Page 77 of Secret Baby for the Italian Mafia Don

I glance up to him as well, wondering something similar—not what, buthow. How did Nico know that I was here? How did he follow me? It is no longer coincidence and happenstance. Nico is following me, stalking me, watching my every step even when he’s nowhere nearby. I didn’t see him when I left the house. His car didn’t shadow me through the streets. I am parked a couple blocks away, nowhere near the front of this particular building. Sohow?

I realize too late that the answer is clutched in my palm, the slick, expensive phone that he bought me. I should have put it together sooner. It’s not a gift—it’s a leash.

“Family,” Nico says, looming like the literal devil on my shoulder. “I already missed the dinner. I wasn’t going to let that happen a second time.”

Thaddeus smiles tightly. “Oh, you don’t have to go out of your way. I’m sure you and I will be seeing plenty of each other in the coming months—”

“You?” Nico interrupts, his laugh low and dangerous, and those fingers on the back of my dress trail a little lower down my spine. “I’m not here for you, Thaddeus. I’m here for Ava’s birthday.”

I go very still.

I didn’t tell him, so how could he possibly know it’s my birthday?

I avoid Nico’s gaze by studying my glass. I wonder if it’s possible to drown yourself on land with only a single cup of water to work with. Maybe if I inhale at the right time...

“Is that right?” Thaddeus asks lowly. “I didn’t realize there was a guest list.”

He gazes at me intently, silently urging me to tell Nico to fuck off, and when I don’t, Thaddeus leans in close to whisper to me. “Didn’t we have plans, darling?” His hand finds the slit in my dress, his fingers scraping meaningfully on the lingerie.

Nico notices. He takes half a step forward, and I swear he’s going to sling Thaddeus right over the bar if he gets his hands on him. I smoothly intercept him, turning to stand face to face with Nico.

“You made it just in time. Thaddeus and I were just about to go to dinner,” I say. “Do you want to join us? Thaddeus says we won’t be able to get in anywhere, but maybe we can find something.”

“That won’t be a problem,” Nico says immediately, his eyes never leaving my fiancé’s face.

“Oh, isn’t that lucky?”

Thaddeus is forced to smile back at me and agree.

“So lucky.”

22

Nico

In a casual, sit-down sushi joint, I figure it’ll take about forty minutes to order, get our food, and eat. Just forty minutes. I can resist killing this man for forty minutes. I toss a napkin over the steak knife on the table to help resist the temptation.

It wasn’t supposed to go down like this.

I was going to swing by the house late, surprise her and sneak her out her window like two freshmen dodging their parents, and take her out tonight. Just us. But when I checked the tracker on her phone—that compulsive, muscle memory swipe to the app that I check over and over throughout the day, just to see the dot barely moving—tonight, the GPS ping wasn’t in the house.

I came running.

She’s made it easy on me, staying in and playing babysitter. She only goes out with Salvatore’s wife and baby. That might be thesafest place for her, surrounded by security and Mrs. Salvatore Mori herself. Nobody is stupid enough to hurt Contessa just to catch Ava in the crossfire. The city would burn.

But tonight, this late, I knew Ava had to be out on her own. Unprotected, unsuspecting. Hell, even I don’t know what the family might do at this rate. There’s tension running through the ranks now, little games of who-trusts-who playing out. Some men are quitting, some men are rioting as the blood family and the sworn family go against each other. It’s all money, rank, and respect—but mostly just money. It’salwaysmoney for men like that.

Money’s alright, but I’ve always had it. Short of getting locked up in prison again, I always will. There are other things I want. Other things, like the girl under my arm right now.

Sal’s been on my ass all day about it. He tried to set me up on a date with some socialite chick from our Caruso allies out in the city. The way he put it, connecting with her would give me “bigger and better opportunities.” He insisted it was just to talk business, but I knew what he was playing at.

What he really wants is for me to leave Ava alone and go fuck things up in their family instead of this one. As if the Caruso family isn’t fucked up enough on its own. I played it off, and I didn’t rise to the bait. I feigned not being interested in anyone, Ava or otherwise. Really, all I could think about while sitting there was her. What I would do when I got my hands on her tonight. How I wanted to spoil her sick for her birthday.

I knew it was Ava’s birthday, because it’s my job to know.

Buthow the fuck did he?

My thoughts simmer as Thaddeus takes the seat opposite Ava. They sit facing each other, like two proper adults sharing a dinner date. I’m not so courteous. I plant myself right next to her, thigh to thigh, stretching my arm over the back of the booth. Ava keeps her pretty head down and pretends not to notice how close I am, or how my fingers hang against the curve of her shoulder and barely stroke her skin.

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