Chapter 27
Rory
“You’re supposed to be sleeping when he sleeps.”
Forearms resting on the crib rail, I couldn’t tear my gaze away from the slumbering infant. “I’m afraid that if I leave, when I come back, he won’t be here,” I confessed.
The nurses at Windy City General were probably glad to see me go, given the number of times I’d woken up screaming. Every time I closed my eyes, the nightmare of finding Luca’s crib empty continued to haunt me.
Thanks to Enzo and his stolen plow truck, my baby boy and I were able to get the medical attention we needed.
Since I was freshly postpartum, they placed us together in the maternity ward, where Luca got the phototherapy he needed for his jaundice, and I was treated for the mild case of frostbite I suffered on my feet.
By the time the roads were cleared, doctors were ready to discharge us with matching clean bills of health.
Warmth radiated off Gio at my back as his arms bracketed mine. “Would it make you feel better to move him into our room?”
I sighed. “Probably.”
“Then that’s what we’ll do.” He pressed a kiss to my temple.
Turning in his arms, I found the courage to ask the question plaguing my mind in the days since Enzo rescued us from Dario and his twin terrors.
“Did you mean it?”
Gio’s forehead wrinkled. “Mean what?”
“That you love me.”
He reared back. “Did you mean it when you said the same to me?”
“Of course I did.”
“Then why would you think I didn’t?”
“I don’t know. On one hand, I want to believe you meant it. But on the other . . .” My chest heaved on a heavy exhale. “I’m acutely aware that you’re a skilled liar, and maybe it was nothing more than you offering me comfort in what we thought were my final moments.”
“Rory.” He shook his head. “Do you know why I willingly risked my life, walking into that casino stripped of weapons, even though the odds of me ever walking back out again were almost non-existent?”
I bit my trembling lip. “Why?”
“Because there is no me without you.”
The breath caught in my lungs, but he pressed on.
“And now there’s no me without Luca, too, and whoever else might decide to join us down the road.”
Watery laughter was pulled from my chest. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. It’s going to be a loooooooong time before I’m able to forget the all-out torture of childbirth to even consider doing it again.”
“The point is”—Gio’s forehead dropped to mine—“if you die, then I die too.”
My hands lifted, my fingers combing through the silky tresses of his hair. “Careful,” I warned. “That sounds an awful lot like something John would say.”
His warm breath fanned across my lips. “He represents the part of me you’ve always deserved. I wish I could have dug deep and found him sooner.”
“He’s here now—both of you are—and that’s all that matters.”
“He belongs only to you, to our children. The rest of the world can never know he exists.”
“Our little secret,” I whispered before I closed the gap between us, fusing our mouths together in a kiss.
Those seven years on the run had been hard—working ninety-hour weeks between three jobs just to scrape enough money together to survive—but every minute spent struggling was worth it, if it meant I could find myself here.
In the arms of the husband I’d once despised, who had miraculously evolved into the man I loved, with our precious baby boy, the product of that love, snoozing peacefully nearby.
Never in a million years would I have believed this arranged mafia marriage could find its happy ending.
But you wouldn’t hear me complaining.