Page 37 of Silent Snowfall

It was obvious this guy wasn’t bright. He’d tried to deliver a cheap gesture to win the good favor of my girl and arrange multiple meetings with her. But on top of that, he hadn’t bothered to use an alias.

“What do you want me to do, boss?” Giuseppe’s grin spread over his face. “Camillo has the shed free.”

I nodded slowly. “Catch him. But be discreet.”

My brother scoffed. “When am I not?”

I gave him a withering look.

“It’s you who needs a lesson in subtly,” Giuseppe goaded. “Drew says you’ve been sneaking around at all hours of the night. Where’ve you been going, fratello? Playing Santa Claus to Signora Finnocchiara’s great-grandsons?”

I leaned forward and growled, “Mind your own business.”

“Or is it the hot mommy who’s finally piqued your interest?”

“Leave Rosetta out of it,” I snapped.

The moment the words were out of my mouth, a warning shivered down my spine. Before I turned my head, I knew I’d been too loud. My gaze clashed with Russo’s. Wide, soupy brown eyes stared back at me across the café.

How that fucker had the balls to come after Rose and her children was beyond contemplable. He shouldn’t have the right to breathe, let alone step into my town.

Andrew Russo shook himself, shot to his feet, and made a run for the door.

“Now you’ve done it,” I hissed.

Giuseppe glowered at me. “That one’s on you, fratello.”

I was at the café door a moment later, pushing it wide before it could shut. A blast of winter wind sliced down the street. Giuseppe, hot on my heels, shifted into his coat as he followed me onto the sidewalk.

“Where’d he go?” my brother demanded.

“Not far,” I snarled. “Go. Find him and take him to the shed.”

“Sure thing, boss,” Giuseppe grumped.

My chest rose and fell with each hard breath. The arctic temperature was a balm to the fire raging in my veins. I fisted my hands at my sides. Rose had already been through enough, thinking her husband was dead. The last thing she needed was to see his ghost and have those scars reopen.

Russo could have gone to her any time in the last year. He’d abandoned her and those smart, capable boys. While clearly something had changed and he thought this Christmas was the perfect time to resurrect the past, he was going to learn that he was too late.

Rosetta was mine.

Which meant it was time to put her husband back in the grave. This time, permanently.

Chapter 13 – Rosetta

My hair was still damp from the shower as I sat in the armchair, reading by the window. Even the new werewolf romance book wasn’t enough to distract me. I’d spent the twenty-minute shower giving myself a stern lecture. I wasn’t young enough to have a fling, no matter how good it was. Plus, I was a mother with responsibilities, like figuring out how to make enough money to set my boys up for the future they deserved. They would be eighteen in nine short years, which meant college funds needed to be big. And I’d barely managed to scrape two pennies together to buy the Playmobile wizard castle to wrap and place under the tree. Nine years might seem like a long time, but it was creeping closer at an exponential rate.

Nope, there wasn’t time for a personal life. Even if the guy was damn near perfect. I sighed dejectedly. The respectful stranger in a mask had a good heart. He clearly cared about my family. Plus, he was a man who didn’t talk down to me, who only wanted to lift me up. And was a damn good lover.

Yes…he was perfect.

But any fun for me needed to come decades in the future. And by then, I would be old and withered with tons of grandbabies to keep me company. Until then, my books would keep me company. I wasn’t going to see the masked man again. That was why I was up here reading and doing a decently fine job of resisting the temptation to wait downstairs for the monster to break into the house with the key my ridiculous grandmother had given him.

The Kindle page flipped, and I groaned. I hadn’t read the last three paragraphs and now the lupine monster was banging the big-city girl in her lonesome log cabin.

When did he change into his wolf form?

Scrolling back, I forced my mind to focus on the words, but the crack of the bedroom door made me gasp. “No!”