I’m Yours, Baby(41)

After lunch, we decided to pick Sophia up from school and headed home. On the way, I received a call from Antonio, informing me there had been an incident and it needed my immediate attention. I cursed silently at the shitty timing and apologized to my girls as I dropped them at home. After giving each a kiss, Gianna’s earning me a giggle from Sophia, I winked at them and hopped back in the car to head to our warehouse in Washington Heights.

When I entered the building, there was shouting coming from the back offices. I jogged back to them and found Brandon, Antonio, and two of our other enforcers in a heated exchange. They all dropped silent the moment they saw me and a sense of foreboding surrounded me.

“What happened?” I asked Antonio calmly.

He scrubbed his hands up and down his face, before looking straight at me, and I suddenly noticed how tired his eyes were.

“One of our shipments was boosted from the warehouse in Queens.”

Fuck! It was where we stored our more...sensitive cargo. The items that weren’t exactly legal. “How much?”

“Everything from Saturday’s delivery,” Brandon answered darkly. There was clearly something else behind his anger, so I waited with a raised brow warning him to hurry the fuck up. “It was the O’Reillys,” he bit out. “Our driver caught sight of them emptying the truck and hid until they were gone. He called for backup, but we got there too late.”

I scratched my chin, then ran my fingers down my beard, as I stood there, thinking. Something didn’t feel right. “That shipment was abnormally large, how was it you guys didn’t reach them in time?”

Brandon nodded, agreeing with my train of thought. “He obviously didn’t put a call into us right away. And—” he broke off and glanced away, his face darkening with a ferocious scowl.

“And,” I prompted.

“Carly knew about the shipment.”

I was sure most people’s instinct would have been to immediately accept her as the guilty party, but I found it hard to believe she would lift a finger to help her family in any way after what she’d shared with me about her childhood. “It wasn’t Carly,” I stated, my tone of voice deadly. I was not to be questioned and they knew it. I pointed at the other two men in the room. “You two, get your ears to the ground and find out where the fuck our cargo is.” I stared at them with laser focus, my voice now full of warning. “Get it back and make sure they know what happens to people who try to fuck with us.”

They murmured their agreement and exited the room, leaving the three of us. I faced Brandon, my expression conveying the seriousness of what I was about to say. “You need to accept it when I tell you it wasn’t Carly, and if you can’t, keep it to yourself and do what I tell you. Capisci?”

“Yeah,” he muttered and stalked to the door, but stopping before he was in the hall and turning back. “Why didn’t you warn me what a pain in the ass she is, stronzo?” Then he spun around and was gone.

I might have laughed if our situation weren’t so dire. I knew what was coming and it was time to stop putting it off.

“We look weak, Nic. I’m not meant for this and they know it.”

I sighed and faced my uncle. “I know. I’m sorry I’ve put you in this position. You’re right, it’s time I stepped into my place as the head of this family.”

Antonio’s eyes shone with pride, and it made me feel like a son of a bitch for wishing he would continue to lead in my place for just a little while longer. Now that I’d met Gianna, it would be even more of a struggle to hide the nature of my business, who and what I really am, from her until she was tied to me forever.

“Your father would be proud of you, Nic. The man you’ve become, the wonderful father, and”—he winked at me—“the husband you are surely about to be.” He walked over and clapped me on the back as he strolled to the door. “I’ll call a meeting for tomorrow night. We don’t have any runs scheduled and most everyone will be able to attend.”

I went home with the weight of the world on my shoulders and yet, I realized a part of me was ready. It was time to do my duty and lead.

Over the next few days, I was incredibly busy with the transition. I found time to spend with Sophia and Gianna, but it wasn’t as much as I would have liked. I had hoped to have convinced Gianna to move into my room by then, but all I’d been able to accomplish were stolen moments with hot kisses and some heavy petting. I’d made her come a couple of times, but it wasn’t enough. The stress of my work had me needing her more than ever. I longed to sink inside her heat and lose myself to her entirely.