“It’d be nice to have a son, don’t you think?”
“I want a girl,” I tease, and he lets out a long, hearty laugh .
Later in the day, I request that the doctor be brought in to check if the baby is okay and administer prenatals.
Chapter thirty
Dominic
I’m different, and there’s no more denying it. Hell, I don’t evenwantto deny it anymore. And maybe that’s why, instead of killing her the moment I thought she was spying on me, I let her go. Deep down, I couldn’t believe she was a traitor. Deep down, I had already fallen for her. And for the first time in a while, I was scared. Scared of my own feelings. Scared to admit that I love her.
I’d spent a long time refusing to admit that because I thought I didn’t deserve love, especially not hers. Because I never saw myself as anything other than a monster, and monsters don’t get happy endings.
But there’s something about finally succumbing that feels exhilarating. She’s broken down the barriers and managed totouch a part of me I thought was long dead. She saw me beyond what I was…and loved me for who I truly am.
“Boss.” Matteo’s voice interrupts my thoughts. “He’s in the basement.”
That’s all I need to jerk up from my chair and head to the basement. Dean Rossi thought he was clever and I’ll give him that. He made finding him almost impossible. But a small slip-up was all we needed to track him down.
The bastard made a call to his friend in Naples. They spoke mostly in code, but we were able to decode their conversation and deduce that he was going to leave the country. The call was under a minute, but the voiceprint recognition that Matteo and the tech guys had activated on flagged numbers caught it. That was my opening.
Paranoia makes men sloppy, so we’d anticipated a list of numbers that Dean could call. Got some information from his daughters and wife, whom we found at a chapel.
But what turned out to be the key was a number scribbled on the back of the general’s dead son’s photograph that we’d found at Dean’s mansion.
We cross-referenced every ticket booked within the last twenty-four hours and within a certain radius, focusing on names linked to fake IDs. Air, train, and sea. One stood out. It was paid for in cash, but didn’t exist in the government database.
David Renzetti.
Matteo and the team hunted him down just before his train arrived. He was dressed down in a baseball hat, a jacket, and was holding a suitcase. Pathetic fucker didn’t really think I’d let him slip into another life that easily.
“Well…well, if it isn’t the king himself,” he bites out once I open the door. The smell of sweat and blood mixes in the air, but I don’t see enough bruises on his face.
“Doing your own father-in-law dirty?”
The title makes my blood boil and I walk up to him, landing a heavy blow on the side of his head. “You don’t get to talk about family, Dean.”
He groans, head lolling to the side, but he quickly turns to face me again.
My nostrils flare and I land more blows on his face. My movements are hot and furious as I strike over and over again until all I see is red.
Someone catches my hand mid-air, and I turn to see Matteo.
“Boss, we can’t kill him yet. We have to deliver him to the Saudis.”
Exhaling slowly, I step back, tugging the lapels of my suit firmly. My knuckles are stained with blood but that’s not enough. Fuck. I want nothing more than to kill this bastard.
“The Saudis can have what’s left of him after he walks me through every pathetic step of his little crusade.”
He throws his head back and cackles long, the sound echoing in the basement until it turns to a wheeze. “You think you’re invincible, but you couldn't even tell your empire was falling apart while you were fucking around with my needy bitch of a daughter.”
I grind my teeth just as the door creaks open and Bella steps in, hair tied in a messy bun and expression as hard as a rock. We’d discussed earlier if she wanted to be here, and she said she’d come in her own time.
“I must admit, infiltrating your men was a little difficult, but you’ll be surprised at how many people want to see you fall. Marcus Silvano was the best of them though,” he rasps, flashing me a dirty grin.
“The recorder I gave Bella?” He slides his gaze to Bella, who comes to stand beside me. “Oh, that was the easiest thing I’ve done in years. I knew her abandonment issues would set in and she’d yearn for a love I’d never give.”
I feel her stiffen at his words, and I slip a hand around her waist. “The recorder was how I knew to sabotage the Naples shipment, Rino’s escape… I knew where she’d be when I sent James, andof course, I ordered Frederick and the rest to attack her car. You know, no one would expect a father to attempt to assassinate his own daughter.”
