Page 96 of Lace Vengeance

“Is there a problem?” Adriano fills the entire doorway, shaking raindrops from his beard.

Luci’s face lights up. “Daddy!”

Adriano softens in a way that I once wouldn’t have believed possible.“Pryvit, malyy.” Hello, little one.

Luci beams for a second, then his face works furiously.

“Uh-oh,” Bobby says, and a moment later Luci bursts into tears.

“He’s tired,” I say over his offended wailing. “Give him here, Morelli. I’ll take him to his room. Call the sitter in.”

“You’re sure?”

“Of course.” I take my still-sobbing kid and head for the stairs. When I’m almost there I turn back to look at them. Adriano, tall and scarred. Bobby, his tie loose around his neck. Morelli, finishing his cocktail in his stupid velvet smoking jacket and January Joy Whitehall, waving to us, utterly perfect in her lace dress.

She’s as tall and pretty as she was when I first kidnapped her, but she’s grown. Older. Hotter. I drooled over her when she was Parker’s fiancée, but if I saw this chick on the street today, I’d hit the pavement and beg her to take a chance on my ass. January mouths at us. “Goodnight. Sleep tight, baby.”

Luci sniffles against me. “Night-night?”

“Night-night,” I agree. “Wave goodbye to everyone now.”

Luci waves at his family. They wave and blow kisses back and my son laughs. He doesn’t see anything weird about having multiple fathers. As far as he’s concerned the more people who love and care about him the better. It’s a reality I’ll fight tooth and nail to keep going for him.

My brothers and January give him one last wave and then head up the hallway to the ballroom, Eli’s arm around January’s waist, Bobby’s hand on her shoulder and I smile as I head up the stairs. I don’t know what the future holds but that doesn’t matter. I have my brothers, my woman, my son. I have everything I could ever need and more.

And it’s all because of the snow-white beauty I kidnapped.

Funny the way life is sometimes, huh?

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