Page 29 of Because I Need You
“I’m outside.”
“So, come inside.” I hung up the phone and tossed it on the desk, confused as to why she’d call me to warn me that she was outside. When the office door opened behind me, I realized why. She walked inside with her husband, Tony in tow, and their five-year-old twins behind them. Jesus Christ. As cute as my goddaughters were, the last thing I needed was to deal with fucking children right now.
“Make yourselves at home,” I muttered.
Tony smirked.
Nadia spoke up. “The twins woke up a five-thirty and wouldn’t go back to bed. My mom doesn’t get there till eight, so we had to bring them.”
I ran my hands down my face. I was hanging on to my sanity by a thread and now had two little girls tugging on my pants. I exhaled heavily and lowered my hands and looked at them. Tried to glare at them, really, but they smiled and tugged again, wide brown eyes. “Uncle Gio. A kiss!”
God damn it. I hated kids. Why’d they have to be so fucking cute? I lowered myself into a crouch and let each of them give me a kiss and hug. “Uncle Gio hasn’t gotten any sleep.”
“Uh-oh,” Lucia said. “You’re in a bad mood like Alessa.”
“I’m not in a bad mood.” Alessa frowned.
“Yes, you are. Because you didn’t get any sleep,” Lucia pointed out.
I sighed, shaking my head. “It’s okay, Alessa. We’re allowed to be in a bad mood today.”
“Mommy says we’re not supposed to take out our bad mood on other people,” Lucia said, pointing a finger at me.
I rolled my eyes, grumbling, “Yeah, she’s probably right.”
“Girls, come over here,” Tony said, setting up two separate iPads with the two separate cat headphones I’d gotten them for their birthday a few months ago. He covered them with two separate blankets, and they instantly forgot about us. They were good parents, these two. I had to give them that.
“So, Isabel is here,” Nadia said unnecessarily.
“She’s in my old room.” I pointed at the ceiling.
“The lawyer probably gave her this address,” Nadia said, stating the fucking obvious.
“What did she say?” Tony stepped forward. “Do we know who ambushed the house?”
“Dominic is looking into it.” Man, I missed Frankie. He would’ve already found out. He would’ve already had two of them in a warehouse, tied up and bloodied, but he was no longer here and as angry as I felt, I would never bring up his name right now. I looked at Nadia. “You know I don’t want you involved in any of this. That was the deal when I agreed to let you work for me.”
She shrugged a shoulder. “I’m only here to tell you William Hamilton’s whereabouts for the next few days in case you want to try to have a conversation with him again about the theater.”
“Really?” I squinted at her. “At seven o’clock in the morning, you decided to show up with your entire family to tell me something you could’ve texted me?”
“I want to help,” Tony said, taking one step in front of his wife. “You need someone you can trust right now, and I can help. I’ll drive you around, ask questions, whatever.”
“No. Fuck no.” I shook my head. “Out of the question. The last thing I need is for this to go sideways and Nadia to lose another man she needs in her life.”
Tony set his lips flat. Nadia grimaced, looking away.
“We all know what we signed up for,” Nadia said.
“You signed up to oversee my nightclubs. Nothing else.”
“I signed up to do whatever it takes to keep this family safe,” Tony said, “That means all of us, including you.”
I swallowed, turning around to pace some more because I didn’t want them to see the way that got to me. My father had always preached that family was everything, but he’d never been talking about his immediate family. He’d never meant his kids or wife. He meant The Family. I learned what loyalty meant from Frankie, Nadia, Mike, Dean, etcetera. Even Lorenzo. Even Vinny before he went and did some crazy ass shit. My sisters were always number one on my list of people I cared about and took care of, but these were the people I dealt with on a day-to-day. These were the people I trusted with my life. Not my father, especially not my father. I ran a hand through my hair as I turned to face them again.
“We don’t know what we’re dealing with,” I said, looking at Tony. “I know you’ll do anything to help, but I don’t want you in danger.”
Normally, I would have agreed, since as he pointed out, this was what we signed up for. Tony was a soldier, and a damn good one, but it didn’t matter. Frankie died the last time shit went sideways. Nadia didn’t deserve to lose her brother and her husband. The two little girls on my sofa couldn’t afford it.
