Page 64 of Daddies of the Underworld

“Don’t.” I held up a hand. Both men looked at me, surprise on their faces. I pushed out of the chair, too much heat crawling beneath my skin to sit. “Not yet. Not before we talk to Nina. I don’t give a damn which of us is her father. Not really. She’s ours. That’s all that matters.”

Matteo held my gaze for several seconds. “Agreed. Dante?”

Dante’s jaw flexed. He glanced at the window, then nodded.

Good. Because if one of them had argued, I might have thrown something, and the equipment looked fragile enough that I might destroy the whole room if I so much as breathed wrong.

Dante closed the lab report and scrubbed his jaw. The man really needed to get some sleep. Maybe he would now that we were here. “Nina may run today. After that prep last night, she’ll be finalizing plans. Not sure how long it will take her.”

“We cannot storm across the street and scare her to death.” I pointed at the window. “She thinks danger found her already.”

“But if she sees us from a distance, she’ll bolt.” Matteo drummed one fingertip on the table, the single motion more telling than if he’d paced. “I will not resort to kidnapping, but we need a way to control the situation so she does not bolt before we have a chance to carry on a normal conversation.”

“School starts at eight.” Dante yawned. “She never leaves at the exact same time. If she’s going to run, she’ll either do it instead of taking Sofia to school or late at night when she thinks no one is looking.”

I braced my hands behind my neck and stared at the dark window. A light flicked on, a silhouette appearing briefly. “She kept Sofia hidden from us, as well as herself. We need to know why.”

“Yes.” Matteo joined me at the window. “We’ll get answers.”

The radiator kicked on with an ugly clank. Dante moved to the table and gathered his equipment. “I need eyes on the back alley in case she uses the fire escape. I have one man on the corner, but we will not take risks. I need someone on the school in case Nina picks Sofia up early. We take nothing for granted.”

Matteo slipped Sofia’s records into the inner pocket of his coat. “No one approaches unless there is immediate danger.”

The order scraped over me, playing my bones like the strings of a violin. Every part of me wanted to cross the street and knock on that door. But Sofia was in there, and I would rather eat my own balls than scare her. Nina was scared enough for all of us. I rubbed both hands over my face. “I need coffee.”

Dante pointed toward the counter. “That’s the best you’re going to get, which is not saying much.”

I snarled my nose. “That is not coffee. That is a crime against coffee.”

“As I said. It’s the best you will get within a mile of here. It works.” Dante finished cleaning off the table.

“So does blunt force trauma, but I don’t use that unless absolutely necessary.”

Matteo’s mouth twitched, and Dante rolled his eyes.

“Fuck it.” I dug through the cabinets until I found the coffee grounds, then did the best I could to make the brew palatable. I handed Matteo a cup, and he took it but didn’t drink.

Across the street, the light went out in Nina’s apartment. I checked my watch. Seven on the dot.

Minutes dragged past as we all stared at the front door. When it finally opened, we all took a breath, then held it until Nina and Sofia appeared. She was as beautiful as ever, and Sofia more vibrant than any photo could do justice. My daughter and the love of my life.

Finally.

21

NINA

After six moves in less than four years, I’d learned how to make running look as natural as grocery shopping. Bread and peanut butter were car staples for the road. Along with crackers and apples because Sofia would eat them without asking if we had anything better or requiring me to pull over in random places. I bought everything at a store three blocks away from our usual one because Debbie, our regular cashier, would comment that I’d just bought bread yesterday. As usual, I paid cash and kept my head down. After stuffing the receipt in my pocket, I hurried outside into the frigid wind. A storm was supposed to blow in over the next few days. Perfect cover. I always ran during storms when I could, and if I didn’t get out ahead of it, Sofia and I would be stuck for another week.

Absofuckinglutely not. By tomorrow morning, Nina Bell would be gone.

Again.

My stomach twisted hard enough I had to stop outside the store and pretend to adjust the grocery bag. I hated uprooting Sofia. Hated the thought of her empty desk at school and her endless questions I wouldn’t be able to answer until we were settled.

She had a life here. It was a small one, a patched-together one made out of month-to-month rent, cheap soup, fire drills, and rules no five-year-old should know.

But it was hers. Ours.