“Did I say something wrong?”
Luca shakes his head but doesn’t answer.
“Clearly, I did. You don’t look happy with my response.” I shift in my seat, turning slightly to face him. I hate that he picks now to fight with me while driving. Or maybe it’s me who is picking a fight with him. Luca keeps avoiding me, it seems.
Silence fills the void between us.
“Dammit, Luca! I’d rather you fight with me than give me the silent treatment.”
“I’m not giving you the silent treatment.” He shoots a glance at me. “I’m driving, and fighting isn’t going to help us when we have to deal with my parents this evening or pictures tomorrow.”
“What will help us?” I ask, waiting for him to tell me how we can fix this mess.
“I don’t know.” There’s an honesty in his words, a conviction that he is at as much a loss as I am.
Luca turns up the radio, deciding we’ve had enough discussion or lack thereof, and fills the silence in the car.
As we pull up to his parents’ house, Zeke begins to stir awake. A few snowflakes begin to fall but the weather report isn’t calling for much and the snow that fell last night has already been cleaned up. The roads were clear, but the snow hadn’t yet melted.
I unbuckle Zeke from the backseat, and Luca carries our weekend bags inside. There are two bags, one for Luca and one that I’m sharing with Zeke. Although I swear most of the bag is Zeke’s, with extra changes of clothes, diapers, and wipes.
Zeke babbles as I carry him out of the cold and into their foyer. Luca removes his own coat and shoes in one swift motion and leaves the bags on the floor inside the door. He helps me remove Zeke’s winter gear and shoes before taking him so that I can remove my own coat and shoes.
“I thought I heard you guys,” Nikki says, coming toward us. She holds out her hands for Zeke and Luca hands my son over to his grandmother.
“We’re going to have so much fun, just the two of us.” Nikki drops featherlight kisses on his cheeks and nose.
Zeke squirms but pinches at her cheeks, clearly enjoying the attention.
Nikki heads with him down the hall, and I’m quick to follow after my son. “Where are you taking him?” It’s not that I don’t trust her. Actually, it is one hundred percent that she is the wife of a mafia don. I don’t trust any of them, except Luca.
I want to trust Nikki, especially since she seems to be enthralled with my son. I can’t tell if it’s the fact she likes babies or that this is her new grandson.
“Do you want to see your new playroom?” Nikki cuddles Zeke and carries him down the hallway. To the left is an open door, and she wanders inside.
I’m right on her heels.
Luca is a few paces behind me. He doesn’t seem nearly as concerned, but Zeke is my son.
I step in behind Nikki, and the room is covered in toys. They’re not all new toys. Against the walls is a white bookshelf, stocked with everything from dolls to race cars. “I had Moreno bring down the kids’ toys from the attic.”
“You kept our old stuff?” Luca wanders into the playroom, taking all of it in, his gaze moving over the entire room.
“We didn’t keep everything, but there were some toys that never got donated and got put away. Yours and Nova’s favorites.” Nikki brings Zeke over to the child-sized table and puts him down.
His head turns in every direction as he spins around, taking everything in. He runs over to the play kitchen and starts pulling all of the plastic food out.
“That was one of your favorite toys too,” Nikki muses.
“Thank you.” I’m shocked that Luca’s family arranged to have a room devoted to Zeke. He’s my son, and while through marriage he’s their grandson, he’s not theirs by blood.
Luca strolls to the far corner where there’s a child’s tent set up, the perfect hiding place, it’s practically a fortress for a little kid. He bends down, glancing inside. “I always remembered this to be so much bigger. Nova and I used to hide in here for hours.”
Nikki smiles faintly, reminiscing. “Yes, I remember that.”
“Did you know it was the only place I felt safe?” Luca turns and faces his mother, the smile devoid of warmth. “After what Dante did, it was the one place I knew no one could see me.”
Because there weren’t any cameras inside the fort, no surveillance. I glance up at the corner of the room and there’s a camera with a red flashing light recording us, always watching us.
