Page 104 of The Wrong Mafia Bride
"I need you to trust me," I tell her quietly, both hands cupping her face now, forcing her to maintain eye contact. "I need you to let me protect you for once instead of you protecting everyone else. Can you do that?"
She stares at me for a long moment, searching my face for something—reassurance, maybe, or certainty that I can actually do what I am promising.
Whatever she finds must satisfy her because she finally nods, sagging against me like a puppet with cut strings.
"Okay," she whispers. "Okay, I trust you."
The words do something to my chest, make something tight and painful finally loosen.
"Good girl," I murmur against her hair. "Now. You are going to go upstairs and try to sleep. We are going to retrieve the bomb from your closet and dispose of it safely. And in the morning, we are going to start making calls."
"What kind of calls?" She pulls back slightly to look at me.
“The kind that make Patrick Murphy understand that when he threatened my wife's sister, he declared war on the Salvatore family," I say, my voice dropping to something colder than a grave. "And that threatening a pregnant woman with Salvatore blood in her veins? That's not a mistake he'll live to regret. That's the last mistake he'll ever make”
"We have resources too," Gabriel adds. "Contacts, allies, people who owe us favors. We will use all of it."
"Patrick thinks he holds all the cards because he has Erin's location," Luca says. "But he is wrong. We will find her first. Get her and Dolan to safety. And then—" His smile goes sharp. "Then we will have a conversation with Patrick about threats and consequences."
I can see Rosalina processing this, can see her brain working through possibilities and outcomes, can see the moment she realizes we are serious.
"You would start a war with the Irish over this?" she asks quietly.
"We would end a war with the Irish over this," I correct. "Patrick is the one who started it when he handed you that bomb."
"And threatened our family," Gabriel adds, his hand sliding to rest over Rosalina's stomach where our baby is growing. "That cannot stand."
"So yes," Luca confirms. "We will burn down the entire Irish mafia if that is what it takes to keep you and Erin safe."
Rosalina stares at us—at the three men who love her, who have just found out they are going to be fathers, who are now promising to commit violence on her behalf.
"I love you," she says, and her voice breaks on the words. "All three of you. So much."
"We love you too," I tell her, and I mean it with every fiber of my being. "Both of you. And we are going to make sure Patrick Murphy never threatens our family again."
I pull her close one more time, pressing my lips to her forehead in a kiss that is equal parts promise and benediction.
My wife.
My child.
My family.
And I will destroy anyone who tries to take them from me.
Even if it means going to war with the Irish mafia.
Even if it means defying my father.
Even if it costs me everything.
Because Rosalina and this baby are worth more than everything combined.
And Patrick Murphy is about to learn exactly what happens when you threaten a Salvatore's family.
23
LUCA
