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“Do you mean fiancé?”

Carmella took a step forward, but I shot her a look this time. She remained a few feet away, shifting back and forth on her heels.

“Yes,” he said.

“Well, that means your mother and I are engaged. We are going to be married. Then the three of us will be a family.”

She gasped slightly, anguish furrowing on her face. I’d known she had a child, but meeting him this way was a stark, cold reminder that there was so much at stake.

So very much.

He pulled his hand away, tipping his head over his shoulder to look at his mother. She swallowed hard, almost pleading with her eyes to be gentle about whatever I was going to say.

“Does that mean you’re my new daddy?”

Jesus Christ. I’d become someone I didn’t recognize any longer, incapable of feeling anything but a single emotion, rage. Yet as I crouched down to his size, able to stare him in the eyes, I was reminded there was so much more to life than power and violence. “Gabriel, I will never try and take the place of your father. But I would like to be your friend. Do you think that’s possible?”

I’d never seen a child contemplate an answer to the degree he’d done, but when he spoke, I sensed Carmella was doing her best to hold back tears. “Yes, I think we can do that.”

A girl stepped into the room. As soon as she entered my periphery of vision, I was immediately annoyed at the interruption.

“I’m so sorry, Ms. Lupini. He just slipped away. I apologize.”

“Don’t worry about it, Teresa. That’s fine.”

Teresa eyed me warily before bending down. “Come on, Gabriel. Why don’t we play a game?”

Gabriel didn’t say anything for a few seconds and I dared not move. But when he threw his arms around my neck, I had no idea how to react. If he only knew what having little arms around me did. I was thrown by the sweetness, sucking in and holding my breath.

I lifted my head just enough to be able to look into Carmella’s eyes. They were wide open, as if she was shocked that I’d reacted the way I had. Then the venom returned, her mouth pinched as she walked closer to her son.

“Come on, baby boy. Go with Teresa. I’ll be up to tuck you in later. Okay?”

He backed away, grinning like kids did before spinning around and hugging his mom.

A few seconds later, Teresa guided him from the room, leaving the two of us alone. There was tremendous awkwardness between us, Carmella remaining silent for almost a full minute. When she walked closer, I rose to my feet.

“Don’t you dare think you’re going to mean anything to my son. He’s mine. You wouldn’t have a clue about how precious having a child in your life can be. All you know is how to kill and how to destroy. I won’t let you do that to him. Trust me. I would kill you myself.”

“Don’t worry, Carmella. I’m certain you’re going to find very powerful ways of making him hate me just like you do.”

After narrowing her eyes, she brushed against me as she stormed off and I was forced to suck in my breath again.

She’d pegged me well enough, but only the man I’d become in the past twenty-six long months.

Not the man I’d been before.

The man who was lost forever.

CHAPTER8

Alejandro

Killing hadn’t come as second nature to me, but once I’d gotten a taste of what it felt like, some would say I’d been hooked. I’d needed the pools of blood and broken limbs as if a dose of heroin.

Maybe that was the truth.

Being required to put a bullet in a man’s brain or gunning him down in a powerful exchange of fire meant nothing to me any longer. In fact, the taking of someone’s life in those methods was pedestrian in my mind.

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