Page 18 of Mafia Boss's Baby Surprise

“Who the fuck—?” My words die on my tongue because I recognize the guy in front of me. “Theo? What the fuck are you doing here?”

“What areyoudoing here?” His gaze meets mine. “All alone? It’s dangerous out here.”

I let go of him and roll my eyes. “Now you’re acting like Alessandro. I can take care of myself, and you don’t always have to know where I’m going or what I’m doing.”

“I know, but you don’t have to do this alone. That’s my point.” Theo gives me one of his sad-puppy looks that he, for some reason, thinks works on everyone. “It’s not about whether you can or can’t do it on your own. It’s always good to have backup.”

“You need to be able to trust your backup.” I narrow my eyes at him. “Your backup shouldn’t keep important information from you.”

“Luca...” He sighs. “I already said I was sorry. But you know I’m always here for you. You’re my best friend. I’ll always have your best interest in mind.”

“If you say so.”

“I’ve never lied to you. Not even when Alessandro asked me to. Remember?”

I clench my jaw. How could I ever forget? Alessandro bought a whole clinic to get me off drugs, and it was full of guards. But being surrounded by guards and nurses was no fun. It was suffocating and lonely at the same time.

I had no one to talk to, except for the psychologist who wanted to talk about the things that I wanted to keep buried. It was impossible to get along with her or trust her. She’d share everything with Alessandro, so I knew I couldn’t tell her anything.

Alessandro noticed something was wrong, and he came up with a brilliant idea to get me a friend. A younger guard who’d befriend me and pretend as if it all happened naturally.

But Theo had other plans. He told me all about it the first time we met, and I instantly liked him for it. And it wasn’t just because he brought me cigarettes and pissed off the nurses when he stole their key, and he and I locked ourselves in the storage room.

It was fun, and he became my real friend very quickly. Alessandro was annoyed with him at first, but he must’ve realized his plan would’ve never worked because I would’ve figured it out.

Theo’s company stopped me from spiraling into the darkness. I stopped wishing not to wake up in the morning. I stopped wishing for death.

“You withheld information from me,” I say.

“Yes, but look at you. It’s been what? A few hours since you found out about Marya, and you’re already here. It’s not safe. We’ll send our spies to watch this area.”

“As if Alessandro hasn’t already tried that and they found nothing. I need to know why Marya came here, or if she comes here on a regular basis. Maybe there’s something we’re missing, and if I can figure it out, we can catch her.”

“That woman you were following... She saw you. She was probably one of Marya’s doubles. Marya does that a lot. Sends women who look like her—”

“Yeah, but so what?”

“Marya will know you’re after her.”

“Again, so what?” I cross my arms. “We need more information. What Alessandro has isn’t enough. This area has to be searched very carefully. We need info on every building and every person who lives around here. Just because we can’t get to Marya doesn’t mean we can’t get to one of her minions or partners. They could lead us to her. And Marcello.”

“We’ll have more info. You just have to be patient. I know you want to track her down right now, but Alessandro has been working on it for years, and she somehow always finds a way to disappear.”

A tic starts in my jaw. “Patient? While Marya conspires with my worst enemy?”

“Look, I get it. It’s disturbing they’re in contact, but it’s only because Marya is your birth mother. Marcello meets with a lot of people. It’s all just business. It probably has nothing to do with you.”

“Yeah, right.” I don’t believe that for a second.

Marya is who she is, and Marcello... No one knows why I hate him so much. I’ve never told anyone, not even Theo. He doesn’t understand why a possible alliance between Marya and Marcello has me on edge, but I have no desire to explain it to him.

“So what the fuck do you expect me to do?” I ask, arching my eyebrows.

“We’ll have as many of our men as possible working on this. Alessandro’s men will help too. All you have to do is wait for the results.”

Wait? Yeah, sitting and waiting for others to do the job is so not my thing.

“How about we go back home? And then we can figure out something to get your mind off things a little. You need to disconnect. Have your mind clear for what’s coming. I think I know just the right place where you can do that.”

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