Page 17 of The DeLuca Crime Family: Vol. 1

Gianna whimpered as I left the warmth of her pussy completely. It sent tingles down my spine and I shivered. Standing, I tucked myself back in before closing her robe and retying the sash. After helping her to her feet, I grasped her chin and forced her to meet my hardened gaze.

“Unless you want to find yourself spanked until you can’t sit for a day, don’t ever answer a door like this again. I don’t carewho is on the other side. This”—I slid my hands down her back and cupped her round, little ass, squeezing her closer until our bodies were melded together—“is for my eyes only. Got it,mia dolce?”

Gianna’s eyes narrowed slightly, and I thought maybe she would argue with me, but after a moment, she nodded in capitulation. I rewarded her obedience with a scorching kiss that was suddenly interrupted by the sweet sound of my daughter’s voice calling for me.

“Daddy?” There was an odd tone to her voice. She was obviously terrified about something. Gianna and I sprinted to the door and out into the hallway. Sophia was standing at the top of the stairs, and I took them two at a time to get up to her.

When I got to the last step, I jerked to a stop and yelled for Gianna to call 911. I heard her spin around and race back down the steps as I gathered my little girl in my arms and followed her path. Sophia’s bleeding nose was soaking my shirt, her head resting against my chest as she softly cried. “My head hurts, Daddy,” she sniffled.

My heart started pounding at the signs of severe hypertension and I barely felt any relief as an ambulance pulled up in front of the house. Luckily, we didn’t live far from the hospital, so we didn’t have to worry about the truck having to navigate through city traffic, slowing down our journey.

Gianna stopped at the door and told me to go, that she would get dressed, get my mother, and meet us at the hospital. I nodded, hoping my eyes conveyed my gratitude for her among the stark terror ripping through my heart.

Chapter Eleven

ANNA

The day started badly, learning that Nic was the head of a mafia family, and it only got worse when Sophia was rushed to the hospital. I’d never be able to forget the sight of her standing at the top of the stairs, deathly pale with blood leaking from her nose in a steady stream. The look of horror on Nic’s face when he screamed at me to call for help. How shattered Allegra seemed when I woke her and told her what had happened. The way my heart raced as she and I rode in the back seat of the town car which we’d found waiting at the curb, our hands gripping each other’s tightly while the only sound was the prayers Allegra muttered underneath her breath to keep her grandbaby alive. It all replayed in my head, over and over, as I wondered how long it would be before the doctors would come out and tell us what was happening with Sophia.

In the blink of an eye, my anger at Nic for keeping such a monumental secret from me seemed unimportant. The only thing which mattered was Sophia’s health and well-being. My reaction—or lack thereof—to Nic’s place in the criminal world, him calling me his fiancée, and then point blank telling me he wanted to knock me up—all of it could wait until we madeit through this crisis. Nic couldn’t afford any distractions. He needed to be strong for his daughter—and so did I. She’d quickly found her way into my heart, just like her daddy had. I couldn’t imagine a world without her in it. I couldn’t fathom how Nic would go on if anything happened to his precious little girl.

Allegra and I almost hadn’t been able to get back to the exam room where Nic and Sophia had been taken, but I refused to allow a simpering nurse who couldn’t be more than a couple years older than me to keep us from them. Allegra looked on approvingly as I begged and pleaded, cajoled and threatened—and ultimately used the DeLuca name to get what I wanted.

“You will take us to my fiancé,” I growled at her, a hint of menace in my tone. “And you will do it immediately unless you want to face the wrath of the DeLuca family once she’s well. Don’t think for one moment that I’ll forget the time you’ve made us stand here when we could be back there comforting Sophia.”

“It’s fine, Sandra,” another nurse chimed in, stepping forward to intervene, her eyes wide as they darted between Allegra and me. “I’ll take Mr. DeLuca’s mother and fiancée back.”

“Fine,” the other nurse huffed, stomping away.

Sandra. I mentally marked the name down for consideration later. I hadn’t been issuing empty threats while I’d been talking to her. The sound of Allegra’s low chuckle had me jerking my head her way.

“What?” I asked defensively.

“You’ve been hiding some fire beneath your nice girl exterior,” she answered approvingly

“She’ll need it to be married to him,” the nurse mumbled as she opened the door to a spacious exam room.

“I thought they fixed it when she had surgery two years ago. Why is she having problems now?” Nic roared at a tall dark-haired man in a white lab coat. “And why has it taken so damn long for you to figure out what’s been going on with her?”

I hurried to his side, tugging his hand into mine and jerking my head towards the exam table where Sophia lay, watching her dad and the doctor with wide, tear-filled eyes.

“Niccolo,” Allegra tsked. “You can’t blame Dr. McGowan for Sophia’s condition.”

“He’s the only one who’s here,” he grumbled.

“Because you’ve probably managed to scare everyone else away,” Allegra chided, eliciting a snort of laughter from Dr. McGowan, confirming how true her words must have been. “Remember, she’s only been seeing him for a few weeks, which is hardly enough time to get the results back from all the tests he’s run.”

“Actually,” Dr. McGowan interrupted their argument. “Most of her tests came back this morning. If you’ll stay with Sophia for a moment, I’d like to speak with her father in the hallway.”

Nic gave Sophia a gentle hug and dropped a kiss onto her forehead before following Dr. McGowan into the hallway. I followed suit, pausing to whisper in her ear. “Love you, sweetie.” Her tiny hands gripped my back as she leaned up to reach my ear. “I love you too, Anna.”

I hurried after Nic, tears streaming down my cheeks at her admission. Both men turned to me when I joined them in the hall, shutting the door behind me.

“As I was explaining to Nic, Sophia’s refractory hypertension has become unresponsive to her drug therapy. When they operated two years ago, her condition was considered improved because her blood pressure was within normotensive range.”

“And now that they aren’t?” I asked, making Dr. McGowan pause and consider me assessingly.

“You must be the Anna I’ve heard so much about from Sophia.”

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