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What she said earlier has sunk in enough by now that I finally turn to her.
"You were right. I am mad. I'm fucking livid, Loren."
Her blue eyes sweep to me and then away as she rubs her arms. In the driver's seat, Big Luck is swerving around other cars and breaking speed limits like no tomorrow.
"I…I just didn't want to risk…God, you're a don, and you said not to come back and—I know you hate me for hiding it from you, for lying and—"
"I wasn't finished," I cut off her attempt at an explanation, trying to tame my temper as I take her hand. She doesn't wince away but still doesn't look at me. "I'm not upset for the reasons you think. I'm pissed as fuck that they took Evelyn. Our kid. No one touches what's mine and lives."
Big Luck swears at someone on the road and changes lanes. We're nearing the location we got from Loren's hacking.
Loren swallows and peers at me through teary eyes, no longer looking quite as shut down as she did moments ago. "You're…not furious with me for keeping Evelyn a secret from you?"
I recall the morning after our first night together three years ago. I'd banned Loren, threatened her, and forced myself not to go looking for the intoxicating hacker after that passionate night. Of course, she wouldn't come knocking on my front door with an invitation to a baby shower. It also goes without saying that she might be conflicted about having me, a fucking mafioso, as the father of her baby.
She didn't trust me. She lied to be about the Wild Seven, about everything.
But she did it to protect Evelyn.
"I understand your reasoning," I whisper, reaching up to brush away the remaining trail of tears on her beautiful face. "I'm not angryat youfor doing what you felt was necessary to keep our baby safe. Any good mother would have done the same. Right now, I'm furious that they dared lay a finger on you or her. But I'm also beyond unhappy that you kept your past involvement with the fucking Wild Seven a secret."
She grimaces and opens her mouth to say something, but Big Luck hits the brakes hard. We squeal to a stop in front of a suburban house surrounded by Caputos, but on the street in vehicles and waiting outside.
Whatever Loren has to say to defend her past will have to wait.
"Wait here," I tell her, getting out of the car.
"I'm going in," she argues. "I need to know where Evie is. He needs to tell us everything."
I give her a look that makes her halt getting out of the car.
"Believe me," I say darkly. "I'll make this squealer squeal. We'll know where Evelyn is, and we'll get her back. But unless you have a stomach made of steel, you won't enjoy my interrogation methods. So wait here."
She stays put, and I march across the street, passing enforcers and street teams of Caputos who eye me warily as I pass. They look nervous to see me like this, bloodthirsty and ready to break every bone in a man's body.
Good. Let them see I'm not the soft leader my father keeps claiming I'm turning out to be. Because until my daughter and Loren are safe again, I don't care about loyalty—if anyone so much as looks at me wrong, I'm going to fucking lose it.
Less than fifteen minutes later, I emerge from the house with my suit smeared in blood. The screaming stopped a while ago, not long after Ricardo Gallo told me everything he knows about the Wild Seven and their plan for getting his "chance at redemption" to the Gallo crime family.
I killed him for calling my daughter that. The fact that he'd been using his hacking skills to steal from the Caputo family for months also made pulling the trigger easier. Not to mention, I hate disloyalty of any kind, and squealers have that in spades.
The Caputos present on the street back away from my appearance even as I give them a sharp look.
"Every vehicle the Caputo family owns is to be on the road to the airport immediately. Split up to cover every possible route. Look for vehicles marked with a red ace of spades either on the side-view mirror or beside the license plate. We're taking out the Wild Seven before they dare make a play at our casino or our family members again. If you catch one, keep them alive until I can interrogate and kill them myself.Capiche?"
As they bolt to their vehicles, they shout their confirmations and hearty agreements in Italian. Only a couple of my men stay behind to clean up the mess and frighten any civilian witnesses into silence. Meanwhile, I slide back into the backseat beside Loren, and Big Luck takes off immediately, having heard me through his rolled-down window.
Loren's sky-blue gaze flicks over my suit, my hands, and the bit of blood splattered on my face. If she wasn't already keeping the truth about Evelyn from me to shield her from having a mafioso as a father, this would be the moment she decided to.
But without a word, she grabs tissues from her purse and hesitantly reaches out to wipe the redness off my face.
Our eyes lock as she does. And although fury over my daughter's compromised safety is still sizzling in my veins, I get a wave of that same sense of peace I feel whenever I'm holding Loren close. The weight on my shoulder lifts a little, and the panic squeezing at my heart loosens its grip ever so slightly.
I'm a casino-running don, a born and raised mobster with gray morals and no patience for the idiocy of others. For me, the glass is always half empty. I'm not a good man.
But with Loren, that's all different.I'mdifferent.
There are so many things about us that shouldn't work. We're polar opposites. I'm too old for her. She has a history with hacking that I'm only just beginning to see clearly, something that would deter any other casino owner. I have blood on my hands, both figuratively and literally.
