Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 55263 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 276(@200wpm)___ 221(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55263 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 276(@200wpm)___ 221(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
The word landed heavily between us. Murdered.
Enzo nodded as if he’d read my thoughts. “My future changed instantly. It was suddenly my responsibility to take over the family business, which wouldn’t have been a problem except he never planned on dying and didn’t want me involved. That’s why I was getting my MBA; he meant for me to be a legitimate businessman.” His gaze glossed over as if he was lost to the past, but then he sighed again. “His death left a vacuum that would’ve put my remaining family members in danger.”
Danger. That word sounded so fantastical, but Enzo’s expression was gravely serious. “Danger,” I repeated, testing out the word.
“Yeah, danger. I spent the first couple of years wanting it to be a bad movie.” He drew a slow breath and let it out so achingly slowly it made me breathless. “Ren, the family business isn’t just a string of wildly successful Italian restaurants. I am the head of the DeRossi crime organization. The DeRossi Family.”
Air deserted my lungs the same way Enzo had all those years ago as the words knocked around in my brain. “Crime family… like the mob?”
“Exactly that,” he said, flashing a relieved smile.
I tried to wrap my brain around this new reality as Enzo and I sat with our gazes locked in a staring contest. It was all still so unbelievable, and there was a part of me that thought this was a lie.
“That is why I ended things so abruptly.” His throat bobbed as he swallowed. “My future changed, and I couldn’t risk putting you in danger. I knew you loved me the way I loved you, and if I had told you everything, you would have braved it all just so we could be together.”
It was a truth I couldn’t deny, and suddenly the room shifted and the air thickened. Two decades rearranged themselves into a different picture than the one I’d lived with all this time. Enzo wasn’t cold or heartless in this picture; he was someone who loved me enough to let me go. And he was a mobster. Or was it a mafioso? I had no clue, and my emotions were a total wreck. “Okay,” I said slowly as my thoughts slugged through the mud of my mind, trying to make sense of this new reality. “And you’re here now because…?”
He sighed, and there was a flicker of something in those green eyes that was both happy and sad. “I’m here because of Matteo. My son.”
“Son.” The word was ripped from my throat before I could stop it, hot and sharp and raw.
He’d left to keep me safe—or so he said—but he’d managed to have a kid with another woman.
Chapter 4
Enzo
Iknew I’d shocked her. Hell, I’d dropped seventeen years of truth into her lap in one deep breath. But there was no elegant way to do what needed to be done, and it had to be done as efficiently as possible. I needed her to have all the details at once so we could move past whatever hurt and hate still lingered in her soft heart.
“You have a wife,” she said in that tight, barely restrained voice. She looked past me, gaze fixed on the door behind me.
“No,” I sighed. “I had a wife. Sofia was killed in a car bomb four years ago.” I waited for a shocked gasp, a horrified scream, but none of that came. It wasn’t Ren’s style. She’d always been good at keeping her reactions tucked behind her ribs, but when she spoke, her voice was flat and wooden.
“I’m sorry for your loss.”
I shrugged off her words because I’d heard them too many fucking times for them to hold any meaning for me. “It wasn’t a love match, but necessity. Her family’s name still mattered in our world, but they needed cash. I gained their army, and they gained relevance.” I paused. “We were friends and partners, so thank you.” What the hell else could I say to this woman about Sofia? That we’d only shared a bed long enough to make a child and that after several miscarriages we’d finally been rewarded with Matteo? That was too cruel.
Ren nodded, her gaze carefully blank. “You’re here and you need a nanny,” she said, not asked.
“Yes.”
She nodded once, mind churning behind her big blue eyes. “You didn’t know I was here or that Elite Nanny Service was me. You’re here because my company has a reputation for working with wealthy clients who value discretion.” She deflated a little, but a second later she sat taller, an icy determination masking her beautiful face. “Okay,” she answered an unspoken question in a clipped, businesslike tone as she pulled out sheets of paper. “You’ll need to fill out these forms first, and I’ll see if we have a nanny compatible with your needs.”