“If you are going to play cards, you need to know how to hold them properly.” I show her how to fan them out, which is a little tricky with such small hands, but she eventually gets the hang of it, and she looks proudly at me before glaring.
“You looked at my cards. That’s cheating.”
I wave my hand and move back to my spot. “You’re right, that isn’t fair, is it?” I toss my crappy hand into the middle and gesture for the others to do the same. “We can redeal.” She grins and nods as Bryce shuffles and redeals.
“What is the prize?” she asks with a gleam in her eye, and Bryce chuckles.
“How about whoever wins the most hands can have a cookie from the restaurant?”
She purses her lips and taps a finger on the side of her mouth like she’s thinking about it, and I suspect this little girl is not as clueless as we first thought. “Make it a banana split and you’ve got a deal.”
Bryce bursts out with laughter and holds out his hand, and the two of them shake. “You’ve got yourself a deal.”
Chapter Ten
Addison thoroughly thrashes both of us. I’m not sure Bryce was trying all that hard, but I was, and I still lost to a four-year-old. Talk about fucking humbling.
She’s sitting on the other side of my desk, devouring her banana split with chocolate sauce smeared across her face, when Penelope finally returns.
She leans against the doorframe and smiles, something that looks genuine, unlike the usual smiles I am used to. “Well, look at that, she survived. I knew there was some good in you, Victoria Russo.” That almost sounds like a compliment from the woman who I thought despised me.
I frown, utterly confused and still highly suspicious of this woman. “Don’t ever ask me to do this again, Penelope. I’m too fucking busy for any of this crap, not to mention it’s not exactly the safest place for a child.”
I glare at her, and she pushes off the doorframe and comes inside, sighing. “No, but neither is her life in general. Thankfully Mario keeps her separated from his life most of the time. He has her and the nanny in a townhouse away from his main residence, but it means that I can’t keep an eye on her all the time.”
My eyes just about bug out of my head at her sharing this information. She basically just told me about a weak link in Mario’s defenses, but would I stoop so low as to use a child against the man? I glance at the girl, her riotous head of curls sticking up all over the place from bouncing around when she won at Go Fish. When she looks up at me, she smiles with such an air of innocence and joy, I know that there is no way I could do anything to harm this child despite what it might gain me.
“Well, that’s not my problem,” I tell her, and I see her frown and sigh with disappointment. What did she expect? For me to add kidnapping to my repertoire? It’s not like that’s something I could hide, unlike bodies, which are easy to dispose of. Kidnapping someone without torturing and killing them is complicated, and what the hell would I do with a four-year-old?
She walks into my bathroom and returns with a washcloth then proceeds to clean Addison’s hands and face. “Come on, sweetie, we need to go home. Miss Macy will be waiting for you,” she tells her, and the smile on Addison’s face drops, and tears well in her eyes.
“But I don’t want to go home. I hate Miss Macy.” She crosses her arms and pushes out her bottom lip in a pout that would give Sage a run for his money. “I want my mommy.” Tears start to trickle down her cheeks, and I clench my fists and grit my teeth. She is not my problem. I raise an eyebrow at Penelope and nod at the girl.
“You deal with this, I have places to be.” I stand up and move around my desk. I’ve had enough. Today has been a lot, and I’m ready to go home and smoke some weed with Sage and forget about all of this, especially because I have an urge to put a bullet in Miss Macy’s head, and that would probably go over like a lead balloon.
Addison jumps off the chair and rushes at me, and I freeze. Fuck, what do I do? Before I can make a decision, she wraps herlittle bruised arms around my legs and presses her tearstained cheeks to my belly.
“I love you, Tori, please don’t make me go.”
I gulp and look around, holding my arms up like I have a weapon pointed at me.
“Help!” I plead with Penelope for the first time ever.
Her eyes have something like regret and sympathy in them, but she nods her head and untangles Addison’s arms from around me. “Come on, sweetie. Tori has things to do. Let’s go home, and I’ll read you a story before I have to leave,” she promises as she gently drags her from my office, Addison’s sobs echoing behind them. She pauses at the doorway and looks back over her shoulder. “Be careful, Tori. As much as we don’t get along, I loved your father, and he wouldn’t want anything to happen to you or Gio.”
With that parting comment, she leaves, and I frown, not sure what to make of it.
“Well, fuck,” I grumble as Bryce appears in my doorway.
“Aw, did the big bad mafia princess grow a heart?” he teases, and I glare at him.
“Fuck you. I just didn’t want her to go back to an abusive household, but there’s nothing I can do.”
“I don’t know. Killing her nanny and grandfather sounds pretty good,” he replies. “Addi told us enough stories about both of them to warrant it.”
“Her grandfather is Mario Maricuso,” I tell him, and his eyes widen.
“Oh shit. Yeah, now it sounds even better.”
