Page 4 of Mafia Boss's Baby Surprise

“Let me...” Julia gets hold of my skirt and pulls it up, folding it at the waist.

“What are you doing?”

“I should’ve gotten you some clothes. I can’t believe I forgot,” she mutters as she lifts my shirt. “Oh, good. Your undershirt is fine. We’ll come up with something in the car. You can take my jacket and—”

I have no idea what she’s talking about, but we need to move. “Come on!” I hiss.

Julia bobs her head and grabs my hand, yanking me with her. As we scurry through the shadows, I glance at the part of the house that’s off limits to anyone but my father and his men.

It doesn’t look any different from the rest of the house in any way, but I’ve always wondered what goes on in there.

I’m a mafia princess, and yet, the mafia is mostly a mystery to me. All I ever get to see are armed men. My father never discusses anything important in front of me.

Sometimes, I want to break my father’s rule and try to get past the guards to see what’s so secret and forbidden about his mafia part of the house, but he probably just keeps important paperwork or information there.

But now I’m just glad I can’t see any guards as Julia leads me through the bushes that are at the edge of the yard.

I’m lucky Julia knows exactly which path to take so no would see us. She even knows the code for disabling the alarms so we can go through the gate instead of having to climb the brick fence.

I gasp when I glimpse a guard, but Julia tugs me with her down the street and we race as fast as possible. When we can’t see any part of the house anymore, we stop.

Julia looks at me as we pant for breath, and then we both burst into laughter.

“Come on. My friend’s car should be just around the corner,” she says.

I glance over my shoulder. No one’s coming after us, but I can’t relax just yet. I’ll probably be tense until I’m back in my bed and I’m sure my parents aren’t going to find out about any of this.

But I’m not a child anymore.

I should be able to do whatever I want, mafia princess or not.

CHAPTER2

Luca

I gritmy teeth as I clench my fingers around my phone. Marcello Valentino’s photo taunts me from the screen, and I want to reach through it and rip his throat out.

His short hair may be more gray than black now, and there are more wrinkles on his face, but his beady light blue eyes are still the same. My thoughts want to drift off to that dark place where I first saw his eyes about ten years ago, but I don’t let them.

My only goal now is to track Marcello down and kill him, which is proving to be more difficult than I expected. His territory wasn’t even anywhere near mine, but now there’s only one mafia family between us.

Somehow, Marcello has struck deals and overtaken smaller territories, one by one, so no one noticed what he was doing until it was too late. Now everyone thinks he’s too powerful to stop, and they’re sure he’s going to be my unwanted neighbor soon, but that’s not going to happen.

I’m not going to let it, even if I have to wade through enemy territory to get to him. The biggest problem with my plan is that it’s not easy to track Marcello down. He has too much territory, too many hideouts, and too much money.

He even uses doubles to confuse everyone about his whereabouts, and when the real himdoesshow up, it’s so deep in his territory it’s impossible to get to him in time or pass through all his security.

But I’ll find a way. Everyone slips up and makes a mistake eventually. Gets too comfortable. When that happens, I’ll be ready, but my patience isn’t infinite. Something needs to happen sooner rather than later because the Icardis, whose territory borders with mine, aren’t strong or powerful enough to fight Marcello off, only stall him a little. Maybe.

The door swishes open, and I look up with annoyance. Theo’s eyebrows shoot up in fake surprise when he sees me. He’s my second-in-command and my best friend, which makes him the only person who can access this office without an invitation or any special permission.

“Why are you still here?” Theo asks. “It’s late.”

“Marcello.” It’s all I say before focusing back on the information on my phone.

Theo sighs. “You have more than a dozen men working on finding him at all times, and you’ll be the first to know when something happens. You don’t have to move a finger until then, but why am I even telling you all this? You already know it, and yet, you’re always here.”

“I’m not always here.” I meet his blue eyes.

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