Chapter 12
CHAPTER 12
STEFANO
Val had gone from the blissful state of a freshly fucked and satisfied woman to a neurotic banshee in seconds.
I jumped up and slammed my hand against the door to keep it shut, caging her inside my arms.
“Listen to me,” I said.
She kept her back turned, refusing to look at me, and pulled on the door handle.
“I’ve heard enough. I need to go make sure Enzo’s okay.”
I leaned in close to her ear and lowered my voice to help calm her.
“The boy is safe, Val. This house is completely secure. Security sensors on every door and window. My enforcers have everything locked down. If anyone comes onto the property, I will know.”
Her body relaxed against mine, and I wrapped my arms around her waist and held her.
“I don’t think this is coming from Benedetta,” I continued. “But you’re right. She didn’t have a choice, and she knows it’s a contract. I don’t love her. She doesn't even like me, but we have an understanding. I understand it isn't what girls dream about for their future, so I’ll look into it.”
It couldn’t be.
She wouldn’t betray me.
I walked Val back to the sofa, pulled her down on my lap. Then I slipped my hands into her robe to press her tighter against me, needing to feel her skin against mine again.
“You'll look into her specifically?” she asked.
“I will look into her, her closest friends, her security staff, and her father,” I promised. “Just in case that shady bastard gets tricky. I don’t think it’s her, but it could be someone inside her inner circle.”
“I don't know if I can believe you…”
Her voice sounded small now. The fight had finally left her.
“Do you think I would lie about something this serious?”
“There’s too much on the line for me to take that risk, Stefano. You're on a path of blood and vengeance. I get that. You made a promise to your mother, and you're seeing it through.”
I nodded.
“Is your marriage to Benedetta in service to that debt?”
“It is. And for no other reason.”
I grasped the back of Val’s neck, wanting to bring her lips to mine, but she held firm, grabbing my wrist and wrapping her fingers around it. She raised her gaze up to meet mine.
“Then I need you to make me a promise,” she said. “A single promise that’s just as important as the one you made to your mother. Can you do that for me?”
“I can, of course. But if I will, well, that depends on what it is you want.”
“No, you need to agree before I tell you.”
Her narrowed eyes burned into mine. She was dead serious.
“I’m not promising to stay away from my son,” I warned.
“That’s not what this is about,” she snapped.
I nodded.
“Then whatever you need, Val. It’s yours.”
“What I need is for you to find the man threatening our son. And when you find him, end him. Make an example of him. Make everyone terrified to come for Enzo.”
An understandable request. But the increasing intensity in her expression as she asked me to murder someone unsettled me a bit.
I’d already planned to do that. This attack could not stand. I knew this situation could end in only one way. But to have my innocent little barista ask me to kill a man…
There was a darkness in Val that hadn’t been there before. Or maybe it had been, and I never wanted to see it.
I was no longer the young dreamer she had fallen for years ago, and I realized she wasn’t the lighthearted woman I once knew either.
We had both changed, grown darker, more twisted.
Or had we both had the darkness in us all along?
I dismissed the thought as quickly as it had come. Val had been an angel back then and still now. She didn’t want to be tainted by my world. Motherhood had strengthened her, and the attack at Con Amore frightened her. That was all.
Still my angel.
I refused to believe she could be full of malice or burn for vengeance like me. Fear. It had to be fear, and I hated that someone had caused her to be so afraid. Val shouldn’t feel anything other than comfort and love.
I took her chin and tilted it, so she could meet my eyes.
“Anyone who even thinks to lay a finger on our son will die a slow, painful death, and the others will whisper about it in the back alleys of New York forever. No one touches what is mine, and that includes you and now our son. I will keep you safe.”
Giving my word meant something to me. I took my vows seriously. Always.
“Thank you,” she said, touching my face.
I pressed my cheek against her palm, taking comfort from whatever contact I could get.
“Fix this, Stefano. Show them who you are. Make sure no one ever dares to touch him. Then Enzo and I will go back to our life, and you can go on with yours. I promise.”
“What?”
I took her hand away from my face and held it, running my thumb over her soft skin.
“Val. That's not what I want. I want to be in his life. If you don't want me to be actively involved until he's older, I can live with that. And I won’t name him my heir, not unless he chooses this path when he’s grown.
“But I will start paying for his education and everything else. I’ll make sure neither of you want for anything. I have power, money, and influence. I want to do something good with it for the people who deserve it, the people I owe it to. For my family.”
My family.
