I propped myself up on Dante’s chest. “He’s only fourteen, Dante. Have you sent people to look for him?”

“Rocco did. He’s his son.”

“And what happens if they catch him?”

Dante let his head fall back against the cushion and stared up at the ceiling. “By our standards, he’s an initiate, Val. He’s not a child anymore.”

I closed my eyes. Since I had a son, the rules of our world worried me often. Leonas was a little rebel and I honestly hoped he would choose his battles wisely once he was older. “It’s strange though, that Fabiano chooses now to run away. Why didn’t he follow his sisters when they took Liliana in? He could have gone with them. But he tried to stop them.”

“Maybe he didn’t. Maybe it was all staged. You know how I’ve been suspecting we have a mole in the Outfit?”

My eyes opened wide. “You think Fabiano was the mole? But he isn’t even a Made Man yet. His knowledge is limited.”

“His direct knowledge, yes. But he might have overheard many things in the Scuderi mansion.”

“You really think Luca would have used a boy as a spy?”

“If you think Luca would have qualms to put a teenage boy in danger, then I can assure you he doesn’t. And in regard to Fabiano’s worth, I assume his information was better than nothing.”

“But how can we know for sure? What if something happened to the boy?”

“Rocco’s got a few loose contacts to local motorcycle gangs in Luca’s territory. We hope they might pick up something and share information with us in return for goods.”

“Don’t you think it’s horrible how Rocco drove all of his children away? The thought of losing Anna and Leonas like that? It tears my heart out.”

Dante cupped my head, his eyes conveying absolute certainty. “We won’t lose either Anna or Leonas. We’re trying to give them everything they need. I know they’ll always be bound by certain rules and be limited by certain restrictions but I’ll make sure they can have as much freedom as our lifestyle allows. And your love will give them the roots they need.”

“Your love too. Leonas and Anna are always so happy when they get to spend time with you. They love you so much.”

Tenderness flickered in Dante’s eyes. “I’m trying to be a better father than my own. I don’t know if I’m always succeeding.”

“You are,” I said firmly. “How can you even consider comparing yourself to your father. He and you are nothing alike.”

Dante chuckled darkly, his eyes taking in my face almost reverently. “Trust me, Val, I have plenty of my father. But it’s a side of me that you and our children will never get to see.”

I dipped my head forward, nicking his lower lip playfully. “You are everything I want.”

He rolled us over, pressing me into the bed. I slung my leg over his hip. “Can’t let me be on top, can you?” I teased. Dante ground his growing erection against me in response and bit my shoulder lightly. “Don’t play coy, Val. You get wet the moment I force you to surrender.”

God, he was right. I’d tried to ride him a few times out of curiosity but it wasn’t for me. I loved Dante’s dominant side in bed, how he took absolute control. I always got my reward after all.

The next day, the weather was beautiful and warm, the first hint of spring after a too-long winter. Anna and I sat on our bench, dressed in our coats and with a blanket draped over our legs because it was still cold despite the sunshine. Leonas obviously didn’t feel the cold. He ripped his coat off again and threw himself into the sandbox.

Anna giggled, looking up at me. She’d never been this daring and wild. She preferred to watch and consider her actions thoroughly. She snuggled closer to me and hummed the new song she’d learned in her last lesson. My phone vibrated in my coat pocket and seeing Orazio’s name, I took the video call. I wondered if it was an accident because we’d never done a video chat before and even his calls were few and far in between.

I smiled into the lens. “Hi Orazio.”

“Uncle Orazio?” Anna piped up, peering at the screen. Since Anna and Leonas were born, I’d seen my brother frequently. My kids loved him, but his relationship to our father still hadn’t improved.

“Hey Val,” he said, looking and sounding exhausted. His hair was disheveled and dark shadows spread under his eyes. I’d never seen him like that. Orazio always took care of his appearance, which was why so many girls admired him and would have loved to become his wife. “I wanted to call to see Leonas and Anna.”

“Hi!” Anna shouted and waved wildly, almost knocking the phone out of my hand.

Orazio smiled slightly but it was off. What made things even stranger was that he was in a car.

“Where are you?”

He glanced to the passenger side briefly then shook his head. “Nowhere important. How are you? How’s Leonas?”

I held the phone camera toward the sandbox where Leonas was building what looked like a pyramid. “He’s got bees in his bum as usual,” I said then turned the camera back on me and Anna who practically pressed her face against mine.

“When will you visit?” she asked.

Orazio’s eyes darted back to the right then his smile became even tenser. He didn’t reply.

“Did you have another fight with Dad? I don’t understand why you two bullheads can’t get along.” Orazio had managed to wiggle out of his promise to settle down with a wife until now, but Dad was close to exploding because of it.

“It’s too late,” he said.

I frowned. “Is it really so bad to marry someone Dad suggests? It can work out.”

“I’m going to marry in a few weeks.”

I wasn’t sure if I’d heard him right. Again his gaze sought whoever sat beside him on the passenger seat. “You want to spring this on our parents?” I whispered. If he married a girl from a soldier family our parents didn’t approve of, that wouldn’t improve his relationship to Papa in the slightest.

“I won’t tell them. They’ll find out, of course, and they won’t approve. Dad has made his standpoint very clear.”

“He knows?”

Orazio laughed darkly. “He doesn’t know that I’m going to marry, or that Lucy and I are together but he knows of Lucy.” The bitter, furious note to his voice startled me.

Anna sank back down, obviously bored by the topic when my insides practically burned up with curiosity and dread. “Lucy?” I repeated. Maybe it was short for Lucilla? Or another Italian name, but deep down I knew it wasn’t.

I swallowed. “You’re in love with an Outsider?”

Orazio grimaced. Suddenly I realized that this call was meant as a goodbye. I felt it deep down. If Orazio was marrying an Outsider, Papa would disinherit him. Unless I could convince Dante to talk to him, even if family matters were off limits for a Capo, but he could do it as son-in-law. “Maybe—”

“No,” Orazio said. “I have to leave, Val. There’s no other way.”

The truth I didn’t want to believe. I lowered my voice. “Orazio, you know the consequences of running away. That’s betrayal.”