Page 83 of Luciano (Belles & Mobsters 1)

He shrugged his shoulders. “I’ve always been an asshole. Probably why we get along so great.” He was right too. “I’m just saying, the boy looks like you. He seems to be the right age too.”

I stared at him dumbfounded. There was no freaking way that little boy was mine. Yes, he was a good looking kid. I liked him, but she would have told me if she was pregnant. She would have said something when I threatened to shoot her.

Fuck, that sounded so bad. It was an empty gun, yes, but it didn’t make it better.

“She would have said something,” I justified, my voice hollow. Would she have told me? The memory of that day has haunted me every day and night since. Her tear-stained face, her trembling bottom lip, fear on her face that I put there.

She told me she loved me, but I was so enraged with her betrayal I didn’t even process her words. I didn’t listen. The words didn’t hit home till much later, when I sat alone back home, in the dark of our bedroom. It was the only time she had mentioned words of love to me. She begged me to listen to her.

Last night, I gave her those same words. She didn’t reciprocate them. Although I felt something shift between us; I wasn’t entirely sure if it was for the better or worse.

“If you think so,” Cassio retorted back. But it was written all over his face. He didn’t think she would have told me.

When was the boy turning three? October. Yes, she said it was mid-October. I glanced up to gaze over to the pool area. Matteo and Grace were out of the pool now. He jumped excitedly, Grace and my father sharing a big smile while Ella recorded it all. Like a real happy family moment. Without me.

“Matteo, my boy,” I heard my father’s voice. “You are going to grow up to be strong like your Papà.”

With the startling realization, it became apparent my father saw something I was blind to all along. Now it made sense why my father was so taken with Matteo. Even his name was a clue. She named him after my father.

“I can’t jump to conclusions,” I murmured, speaking more to myself than my best friend. “I’ll have to get the original birth certificate.”

“Have Massimo get in touch with my guy,” Cassio commented. “I swear, Luciano. You are the smartest, most brilliant man I know. But when it comes to your woman, you are blind as fuck.”

Funny, my father said the same thing.

How much did I really know about my wife? She studied music in college, played piano, and spent her high school years away in boarding school. She met Ella there, her first year of high school. They have been close ever since. And the last few years on the run made them even closer. But my wife never really told me much about herself. She knew about her parents will, but never mentioned it to me. I could have gotten it when we got married. She must have known her uncle was a danger to her, but she never led me to believe she was afraid of her family.

Now, I learned she was the Ghost. Of course, she wouldn’t share that with me either. Did she know she corresponded with me? Probably not.

“Let’s get back to the business and our plan for tonight.” I had to focus on eliminating threats that lurked in the shadows of my wife’s life.

“Agreed. By the way, did you ask your father about his connection to Kennedy Romano?”

“I did.” That was another thing that irked me. The fact my father kept that large piece of detail a secret. My father never kept secrets between us and this one was pretty big.

“Kennedy Romano and my father crossed paths when Kennedy went after his brother and Benito. They both wanted to reveal to the world that his brother and grandmother had their hands into human trafficking. He said they became good friends and worked together against them. Right before he died, Kennedy Romano asked him if he would take care of his daughter in the event anything happened to him and his wife. Papa agreed. Two days later they were both dead. He said he fought Alphonso for guardianship of Grace, but failed. Since then, he kept an eye on her whenever he could.”

“Did they die before or after your mother and sister?”

“Her folks died a few months before.”

“Is there a connection?”

“If there is one, my father didn’t bring it up.” Although, I had to admit it, there seemed to be a lot of connections between Grace’s family and mine. Even without taking our marriage into account. “The timing of Alphonso coming after my father, killing my mother and sister is dangerously close to the timing of her parents’ death.”

“I think you are right,” Cassio agreed. “Grace’s value to Alphonso was big enough for him to kill and go after the Vitale family if your father tried to get Grace under his protection. Just think, she was the promised belle, worth millions from her mother’s side and combine that with her pedigree and beauty…”

He didn’t have to finish. My wife suffered under her family’s brutality just as mine did. Yes, Grace and I had to talk. Lay it all out on the table and fight them together. I couldn’t fault her for her distrust, I earned it. But I’d prove it to her, over and over again for the rest of our lives, that she could count on me.

The next hour was spent strategizing the best way to hit Alphonso Romano and Benito King. We would see Alphonso tonight, but the venue was too public and without risking Benito King’s retaliation, we wouldn’t be able to hit without a cause.

“Alphonso will know today that Raphael’s deal with him was a trap,” I told Cassio. “He might attack first, so we have to be prepared. It will be a perfect excuse to kill him.”

“I’m counting on it,” Cassio muttered. He was just as eager as I was to start on eliminating threats.

“Have you warned Alexei and Vasili?” The Nikolaev men were more than capable of protecting themselves and their family but advance warning never hurt anyone. “I’d hate to see Alphonso or Benito try to get the women. Vasili will burn down the world if anyone ever touches his pregnant wife.”

Not that I blamed him.

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