My words made my chest ache. I didn’t realize how alone I’d felt until saying them.
“I'll think about it,” she whispered.
Val’s gaze dropped to the floor. She was lying to me.
Then she leaned in and placed a small kiss on my cheek before getting up. She nodded as she walked away, and the room suddenly grew cold.
I should have been used to the loneliness.
I’d been numb to that dull ache for so long. But Val reminded me what it felt like to be touched by not just another person but by someone who mattered to me.
The hollow space in my chest was her fucking fault.
And it would get worse when she took my son away.
She tightened her robe, still avoiding eye contact.
“It’s been a very long day, and I’m exhausted. I do need to check on Enzo. He has always slept at home, and this is new for him. I need some sleep too, and so do you. I mean, you got shot earlier tonight, so you should get some rest.”
I nodded.
“Check on him but come back and stay with me. I want you in my bed tonight.”
Pressing her lips together, she headed for the door.
“I'll see you in the morning,” she said.
Then, without as much as a glance over her shoulder, she stood still for a second before walking out on me.
“It’s you, Stefano, who will be king of kings one day.”
What she’d said, words signaling that she believed in my strength, caused an overwhelming need for me to claim her.
Fuck. I wanted to grab her arm and pull her back to me, to carry her to my bed, to have her sleeping next to me, so I knew she was real. And safe. Then again, the last time she’d slept beside me, she was gone the next morning.
I needed something to get her in my bed, to make her sleep where I could protect her. Where I could make up for lost time by sinking into her tight little cunt over and over.
Ah, but I would have her in my bed soon, so I let her go back to her own room.
I had work to do.
The day had started with me not wanting children, and the evening ended with me being a father and fucking the barista who had stolen my son.
Worse, the city wasn’t safe for my child. That couldn’t stand. The threat against him had to be rectified swiftly… a brutal message to all the other families to keep my son safe.
I grabbed my phone and called Tony.
He and Bruce were still canvassing the Brooklyn neighborhood, looking for other clues left behind by the shooter.
“Hey, boss. We're not finding much else down here,” Tony said right away.
“No, I don't think you will,” I said. “I want you to redirect your efforts now.”
“Sure. What do you want me to do?”
“I want to know where Benedetta was tonight. And I want her inner circle included in the search. Don’t forget her security team. Anyone she had contact with in the last forty-eight hours.
“Check them all. And I want a convincing answer about how her father already knew about our close call tonight before I found him waiting in my office.”
“Actually…”
I pictured him standing there as he stared at his polished shoes and rubbed the back of his neck. He was about to apologize for screwing up something.
“Yeah, that was a coincidence, Stef,” he said. “Don Capaldo showed up to talk about something else, but then he overheard the maid taking my orders to make up the rooms. She came clean when we got there. She panicked, thinking she would get in trouble. I’m sorry.”
I rolled my eyes.
“She's not, but you will be if you keep that shit up. Stop giving her so much info. And fuck off with that… loyal maids are too hard to find… she doesn’t want to be your old lady.”
Bella had turned him down countless times.
“Yes, boss. So do you think the Capaldos are involved?”
“No, not Benedetta anyway, but we must investigate her father. Maybe he’s on some power trip, some last hurrah before the devil comes to collect him. We’ll see about that. Go on, Tony. Investigate all possibilities, including Benedetta, just to be sure, and report back in the morning.”
I ended the call and hit the bar for another drink.
Val was right… the day had been too long. I had a feeling the entire week would feel the same. I was supposed to get married in two days, and now I had a son, a woman in my house that still made me crazy, and a faceless enemy to hunt down.
Never a dull moment.
I slid into my slacks and picked up my laptop from all the shit strewn across the floor. I had plans to make. I had to find out who targeted my son. And I needed to figure out how to make sure he stayed with me.
What Valerie wanted didn’t matter.
I knew what I’d said to her, to win her over.
If not her, then I had to win the boy, had to find out what he wanted, what his goals were, and how I could provide for him in a way he’d want to stay with me, where he now belonged.
The kingdom I’d inherited and turned into one of the strongest on the East Coast would be his if he wanted it.
So fucked up how quickly my mindset had shifted.
Rage and pain no longer fueled the growth of my empire.
No, my new desire for a legacy fueled it now.
For Enzo.
No other Vignali child would ever come along, not from me. Enzo was it.
He’d inherited everything good about his mother, and with my ferocity, his grandfather's bravery, and his uncle's intelligence, the boy was born to rule my kingdom.
And I wouldn’t let his mother stand in the way.