Page 36 of The Mafia King's Lost Son
“Of course, Mr. Moretti.” Rosa smiles warmly at Luca. “Come with me, sweetheart. Are you hungry? I bet you’re hungry after that long flight.”
Luca looks up at Scarlett for permission and she nods even though I can see the reluctance in her eyes. She doesn’t want to let him out of her sight, but she doesn’t have a choice.
Not anymore.
“Go ahead, baby,” she says quietly. “I’ll be right here. I just need to talk to Dante for a minute.”
A minute. She thinks this conversation will take a minute.
Once Rosa and Luca disappear into the house, I turn to Scarlett and grab her arm. Not rough enough to hurt, but firm enough that she can’t pull away.
“We need to talk. Now.”
“Let go of me.” She tries to twist out of my grip, but I tighten my hold.
“My office. Move.”
“I can walk on my own. You don’t need to?—”
“Then walk faster.”
I don’t give her a chance to argue further. I just pull her through the front door and down the hallway toward my office while she protests and tries to break free.
“Stop manhandling me! I’m not some?—”
“You lost the right to make demands when you kept my son from me for five years.”
That shuts her up. At least temporarily. That woman is too sassy to stay shut up when asked.
I shove open the office door and pull her inside, releasing her arm only after I’ve closed and locked the door behind us with a decisive click.
She immediately puts distance between us, backing away until she’s standing near my desk with her arms crossed defensively over her chest.
“You can’t just drag me around like I’m some kind of prisoner!”
“Can’t I?” I stalk toward her slowly, predatory, letting her see exactly how thin my control is right now. “You show up at my door after six years with my son—my son who I didn’t even know existed—and you think you get to make demands about how I treat you?”
“He’s my son too!”
“A son I knew nothing about.” I’m in her space now, close enough to see her pulse jumping in her throat. Close enough to smell her perfume mixed with fear and something…something I can’t place that makes the anger even worse. “Five years, Scarlett. Five years of his life that I’ll never get back. First words. First steps. Birthdays. All of it gone because you decided I didn’t deserve to know.”
“You’re a killer!” She shoves at my chest, but I don’t move. Don’t even rock back on my heels. “I watched you murder someone in cold blood! You were going to kill me! What was I supposed to do, hand over my baby to a monster?”
The word hits like a slap, but I don’t give her the satisfaction of a reaction.
“That monster is his father. And you took away my choice to be in his life.”
“I was nineteen and terrified!” Her voice cracks slightly and her eyes are bright with tears she’s refusing to let fall. “I was running for my life from people who wanted me dead and I found out I was pregnant with a stranger’s baby. A stranger who kills people for a living! What choice did I have?”
“You had plenty of choices.” I lean in closer and she presses back against the desk, trapped between the furniture and my body. “You could have contacted me. Could have told me. Could have given me the option to be a father to my own child. But instead you made every decision alone.”
“Yes!” Her eyes flash with defiance even as her body betrays her by leaning slightly toward me instead of completely away. “I decided to protect my son from your world. From violence and danger and everything you represent. And I’d make the same choice again!”
The fury inside me reaches its breaking point.
I close whatever distance is left between us and cage her in against the desk with my arms on either side of her, my hands gripping the edge of the wood hard enough that I hear it creak.
My face is inches from hers now. Close enough that I can feel her breath on my lips. Close enough to see the exact moment her defiance wavers.
