Mafia's Broken Omega (Mated in the Mafia #6)

10. Avery

10

AVERY

Waking up in Cord's arms again was heaven.

If you had asked me yesterday if I was getting adequate sleep, I would have said of course. But there was nothing like sleeping in Cord's arms, with his rhythmic breathing soothing me to sleep. His arms held me tight, wrapped in warmth and comfort.

Of course, in the middle of the night, I'd had to push him away since being five months pregnant meant I was way too hot to be cuddling for the entire night. But his quiet breathing was comforting enough.

When he woke me up with a soft kiss to my forehead and told me he would take care of everything, I didn't realize what he meant right then.

He had coffee and breakfast delivered to the room, and then he started barking orders.

Rosco stood there with a tablet in his hand, taking notes as Cord listed out his thoughts.

"Get a crew over to Avery's apartment and pack up everything—neatly. He runs a business and it's important that he gets his supplies here. We can put them in the office across from mine. It has a large closet and an enormous window, so it should be comfortable for him. Unless you want to explore the house and pick a different room?" His eyes landed on me.

I was mid chew on the largest, freshest croissant, and I just shrugged. Seriously, the croissant was absolute flakey perfection. Was it delivered directly from Paris?

"Andro will want to speak with you about what Avery has told us." Rosco sighed heavily. I remembered the big bodyguard from when I had frequented the house before. I just hadn't realized just how close he was with Cord.

"I'll call him and set up a meeting for this afternoon. Is there anything else you'll need, Avery?"

I swallowed. "Um, not really? I don't have a car. All my things are in my apartment. Well, I left all the supplies I was purchasing at the store after..."

"Have someone pick those up for Avery as well and deliver them to his office," Cord said.

"Of course." Rosco tapped away on the screen as if these demands were perfectly normal.

"I have to get to work. If you need anything, come to see me or Rosco, okay? Once your things start arriving, we'll let you know."

Rosco left the room, giving Cord and me some privacy.

"I might just...sleep."

Cord smiled. "That's fine, sweetheart. Anything you want is yours. If you need help getting your office set up later or you need more space, just let me know and I'll be there."

"Thanks," I said. The word didn't seem sufficient enough for what he was doing for me.

Once he left to go work, I finished my breakfast and climbed back into the bed and buried myself in Cord's scent. Later I would have a hell of a to-do list waiting for me, but for now, I was resting.

I needed to stay off Pinterest for my safety and sanity. I held scissors in one hand and a glue gun in the other, without any of the motor skills required to wrangle them into submission. Yet, I couldn’t resist cutting, gluing, and swearing, as if my life depended on it. T-shirts were simple compared to this crazy thing I was trying to create.

In true procrastinator fashion, I had found a project I started a long time ago while unpacking my things, and instead of continuing to unpack, I got to work on the project instead.

“Dammit.” A piece of bright blue felt stuck to my finger and then quickly became mangled when I tried to dislodge it. The mess on Cord’s coffee table in some random room in this massive house looked more like the aftermath of a crafting explosion than a mobile for the baby. Hopefully he didn’t mind me turning whatever this room was into my personal craft corner. The room he was calling "my office" was larger than my actual apartment.

I yanked at a ribbon, but it kept turning in the wrong direction. “You’re not getting the best of me!” I told the stupid pile, even though I wasn’t entirely convinced it was true.

I decided to just stop worrying about being perfect and attacked it with more enthusiasm than precision, wielding the glue gun with all the finesse of a preschooler. Between the uneven ribbons, the awkward beads, and a healthy dose of frustration, I had little expectation that it would be usable.

“Cord!” I shouted in defeat as the felt made another escape attempt, taking half the project with it. It definitely didn’t look like a mobile. It looked like a tangled mess of chaos and stubborn attempts at cuteness. “This isn’t working!” His office was directly across the hall, which meant he was within yelling distance.

His familiar laugh filtered in from the doorway. “Need help, sweetheart?”

