13. 13 – Dante
13 – Dante
“ Merda .”
I stare down at Alessia in despair. “For such a small child… you make a lot of mess.”
She kicks her feet, and I catch one, balancing her. I glance around the room, hoping for divine intervention.
Of all the thoughts that overtook my mind these last few months… diaper changing was not one of them.
I stare down at my daughter, and then over to the bed, where the diaper bag sits. I suddenly understand the shit-eating grin Luc was wearing when he passed it to me last night.
The three feet between us may as well be a mile.
Alessia kicks her feet again, her face scrunching up as I try not to panic. Balancing her with one hand, I stretch out for the bag, swearing under my breath. Not even close.
“Need some help?”
Stiffening, I glance over my shoulder at Gio. He leans against the doorframe, clearly trying not to laugh. “Do not.”
He holds up his hands. “Fine. No help needed.”
“ Wait —,”
The smirk on his face as he strolls in and lifts the bag from the bed wipes away as he gets closer. “Fucking hell.”
“Yeah.” We both stare down at Alessia. “Do you know how to do this?”
“It can’t be that hard.” He frowns.
It can, in fact, be that fucking hard.
I drop another wipe into the trash with a wince. I’m only glad Rocco can’t see me. Next to me, Gio unsuccessfully tries to hide his gag. “Remind me why I’m helping you with this, V’Arezzo.”
“Leave, and I will fucking shoot you.” We wrangle the diaper beneath Alessia, battling with the ridiculous number of tabs on display until they’re all stuck to… something, at least.
“There.” I hoist her up triumphantly. “Nice and clean, il mio cuore .”
The smile slips off my face as quickly as the diaper slips to the floor. “What the fu —,”
The second time proves more successful, and Gio hands me a playsuit with approximately one hundred fucking buttons. I stare down at it. “Tell me there’s a two-piece in there. A dress. Anything but the damn playsuit.”
He holds up a sundress instead, and I force the relief from my face as I pull it over her head. Alessia claps her hands. “Ma.”
Gio and I exchange glances as she says it again.
“Where is she?” he asks quietly, and I lift up my shoulder as I balance Alessia with one hand.
“Not here.” I know. I went looking for her this morning. “With Luc, I think.”
“She’s scared.” He says the words quietly, his gaze on Alessia. “She’s scared that if she gets too close, that it will all be taken from her again.”
“I know that.”
None of us know how much time we’ll have. Life in the Cosa Nostra does not lend itself to a happy retirement.
All the more reason to live day by day. I stroke my hand down Alessia’s back. “She is a gift, Gio.”
“Family,” he says quietly.
I shoot him a look. “Have you heard anything from yours? You have an estate here too, right?”
He nods. “My parents are an hour away to the South. With Rosa there… I need to go and visit them.”
He looks heavy at the thought. I consider my last sighting of Carlos Fusco. He lost his daughter in the most horrific way.
And now… the bottom drops out of my stomach as I think of it.
“I’ve never seen that area. Mind if I tag along? Unless you’d prefer to go alone.”
He glances at me, surprise making his brows lift. “No. I would… it’s a nice area.”
I clear my throat. “Then it’s settled.”
We walk downstairs into the kitchen, greeted by the sight of Stefano Asante. He sits with a coffee in front of him, dark eyes raising above the top of the newspaper in his hands. “Good morning.”
I offer him a nod. My daughter , however – who I have decided will need to be watched with an eagle eye as she grows older – lets out a sound of pure excitement, throwing herself forward with such enthusiasm that I nearly lose hold of her. “ Ba !”
Stefano puts down the paper, a wary look on his face as he glances between us. “Uh. Should I…,”
Sighing, I stalk toward him. Alessia throws herself into his arms, patting his face as I head for the coffee.
“I don’t get a Ba ,” I mutter in irritation as I grab a cup. “Not even a Da .”
But Stefano fucking Asante is her favorite person.
A thought strikes me, and I spin, pointing the spoon at him. “Can you change a diaper?”
