Page 8 of The Devil's Demise

“Baby, stop that!” Chiara says. “You’re gonna fall off and bust your head open.”

He continues, and she blows out a sharp exhale.

“Come give your mama a squishy hug.”

Her arms stretch out for him, and he comes running. He always does. She smiles as his chest lands on hers. Their thick black hair is just like their mother’s, and their eyes, they’re all mine.

They’re like the perfect combo of both of us. Our family couldn’t tell them apart for a while. The only obvious difference was the small birthmark on Frankie’s hip.

But as they grew up, the differences were obvious. Gianni has quite the taste for destruction, while Frankie would rather build. Gianni loves to get dirty. He’d roll around in mud all day if we let him. But Frankie would scream if he even got a smudge on his face.

After Chiara got shot, the only bright spot was that she could still have children. The doctor told her she was very lucky with where the bullet hit, because an inch over, and our chances of having kids would’ve been gone.

We didn’t plan the timing. We just let fate take the lead. When she got that positive pregnancy test, she cried. I did too. It was the rawest I’ve ever felt. Then it happened again, and man, it was like the first time.

I’ll have as many kids with her as she’ll let me. Little her-and-mes. I kind of hope this one is a girl, though. It’d be nice to have a little girl who’s as tough as her mother is. We’ll be finding out the gender today at our reveal party with the family, just in time for Matteo and Aida to come home from their time on Corvo Island.

They purchased a home there and spend the summers away on the beach like they once wanted. Over the years, their past has been on my mind. And that’s only the parts they chose to share. I know there’s more they won’t talk about, and I understand why. It’s theirs, that pain.

I’ve been there, closed up, refusing to let anyone in. But that all changed when we found Matteo, and then even more after Chiara and I got married and started a family of our own.

They say I’m different now. I laugh. I guess I didn’t laugh a lot back then.

I tug Frankie against me, looking over at my beautiful wife. Her bare face is radiating with a glint in her eyes.

I love you, she mouths.

With a deep breath, I lower my lips to her forehead and kiss her because this is how I talk. This is my way of showing her what she means to me.

We stay like this for a while, holding onto the warmth, to our family, to the love always binding us together.

“Can we eat now?” Gianni pops his head up, his bright green eyes staring hard at me.

I swear, he’s me. Hardheaded. Stubborn.

“Okay,” I grumble, sitting up and flipping a laughing Frankie off my shoulder as Chiara grins. I reach for Gianni, who looks too comfortable against her, not that I blame him. “I’ve got him, baby.”

“So overprotective.” She grins, knowing I don’t want her lifting heavy shit when she’s carrying our baby.

“You know you love it when I get protective.” I throw her a playful gaze, snatching up our other son and throwing a giggling Gianni over my other shoulder.

“Oh, I do, Mr. Cavaleri.” Discreetly, her hand snakes to my ass, and she squeezes, her long nails dipping into my muscles. “I really do.”

“Keep doing that, and I’m giving these kids to Sonia and you and me . . .” I jerk my head behind us. “We’ll be back on that bed, and we won’t be out of it for hours.”

She bites her lower lip, her eyes lustful.

“Damn you, woman,” I grunt.

“You can’t go back to sleep!” Frankie chimes in as we start for the door.

Chiara laughs. “You two wear us out. We need it.”

“You bet your ass we do. We’re renting you two to Uncle Dante.”

“What does renting mean?” Gianni asks.

Chiara and I only laugh harder, and once we make it downstairs, Sonia’s humming from the kitchen grows nearer.

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