“Thank you. I’ll be there. Give him my number and tell him to text me the time. That place is up to every damn code, and I’ll be damned if they try to fuck him over again.”
“Will do.”
I sit up and scrub my hand down the side of my face. “Daniella and I were talking after you left, and we came up with a theory. Based on everything that’s happened, we think Enrique killed her parents.”
“Oh shit.”
I go into detail, relaying everything we talked about and why it all makes sense, and by the time I’m done, Dominick agrees with me.
“You’re going to have to tell Lorenzo.”
“Yeah, but I’m hoping to get proof first. If we can find this asshole, I can torture it out of him. I’m also having Eddy break into his laptop since Ian was able to snag it before we left.”
“Nice. Let me know what you find out.” There’s some whispering, and then Dominick adds, “Peyton wants to know if you want Daniella to stay with us. She’s a woman and?—”
“No,” I say before I can even give it any thought. “She’s staying with me. I promised Lorenzo I’d keep her safe.”
“Okay,” Dominick agrees. “If anything changes …”
“We’re good. But I appreciate it. I have the room, and it’s quiethere, and you guys have an entire baseball team of babies over there, so …”
“We have three kids,” Dominick deadpans. “That’s hardly a baseball team.”
“I’m not judging. I’m just saying, birth control, when used correctly, works.”
I hear Peyton laugh in the background. “Your brother refuses to?—”
“And that’s my cue to hang up now. Happy procreating.”
Just as I’m clicking End Call, Daniella appears at the top of the stairs. Her brown locks are damp and messy, and she’s dressed in my shirt and sweats. I’m taller, but she’s got tits and curves for days, so the shirt is stretched taut across her chest while the sweatpants mold to every inch of her bottom half. I’ve never had a woman wear my clothes, but, holy shit, she looks damn good in them.
As she glides down the stairs, I remind myself that she’s Lorenzo’s sister, way too young for me, and she’s been through too much for me to even be thinking these thoughts.
“So, who’s procreating?” she asks with a small smile, rounding the coffee table and sitting next to me on the couch.
“What?” I ask, so lost in her scent—a mixture of my body wash and something that’s just her—that I can’t think clearly.
“You said, ‘Happy procreating,’” she says with a laugh.
“Oh, yeah. My brother and sister-in-law. They were apart for four years, and I swear they’re making up for lost time. They’ve got a four-year-old and newborn twins. All boys.”
“And I’m assuming, based on your response, you’re not on board with the procreating.” She smirks.
“Listen, I like sex as much as the rest of them, but there’s no reason why it has to end with a little gremlin. My nephews are great, but imagine all the sex they could have if they didn’t have all those kids. At the rate they’re going, they’re going to fill up that entire eight-bedroom house.
“Besides, you’ve seen firsthand how dangerous our life is.Imagine having to protect all of them.” I lean back and drop my head against the cushion, then turn it to face her. “Fuck that.”
“Wow, aren’t you Mr. Chipper?” She snorts out a laugh. “Maybe they love each other so much that they want to create a family together. My dad said that Dominick was working on making things safer. Was he lying?”
“No, he is.Weare. And for the most part, we are safe. But there’s always going to be a small part of our life that isn’t completely safe. Assholes wanting what we have, coming back to avenge their parents’ deaths.”
I raise a brow, and she nods in understanding.
“We spent years trying to protect our mom and sister, and they both got hurt. And take you, for example,” I point out. “All you wanted was to fall in love, and look where that got you.”
“That could happen to anyone,” she says, tucking her legs under her. “The businessman who cheats on his wife. The wife who falls for the pool boy.”
She scrunches her nose up, and I try to ignore how fucking cute she looks.
