Page 14 of A Son Hidden from the Sicilian

His assistant led them to the awaiting car, and then they began a long drive through darkness that was slowly headed toward dawn.

Brianna hadn’t really slept, and it seemed to be catching up with her. Lorenzo only felt wired. Desperate to get his son away from any place he might be a target. Once they were back in Sicily, safely ensconced at his estate, he could breathe.

Until then...

The car eventually pulled into a very suburban area, full of modest but neat homes that all had the same sort of air to them. Cleanly manicured lawns, leafless trees in a nod to the windy cold. Brick two-stories. Not the kind of money he was used to these days, but definitely not the poverty he’d grown up in. Something firmly in the middle.

Their car pulled up at one of the older-looking homes and his assistant nodded back at him from his position in the front seat. Lorenzo looked over at Brianna, who had finally succumbed to sleep, her head against the window, her coat wrapped protectively around her like a bubble.

She’d changed in the bathroom when they’d gotten on the plane. Out of the beautiful sparkling gown and into a gray ensemble of what looked like some kind of athletic gear.

Lorenzo still wore his suit. It only dawned on him now that these were the clothes he would meet his son in. Hold his son for the first time in. He didn’t know what would be the appropriate attire, but a suit hardly seemed it.

There was no time to alter it. Somehow, they had beat Dante’s men here, or this had all been some kind of ploy. Either way, time was of the essence.

“Brianna.”

She jerked awake, though he’d tried not to startle her. But she saw the house outside the window and was immediately shoving the door open. She sprinted through the yard and to the front door. Her purse dangled from her arm as she dug through it.

He arrived on the porch as she shoved keys into the door and turned the knob. She stepped inside the dimly lit entryway, and he followed.

He heard the sounds of people awake deeper in the house, though it was still well before 6 a.m. A woman who sounded a lot like Brianna said, “Mom’s home!” and then the scrabble of little feet followed.

Lorenzo stood frozen by the door he’d closed behind him as a little boy bounded around the corner.

“Mama!” The boy shot across the floor and flung himself at Brianna as she crouched and caught him with ease. They held each other, just like that, for a very long time.

Lorenzo knew he should look at the two older people that had followed the boy into the room. Offer a handshake. A kind word. But he could only watch, mother and son wrapped up in each other. Love so evident he wished he didn’t know. Wished he was blissfully ignorant ofthis.

“Baby, you shouldn’t be up.”

“I’m afraid he heard us making a bit of a racket trying to pack as instructed,” the older woman said, fully dressed in slim slacks and a comfortable-looking sweatshirt.

Brianna stood, bringing Gio with her so the boy straddled her hip. Her blue eyes flickered with some emotion she hid well, although she was also clearly overjoyed at seeing her son again. “Gio. I want you to meet someone.”

The boy turned his head to face Lorenzo. He had his short arms clutched around Brianna’s neck, and when he looked at Lorenzo, tilted his head to lean it against Brianna’s shoulder.

It was like being thrust back into time. Gio looked so much like his little brothers that Lorenzo felt as though he was that teenage boy once again, running herd on his younger siblings. With their dark shocks of hair and wild, expressive mouths. The only difference was the blue of Gio’s eyes.

All Brianna.

“Gio,” she said very softly. “This is your father.”

The boy kept his head on Brianna’s shoulder. He looked at Lorenzo with some speculation. Then he shook his head and turned away from Lorenzo, burying his face in the crook of Brianna’s neck.

He mumbled something that sounded a lot likescary.

This seemed to amuse Brianna. “He is dressed a bit scary, isn’t he?” she said with some humor and a nod at his dark suit. But her eyes were strangely wet. “But he isn’t scary at all. I promise.”

CHAPTER SIX

BRIANNAHADNEVERseen Lorenzo quite so off his game. He had an arrested look on his face, and his eyes never left Gio. Like he was seeing the secrets to the world unfurl to him all at once—awe-inspiring and terrifying.

She supposed that was parenthood in a nutshell. And it made her want to cry—for so many reasons. Time lost. What clearly hadn’t been a terrible decision in the first place considering they now had to secrete Gio away at some Sicilian estate. And the ache in her heart she couldn’t fully get rid of, no matter how right she’d been to keep them apart.

Gio held on to her neck for dear life as he often did these days around strangers. Brianna’s first instinct was to protect him. To say he didn’t have to look at or talk to Lorenzo if he didn’t want to.

But that was not how she dealt with anyone else connected to Gio. And that didn’t do Gio any good. Though Lorenzo was essentially a stranger to him, the boy had to learn to be comfortable around his father.

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