Midnight Unbound(7)

She started to reach for the door and was shocked to feel his fingers clamp down around her wrist. Shocked, not because she found his touch offensive, but because of the jolt of heat—of pure, sensual awareness—that brief connection sent through her body.

“Ten minutes, Chiara.” His black eyes crackled with sparks of amber as he glowered down at her. “It’s important that your assailant doesn’t suspect you’ve been shaken enough to go for help. We need to be back at the vineyard as soon as possible.”

She swallowed and took a step away from him, away from the heat his big body was generating.

Before she could open the door, Pietro was racing toward it on his own, having spotted her through the window.

“Mama!” he cried as she stepped inside with him, his chubby cheeks stretching into a dimpled smile. He held out his picture book, practically shoving it into her hands. “Read to me, Mama?”

She swallowed hard to dislodge the knot in her throat and forced a grin in return. “Okay, but only a few pages, sweetheart. Maybe we can get Aunt Bella to read to you when I’m done. Would you like that?”

He nodded enthusiastically before plopping down on the floor and tugging her beside him. Even at three years old, he had the strength of a child more than twice his age. But his face was pure innocence as he stared up at her and urged her to begin reading.

She settled him onto her lap and began reciting the words on the page.

She sensed Scythe there long before his shadow eclipsed her, but she resisted the urge to wheel around and order him out of the room. Pietro was so sensitive and sharp. All of them needed to show a united front or he would sense something was amiss. The last thing she wanted was for him to be fearful.

“You remember Scythe, don't you?”

“Uh-huh,” Pietro said, turning his cherubic face toward the Breed male. A smile lit her son’s face as he stared up at the forbidding Hunter who was a nightmare in black from his long ebony hair and the trimmed, dark beard that clung to his squared jaw and gave him a sinister edge, to the leather duster and heavy combat boots on his monstrous feet. “Hi, Scythe!”

He nodded at the boy, but his gaze was filled with warning as he glanced at Chiara.

“What’re you doing here, Scythe?” Pietro asked innocently.

Chiara cleared her throat. Before her grim companion offered an answer that might terrify her son, she hurried to explain what was happening. “Mama has to go back to the vineyard tonight, so Scythe is going to take me there.”

“You’re going home?” Pietro’s face scrunched in confusion.

“Just for a few days, sweetheart.”

“Me too?”

“No, baby. Just Mama.” She smoothed her hand over his silken dark hair that was the same chocolate shade as her own. “I need you to stay here and keep Aunt Bella company for me. Can you do that?”

He nodded. “I like Aunt Bella. She gave me this book, and Uncle Ettore said he was gonna let me play that game with the cars that go really fast and crash into things.”

Chiara’s brows arched. “Did he now?”

At that same moment, Bella and Ettore both entered the room. Bella’s mate had the good grace to offer a sheepish shrug as Pietro launched himself out of Chiara’s arms and ran to embrace the Breed warrior.

Ettore ruffled the boy’s hair. “Easy there, champ. You’re gonna get me in trouble with your mom. That game was going to be our little secret, remember?”

Pietro's eyes narrowed and he shut his mouth, locking it tight with an invisible key.

Chiara rolled her eyes. “Nice,” she murmured, but the fact was, she couldn’t be too angry.

Pietro was enjoying his visit here tonight, and there was no question that he was in good hands. In fact, visits from Bella and Ettore were one of the few spots of normal in her son's life, and she wasn't about to begrudge any of them that. She certainly didn’t have to worry about Pietro feeling abandoned. If anything, he was excited.

“We should go.”

Scythe’s grave murmur sliced through the lightness of the moment. And now seemed as good a time as any for her to muster the strength to hug her son and say goodbye.

Through sheer force of will, she managed to hold back her tears as she held him close and whispered that she loved him, that she would be back to collect him before he had time to miss her.

She hoped her promise wasn’t an empty one.

The only thing standing between her vow to return to her son and the unknown that waited for her back at the vineyard was the hulking wall of menace who loomed in silence now at the door.

Chiara released Pietro and allowed herself to be folded into the warm embrace of Bella’s arms.