Page 4 of Born into Mayhem
“I don’t know why your Uncle Dario is laughing,” he tells Enzo. “He’ll be doing the same thing when he becomes a daddy.”
“Which is never going to happen,” I remind him while I put my plate in the microwave.
“What’s not going to happen?”
We both turn at the sound of Natalya’s voice. Dominic’s wife walksin, and the two of them share a smile that has me looking away. He’s more than twice her age, but it’s never bothered either one of them. He looks at her like she’s his reason for breathing, and she easily returns it. There’s also a good bit ofI can’t wait to get you naked againin that stare, and as happy as I am for the two of them, sometimes it feels like salt in the wound, and I’m just not in the mood tonight.
Dominic wraps his free arm around her when she’s close enough and kisses her before saying, “Dario swears he’ll never have kids.”
Natalya grins before walking over to give me a hug. “Sure you will, Dario,” she tells me. “You just haven’t met the right girl yet.”
Before I can tell her she’s wrong, I hear my niece yell “Uncle Dario” as she bolts into the kitchen and wraps her little arms around my leg. Smiling, I reach down and scoop her up. Isabella’s arms and legs latch onto me while she laughs and then starts talking. She’s adorably animated as she tells me all about her day and how she’d just helped her mom give her little brother a bath.
“You’re such a good big sister,” I say. She just turned four, and even though I’ve never been the kind of guy who goes nuts over babies, there’s no denying she’s cute as hell. Her blue eyes light up when she tells me that her Uncle Max and Aunt Talia sent her a new video of Wallace. She loves their border collie, and ever since she met him, she’s been begging her dad for a puppy.
“How are Mia’s lessons coming along?” Natalya asks.
At the mention of Mia, everything I’ve been trying to avoid comes rushing back in. I ignore it as best I can and kiss Isabella’s head before setting her down so she can run off and play.
“Your sister’s lessons always keep me on my toes,” I tell her.
Natalya laughs. “That’s a very nice way of putting it.”
I grab my plate from the microwave and get a fork. Natalya hands me some homemade bread and I say, “Mia’s very good at fighting.” It’s the truth. I started training her when she turned seventeen, but she came to me already knowing a lot. Her dad was an underground fighter for most of his life, and he taught both his daughters how to defend themselves. Natalya knows the basics, but Mia wasn’tcontent to just know enough to get by. She wanted to excel at it, and then she wanted to learn knife fighting and how to kill a man in every way she could think of. That’s the part I’ve been helping her with.
“She is,” Natalya agrees. “Always has been. My little sister puts me to shame.”
Dominic smacks her ass and kisses the top of her head. “Never,principessa. You’re the bravest woman I’ve ever met. You just don’t share Mia’s love of trying to cut things up.”
Natalya laughs and says, “I definitely don’t, or her love of piercings. That girl can take some pain.”
“She can,” I agree, knowing firsthand how stubborn she can be. I stopped taking it easy on her months ago, and no matter how many times I’ve knocked her down, she never stays put. Her tiny ass is always jumping up and ready for more. I have to force her to take breaks and make sure she doesn’t hurt herself.
When Enzo starts getting fussy, Natalya smiles and reaches for him as Dominic puts him in her arms.
“You okay,principessa? Do you need me to help carry him up?” he asks her.
“I’m okay,” she tells him. “He’s just hungry. I’m going to feed him and put him down. Maybe he’ll sleep more than last night.”
Dominic smiles at her, giving her ass one more squeeze as he tells her, “I’ll put Isabella to bed after I talk to Dario. Holler if you need me.”
“I will.” She looks over at me. “Night, Dario.”
“Night, Nat,” I tell her back, giving her a quick hug and then brushing my finger along Enzo’s tiny cheek before she walks off with him.
Dominic grabs us a couple of cannoli while I finish my supper, and when we’ve both moved on to dessert, he asks, “How was the club?”
“The usual. Game went well. Harry won the pot, and Roger lost his ass off again. He’s running out of money, and I’m guessing he’ll be asking for a loan soon.”
“I’m not loaning him money just so he can lose it,” Dominic says. “If he doesn’t have the money, then he can’t play. I’m not a fucking bank, and I’m sure as hell not giving a gambling addict a loan.”
“He’d end up owing you a lot of money,” I say.
Dominic finishes off the last bite of his dessert and puts his plate in the sink. “Roger has nothing I want, and I’m not about to go and threaten his sixty-five-year-old wife when it comes time for her husband to pay back a debt he’ll never be able to afford.”
I laugh and add my dishes to the sink. “A mafia don with a heart.”
He scowls at me. “No, a mafia don with a good head for business. I’m not making trouble if I don’t have to, and Roger is worthless to me if he doesn’t have his own money to gamble with.”
