Page 78 of Daddies of the Underworld

We hadn’t believed her. My hand closed around the back of the chair with enough force the wood creaked. “Show me everything.”

Dante dropped into the chair on Nina’s right, while Luca came around the table and set a cup of coffee in front of her. “It isn’t Rosa’s espresso, but it’s close.”

We spent a full hour going through every single part of Nina’s revelations. I argued where I needed to, just to see if the judgment held. Piece by irritating piece, the old evidence unraveled at the seams.

A message about pruning the wisteria arrived two hours before a camera near the staff storage failed.

Luca paced behind us, gripping the back of his neck and staring at the ceiling. “Please tell me we’re all seeing the same thing.”

“He was being manipulated.” Nina sounded more certain the longer we talked. “He still stole from you. He admitted to taking the records, but he flat out swore he didn’t take the money.”

Dante had encouraged her to explain Marco’s theory on cash versus banks, and honestly, it tracked with what we knew about the Russo siblings. Luca had held a similar belief for years. In fact, I’d bet Villa Belladonna that he still kept a cash hoard ‘just in case’.

Nina finished her third coffee, her body jittery and her eyes wide as we kept going. “We need to get to the bottom of this. Someone threatened him. If we find that person, we can end this.”

It was what we’d all been thinking. Someone told Marco what to do. Someone was behind all of this, pulling all of our strings. They had to be powerful. We’d only known Marco a day, but from our very first interaction with him, he hadn’t struck any of us as the kind of man who bent easily.

Nina pushed back from the table, her chair legs scraping. “I need a minute.”

“Come with me.” I stood and held out my hand, and her eyes snapped to mine. “Please.”

She glanced toward Dante, then Luca, before sliding her hand into mine.

I led the way to a small room off from the main living area that held one sofa, one lamp, and no windows.

Releasing my hand, Nina walked over to the lamp and stopped, pressing both hands to her stomach. “I called him pathetic once. He came to see me. He was scared and angry. He has this way of making every bad choice look like something happened to him instead of him taking accountability for his actions. He’s always the victim. I don’t know if people see that in him and play off it or not, but that’s how he’s always been. I told him to grow up.” A dark laugh tumbled from her lips. “He isn’t innocent, but he’s also in over his head, and I don’t know what to do. I’m supposed to protect him. He was trying to protect me.”

I could not stand the sight of her crying over this dilemma. I wrapped my arms around her and kissed the top of her head, rocking her side to side. “You’re taking on too much guilt, Nina. Your brother had every opportunity to come to us. He could have explained. He chose to follow his other person’s orders instead of trusting us.”

Her chin trembled so hard it dug into my chest, and I tightened my hold as though I could keep her together through sheer force of will.

“I ran.”

Sweeping a hand down her spine and back up again, I swept my chin over her head. “You did what you thought was best too.”

“Say you hate me for that. Say you hate me for taking Sofia from you.”

The anger I’d been keeping at bay exploded in a fiery wave, but I managed to keep the worst of it from her. “When Dante first sent that photo of you and Sofia, I hated you for every year I had not known she existed. More than that, I hated myself for not being there for you, for making you feel like running was your only option. You and your brother both chose the unknown. Despite your time with us, you did not trust us. That is on me.”

“I regret it.”

The genuineness in her words helped ease the ache. “Losing you turned us into empty shells. I cannot buy back that time we’ve missed. Those years are gone. But we can make the best of every day going forward.”

Her arms slipped around my waist, and she held on tight. “Is it wrong that I need you right now?”

“No.” I understood, and when she wiggled closer to me, I stopped fighting my need for her. Instead, I backed her against the wall beside the sofa and slipped a hand behind her head before she hit it. She gasped into my mouth, and the sound unraveled the last of my patience.

I lifted her, and her legs wrapped around my waist. Her hands framed my face, thumbs moving over my cheekbones like she needed to map my face. Her full weight settled in my arms, and I carried her to the couch, lowering her carefully before breaking the kiss and removing her clothes. I needed to see her. All of her. Her shirt came off first, then mine because she pulled hard enough to nearly rip the seams. She moved on to my belt, yanking at it with zero patience.

A laugh caught in my chest, and I sat back to strip off the rest of our clothes with far less ceremony than I had planned.

“Matteo.” She breathed out my name with the sanctity of a prayer and wrapped a hand around my shaft. “Don’t go slow. I need you now.” With that plea stretching between us, she guided me between her legs, her mouth falling open when I pushed into her. She arched beneath me, her eyes squeezing shut, her body accepting me with a series of pulses from her hips.

Her hand slid around my neck, then rested against my cheek. “I never stopped loving any of you.”

I hadn’t known how much I needed to hear those words until that moment. They burned through me, obliterating the anger and turning it into something entirely different. I stroked her deep, holding her gaze the entire time. “You have been the only thing that has mattered to me. You and Sofia are my life.” She had my heart, my soul. Everything that I was, belonged to her. But I had never said the words before.

Her nails dug into my spine, encouraging me to go deeper. I obliged, one hand braced beside her head and the other between us, playing with her clit until her breath broke into tiny gasps and she bucked up to meet me while turning her face into my elbow.