Page 50 of Sinful Mafia Prince

Chaos began to erupt on every side of him. Dom blinked and rubbed at his eyes, squinting through the dust and debris, trying to see his father.

“Papà!” he called out. He went to push to his feet, but something sharp and pointy dug into his hand. He gasped and quickly brought his hand up to see a shard of glass.

Dom winced and bravely pulled it free, and as he threw it on the ground he spotted his father across from him shoving a piece of wood off Caterina. She crawled free, dirt and dust covering her from head to toe, and Dom ran over to them.

That was when it happened. His father let out a bloodcurdling cry.

“Nooooo!”

Fear skated up Dom’s spine as he looked in the direction his father was running.

“Serafina! Giuliana!”

As the smoke began to clear, Dom saw several people running toward the road where his mother and baby sister had headed only minutes earlier. The shell of what was once a car—theircar—was nothing more than a firepit.

Dom’s eyes blurred and his entire body began to shake as what he was seeing began to compute.

“D…Dom?”Caterina said.

Dom blinked at his father, who was trying to wrestle men off him as he tried to push through to the wreckage of the car. But it was no use, there was nothing left of it, and Dom watched the strongest man in his world crumple to the ground, his shouts of pain and anguish reverberating through the air like thunder.

Where was mamma? Where was baby Giuliana? Dom couldn’t believe what he was seeing, couldn’t allow his mind to go there. But as the sound of his father’s racking sobs filled the air, he knew the truth.

Heartache and fear twisted in his gut as Caterina shook his hand again.

“Dom? Where’s papà? Who’s crying?”

Dom moved in front of her—blocking any possible view now that the shock was starting to wear off—and looked into her wide eyes. She had a small cut above her right brow and blood was trickling down her temple.

Tears threatened to spill free, but Dom did his best to focus on her, to banish the horror he’d just witnessed with what he knew he needed to do—look after his sister and get her somewhere safe.

Dom squeezed Caterina’s hand as he crouched down to look her in the eye.

“Papà will be back in just a minute.” He looked at the box he was still holding and handed it to Caterina, thinking it might help distract her. “Why don’t you hang on to this for me while we find somewhere safe to wait for him, okay?”

She bit at her bottom lip but nodded and drew the box to her chest.

Dom glanced behind her, looking for somewhere safe they could wait, but the place was a disaster. Beams hung from the roof and glass and wood was scattered all over the place, but eventually Dom spotted a bunch of debris that had fallen into a heap. Out from under any kind of loose ceiling structures, it looked safe enough, and from what he could tell, he’d be able to keep Caterina’s attention away from the front of the market.

“I think I found somewhere,” he said, and led her over to their new waiting spot. Dom could hear the sound of sirens off in the distance now.

He settled Caterina on top of the pile and stood guard in front of her.

“Dom? Where’s mamma? Where’s papà?”

Dom choked back the cry he wanted to let free and braced himself to face her.

“I don’t know. But they’ll be back soon,” he lied.

“I’m scared,” she whispered, and Dom nodded.

“I am too.”

“But we’ll be okay, won’t we?”

Dom turned to look out at the people helping each other from the rubble of the building and wasn’t so sure.Theymight’ve been alive and going to survive, but he wasn’t sure their family—or their father—would ever be okay again.

He brushed away his tears and straightened his small shoulders, then looked back at his sister with the best smile he could manage.

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