I blew out a frustrated breath and tossed a bead at him. “I thought you were supposed to protect me from harm. This is a crafting warzone.” I gestured to the glitter-bomb that was going to be haunting us for months to come. “Fix this, please.”

Cord squatted in front of me and surveyed the disaster. He was still grinning like he was watching the world’s most inept magic show. “So, uh, what exactly is happening here?”

“Adorable freaking memories.” I held up my phone and showed him what it was supposed to look like. In the early hours of the morning while I scrolled endlessly through Pinterest, I’d saved several cutesy projects that everyone made look so easy. Reality was a different story. “Can’t you tell?” I couldn’t help smiling as I compared the two.

“Wow.” His eyes went wide when he looked at the inspiration mobile and my…mess. “Uh…nailed it?”

I barked out a laugh, thinking about the TV show we’d watched about terrible baking projects months ago when life had been simpler. “Which is why you need to help.”

He held up one of the loose ribbons and scrunched his nose, still smiling. “I’m not much of a crafter.”

“Figures.” I shook my head. “You can run some scary crime family, but you draw the line at ribbons?”

He smacked a kiss to the top of my head. “You’re the artsy one.”

“Yeah, well, clearly we’re both wrong about that.”

“You’re a whizz with your fabric markers. I looked at your store online, and your designs are remarkable.”

I bit my lip. Random praise from strangers I could take, but from Cord? It meant so much more.

“But I wanted to make this mobile thing for the crib so our child will look at it every day.”

“I’ll see what I can do, okay? But no promises.” Cord scooted to the floor beside me. “What do I do, boss?”

I grinned at the sound of that. “Cut that string and tie the knots at the top, so they’re actually tight.”

He furrowed his brow but went for it. “Square knot?”

“Square, round, octagon… At this point, I don’t care.”

His tongue poked out between his teeth as he worked, pretending that cutting and tying required all his strength. It was pretty cute to see this big, dangerous alpha act so helpless. If his enemies could see him now… They’d probably still cower in fear, because he was Cord Mennetti, and he had a reputation.

Cord dropped the knot and picked up another bit of felt then fingered it thoughtfully. “I could make something, too.”

I narrowed my eyes, unsure what he meant. “You mean like a little gun or dagger or something? Baby’s first weapon?”

He tickled the back of my knee. “You think I can’t make something cute?”

I shrugged, honestly not sure what I thought. “Um…is your idea of cute illegal?”

Cord chuckled and then gestured to an empty wall. “Give me a few days, and I think I can surprise you. Will this room work for you?"

I looked around. There were boxes of my things stacked off to the side and a desk with a large leather chair, as well as a comfortable couch and coffee table. The color scheme could use some help. Despite the large window that let in a ton of light, the walls were a dark maroon, and the cherry wood trim made it feel like I was inside a mausoleum rather than an office. "It's great. It just needs some color."

"Change it however you need. Later we can pick out a room to be the nursery."

My heart squeezed at the thought of such a domestic activity. "That sounds great."

"Soon, I'll introduce you to my brother and his omega. They’re here often. And also Andro and his omega. We used to be enemies, but we're practically family now. I trust him almost as much as I trust Rosco."

"Rosco's been with you a long time?"

Cord nodded. "He was my brother's underboss. When I took over, he filled the role of bodyguard and has since stayed in that position. But he does much more than that."

"I'm glad you have him." I meant it. Though we never talked about work before, I got the sense that Cord was struggling with his new role as head of the family. Though, now, ?he was getting the hang of it.

He put his arms around my shoulder and kissed my cheek. "I'm glad you came to me, Avery. Now that I've let Andro know what’s going on and I have my people looking into it, we'll have answers soon."

I swallowed back the emotion that came and went on a whim. "Thank you."

"In the meantime, you’re safe here, and you can continue running your business."

Ugh. How could this alpha get any more perfect?

"I asked the chef to make that chocolate and hazelnut cake, the one with the peanut butter frosting? I remember how much you liked it."

I groaned in anticipation of how delicious it would be. I had dreamt of that cake. "Cord, if you keep being this amazing, I'm never gonna leave."

He smiled. "Good."