Page 102 of Little Dove

He shakes his head. “No need to thank me,cara mia. You are a part of the family, even if you don’t recognize it. Anything you need, I want you to feel comfortable to come to me. With anything. Understand?”

I swallow hard. He sees me as part of the family? How is that possible? He barely knows me. “Thank you,” I say shakily. What else can I say to that without bursting into tears?

“It is overwhelming to suddenly have a whole group of people at your back, isn’t it?” he says softly. I can only nod, my eyes filling with tears. He wraps his arms around me and hugs me close. I return his embrace, battling with surging emotions. “It will become second nature soon enough,cara mia,” he tells me, rubbing my back comfortingly. “You will soon realize that you have so many people who are there for you. I will tell you the same thing that I told my children. Your family can be part of you by blood, but it’s also those that you welcome into your life and trust implicitly. The ones that you know will have your back no matter what. I want you to know that I will always be one of those people. My sons will be those people. Pietro and his boys, Nico, Dante, all of them will as well. Right now, it may not seem it, but it will be clearer once we get this whole mess figured out.”

“I always wanted a family,” I tell him, looking up at him. “I used to pray for mine to come and rescue me as a child, but by the time I hit my teens, I knew they weren’t coming. I guess I was wrong. It took a little longer, but they still came. I’m terrified that once this is all over, I’m going to screw something up. I don’t know anything about the mafia life other than what I’m seeing now.”

“It will come with time,cara mia,” he assures me, releasing me. “And you will handle it beautifully. Sienna is already settlingin, and you will too. You’ve only been here a few days, so you must not be too hard on yourself, hmm?”

I smile. “I’ll try. Thank you, Mr. Cattaneo.”

“Aurelio,cara mia,” he corrects gently. Then he grins. “Perhaps you will give me a discount on a haircut and beard trim, yes?” He winks. “A family discount?”

I laugh, unable to help myself. Any remaining tension drains away. “For you, always,” I promise. “Though, I will have to charge your sons double to make up for it.”

Aurelio lets out a burst of laughter. “Triple it. Really make them pay.”

I grin. “It’s a deal.”

We lapse into a comfortable silence for a moment before Aurelio says, “I should probably get back to the boys. They are smart but easily distracted.” He shakes his head with a sigh. I open my mouth to respond to that when his phone rings. His expression quickly turns serious. “Lazaro,” he says briskly. I freeze with worry. I can’t hear what’s on the other end, but then Aurelio says, “Got it. Get back here quickly and we’ll get the doctor here to patch you up. Good job men,” and my worry turns to fear. Oh God, is Lazaro hurt? “He’s fine,” Aurelio assures me quickly. “One of the men has a small injury, nothing to be worried about. They’re on their way back.”

Despite his assurances, I can’t relax. Not until I see him for myself. “I’m coming with you,” I rush out. “Please.”

He nods. I leave the office space, waiting impatiently until Aurelio closes up the wall and we hurry out of the room. Aurelio barks orders in Italian to my two guards, who trail after us, and we make our way back to Nico’s office where all the other men are gathered and looking at something on Nico’s desk. I don’t know where the girls are; they all went off to do their own things elsewhere after the meeting earlier. “They’re on their way back,” Aurelio tells everyone briskly. “Lazaro and Massimo got moreat Giovanni’s. Killed two of his sons and the other guards sent to stop them. Urso, get your things prepared to review the hard drives Massimo grabbed. We need to get them downloaded and searched before that bastard figures out a way to delete it all on us.”

“On it,” Urso says seriously, hurrying out of the room.

“Injuries?” Nico asks.

“One of our men has a superficial wound, but no others reported.”

“Good,” Pietro says. He looks at me and his expression softens. “Hello,cara.”

“Hi,” I say nervously. “I don’t mean to intrude, but I wanted to be here when Lazaro gets back.”

“Of course,” Pietro says with a smile.

The door bursts open, and the other girls come running in. “They found my mother’s diary?” Gia demands, staring at Nico.

“Yes,topolina,” Nico soothes, wrapping his arm around her when she comes to stand beside him. Sienna moves to stand with Alessio, who is on the other side of Nico, her face a mixture of emotions.

“Have you read it?” Gia asks, her voice shaking. “Did she say anything?”

“We haven’t read much,topolina,” he says. He lifts up two pieces of paper. “But these were inside, and we have our teams already trying to use them to find your sister’s identity.”

Gia takes them both and then looks at Sienna. “You don’t look like an Isabella to me,” she teases.

“What? Give me that.” Sienna takes the certificate Gia hands her. “Isabella Maria,” she says aloud. “I mean, I guess it’s pretty, but yeah, it’s not my favorite.”

“What about the other one?” I ask curiously.

“Arianna Sofia,” Gia reads out. “The date on this one is the same date as Matteo’s birthday, so this must have been histwin.” She looks at Nico. “You think you can find her with this information.”

“We do,cara,” Aurelio answers. “We have our men on it. We’ll find her.”

Gia nods, accepting that, but I can see her doubt. I kind of understand it. After all, her father had this information for a while, so maybe they’re ahead of this team.

“Was there anything on Amara’s sister?” Sienna asks.

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