

His brows drew lower over his eyes. “We’re?”

I nodded, looking at my belly. “You have a new fan.” I lifted my head after a moment to see Dominic with his hand out.

“Come.”

I walked over to him and slipped my hand inside of his, curling my fingers around his hand. Standing behind him, I held his other hand and wrapped my arms around his bare chest, leaning into him. I kissed his cheek.

“Come to bed.” I rested my chin on his shoulder. “Please?”

“Soon.”

“Then tell me what’s wrong.” He looked at me. “You’ve been holed up in here all day. You’re avoiding us.” He looked back out at the room, sighing. I kissed his shoulder again and once more rested my chin on it. “Let me in. Let me help.”

He was clearly restless, his silence speaking for him. A part of me regretted inquiring.

He opened up, holding his focus on the room.

“You were right; Hectordidhave more skeletons in his closet. We found out that his wife had a hit on her by a group known in Russia as the Aleskis. They run that country.”

My stomach sunk. Part of the group that shot at our family; their car was Russian.Were the Aleskis after us now?

“We don’t know why they targeted Maria specifically,” Dominic explained further. “I’m still in contact with Peitrov as to any kind of motive, and I’m in the process of arranging some of my men and a handful of men from the other families to temporarily settle in Russia so we can gather more intel. The Baldomeros and Maccarones are on board.”

“Are they after us, too?” I asked, my voice small.

“The Aleskis?”

“Yeah.”

“Doubtful. I’m only arranging this as a precaution. I’m mainly curious about what triggered them to resort to murdering his wife and their unborn son. In this business, women and children are typically off-limits unless our hand is indisputably forced and the only way to save our skins is to break such a golden rule.”

I freed my hands and walked around Dominic, stopping a hair ahead of the piano. I loosely hugged myself, my uneasiness dancing on the tightrope of making me ill.

“Lilith?”

I looked back toward the floor before slowly turning around, biting the inside of my lip, fighting to will away the fear coursing through me, threatening to make me emotional. I began to shake. All of this was eerie, and dread swirled in my gut.

“They won’t do to me what they did to her… Will they?”

“Bellissima…” Dominic left the piano bench and pulled me into his arms. I found comfort in his heartbeat. I clasped my hands together and kept them under my chest, staring at his biceps. “They won’t hurt you or our son. Hector’s gone, so anything outstanding anyone may have held against him automatically settled by default with his death, and his death was Vincent’s doing, not the Aleskis. Hector’s death was a revenge killing; nothing more.”

“But they already tried.”

He held me a little tighter. “The only way we can get to the bottom of that attack is to find Nasuti and bring him here for interrogation.”

“Who gets to do that?”

Another bout of thick silence hung around us, and then, it hit me.

“No,” I said, voicing it as a plea instead of a statement.

Dominic separated us, his hands on my upper arms. My eyes hesitated to find his, and when they did, my fear was confirmed.

“My best men and I are heading to New York in the morning. We’ll be gone for up to two weeks.”

I shook my head, shrugging out of his grip and taking a step back.

“My mother will be here to take care of you and Katrina, along with Lucas and Sonny. Protections will be in place around the premises and beyond.”

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