He blinks at the demand in my tone. Dark brows knot together. “No.”
I take a breath. A deep one.
Gio pulls containers out of the refrigerator, frowning as he examines the contents. He piles them high on the table as I pull one toward me. He offers me a plate and a knife. “For the fruit.”
Nodding, I start cutting things up before I slide the plate over to Stefano. Alessia settles on his lap with a fistful of strawberry, and I get up to fill her drinking cup with water.
“Well, isn’t this very domesticated.” Luc strolls into the kitchen, and I straighten as Cat follows behind him.
She’s changed into loose, flowing white trousers and a deep red blouse. With her hair scraped back into a high ponytail, she looks – like herself .
More comfortable, somehow.
She offers me a small smile as she slips into a seat, her eyes immediately traveling to Alessia. I note the way she watches her, the way her eyes soften.
And the way she pulls her gaze away. Instead, she places a phone on the table. “I need everyone’s numbers. Vincent. Tony—.”
“I have them.” We all turn at the low rumble. Domenico surveys the set-up with lowered brows, and I point to an empty seat in silent invitation. He turns back to Cat as he sits. “I know them, I mean.”
I half-watch as he reels off numbers by memory and Cat types them in, nodding in thanks before she sits back. Gio pulls out his own phone, adding her uncle to the short list.
Luc places a fresh coffee beside her as she looks up. “We need to start planning. Today.”
Again, her eyes linger on Alessia, and move away.
“Matteo won’t wait,” she continues, her voice tight. “And I’ve had enough of him leading us around by the damn nose.”
I survey her, my fist clenching on the table. “You need to rest.”
“I need to kill him,” she snaps back at me. “The longer we wait, the stronger he’ll get. He knows we’re coming. The more we put it off, the more fucking time he has to plan something to fuck us all over. I’m done with waiting.”
“So what?” Gio crosses his arms. “Do you have a plan?”
“Preferably one that doesn’t involve you going off and sacrificing yourself for the rest of us.” My caustic words make her flinch. But I mean it, as I meet her glare with one of my own. “If I even think you’re planning some hero shit, tentazione , I’ll tie you down myself.”
Her cheeks flood with color. “Fuck you, Dante.”
“You already did,” I snap, throwing my hand out. “But you won’t even look at the consequences.”
Shit – shit.
The whole table falls silent. The color drains from Cat’s face. And regret tightens my throat, even as Dom jumps up from his seat, his face darkening with fury and his fists clenching. “The fuck did you just say?”
“Steady—,”
“Fucking Christ , Dante—,”
I ignore them. All of them, pinning my eyes on her.
“ Ti amo ,” I breathe. “I’m sorry. Ti amo , Caterina Corvo. I love you. Always. But you promised me that we would face this together.”
And those walls of hers feel higher than ever.
“If you walk into this fight,” I push the words out around the fear that holds my heart in a vice grip, “thinking that you will not walk back out, then you won’t come home, Cat. I need you to believe that you can win .”
She takes a breath. Her hands clench on the wooden table. “That’s not true. I don’t think that.”
She’s not convincing anyone. Least of all me.
“Then why are you keeping away from her?” My heart twists, shreds inside my chest. “Everything you have given, and bartered, and sacrificed – all to keep her safe, to get to this point. And now she is here, and we will never get this time again. There will be more days – but these first, precious days will be gone , Cat. Don’t waste them. Please .”
My breath locks inside my chest as I stare at her. “When will you stop believing that your life is worth the least?”
I have no intention of letting her die in this battle. And Matteo Corvo will not leave it alive. I can feel it, like a knowing in my chest.
He will not live for what he has done to them. Even if it takes my own life to see it through.
“When we walk out there,” I say finally. Heavily. “These are the days I will hold close, tentazione . A reminder of what we are fighting for.”
I stand. I need some fucking air.
Cat is still in her chair, her face ashen as I move past her, stopping.
“You let the bad memories take over, we’ve already lost.”