Page 44 of Mafia Doctor's Secret Baby

As soon as I hear the voice, I freeze. It’s her—it’s Katie, I’m sure of it. I look past the man, who is dragging himself upright once more, and realize that the door leads down some stairs and to a basement. They must be keeping her in there. For what? My mind flares with rage, and I throw myself at the man before he can pull himself together again.

I knock him into the stairs, and he slides down onto the floor. I kneel on top of him and begin landing blows on his face, sending blood spraying this way and that. I don’t know how long I’mworking on him, but it doesn’t matter. All I can think about is making him pay for whatever he’s done to Katie, and making it so he can’t get in the way of the rescue I’m about to make.

Finally, I draw back, my chest heaving, my knuckles bloody and aching, and rise to my feet.

“Katie!” I yell. “Where are you…?”

And then I see her—she’s crawling up the staircase and toward the open door, her eyes wide and ringed with dark circles, her hair a mess, her skin smeared with dirt and other marks. Some of them look like bruises.

I drop to my knees and pull her into my arms, and she grabs hold of me like she never wants to let me go, burying her head into my shoulder. Her body is wracked with sobs, her entire system giving in as she realizes she’s safe. I hold her there, squeezing her against me, letting her cling to me as though it’s the only thing left in the world that matters.

“Hey, hey, you’re okay,” I promise her, planting a kiss against her head. “It’s over now. You have nothing else to be scared of…”

“Polly,” she gasps, as she lifts her head to look at me. “Is Polly okay?”

“Polly’s okay,” I promise her, and she breaks down into a fresh wave of tears. I rub her back and turn to look toward the stairs, wondering how much longer Emil is going to be—wondering how long I should leave it before I go up there to help him. My brother is a capable fighter in his own right, but that doesn’t mean I want to leave him to the mercy of these people for too long.

And then I hear a voice from the top of the stairs.

“Look who I found, Luca.”

I glance up, and there’s my brother—but he’s not alone. No, he has been joined by the leader of the Maglione family, Paulo, and it’s clear Emil has no intention of letting him call the shots. He has his gun pressed into Paulo’s side, the muzzle of it digging into his ribs, as Emil marches him down the stairs and toward me.

Katie looks up, and when she sees them approaching us, she draws into me fearfully—I keep my arms wrapped around her tight, whispering quiet reassurances as he draws closer.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Maglione spits as he reaches me.

I rise to my feet, taking the gun from Emil. Seeing Katie like this, seeing her so hurt and scared after the nightmare he put her through, has left me with no more patience for this man. I am going to make him pay for what he’s done. Not just to her, but to everyone—to my family, to the women he’s hurt, to the communities he has ripped apart with his selfish lust for money and power. I am going to bring this to an end, here and now, and I am going to look him in the eye when I do it.

“You took the mother of my child,” I tell him simply as I press my finger down on the trigger. “You really thought I’d let that happen?”

And as he looks back at me, for a moment, I can see the regret in his eyes. He didn’t think it would come to this. He thought he would be able to get away with pulling something this foul, this twisted—he thought I would just let him take her from me, because I’ve never cared enough about a woman to stick around for so much as a second date.

But this is Katie. This is different. And this is the price he has to pay for it.

I pull the trigger—the sound of the shot rings in my ears as he drops to the ground, and behind me, I can hear Katie breathing hard. Emil takes the gun from me, and I drop down to my knees once more, wrapping her up tight in my arms.

“It’s okay,” I repeat to her as I rock her back and forth in my grip. It’s over now. All of it. The threat against my family, everything—everything that has been keeping me here.

But right now, all I care about is getting Katie back to our daughter. And showing her that I’m serious when I say I will do whatever it takes to keep them safe.

21

KATIE

“Polly!”

I gasp as I see my little girl in Luca’s arms, rushing over to her and pulling her into my grasp. I bury my face in her hair and breathe in the scent of her, trembling so hard I’m not sure I’ll be able to keep a grip on her much longer.

I thought I would never see her again. Though I never really came to terms with it, it strikes me now, as I hold her, how impossible this feels—like something I have conjured up from fiction, something that couldn’t possibly be real. When they had me in that basement, I gave up on ever seeing the light of day again. And, if it weren’t for the sudden commotion upstairs that drew away my attacker’s attention, who knows what would have happened there…

I plant a hundred little kisses all over Polly, who’s gazing up at me like I hung the damn moon. I can’t believe I get to hold her again, to see her sweet little face, those curious gray eyes…

I feel another rush of tears coming on, and I slump back against the kitchen counter in Luca’s apartment. He brought her here,he told me, as soon as he found that my apartment was empty; he didn’t even think twice. This place has been kitted out to take care of a child, and I know it can’t have been easy for him to adapt his life so quickly to such an enormous change.

“I think she’s pretty tired,” he remarks gently as I head over to the couch so I can feed her.

“I know,” I murmur. “But I just want to feed her first. Let her know that we’re back to normal…”

---