27. Matteo
Matteo
An eleven-hour flight with two little girls wasn’t an easy feat, but Summer once again proved she must possess some kind of magical abilities, because she kept pulling activity after activity out of her bag to entertain them.
Though, despite my wife’s heroic efforts, there was still the occasional meltdown—moments when my sweet daughters transformed into hangry monsters or threw cranky protests over naptime.
But somehow, we managed to land in Chicago in one piece, even if we were a little worse for wear.
When the crew opened the door to the private plane, heavy booted footsteps sounded on the steps that had been lowered. I knew exactly who was making their way onboard before they came into view.
Enzo’s signature smirk graced his face. “Look at this gorgeously tan family. I’m jealous.”
I almost snorted. The man’s body was covered in so much black ink that even if he did spend hours in the sun, it would be nearly impossible to tell if the skin underneath got any darker.
Bianca struggled to free herself from her car seat. “Did you bring Cookie?”
My cousin stepped forward to help undo the buckles. “She’s waiting for you at home, and between you and me, I think she missed your cuddles.”
Jumping out of her seat, my daughter raced over to mine and began tugging on my hand. “Can we go? Cookie is waiting for me!”
My eyes lifted to Enzo in question, and he gave a firm nod. “Perimeter has been secured.”
“All right.” I scooped up Bianca. “Let’s get out of here.”
Summer unstrapped Serafina from her car seat and propped the baby on her hip before heading for the door.
Enzo held up a hand to halt her. “I’ll go first.”
With my cousin taking the lead and me taking the rear, we sandwiched Summer between us as we descended the few steps onto the tarmac. The final step was a bit higher off the ground, so Rico stood off to the side, offering his hand to my wife in support. “Welcome back, Miss Reynolds.”
“Mrs. Bellini,” I corrected, my harsh tone causing the head of every one of the dozen men on hand to escort us to the penthouse to snap in our direction.
Rico’s eyes went wide, but he immediately amended how he addressed the woman he was paid to lay his life on the line to protect. “My apologies, Mrs. Bellini.”
Summer peeked back at me, surprise written across her face that I hadn’t shared the news of our nuptials with my men.
I placed a hand on her lower back. “Let’s get the girls into the car and out of the cold.” Barely a month spent away, and already, I’d forgotten how unforgiving the wind coming off the lake could be.
Guiding her to the center SUV of the three-vehicle convoy, we got the girls buckled in before climbing in and buckling up in the center row.
Enzo craned his neck around from where he sat in the driver’s seat and shot a pointed look toward the diamonds gracing Summer’s left hand, before fixing me with an expression that said, What the fuck?
I gave a slight shake of my head, a silent signal for him to drop it until later. Right now, my focus was on getting my family secured within the impenetrable walls of the penthouse and then going scorched earth on those who dared to put their lives in danger.
The rest of the drive passed in silence.
Summer’s head dropped onto my shoulder at one point, the sound of her deep breathing indicating she’d fallen asleep.
A glance into the third row showed the girls had also passed out.
Even though I was exhausted as hell, I couldn’t succumb to the call of slumber.
Not when there was business to attend to and a message to send that you didn’t fuck with the Bellinis.
Once we pulled into the parking garage beneath the building, I reluctantly woke my sleeping beauties. With a kiss to Summer’s forehead, I whispered, “We’re home.”
She let out a little moan as she stretched, her eyes still closed. “So tired.”
Gently unlatching her seatbelt, I replied, “I know. Let’s get you upstairs, and then you can all go back to your naps.”
The most adorable pout pursed on her lips as her lashes fluttered open, and those vibrant blue eyes that never failed to take my breath away locked on my face. “You joining me?”
I sighed, stroking her hair. “I wish I could, but I have to take care of something first.”
Understanding dawned, and she sat upright, fear flickering in her gaze. “Now? But we just got here.”
“That’s exactly why I have to do it now. Before word gets around that I’m back in the city and it ruins the element of surprise. There’s a small window where we have the advantage, and I can’t waste it.”
She gnawed on her lower lip. “I don’t like this, Matteo.”
Cupping her cheeks, I leaned in until our foreheads rested together. “You’ll be safe here. I promise.”
Summer trembled in my hold, and her voice wavered when she asked, “What about your safety?”
My eyes squeezed shut, and I swallowed thickly. “I will do everything in my power to come home to you.”
“But you can’t promise that you will come home.”
