Page 68 of Daddies of the Underworld

“Really?” Sofia wiggled around to face him. “Do you talk a lot too? My teacher says I talk too much and I need to tone it down.”

“Don’t ever believe that.” Luca hid his frown well, but I caught the edge of it. “There’s no such thing as talking too much.” He elbowed me. “Maybe talking too little.”

I grunted in response, and their conversation shifted. Instead of falling into Luca’s and Sofia’s debate about whether unicorns could be dangerous, I moved to stand beside Nina. “What are you thinking?”

Her gaze stayed on Sofia, who had forced Luca to hold her rabbit while she demonstrated unicorn horn strategy using crayons. “That she likes you.”

“She has good taste. Like her mother.” That earned me a quick look.

“Don’t be funny right now.”

I shrugged. “Don’t you remember? I’m never funny.”

Her sigh undid me, but the next words out of her mouth broke me. “She’s going to get attached. She pretends she doesn’t, but she does. And you…None of you are the kind of men who take up small spaces. You own and then you leave.”

“You’re the one who left, Nina.” I held up a hand to stop her when the spluttering began. “With good reason based on what you overheard, but there’s also this part of me that is insulted you would think us capable of hurting you. I’m furious at you for not coming to us. All you had to do was ask. We would have told you the truth.”

“I…”

“Mama?” Sofia hopped off the couch and bounced our way.

Nina straightened. “Yeah, baby?”

“Are they my dad?” Sofia rocked on her heels, her face twisted with so much curiosity it hurt to look at. “Is one of them my father?”

Matteo tensed, his hands tight in his pockets. He hadn’t spoken in so long I doubted he could at this point.

Nina crouched in front of Sofia and smoothed both hands down Sofia’s sleeves. “Yes.”

Sofia blinked. “Which one?”

Luca ducked his head, his chin bobbing as he swallowed. Matteo turned to stone, and I leaned in.

Brushing a loose curl behind Sofia’s ear, Nina smiled softly. “All of them.”

We’d known it already. We had the evidence on my computer, but hearing Nina admit it suckerpunched all the breath right out of me.

23

NINA

It took several minutes to convince Sofia that she still had to go to bed. The excitement of the day made her want to stay up all night, no doubt asking more questions. But after she exacted promises from all three men that they would see her again tomorrow, she hurried down the hall and climbed into bed, her rabbit tucked under one arm and the Peter Rabbit book clutched to her chest. She made it two whole minutes while I tucked her in and kissed her forehead before the questions started up again. “Are they staying forever?”

“I don’t know.” Honesty mattered, and I refused to get her hopes up. I tucked the blanket under her chin, and she popped the book out, putting it beside her head and resting her temple on the cover.

Dante had done well choosing that book. Which brought up several questions of my own. How had he known? How long had they been watching us?

Sofia sighed across the book, and I waited for that inevitable moment where she demanded I read it to her. But she kept holding it, her eyes going heavy but far too bright and knowing. “Do you think he would read to me?”

My throat closed so tight I couldn’t breathe, much less speak. I nodded, my vision blurring. It didn’t matter which one of them she meant. I’d seen how they looked at her. From the moment she walked into the apartment, they were enamored.

Sofia studied me with those serious eyes, a yawn stealing some of her questions. “Do they live far away?”

“Yes.”

“As far as the moon?”

“Not that far.” I brushed her curls back from her forehead. “We have time for more questions tomorrow. You need to sleep.”