Ruthless Mafia Daddy (Alpha Mafia Daddies)

The world stops turning as I kneel in the shattered glass.

Lila…

This is all my fault. I should have never let her out of my sight.

I failed.

I wasn’t able to keep her safe like I promised. And now Lorenzo has her, and time is running out.

“We’ll find her, Andre.” Marco rests a hand on my shoulder.

My fists clench, my knuckles turning white as I try to suppress my rage.

“I’m so sorry, Andre,” Rosa sobs from behind me.

I close my eyes, the sound of my sister’s sobs grating on my nerves. “I told you to stay in the fucking car. Why can you never do as you are fucking told?”

“Andre—”

“Enough! You’ve done enough for tonight. Get back in the fucking car. Now!”

Her sobs intensify, but her running footsteps are moving away from me. Good.

I have to think through our next steps. Part of me wants to go after her, snap at Rosa for being so fucking irresponsible. This is exactly the sort of thing I was afraid of happening. Did she think I kept her locked in the house for fun?

I grind my teeth together as I try to think through a plan.

“Marco, get Kyle on the phone.” I climb to my feet, turning my back on the wreckage.

“What for?”

“We need something in our pocket to bargain with when we find Lorenzo.”

“Can’t we just kill him?” Marco frowns.

“It’s likely he’ll be keeping Lila somewhere separate and use her to bargain with us. We need to have something to offer in return if we have any chance of bringing her back alive.” My stomach churns at the thought that we might already be too late, but we can’t storm Lorenzo’s hideouts without having a plan, otherwise none of us will walk away from this alive.

“I want names, Marco. Anyone we could use who might be close to Lorenzo. I don’t care if it’s his fucking dog, get me something!”

“On it.” My brother pulls his phone out of his jacket pocket, dialing Kyle’s number.

I let out a breath and walk over to the Hummer where Rosa is seating with tears streaming down her face.

She goes to speak, but I shake my head, not wanting to hear any more of her apologies.

My jaw is clenched tight and it’s a struggle to unclench it enough that I can talk. “Jerry is going to come and pick you up and take you back to the main house. I’m assuming I don’t need to reiterate my point of staying in your fucking room.”

Rosa hangs her head, her dark hair falling in front of her face as she nods.

“Once this is all over, Rosa, we’re going to have a very serious conversation, do you understand?”

“Yes, Andre,” she whispers.

“Good.” I place a hand on her shoulder and squeezing once.

I know she blames herself, and at this moment, to a degree, I do too, though I would never speak the words out loud. She’s clearly wracked with guilt, and I can only hope this will teach her to never defy my orders again.

But I know that ultimately, this is all my fault. I’m the one that failed at making sure they stayed in the fucking house as they should.

“Dez, Sloan.” I walk away from Rosa.

The two men flank either side of me as we stand before the wreckage, waiting for my brother to get off the phone with Kyle.

If he has nothing to offer us, I’m at a loss for where to start. We have no leads as to where Lorenzo might have taken Lila, but we’ve already wasted too much time.

My hands are shaking as I run them through my hair, trying to sort through the chaos in my mind. All I can think of is all the ways Lorenzo might be torturing her, and with each second that passes, she gets closer to death.

And I refuse to lose her too. “Marco.”

My brother hangs up the phone and turns to face me, a deep frown lining his forehead.

“There’s a potential mistress that Lorenzo has been sending large amounts of money to each month for the past few years.”

“A mistress?”

Marco nods.

“I’m assuming the money is to pay for her lifestyle?”

Marco shakes his head, his dark hair falling into his eyes.

“Kyle doesn’t think so. It seems the chick comes from money.”

Dez pipes up, “So, why does she need it?”

“He’s buying her silence.” My mind’s racing as I try to think through each scenario.

Marco frowns harder. “What do you think she knows?”

“It could be anything, but it’s clear that she’s important to him, otherwise he would’ve just killed her. Is Kyle looking into an address?”

Marco nods.

“Good. In the meantime, I suggest we start working through all of Lorenzo’s hideouts.”

“You don’t think he’d keep Lila at any of those, do you? He knows we know those locations⁠—”

“He wants me to come to him, Marco. Why else would he have taken Lila? He’s not simply sending a message. He wants to start a war.”

“Fuck.” Marco runs his hands over his face. “Where do we start?”

Dez tucks his hands into his pockets. “I suggest we start in East Harlem, at Luciano’s. I know he’s got a few guys making the rounds over there, so even if Lorenzo’s not there, it would send a nice little message to him.”

“Fine. We head there once Rosa has been collected.”

The moment Rosa is in the backseat of Jerry’s Mercedes, heading safely back to Westchester, I climb into the front seat of the Hummer, with Dez driving, and we race toward Harlem.

This is going to be a bloodbath, but I won’t stop until I’m holding Lila’s warm body in my arms. I refuse to accept any other outcome.

I think of the baby she’s growing, and I have to swallow down the acid in my throat. If Lorenzo knows…

“Andre.” Marco snaps me out of my spiraling thoughts.

“What?”

“I know what you’re thinking, so stop it right now.” He leans across the center console of the car. “She’s not dead. She’s not Valentina.”

I flinch at the mention of her name, my wounds threatening to burst open with each passing second.

Dez tightens his fists around the steering wheel. “We’re going to get her back, boss.”

I say nothing as we race toward the city, choosing instead to check each of my weapons.

Two handguns, each with seventeen rounds, four magazines, a six-inch blade and a nine-inch blade.

By the time Lila is safely back in my arms, I want each of these bullets embedded in the skulls of Lorenzo’s men, and I want at least one of the knives buried deep in Lorenzo’s chest cavity after I’ve run it across his throat. I want to wear his blood like a tattoo on my skin, a marker to any who think they can take what belongs to me.

“He’s not getting out of this alive.” I click the safety off my gun.

Luciano’s is a dive situated in the center of East Harlem. At two in the morning, the place looks abandoned, with no lights on and the sign half hanging off the wall.

But I know better. Most of these places have hidden basements beneath the bars, left over from the prohibition, which are now used for drug deals and money laundering. It will no doubt be full of Lorenzo’s men.

Dez pulls down a side alley and puts the Hummer in park. “Should we even bother going around the back?”

Marco’s safety click echoes around the car. “No point in being discrete, Dez. Let’s smash this fucking place up.”

Sloan chuckles. “I like your style.”

I open the car door and climb out. “Don’t leave anyone alive. I want the floors flooded with blood by the time we leave.”

Sloan leads the way, a baseball bat resting on his shoulders as we approach Luciano’s.

I stand back beside Marco as Sloan lifts the bat and sends it straight through the glass front, shattering it into a thousand tiny pieces.

He steps to the side. “After you, boss.”

I tighten my grip on my gun as I step through into the restaurant, the glass crunching beneath my feet as I creep across the floor. No doubt the sound of the glass shattering sent whoever is below into action.

“Dez.” I signal for him to join me.

He climbs through the front window with expert grace, his machine gun pointed straight at the locked door behind the cash register. ~

I glance over my shoulder at Marco and Sloan. “Ready?”

They both nod, sly grins on their faces as they point their weapons.

This is it. Time to teach Lorenzo the lesson he never learned.

He thinks he can mess with me? Touch my family? The woman I love? The mother of my child?

Those thoughts nearly have me crumbling. Because I do love her. As I do my unborn child.

And they need me more than ever. So, I stand taller.

Lila is counting on me.

I failed to keep her safe, but I won’t fail again.

Lila, sweetheart, hang tight. I’m coming for you.