Page 37 of Secret Babies for the Italian Mafia Boss

I tense my jaw, working my teeth together as I hold in my anger. Alvize means well. He’s a close friend and loyal to the mafia. He’s the only one who calls me Luca, too. Everyone else is required to call me Mr. Bianco.

“She vanished for five years, Alvize. Five. Years. Someone doesn’t do that unless the person they trusted betrays them.”

“Let me look into her for you to get you some answers.”

“No. I want her to tell me.”

“Why? She was just a one-night stand a few years ago, Luca. You shouldn’t be this involved.”

I stand, splaying my hands against the table as I take a deep breath to calm my anger. Looking up at him through my lashes, I tilt my head. “Don’t tell me what I should and shouldn’t be. Friend or not, I won’t let you diminish her because she was a one-night stand.” She was innocent, naïve, and all mine that night.

No one had touched her except me.

And I can’t help but wonder if that’s still the case. Surely not. She’s too beautiful to go years without sharing her bed with someone.

Alvize doesn’t understand that I had plans in mind when it came to Camilla. I was going to get her breakfast, take her out, and ask her on a proper date that wasn’t at Club Forty-Seven.

I had made plans.

And if there is one thing I have never done, it is plan. I’m more spur of the moment, but though Camilla might have been a guilty pleasure in a singular moment, she quickly became an ache of something I wanted more of.

“I want you to do a deep dive on Taylor. Watch him. I want to know his every move, his every breath, and every book he sells. I want to know when he sees Camilla. I want the time of day and if he bought anything. When he goes home, what he does at home, etc. There won’t be a stone left unturned.”

“I’ll get a few men on it.” He taps his fingers against his leg, and he only does that when he has an idea.

“What?” I ask, buttoning my blazer.

“What if one of us started to work there? In his bookshop.”

“He isn’t hiring, is he?”

“No, but I’m sure he could be if one of his employees doesn’t come to work.”

I think of Camilla and know I wouldn’t want anyone hurt for her sake; she’d be upset.

“Or we pay off one of the employees, buy their silence, they can live a better life and all that wonderful that follows. Then, one of our men works there.”

“Killing them would be quicker and more efficient,” he argues. “It would save everyone time.”

“I don’t give a fuck. Camilla lives across the street, and she would know if anything happened to Taylor’s employees; the first person she will think of is me.”

“Damn, you must really like this woman, Luca. I can’t seem to understand your infatuation.”

“You don’t have to,” I say simply, shrugging a shoulder.

The alarm on my phone blares as a reminder to go to the bakery and pick up the rent check from Camilla. Not that I’d need a reminder to visit her, but sometimes work can interrupt a good thing. When I got home two nights ago, I was burying a body, but I can guarantee if Camilla’s name showed on my phone, I would have dropped everything to get to her.

“I’m going to O-Squared. If you need me, that’s where I’ll be.” I begin to walk away, and Alvize says something that has me stopping in my tracks.

“The men working for you are going to question whether you’re still up to lead if you keep going on with this woman.”

I swing the door open and don’t bother to look over my shoulder as I reply. “Then tell them they can work for someone else. An empire isn’t built on many men, Alvize. It’s built from the quality of a few.” With that, I head down the steps and to my private garage.

I’m cutting through the club towards the back door when a few of the runners lift their chins as I walk by them. They are at the bar.

I pause, wondering if these are the men who have been questioning my ability to lead. For fun, I snake under my blazer and pull out my gun. I cock it for good measure so they can hear the trouble coming their way.

The head I choose to press the barrel against is a newer runner, but I know all the names of the men who work for me. He’s got black hair and a tattoo on the side of his neck.

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