Page 6 of Knocked Up by My Dad's Mafia Boss

My jaw tightens. “You should have told me right away.”

“I didn’t think it’d be a fucking dead bird, Dante,” she snaps.

I draw in a deep breath, trying not to lose it. “You’re in danger, Samantha. You have to start listening to me.” I pause. “To your father.”

She jerks open the door and stalks inside. Elio’s sitting in the living room, watching television, used to her late nights. “Hey,cara mia,” he calls to her, but I walk into the living room first.

“We have a problem.” I drop the package in his lap.

He frowns and looks down at it. He goes as pale as she did. “Who gave this to you?” He cranes his neck to look at Samantha.

She stares at him, looking shell-shocked and still a little annoyed at me. “Some girl. Someone paid her to do it.”

Elio’s dark eyes shoot to mine. “You think this is Ricci?”

I nod tightly. Luciano Ricci has been Elio’s enemy for twenty years, ever since we were kids.

They fell in love with the same woman—Samantha’s mother.

Grace was a sweet, fiery woman, not unlike Samantha. I’d liked her a lot, and was sorry to hear she’d passed on.

Elio becamedonwhen he was twenty-two years old, when his father passed on, and I was there, only twenty at the time.

His first act asdonwas to send me overseas to gather information on the allies we had in Sicily.

I’d spent twenty-five years there. The old ones died. The new generation took over. Elio finally called me home.

And then I met Samantha with those golden brown eyes of hers, a perfect mixture of her mother and father’s best features.

The first time I saw her, all I was able to do was stare. She's drop dead gorgeous, prettier even than her mother, who was a head-turner herself. And thatbodyof hers. It’s downright sinful, wide across the hips and bust, narrow at the waist, thick thighs and calves.

But I shouldn’t be thinking about Samantha’s body right now. I should be thinking about her life. Her safety.

“If it is Luciano, I’ll kill him,” Elio growls.

“You can’t do that, Papa!” Samantha’s cries jerk me back to reality and I shake my head.

“She’s right, Elio. It would start a war.”

He throws the package on the ground and the poor canary flies out, landing against the wall. “Thisstarts a war. He threatened my child.”

“We don’t know for sure it’s him,” Samantha says quickly. “And Papa—I’m okay. Really.” She holds out her arms as if to show him she’s unharmed.

Elio stands and blows out a breath. “I’ll handle this.”

“Please,Papa, don’t do anything stupid.”

“I’ll handle it,” he says again flatly, then heads toward the stairs. He jerks his head, gesturing for me to follow. I look at Samantha. She stares back, a flash in her nearly golden eyes.

I should have been there. Should have kept her safe.

I tear my eyes away from her, following Elio into his office.

“Shut the door behind you.” His voice is low and calm. Which, knowing Elio, is dangerous.

He's always been a bit of a hothead. I’ve always been the stoic one, the cold one.

Elio’s fiery. So when he goes calm and still, he’spissed.