Chapter Forty-Nine Drea
Something warm and hard pressed up against me. When I turned over in bed, Leo smiled at me. “Is this okay?”
It was hard for us to snuggle in bed due to being careful of my C-section incision as well as my bullet wound. “It’s amazing.”
“The last thing I want to do is keep something from you, so I need to tell you what happened this afternoon.”
My breath hitched. “Okay.”
I held onto every word as Leo told me about the call from Luca’s father and their meeting. While it was devastating to hear how easily he would toss Luca aside, it brought me so much relief.
But just when I thought my father couldn’t possibly hurt me any worse, he went and betrayed me again. “How did he possibly know how to find Mitch?”
I drew in a breath to prepare to tell her what Gianni uncovered through his research. Although he’d started out by investigating Bogdhan, he’d also done an image search on the other man at the scene.
“Do you remember the other man who struggled with Bogdhan?”
Shuddering, I replied, “Yes, I remember.”
“He was one of Edoardo’s men.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“I wish I wasn’t.”
“But why?”
“Edoardo’s photo cloud was never hacked. He sent the photo to Vincent.”
I gasped. “After making me pretend first to Rafe and then to you, why would he flaunt the secret?”
“As revenge against me. He would fuck up my casino deal, and in turn, if by sending the photo to Mitch, he could ask for a percentage of the blackmail money. That’s why he had that other man following you, so Luca would be safe to be used as a blackmail pawn.”
“Jesus,” I muttered while rubbing my eyes.
“His time is up,” Leo said determinedly.
“How nice he gets a quick exit after all the pain he’s caused,” I grumbled.
“Oh, trust me. It won’t be quick or painless.”
“Still. It doesn’t seem enough.”
“Do you want to take part in the torture?”
“Once there was a time I would have. But not now. Maybe becoming a mother softened me.”
Leo kissed me gently. “I’ll deal with him however you would like.”
“Is there a way you can make it look like Vincent had a hand in it? Any way to maybe save my brothers coming for you?”
“That’s actually not a bad idea. Vincent told me how your father and his mother had been involved many years ago.”
“He did?”
Leo nodded. “Apparently Edoardo forced her to have an abortion with an untrained doctor, and she ended up dying.”
“That’s horrible.”
“I now. But let’s face it. It sounds exactly like something your father would do.”
“Yes, it does.” Rising up in the bed with a grunt, I glanced at the bassinet. “Where’s Luca?”
Leo snorted. “With Caterina and Maeve in the house, do you have to ask?”
“As late as it is, I imagined they’d all left.” Nudging his arm, I said, “Go bring him back to me.”
“You don’t want them spoiling him?”
I shook my head. “I want to be the one spoiling him. I’ve already missed out on so much.”
Thankfully, Vittoria must’ve read my mind because she entered the bedroom with Luca and a bottle. With a smile, she said, “I imagined you wanted to give this to him.”
“Oh yes, I did.”
After she eased him into the cook of my arm, I rubbed the nipple of the bottle on his lips, which he quickly took.
“Did our guests leave?” I asked as I watched Luca eat.
She nodded. “Maeve said she’d be back to check on you tomorrow.”
With a smile, she then left to give us three–the center of my world–to enjoy the small little moments that made life worth living.