In what seemed like minutes, I blinked against the glare of the sun.
Sitting up, running a hand through my hair, I realized the room was too quiet, and Ruby was gone. She only left if Scarlett did.
There were times that Scarlett would go down to start breakfast before me, but we usually went together, Mia in my arms.
A curse word erupted from my throat on a growl.
As I opened the door to our bedroom to rush out of it, Rocco took a step back.
“Going somewhere,fratello?” He took a sip of his coffee.
“Mia moglie,” I snapped.
“Ah, she went to church. Mia is downstairs.”
He put a hand to my chest, stopping me from going downstairs. Dario, Romeo, Guido, and Donato hovered around him, all with pastries in one hand, coffee in the other.
Romeo grinned. “È una giornata nuda?”Is it a naked day?His face fell when he noticed mine. “What is going on?”
“I was wondering the same thing,” Rocco muttered.
“Shit, Fausti,” Mitch said, joining the group. “Put some fucking clothes on, man. Are you trying to make the rest of us look bad?”
My brothers, Guido and Donato, glanced at each other, shrugged, and then followed me into the room. Mitch plopped down on the bed.
“Who did she go with?” I said, throwing on the first pair of sweatpants I could find.
“Nino.”
“By himself?”
Yanking out a white t-shirt from the dresser drawer, I set it over my head in a manic rush, then stuck my feet in a pair of tennis shoes.
“Two others went also.”
I stuck a hat over my head, going for the extra set of keys I kept next to the bed. Rocco stepped in front of me before I could walk out.
“Parlare,” he said.
My brothers stood around him. Guido too. Donato nodded at me, already knowing the situation. He called them here early so we could discuss the delivery.
“I don’t have time,” I said. “Donato will fill you in.”
“Sto arrivando,” Rocco said, on my heels. Then he ordered Donato to send a few men along with us.
I stopped so abruptly that he almost ran into my back. Looking up, I eyed the men standing around the bannister, eyes narrowed in wary suspicion.
“Stay here with my daughter until I bring her mother back,” I said in Italian.
“We will not leave,” Donato said. “I will brief the men while you are gone.”
Women filled our kitchen, some of them with babies on their hips. Scarlett’s mother held Mia, speaking to her in Slovenian. The pang of not seeing Scarlett in this scene drove the call from Burgess and my wife’s words afterward through my heart like a stake.
Rubbing a hand against my heart to still the bleeding, I picked up my pace, ignoring Eunice when she asked me if I was hungry.
Mia cried for me, but I kept going, only one thing on my mind.
My wife.
