Page 18 of Single Mom's Mafia Daddies
I struggled to believe him when every nerve danced and twitched with the kind of anticipation I’d always encountered before a fight. Something was coming. Maybe not tonight or tomorrow, but soon.
The attack on Lila’s boutique was just the beginning. Anyone could see that. If it was me, I’d have used Lila’s boutique to flush Alessio out, to see how close he was to the woman and the boy, and to test for weaknesses.
Alessio’s reactions gave the Verducci syndicate all the information they needed, and they’d sent him into hiding. The sight of him bloodied as he led Lila from the building had sucked all the air from my lungs. Being used to danger was one thing. Seeing Lila so shaken had perturbed me in ways I’d thought dead and buried.
I shook off the memory that made me want to rush into the house and stand guard at her door and continued my sweep of the perimeter. The scent of jasmine thickened. I stiffened, standing halfway between the house and the fence, and peered to my left where a veranda pushed out from the study. Glass double doors stood open, a subtle light from the lamps in the corners giving me a view of Lila curled into one of the brown wicker chairs. She held a steaming cup to her lips and took a small sip.
I checked every inch of space around her and behind her, then ahead all the way to the fence. I’d promised protection to her, Leo, and Alessio, and she created a major security risk by being out here alone. Add in the wide-open doors and it might as well be one of my nightmares come to life. I shook my head at her innocence and approached cautiously from the side. Even innocent women killed…mostly by accident, but I had no intentions of getting shot.
She startled and leaped to her feet when I stepped onto the concrete. One small hand flew to her throat, the other clutching tight to the cup. “You scared me.”
I shrugged one shoulder and crossed to sit on the padded bench. My back pressed into the limestone facade, my attention sweeping back and forth across the yard.
“Are you going to give me some lecture about how I shouldn’t be outside?” She slumped into the chair, her body stiff as though braced for my anger.
“Seems you already know the danger.” I spoke quickly but quietly, not interested in drawing this out into an argument. Arguments lead to raised voices, and that risked discovery.
I’d learned that the hard way. A woman’s face flashed in my memory. We’d called her Rocket for her quick temper. The night she died, I swore never to raise my voice again. My need to be right had brought on the argument that led to her death. Never again.
Lila harrumphed but relaxed into the seat and pulled her legs beneath her. She wore a pair of short shorts and a t-shirt that skimmed her thighs, the combination comfortable and alluring as she revealed more skin than I’d seen in decades.
I looked away, resuming my examination of the area.
“I don’t want to be here.” The low whisper twisted through me. “Those men destroyed my shop.” Tears glistened in her eyes, and I fisted my hands to keep them still. “I’ve never been in danger before. Kind of suspicious that happens right after seeing Alessio again…I don’t want to be here where I’m part of this world of guns and violence. I’m afraid for Leo.”
She stopped for a breath and waited.
If she expected a response from me, I was going to disappoint her. I’d rather she wasn’t here either. Her presence—and Leo’s—messed up the careful precision that kept us all alive.
Yet seeing her fear and the way it knotted her up in the large chair stirred me into needing things I had no right to want.
“How did you meet Alessio?” she asked softly.
The question skipped between us. I almost ignored it but found I wanted to talk, to try and help her understand that while being close to Alessio meant danger, there was no better place to be.
“He was recruiting former soldiers for a protective detail in Italy.” I leaned forward and propped my elbows on my knees, letting my hands dangle. Scars crisscrossed my forearms, the pale tracks shining in the lamplight. I remembered every detail of the knife fight that gave me the scars on the night Alessio found me and invited me to join him. We bore matching scars on our jaws thanks to Alessio’s recruiting process. If I bested him, I earned the responsibility of head of security. We’d almost slit each other’s throats in the fury of battle. “I’d recently been discharged and had nothing better to do.”
Lila set her cup down on the glass table between us. “I find that hard to believe. You don’t seem like the type to run out of jobs.”
I took the assessment in stride and filed it away. Lila saw more in minutes than most understood in years. Did I tell her the truth or dance around it the way most people preferred? A look at her face revealed the rapt attention focused on me. Truth, then.
“I was the sole survivor of my unit. We infiltrated an enemy camp, discovered it was a trap, and tried to fight our way out. They didn’t make it.” I did. Somehow, against all odds and every mission that killed better men and women than me, I survived. And I hated myself for it. Why did I get to live when they were wiped from the Earth as though they’d never been? “I needed a purpose. Alessio gave me that.”
Soft footsteps from inside the house wrenched me around. I jumped to my feet even as my brain recognized the steps were too light for an enemy. My hand stilled before I grabbed my gun.
Leo shuffled out of the house, his eyes sleep-filled and heavy. “Mama?”
“Right here.” She scooped him into her lap. “You should be asleep.”
“I don’t like my room. It’s too big.” He yawned and tucked himself into a ball.
I checked the wall one last time, nodded at my men whisking in and out of the shadows, and made my way to the double doors.
“Will you come inside? It’s getting late.” I knew instinctively not to order her into the house but to ask. I could make her, but I’d rather gain her trust in case I needed it later when it really mattered.
“You can stay in my room tonight.” Lila kissed Leo’s head and stood, hefting his sleepy bulk.
I held out my arms. “Want me to carry him?”