Page 62 of Single Mom's Mafia Daddies

Leo called out from the other room. “Mama, come see what I did.”

I slid from Matteo’s arms and followed the sound of Leo’s voice to a small room across from the kitchen. He sat in front of a small, completed landscape puzzle, his shoes thrown to the other side of the room.

“That’s a beautiful puzzle.” I sat with him and worked on another puzzle he pulled from the shelf. Time crept past. Leo fell asleep on a cot beside me, his quiet snoring soothing. Every now and then, the ground shook and dust fell, but I concentrated on taking one deep breath after the next.

The slide of the metal door pulled me to my feet. My heart jumped into my throat at the sound of Alessio’s strained voice.

I ran to the living space and staggered to a stop.

Renzo held Alessio up with an arm at his waist. Alessio’s left arm was thrown around Renzo’s neck, and his legs refused to hold his full weight. Dirty and debris coated them both.

“I’m okay.” He gripped Renzo’s shoulder and pushed to his full height. Blood ran down his arm and dripped from his fingers. Red stained his shirt, and it took several seconds for me to accept that all the red was blood. So much blood.

I ran to him with my arms outstretched and my heart on full display. There was no safe place to touch him without risking further injury. “What happened?”

He lifted his head and met my gaze. His voice turned raw and jagged. “This ends now.”

31

ALESSIO

No more. No more games. No more half-assing my way through the problems the Verduccis threw my way.

“Renzo, relay to your team. I want the rest of those bastards off my property.” I palmed my side where the bullet had slammed into my vest and thrown me against the wall. I’d be bruised to hell and back, but I was alive. They wouldn’t make that mistake again. I had to hit them first. “Hit them hard. Without remorse.”

Renzo barked out a series of commands in his updated code language, using the earpieces to communicate with his team. “No sign of Vincenzo or Luca.” He gave me a searching look. “This wasn’t an end-game assault. Most likely testing the boundaries. Checking our responses. Nothing more than a detailed recon mission. They’ll be back to finish the job when they think we’re at our weakest.”

I avoided Lila’s gaze. “Can you make sure Leo doesn’t hear us?”

“Are you trying to get rid of me?” She fisted her hands on her hips. When she reached for me earlier, I’d let her offer comfort.As much as I wanted to take her to my room and fuck through the rest of my adrenaline rush, the time for comfort had passed.

I rebuilt the walls around my heart. “I’d rather you didn’t hear that I’m planning on murdering several people.”

The rush of anger that had tightened her eyes relaxed. “Give them hell for me. For us.” She spun around and left all three of us standing with our mouths hanging open.

Renzo broke first, the sharp crackle of laughter burrowing through the room until we all grinned.

I found a rag beneath the sink and washed the blood from my neck and arm. I’d landed on a pile of glass, and a shard had nearly sliced my jugular. Death by glass. What a way to go in the middle of a gunfight. I snorted at the ridiculousness. The mirror reflected my worn expression back at me, dirty face, grimace, and blood all mingled together in such a twisted manner that I saw my father staring out of the black frame.

Renzo and Matteo waited behind me, one over each shoulder. I had the best military strategist and tech guru at my disposal, and I still failed to outwit the Verduccis.

“We’re ending this. Now.” I threw the bloody rag into the sink and washed my face and neck, scrubbing soap through my matted hair and slicking it back with my hands.

“What’s the plan?” Renzo asked.

I rolled an idea around. The more I considered it, the more I understood how much they’d hate it. “We’re going to take them down from the inside.”

Matteo checked his tablet then showed it to Renzo, who muttered questions to his team. He watched me with the kind of careful precision that had driven me to hire him and had later made us friends. “Estate’s clear. Want my guys to follow them?”

“No.” I dragged a chair out from the kitchen table and sat. “No more chasing them. No more defense. We’re going on theoffensive. Bring your men back. Have them prepare for an infiltration.”

“I want to hear about this plan first.” Renzo crossed his arms. “I don’t like the look in your eyes.”

“We’re going to split up.” I held up a hand to stave off the protests. “You and your team will hit Vincenzo at his office. Not his home. He’ll expect that. He’ll be waiting for retaliation. He thinks I won’t take out the office because I’ll be worried about the body count.” A smile pulled at my cheeks. “I couldn’t give a rat’s ass about his employees. They’re all as bad as him. Take them out. Make it count.”

“And what will you be doing?” Matteo asked.

“I’ll be going after Luca. It’s what he wants, what all this has been about. He wants me so angry I lose sight of everything else. They want me dead. They want to take everything from me. Let’s see what happens when everything Luca wants is within reach.” Luca and Vincenzo had very different ideas on how to run their operations. “Let’s see if brother will turn on brother.”