“Maybe we should discuss this later,” Mom put in.
I glanced at her thankfully.
He was about to object, but she gave him a look. Dad clenched his jaw.
I exhaled a deep breath, but dragged in another one when his eyes narrowed over my shoulder. “Who do we have here?”
He walked past me to stand beside Nico, looking at Sloane and Divina like specimens under a microscope.
Mom held me to her side and wiped a strand from my face. “I missed you, Peanut.”
“Missed you too, Mom.” I gave her a reassuring smile, but I couldn’t abandon the two women who helped me escape.
“You’re Tommy’s wife?” Dad asked Divina.
I walked past Nico and Dad and stood in front of the women. “She is. Where’s Dom?”
“Where’s my husband?” Divina asked in a voice that trembled.
“Yeah, where’s Tommy?” Sloane asked in a firmer tone.
“And who exactly are you?” Nico asked her.
“I’m the one who got your sister out,” she replied.
“Are you waiting for a reward?” Dad asked.
“Dad!” I was appalled.
“I’m not saying no,” Sloane responded without missing a beat.
I rolled my eyes and gave her a dry look. “What? It wasn’t out of the goodness of your heart.”
The side door opened again and in walked Dom, Matteo, Sera, and Ivy.
More emotional reunions ensued. Ivy and Sera got to me first.
“Renz is on his way back,” Matteo said. “Damn, sis, we were so worried about you.”
“I’m fine. But it looks like you guys are worse for wear.” Their faces were too grim. The guilt mounted. “Did you guys even think Sandro wouldn’t look after me?”
“I knew he would,” Mom said. “That’s what I was telling the boys.”
Matteo’s jaw hardened, but it was Dad who answered, “He’s got things to answer for. We welcomed him into our home and he wouldn’t answer our calls.”
All the men in my immediate family were understandably pissed. Dom stepped forward.
“Cuz, glad to see you’re okay.” I couldn’t read his face. My dad’s side of the family was the legitimate side. Nowhere did they expect that Dominic “Dom” De Lucci would step up to be the boss of the De Lucci crime family. He’d been boss in the five years since our great-uncle became too sick to continue. It didn’t sit well at first with Uncle Paulie who was in the same mind as Dad to keep their children from being made men. Aunt Carlotta and Luca were more encouraging for obvious reasons and Emilio Moretti, of course, was ecstatic and died happy when his grandson became the youngest boss ever to take over a powerful New York family.
I gave him a tight smile before saying, “We have to talk.”
“Bianca,” Dad started. “You don’t have to…Dom and I?—”
“Dad,” I said firmly. “I’m married to a boss now?—”
Everyone started talking, cutting me off, the arguing giving me a headache.
“Not if I can help it,” Dad spat with so much menace, and even if I knew it wasn’t directed at me, it momentarily made me quail and reconsider whether I was in over my head, but when he added, “I can have the divorce papers drawn up and served?—”