I kept my distance from him as we got out of the SUV, ignoring the way he cradled Rebel in his arms so gently. She didn't seem like she had a care in the world with him carrying her like a baby, even after growling at him earlier in the day. At some point, she’d gotten used to him. She'd get spoiled if we let her, and I'd be damned if I wouldn’t.
She just couldn't get too used to Enzo doing it, because she was coming home with me when we went our separate ways.
Enzo didn't push closeness between us, giving me a moment of reprieve. He said he didn't give a damn if Matteo knew about us having sex, but he certainly seemed to.
"It's about fucking time," Matteo grunted as soon as we stepped inside. "Drop the dog in the living room.”
"Did I miss a meeting?" Enzo asked, his brow furrowing in confusion. It didn't take a genius to know that Enzo was incredibly organized with his portion of the Bellandi business, and to miss something would drive him insane.
"No. Liam O'Connell agreed to meet with us. Scar will keep an eye on the girls, and I've got the guys on the perimeter."
Enzo's eyes came to me as he guided me into the living room. Setting Rebel on the floor, he turned to me and took the moment away from Matteo's prying eyes to stroke the back of his knuckles over my cheek. "Be good," he said, lips brushing over my forehead in an oddly intimate and sweet caress. I looked over my shoulder as he moved out into the entryway, the sound of the front door closing as he and Matteo left.
Turning my attention away from the door finally, I found Ivory, Samara, and Calla all staring back at me with bright grins. "Shut up," I whispered.
Scar barked out a laugh in the corner, then returned his attention to the knife that he worked to polish. The sight of the massive man polishing a knife in one of the antique chairs from when Matteo's father had owned the estate, in other words velvet and looking fit for King Henry VIII, was almost enough to make me echo his amusement. "You think after you nagged them for details relentlessly, you'll just get out of it now that it's your turn?"
"Nobody asked you for your opinion, Smoosh Baby," I warned him. His eyes narrowed and his hands polished the blade with more force, but he didn't slit my throat with it. I counted that as a win. "Where's the vet?"
"You beat her here."
"Oh lovely," I said, dropping to the floor next to Rebel and curling her into my side. The dog snuggled in automatically, feeling like a part of me in a way I'd never expected I could have, given my circumstances. Ivory studied the contact curiously for a minute, and then her smile turned soft.
She was happy for me, but I knew she would transform back to the nosy thing she was. Ivory was incapable of not poking her face where it didn't belong. That was how she'd ended up back with Matteo after her incredible stupidity of seeking him out after a bank robber cowered in fear, invoking Matteo’s name at the sight of her and letting her go.
Ivory was not intimidating. She should have taken the survival for what it was, not poked the lion. If she had, I wouldn't have a niece though. And I wouldn't change Luna for anything. "Where's the Moon Monster?" I asked, making Ivory laugh.
"Change the subject much?" Calla asked, biting her lip as she stared at me. "You know, you asked me a question once. Now I’ll return the favor. Do your legs reach around him?"
"Surprisingly yes," I admitted, nodding my head. "It was touch and go for a little bit there, but I am nothing if not determined. I made it work."
Scar groaned, hanging his head. “I didn’t hear that. I am not getting involved in the coming shitstorm with Matteo and Enzo.”
Calla snorted as Samara gasped at her side, cradling baby Levi to her chest with one hand over his ear. At three months old, he still clung to his mother like a monkey. Laughter bubbled up her throat. "It's been two days!" Samara had an advantage judging me for it, since she'd held out the longest of any of us. Hell, she'd held out for over a decade before she and Lino pulled their heads out of their asses and got down and dirty.
But Ivory and Calla? Hell no.
"Bitch, you got tangled up in his sheets on the second date!" I yelled, tossing a pillow at Ivory.
"That is true," Calla murmured in agreement.
"You didn't even get a date!" Ivory laughed, eyeing both of us.
"Yes, but we—" I gestured between Calla and I. "We were forced to spend all our time with them. You had to survive a few hours without jumping his bones and you didn't even manage that." The sound of the doorbell rang, and Ivory laughed as Don emerged to answer it, with Luna toddling at his side. "Speaking of, how is the Meatball? Did he enjoy my present?”
“We don’t talk about what Ryker does at the warehouse, Sadie. You know I don’t want to know. Not after what I saw him do the one time I went there,” Calla returned. "But he installed a shower in the garage because he comes home drenched in blood more often than not," Calla said, her voice entirely deadpan.
"Sounds practical," I said, shrugging my shoulders. She might not have had much choice in the beginning, but she knew very well what her husband did for a living. I'd comforted her when she struggled with the fact that she'd stepped around severed heads, because the grief of that colliding with the woman she'd once been had come
