If he was anything like me, like the men in my family, he’d be difficult to handle, would love the kill and inflicting pain. Showing him kindness would be difficult. I’d have to encourage his dark side, his brutality, would have to make sure he became even more bloodthirsty. How could I harden a boy for our world, for the task of becoming Capo, if not with violence?

I didn’t know and I wasn’t sure if there was even a way, if I would even try going the gentle route. Maybe I wouldn’t feel the same hesitation, the same revulsion when thinking about hurting him, as I did with Aria and Marcella. When I looked at them, at their innocent faces, I couldn’t imagine hitting them, or worse. The idea of inflicting pain on my daughter or my wife made me sick to my stomach while inflicting pain on other people had always only brought me joy.

“What are you thinking?” Aria asked softly.

I drew my eyes away from the traffic, realizing I hadn’t reacted to her earlier comment, too lost in my whirring thoughts. “Just about how it’s going to be with a boy.”

“It’s going to be all right.” She squeezed my thigh and I put my hand on hers. “Have you thought about a name for him? With Marcella, you wanted your grandmother’s name, so I wondered if you want to do the same with a boy.”

“Name him after my father or grandfather? After men who tortured their children and wives?” I released a dark laugh. Those names would never be part of our family again. They’d died with their despicable owners.

“Well, I don’t want to name our son after my father or grandfather either.”

“We’ll find a name for him that doesn’t carry the baggage of the past,” I said.

Luca

It was way past midnight when Matteo and I entered the elevator in our building. We’d tracked down a gun depot of Tartarus MC in Jersey and burned it to the ground. Despite my hit to their chapter three years ago they were still being a pain in our asses.

Their cooperation with the Russians was shaky but they still had us as their common enemy.

Matteo yawned as he leaned against the mirrored wall. “Any luck on your house hunt?”

I shook my head. “Not yet. Most houses with a yard are too far out of the city.”

“Aria will pop out your kid soon so you better find something.”

“Still two months to go,” I muttered, but he was right. We’d been looking for a new home for us for three months now. The penthouse was too small for us and two kids, and they needed a yard where they could play, even if Aria and her sisters spent the weekends and the summers in the Hamptons.

The elevator stopped on Matteo’s floor and he left with a wave. I felt drained when I entered the penthouse, and the stench of burned wood hung in my nose.

A noise on the stairs made me tense, my hand going to my holster out of habit.

“Dad?” Marcella’s small voice carried through the dark. I lowered my arm and headed for the stairs where I found my daughter perching on the last step, rubbing her eyes. I squatted before her and she opened her arms wide. “Hold me.”

I picked her up and her small arms wrapped around my neck. “Why are you down here?”

“Can’t sleep.”

“Why didn’t you join your mom in bed?”

“I did, but you weren’t there… I wanted to wait for you.”

My heart swelled and I kissed her forehead. “I’m here now.”

She nodded in the crook of my neck. “Where were you?”

“At work, princess.”

“You smell like smoke.”

Fuck. Good thing I didn’t come home covered in blood today. That was something Marcella didn’t need to see. Eventually she would understand what I did but not yet. I didn’t want to taint her innocence so soon. “We had a bonfire.”

“Can we have one too?” she said in her soft, high voice.

Fuck.

I chuckled. “Next time we’re in the mansion.”

“Okaayy,” she murmured, her body already going soft. I carried her upstairs into the nursery and put her into her bed then covered her with her pink bedding. Her entire room was a girl’s dream of rose and white with unicorn drawings on the walls. Five years ago, I’d have never thought that any room in my penthouse would ever look like that. After a kiss on her forehead, I walked into the master bedroom.

The moon illuminated Aria’s sleeping form. As usual, she was turned toward my side. I quickly undressed and put on new boxers before I crept into bed. Aria had stuffed the blankets under her belly while her breastfeeding pillow was wedged between her legs. I supposed I’d sleep without covers again. Smiling, I pressed a soft kiss to her protruding belly then halted when I felt a small kick. My boy.

I lightly rested my forehead against Aria’s baby bump, marveling at the small wonder growing inside of her.

“Luca?” Aria whispered sleepily.

I lifted my head, kissed her mouth and stretched out beside her. Reaching around her, I carefully pulled her as close as her belly allowed. She pressed her forehead against my chest then kissed the skin lightly. “Bad day?” she asked, her voice drowsy and her breathing slow and even.

I drew in her comforting flowery scent, ran my fingers through her silky hair then down the soft skin of her arm.

“Not anymore,” I said quietly. “Now sleep.”

She did, and eventually I fell asleep as well.

I woke covered in sweat. Blinking against the early morning light, it took me a moment to figure out the heat source.

I was stretched out on my back and Marcella was sprawled out across my chest, her hair sticking to my throat and chin. It was incredible how much heat her little body gave off. The second heat source was Aria, pressed against my side, her head on my shoulder and one arm thrown over Marcella and me.

Before Aria, I couldn’t even fall asleep with another person in the room. Now I didn’t even wake when my daughter snuck into our bedroom and used me as her mattress.

It must have been a deeply buried instinct that allowed me to differentiate because the few times I’d had to sleep somewhere else, I’d woken the second someone had as much as moved in the next room. It was as if my body knew I could trust Aria and Marcella and didn’t have to wake when they were around.

While I loved having my two girls as close as possible, I was going to have a heat stroke soon if they didn’t give me some space. Shifting, I tried to move Marcella off my chest without waking her. Tough luck.

Marcella opened her blue eyes, blinked at me then yawned.

“Shouldn’t you be in your bed?” For a while she’d crept into our bed almost every night but I wanted some privacy for Aria and myself, so we’d put a stop to it… mostly.

She gave me a sheepish smile and batted those long lashes. “I had a nightmare.”

“Did you really?” I asked sternly, or as sternly as I was capable of when Marcella was concerned. I was getting better the older she got because I knew she’d have to learn the rules of our world and couldn’t act like a spoiled princess.

She bit her lip, grinning cheekily. “No.”

“What did I tell you about lies?”

“They are bad,” she said, pushing into a sitting position on top of me. A few strands of her black hair stood off to the side.