“Step away from my sister. Do it slowly and I probably won’t shoot you in the back.”
2
Sure enough, her former Navy SEAL brother held a mean-looking handgun inches from Rafael’s back. While she appreciated Joe’s concern about her safety and that he was willing to be all macho and protective, she wasn’t sure shooting the father of her son was an especially good idea. Not yet, anyway. Although she kind of liked seeing Rafael at the business end of a gun.
“I don’t think he’s dangerous,” she said, only to gasp in surprise as two large and burly men in dark suits rounded the side of the house. Each of them had an equally impressive-looking handgun. They shouted in Italian, then in French, for Joe to drop his weapon.
In a move too fast for her to see, Joe grabbed Rafael and held his gun to the base of his neck.
“Get behind me,” Joe told her. “Who the hell are you?” he asked the other two. “What do you want?”
Okay, this was quickly getting out of hand. Mia looked at Rafael. “Let me guess-the bodyguards?” Traveling with protection certainly helped his credibility on the whole “I’m a prince” thing.
“Yes. Umberto. Oliver. There is no need to attack anyone so early in the morning. This is only a misunderstanding.” Rafael, apparently unconcerned about the gun pressing into his neck, smiled at Joe. “Is it not?”
He sounded calm, which Mia respected.
The bodyguards, however, were not moved. They kept their weapons trained on Joe.
Just then the back door to the kitchen opened. Grandma Tessa walked out and planted her hands on her hips. “If you boys are finished playing, breakfast is ready.” Her eyes narrowed. “It’s getting cold.”
Mia glanced at the men and realized this could take a minute. Rather than deal with the diplomatic disarming, she stepped around Joe and hurried toward the house. Maybe running away wasn’t her preferred method of dealing with problems, but Rafael wasn’t a normal problem. Besides, she had to be somewhere.
“Mia?” Rafael called after her. “Perhaps you could ask your brother to release me.”
“You used to be a dangerous outlaw,” she told him as she passed Grandma Tessa on the stairs. “You figure it out.”
Once she was inside, she made her way to the second story. She’d grown up here-lived her life surrounded by these walls. At sixteen she’d gone to college but had still considered the hacienda home. At twenty-three she’d returned pregnant, emotionally devastated. Her family had taken her in and made her feel welcome.
In time she would leave again and take her son with her. They would start a new life, but they would both always remember their time here.
When she reached the bedroom on the end, right across from her own, she paused in front of the closed door and pressed her hand against the painted wood.
Everything was about to change. She didn’t know where they would end up, but as of this minute, her world had been tilted on its axis. Until this morning she’d wondered if her son would be interested in inheriting Marcelli Wine and the acres of vineyards around the house. Now, apparently, he might be next in line to inherit a whole country.
She opened the door and stepped into the colorful, toy-filled bedroom and smiled as her son sat up.
“Good morning, sleepyhead. Did you sleep well?”
“Mommy!” Danny held out his arms.
When she plopped down on the mattress, he climbed into her lap and leaned his head against her chest. Automatically she picked up his treasured stuffed tiger and handed it to him. He held it close while she wrapped her arms around him and rocked him back and forth.
“We have a busy day,” she said softly. “So many things to do. Grammy M and Grandma Tessa have finished your costume.”
He looked up at her and grinned. “For my play?”
“Uh-huh. I think maybe later we should practice your lines again.”
“I know ’em.”
She smiled. He knew his three lines about as well as any other child in his preschool class. Which meant the play would consist of a lot of parental prompting and giggles from the kids.
Danny snuggled close. She breathed in the scent of him, knowing she could find him in the dark by smell alone. He was her child and her world. From the moment she’d found out she was pregnant, she’d known it would always just be the two of them. Well, as much as it
“I want chocolate cake,” he said.
She laughed. “Hmm, yesterday it was peanut butter.”
“Grammy M said a peanut butter cake would stick to the roof of my mouth. So chocolate.”
His fourth birthday was still nearly a month away, but Danny took the cake decision very seriously. As this was the first year he’d actually had an opinion, Mia was more than willing to let him pick.
“Chocolate it is,” she said as she kissed the top of his head then set him on the floor. “Okay, big guy. Let’s get you dressed.”
Danny rubbed his eyes, set down his tiger, and tugged at his PJ shirt. He got it over his head, where it got stuck. Mia pulled until he popped free and grinned at her.
She pulled open a drawer and called out colors. “Blue, green, red, or yellow?”
Danny closed his mouth and blew through pursed lips. “Yellow.”
She removed a bright yellow T-shirt with trucks on the front, a pair of dark gray shorts, and cartoon character- covered underwear.
He stepped out of his bottoms and underwear, then reached for the clean pair of little boy briefs. Next were the shorts, which he could pull on himself. She helped him with the T-shirt.
The familiarity of the morning routine allowed her to momentarily forget the sudden appearance of Danny’s father, but she couldn’t ignore Diego…Rafael…any longer.
She tossed the dirty clothes into the hamper and grabbed the hairbrush from the dresser. Danny stood patiently while she smoothed his dark hair. When she’d finished, she looked at the familiar little face and knew he was very much his father’s son.
The shape of their eyes was the same and they had similar smiles. Not that there was any doubt. Mia hadn’t been in a relationship in months when she met Rafael. She’d fallen hard, even though she’d known it was the wrong thing to do.
Rafael might insist on a DNA test, but she already knew the truth.
“What, Mommy?” Danny asked, his face scrunching up in a frown. “Are you sad?”
“Not sad. I have to tell you something.”
“I’ve been good.”
She smiled. “Yes, you have. You’re usually very good and I think that’s great.” She took the boy’s hands in her own. “Do you remember me telling you how your daddy died before you were born?”
Danny nodded solemnly. “You were very sad for a long, long time.”
“I was. But what I didn’t know was he was playing a game. Not with me, but with some other people. He only pretended to die, but I didn’t know. I thought he was gone.”
Danny stared at her and she could see he wasn’t getting it. Who could blame him? He was three weeks shy of turning four. She was twenty-seven and she was having trouble taking it all in.
She started over. “I thought your daddy was dead, but he wasn’t. He was fine. But some people wanted to protect me and they told him…”
She sighed. Okay, this was getting worse by the minute. How to explain that while she’d thought Rafael was
