Page 46 of Mafia Boss's Surprise Baby

She nods slowly and takes the bandage, wrapping her ribs up fairly tight. I can tell that she’s holding her breath, but she lets it out slowly when she’s done wrapping them.

“Better now,” she says with a slight slur. Mia’s eyes are going glassy, so I reach out and take her wrist.

“Come back to bed, pretty girl,” I croon to her, and she crawls back against my good side. This time I turn to face her instead of putting my arm around her.

She puts a hand on my face, looking into my eyes. “You’re really okay?” she asks hoarsely.

“I’m really okay,” I promise. “I’m just sore and tired.”

“Me too,” she agrees, sniffling. “I was just so scared that you would die, Dante. There was so much blood...”

I brush my nose against hers before kissing her softly. “But I’m okay now.”

She cracks a smile, still sniffling. “You owe Jimmy Sawbones a debt.”

“More than one,” I drawl.

“Is he the one that stitched you up when you saved me the first time?” she asks.

I nod. “Along with a few other times.”

Mia reaches around to my back, to the knife scar just below my ribs.

“Who did this to you?” she asks. “The knife scar.”

“I don’t know,” I say honestly. “I got jumped outside of a bar. Could have just been a mugger or something, I guess, but they didn’t take anything.”

“My father has the same wound,” she says thoughtfully.

I blink. “What?”

“My father. He has the same scar. Someone knifed him between the ribs, just about an inch higher than yours. Punctured his lung.”

“Jesus,” I mutter.

That doesn’t sound right. Maybe I was wrong all along about getting mugged. If there’s one Caputo with a knife scar, that’s one thing. If there’s two...

It’s a pattern.

I tell myself that I’ll speak to Nico about it when Mia and I get some more rest.

Her eyes are drifting closed and I can’t help myself from kissing her closed eyelids. She smiles and then starts to breathe heavily and evenly, going back to sleep.

There’s something wrong with my heart. Maybe it’s from losing all the blood, but it’s beating too fast as I look down at Mia. She still has the marks I’d left on her throat on our honeymoon.

It feels like she’s holding my beating heart in her hands, and I don’t know what the hell to do about it.

18

MIA

Dante doesn’t mention Vincenzo for a full week. Jimmy Sawbones comes back to check on us the next day. I don’t take another pill after that first day. It made me sleep a whole twelve hours, and I don’t want to be dead to the world if Dante needs me.

Jimmy says that Dante’s stitches are healing well but warns him not to pop them, and that my ribs should be healed in a couple of weeks. He’s not even sure they’re broken, just bruised. They still hurt like hell.

Nico’s at the mansion almost all the time, rattling around downstairs while Dante and I stay upstairs and order in food. Marisa, the housekeeper who lives downstairs, brings us up some homemade Italian lasagna the second day, and Dante eats so much I think he’s going to be sick.

Looking back later, that week is almost like a second honeymoon. Dante’s doting and sweet, cuddling me in bed when I’m sore, and even though he can’t move around much without pain, he orders me anything I want.

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