“No, I can’t.” I refused to lie to her. “But if anything happens to me, Enzo will take care of you and the girls.”
She let out a scoff. “I didn’t marry Enzo. I married you.” Clutching at my shirt, she begged on a whisper, “Don’t make me a widow today.”
Fuck, she was ripping my heart to shreds, one word at a time.
Tipping her chin up, I wiped away the tears lining her beautiful face. “Trust me. The thought of you moving on with another man is enough motivation for me to fight like hell to stay alive.”
Watery laughter sounded. She might still be upset, but at least the mood had been lightened a bit.
I would take that as a win, even if I hadn’t been joking.
A murderous rage coursed through my veins at the mental picture of another man’s hands on her body, claiming what would always be mine—even in death.
“We ready to go up?” Enzo broke into our private moment.
“Are we?” I searched Summer’s eyes.
Her chin dipped. “As ready as we’ll ever be.”
I lowered my head for a kiss, murmuring, “You’ve got this, my brave girl.”
A wry grin twisted on her lips. “At least one of us thinks so.”
She was stronger than she realized, but I prayed today would not be the day that strength was put to the ultimate test.
“You actually married her?”
I remained focused on strapping on my tactical gear. “Yes.”
“Like married, married?” Enzo pressed. “Like ’til death do us part?”
“That’s usually how it goes.”
When he remained silent for too long, I finally dared to glance up to find my cousin staring at me, his head tipped to the side.
“What now?” I groaned.
“Nothing. I’m just wondering how that’s gonna work with you being snipped and all.”
The man knew how many weapons I had on my person, so clearly, he had a death wish.
“One,” I held up a finger. “That’s none of your damn business. And two”—a second finger joined the first—“we already have the girls.”
“Yeah, but—”
My head dropped back. “For fuck’s sake. But what?”
“She’s young. You don’t think she’ll want a baby of her own?”
Honestly, I hadn’t given it much thought. Summer had been aware of my inability to father more children before she agreed to marry me, so she had to be okay with not having any of her own, right?
That, or she loves you and your girls enough to make that sacrifice.
A lead weight of guilt settled in my gut. Enzo was right. Summer was young; she deserved a chance to experience all life had to offer. It didn’t matter that we hadn’t been together when I made the decision to have a vasectomy; I’d stolen her freedom to choose whether she wanted a baby, nonetheless.
I was jarred by a hand clapping down on my shoulder. “Sorry, didn’t mean to fuck with your head right now. But in my defense, if you’d told me about this development when it happened, I could have gotten all these questions out of my system days ago instead of minutes before we go to war.”
Grunting, I shook him off and grabbed my bulletproof vest, slipping it over my head.
“Right,” he agreed, even though I hadn’t said anything. “Time to go kill some Russians.”
Enzo and I were holed up in an abandoned apartment situated across the alley from Ballistic, waiting for the sun to set so we could raid the club and take out Popov before he learned that I was back and went underground. Or worse, ordered another attempt on my family’s lives.
“We’ve got two snipers on the roof to cover us upon entry.” Enzo held binoculars up to his face. “Infrared shows ten guys on the inside, including the two in Popov’s office.”
“How many do we have?”
“They’re outnumbered two to one.”
“Good.” I scrubbed a hand over my jaw, sporting a decent bit of stubble considering I’d been awake nearly twenty-four hours at this point. “Let’s do what we can to minimize casualties on our side.”
Enzo turned to me. “Don’t we always?”
“Yeah.” There had been a persistent tightness in my chest since Summer begged me not to make her a widow this evening.
While I was fairly certain I would be returning home to my family, I hated knowing that not all of my men would.
Sure, this was the job that they’d signed up for, and we always took care of the families left behind, but it hit differently now.
I’d witnessed how losing a parent impacted children and had experienced the soul-crushing anguish of believing I’d lost the woman I loved.
“You all right?” My cousin assessed me carefully. “Like I said before, I’m fine if you want me to handle this.”
“No.” I shook my head. “He sent his goons after my family. I need to be the last face he sees, so he knows how badly he fucked up.”
“Yeah, I get it.”
Darkness descended around us as afternoon transitioned into night, and we had a small window of opportunity to take out those Russian fucks before Ballistic opened to the public.
Though not all who frequented the nightclub were innocent—most being associates of the bratva—I wasn’t willing to risk any civilians getting caught in the crossfire.