Page 177 of Bleed with Me

Well, sorry, my dear, but it was hard to smile when my wife didn’t want the kid I loved with all my heart. Not to mention the bodies I left behind, and Lorenzo being strapped to a chair in one of our warehouses. Bleeding, I might add, because I forbade everyone from even looking at him.

That fucking bastard was mine. He needed a lesson from a good father book, and I was about to give him one for free. But first of all, I had to find out who he owed the money to, and why he wanted to marry Nina off so desperately.

Because when I found out that the imbecile had faked his trip to Colombia—the airport records, the passport, even his phone showed the location somewhere in that country just to force Nina to marry Sonny—I almost had a stroke.

So much trouble, so much planning to kidnap her. He called Dino Monteverde from whatever hole he was hiding in just to get her, for fuck’s sake! Who in their right mind would call that fucker for help?

My chest constricted at the mere thought of what those brutes could do to Nina if Dino weren’t her grandfather’s first enforcer. They would have her for dessert.

The edges of my vision darkened. My pulse spiked. If he so much as touched her, I’d cut his balls off, hack off his fingers, then string the whole fucking collection into a wind chime.

“Look, Daddy!” Aryna brought me back to reality, holding a pile of magazines. I frowned when she slammed them on the glass coffee table. “Auntie Valeria gave it to me to pick furniture for my bedroom.”

Her coral-blue eyes shone like the brightest stars, and her smile stretched her cheeks so wide that her face almost split.

“Perfect,” I choked out, pretending to be engrossed in closets and beds while my brain panicked.

“You can have a pink one, like mine.” Zara took another magazine and opened it to show Aryna the huge bed with pink, flowery bedsheets, pink curtains, and a closet that looked like a castle. Aryna’s mouth formed an O.

“Can I?” she whispered, clasping her hands in a pleading gesture.

“Of course,” I said without hesitation. “Whatever you want, angel.”

“I love when Daddy says that.” Zara grinned widely, nodding excitedly. “It really means whatever.”

An involuntary chuckle slipped out of me as I glanced at their happy faces. But it was quickly wiped out by the fucking voice in my head.

Too bad she doesn’t have a home yet, the demon mocked. When will you tell her how royally you fucked up?

I clenched my fist, ready to send him to hell with his bullshit, when Nina's text came. The demon literally vanished as if he’d never been in my head at all.

I stared at the text message, reading it over and over again. A tiny smile lifted the corners of my mouth, but I didn’t know how to reply.

“Okay” sounded cold.

“Thank you” sounded desperate.

A heart? Absolutely fucking not.

“This should be enough for now,” Valeria interrupted my inner battle, dragging an enormous black suitcase down the staircase. I jumped to my feet, horrified.

“Hey!” I yelled, running up the stairs to her. “You can’t move around heavy things? Why didn’t you call me?”

“I’m okay.” She waved her hand nonchalantly, pushing her red hair out of her face with the other. “It’s not that heavy.”

“What’s in it?” I asked as I walked over, trying not to fall face-first on the shiny marble floor.

“Just some of Zara’s dresses, T-shirts, and other stuff.” She shrugged. “She has so much of everything.”

“Thanks.” I smiled, realizing Aryna had nothing at my house. Only the pajamas and old toys because I refused to bring anything from her previous home to remind her of the past.

“No problem.” Valeria looked at the girls, arguing about the color of the carpet in a magazine. “I’m happy Zara has someone her age around.” She sighed, looking around the spacious living room. “Sometimes I feel like I’m in a mausoleum, alone and cut off from the outside world. I don’t want her to feel the same.”

“Zyon is just trying to protect you.” I gently took her hand and squeezed. “He’d go nuts if something happened to you.”

Valeria smiled softly, placing her open palm on her lower stomach.

“I think he’s already gone nuts.” She grimaced, her voice falling into a whisper so the girls didn’t hear her. “Last night, I heard the commotion in the hall, so I went to check it. Two guards stood before the door. Can you believe that?”