Page 93 of Captive Vow (Mafia Marriages 2)

Moreno rolls his eyes and groans.

Nova climbs onto my lap, deciding its cuddle time. “Paige, what do you mean, the birds and the bees?”

“Yes, Paige, what do you mean?” Moreno asks, tilting his head. He’s trying to keep calm, but it isn’t going to last at this rate. His face is red, and I think he’s holding back laughter because he must know that I’m going to torture him if I can get away with it.

He doesn’t seem angry, just perturbed.

Good.

That’s what he gets for interrupting me when I was having lunch with Ariella earlier. Well, lunch was over, but still, payback is fair play.

The waitress brings Moreno and Nova’s lunch to the table and my dessert. I gently position Nova back onto the booth beside me so that she can eat.

Nova climbs onto her knees and grabs the fork, stabbing her mac and cheese.

Thankfully, the conversation gets quickly forgotten, although I can’t help but note the intentional stabbing with her fork into her food. It’s almost violent as she wraps her fist around her utensil and stabs the noodle.

“Did you teach her that?” I ask, gently lifting my fork from the table as I cut into the pie. Steam wafts into the air, and I wait a few moments for it to cool off.

Moreno glances up from his sandwich and watches Nova’s repeated stabbing of her macaroni.

He chuckles and wipes his face with a napkin. “No, I don’t know where she learned that from.”

“Probably watching one of your guards.” It’s a joke, but he doesn’t laugh.

Moreno stares at me for a long, hard second. He keeps his voice down, making sure the conversation isn’t overheard by anyone else.

“We don’t just randomly kill people,” he says.

“I know that.” I shove the fork with a bite of berry pie into my mouth. It’s hot and burns the roof of my mouth, but I don’t want to discuss his job. I realize he works for the mafia, he’s killed people, and while I find all of it terrifying, I don’t see the monster.

Maybe I have blinders on.

“Did she witness anyone—” I don’t finish the sentence. I let it hang in the air, waiting for him to answer. What I want to know is if Nova witnessed Serene or her nanny’s murder. I can’t ask that question in front of Nova.

We shouldn’t even be having this discussion at a café out in public.

“Likely, yes,” Moreno says. “We can talk about it later. I’ll tell you everything you want, in private.”

That’s as good enough of an answer for me as I’ll ever get. “Thank you.”

While I want to know what happened to his wife and the previous nanny, I’m not sure how I’ll feel about it either. It’s obvious to me that he misses Serene. He’s still in love with her. Why else would he have been so angry about her ring?

After they finish lunch and I’m done with my pie, Moreno pays the bill, and we head outside, Sawyer tagging along behind us.

It feels awkward, like we have a chaperone. Is that what it will be like when we go out on a date? He didn’t bring anyone with us that night to the club.

“Daddy, ice cream,” Nova says and points across the street to the ice cream shop.

“I’m going to head back to the house,” I say. I’ve already had dessert, and while I’d love to keep them company, it’s clouding up outside, and a breeze is coming in that’s making me chilly.

“I promised her ice cream,” Moreno says.

Grinning, I gesture to the store. “You made her a promise, and you have to keep it.” I can’t believe she still wants ice cream after the huge lunch she just had, but the kid would probably want it in the middle of winter too.

“Sawyer, escort her home. I’ll head back with Nova after we’re done getting ice cream.”

I don’t need a bodyguard. “That isn’t necessary.”

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