Page 13 of Knocked Up by My Dad's Mafia Boss

Aurelio Costa, Ricci’s nephew by his late sister. Reportedly as crazy as Ricci himself. And a couple others I only know by face.

Jimmy and Aurelio work together, almost like Aurelio is shadowing him. He’s still just a kid, barely twenty years old. They collect money. Intercept shipments. Nothing too out of the ordinary. It’s like they’re not focused on targeting Samantha at all.

Was it really just an empty threat? Or maybe the other night was opportunistic. Maybe they happened to see her out. Maybe it wasn’t Ricci at all. Either way, I don’t gain anything interesting in my trip to the South Side.

When I return, it’s late and I figure everyone’s asleep. I unlock the front door and then there’s Samantha, standing in front of me, wearing a big men’s t-shirt and nothing else.

She stares at me. “You’re back.”

I clear my throat, not looking at her. “Yeah. How’s the arm?”

She lifts her shirt sleeve and I glance up to see it’s just a bandaid, now. “It really wasn’t that bad. I was being a baby.” She sounds almost sheepish.

“You weren’t.”

She hums. “Are you back home for a while?”

“For a while.”

Samantha looks at me a moment longer before padding upstairs and into her room.

I let out a long breath, grabbing myself a drink from the bar before taking it up to mine. When I unlock the door, a small voice behind me speaks.

“Can I come in?”

I turn around to see Samantha, wearing a robe now, her dark hair damp and curling around her shoulders.

Jesus Christ. She’s twenty-five years old. Twenty years younger than me. I can’t look at her like that.

I think of the pillowy softness of her lips and grit my teeth. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”

“Just for a minute.” She looks up at me with big brown eyes and I inwardly curse myself.

“Alright.” I step inside, taking a deep swallow of my drink.

She walks in behind me. The sound of the door clicking shut makes me snap my eyes to hers.

“I wanted to thank you.”

“Thank me for what?”

She sighs. “The other night. I was really out of it and I never said it. So… thank you.”

“I was just doing my job.”

She tilts her head and looks at me. I want to look away but I can’t, no matter how I try to tell myself to stop staring into those doe brown eyes.

“Is that really all it was, Dante?”

My jaw tightens. “Of course it was.”

She takes a step closer and puts her hand on the belt of her robe. “Samantha,” I choke out in warning, looking away.

“Dante. Look at me.”

In my peripheral vision, I see the robe shift and fall to the floor. I can hear my heartbeat in my ears. “I can’t. You’re just a kid.”

“You don’t look at me like I’m just a kid.”