I narrowed my eyes at her. “Start with why my son was wearing a crown.”
“Oh,” she said sarcastically, fixing his hair. “Arranged marriages, you know. Those women have been after me all day, wanting to have playdates and asking me if we thought about who he might marry someday. Maggie Beautiful laughed so hard that she choked on her wine and had to go change her clothes. That’s for starters. Then the moment I walk out of the room to bring Mia to the potty, they converge on him like a flock of flirty hens!”
“I see.” I held him closer, patting his back. He was too young to understand, but still, he looked a bit dazed. “What about the older boys? Girls chasing them too?”
She dallied, making a clear line with the point of her shoe between me and her. “Give me your word that you won’t…do anything rash.”
“If I don’t?” My heart started to speed up, and my blood pumped harder in my veins.
“I won’t say.” She stuck her chin up at me. “I’m serious, Brando. Words. Words work, you know! All those men in that room with guns.” She put a hand to her mouth. “They were aimed at your head! You’re reckless! I mean, I appreciate what you did, but…you have no regard for your own life sometimes!”
“Enough about that,” I said. “Tell me.”
“Your word.”
I sighed. “You have my word.”
“All right.” She sighed. “One of the little boys, well, he’s been chasing Mia around. They were just playing. Kids, Brando. That’s all they are. But he—kissed her. On the cheek. It was actually very sweet—”
“And my brothers’ sons?”
“Tackled him. More than once. Poor thing.”
“No.” I nodded. “Not poor thing. No one kisses our girls, not without permission. I’d never touch a child that age, but their father—” My eyes moved inside of the room, looking for the boy who dared to kiss my daughter.
“Brando,” Scarlett said, a clear warning in her voice.
In that minute, my heart started to hurt. Really fucking heart.
My baby girl was only two.Two.
I took this as a bad sign for things to come—in the near future, I’d have no black hair left and a heart attack on my chart.
“Brando?” Scarlett’s voice had gotten softer, and her hand came to my arm, squeezing. “That man—I don’t think he introduced himself. The one with the…enormous neck. There’s something off about him and his son. Sons? The resentment—it came hot and fast over me. Lothario is in cahoots with him, but both are playing to win. They will hold together until we fall, and then they will turn on each other. An agreement made on a feeble handshake. They’re hoping to take down Luca and his sons as a unit, then separate and fight each other.
“Giovi Spataro was working for him, the man with the neck—I’m almost positive of it. He might be a gold-collared criminal, but they still deal in petty crimes. A hand in the pot at all times, and all that.” She waved a hand. “The man with the neck has probably been helping Lothario. Then Nemours stirs the pot. There’s no doubt they were responsible for the attack on me and Luca the day we went out for flowers. And that comment? About losing a wife? I—” She bit her lip, then released it. “The plot thickens. It’s making me anxious.”
“You’re trying to distract me.”
Her mouth fell open. She closed it with a snap. “Brando! We have more serious issues than two-year-olds being two-year-olds.”
“Two today, Scarlett. Twenty tomorrow.”
“You know what—” She huffed and turned to go, then turned back around, going to take Matteo from me.
“No,” I said. “Leave him with me for a bit.” He needed time to get over the entire ordeal.
“You’re really upset about this, aren’t you?” To her credit, she didn’t laugh or attempt to belittle me. She just didn’t understand.
“Yeah. She’s my baby, Scarlett. I’m not ready for—” I waved a hand toward the room.
She touched my face. “It’ll go by fast, Brando. I know. But today, sheistwo. Enjoy that. And no matter what age, two, twenty, eighty-two, she’ll always be our baby.”
Letting out a deep breath, I nodded. Leave it to my wife to keep my head screwed on straight.
Mia came running toward us from the room, Eunice scuttling behind her.
Mia wrapped her arms around my leg and squeezed, shutting her eyes tight. “Papà!”
