He wanted the bastard found.
Getting out of the elevator on the ninth floor, he gave his waiting bodyguards instructions. Pedro promised he'd take extra care, but Diogo was still tense as he pushed open the door into the penthouse.
Two pairs of feminine eyes looked up at him happily from the kitchen. Catia wore a fancy pink dress and a tiara. Next to her, Ellie was heavily pregnant, gorgeous and radiant wearing a simple black knit maternity top and straight-legged pants.
“Papa, you're home just in time!” Catia chortled. “I made dinner all by myself!”
He raised an eyebrow, glancing from his pretty, glowing wife to his daughter. Ellie was due to have the babies any day, while Catia had really blossomed from the five months in her care. Her young face sparkled beneath her tiara.
“Dinner smells delicious,” he told her. “I've never had a princess cook my dinner before!”
“Oh, Papa. The dress isn't for cooking your dinner,” the little girl giggled. “I'm a princess for Beatriz's party!”
Diogo dimly recalled that a Brazilian general's daughter was having a slumber party for several friends from their private school. Halloween was increasingly celebrated in Rio—Cariocas always on the lookout for another excuse for a party.
“Do you like my tiara?” Catia reached up on her head to touch it. “Mom and I glued on the rhinestones ourselves!”
“It was fun,” Ellie said, hugging the little girl and tousling her hair affectionately. She glanced up at Diogo with a sudden laugh. “Oh, I just spoke with my grandmother…”
“Yes?” he said innocently.
“She got the birthday present you sent, and she's the envy of all her friends. You really don't fool around when you give presents, do you?”
“The grandmother who raised you deserves the best.”
Ellie's blue eyes glowed. “I can't imagine what possessed you to send a seventy-year-old woman a yellow Ferrari, but she's been joyriding all over Pennsylvania.”
“I saw that orange lipstick, and knew it would take a lot to impress her.”
“Gran says she's never had so much fun in her life. She really wants us to move back.” She paused. “She sent me a link to all these great schools in New York…”
Not this old argument again. Irritated, he shook his head. “There are good schools here.”
“I know. I know. But New York…” Her voice trailed away wistfully.
“Mom!” Catia wailed. “It's burning!”
Ellie helped her stir the sauce, then handed Diogo the spoon. He tasted it with gusto. “Estava delicioso! Meus cumprimentos ao chefe.”
“My compliments to the chef,” Ellie translated easily.
“Your Portuguese is improving!”
“Obrigada,” she said with a grin. “I've had a good teacher.” Ellie's eyes met his over the stove impishly. “By the way, I let Luisa have the night off,” she said with studied innocence. “While Catia's at her slumber party, I'm afraid we'll be all alone…”
“We will, eh?” The sexy, mischievous look in her eyes sent a thrill through his body. Even at nearly nine months pregnant, she was the sexiest woman in the world to him. They made love every night. And with Catia at her friend's house, the whole evening stretched before them, hours and hours to laugh and play in the most adult way possible…
I'm going to take her from you.
His jaw clenched. He looked over the penthouse with critical eyes. Ellie had made many changes over the last few months. The white walls, hard furniture, and steel-and-glass artwork were all gone. The walls were now a creamy yellow. The tables were glossy wood with bowls of flowers, and the sofas were plush and comfortable. Pictures of their family, of Catia in front of the Statue of Liberty on a recent trip to New York, of the three of them laughing together at the beach house last month, now lined the walls.
It felt like his home in a way it never had before. He loved it anew. Not because of the large windows and gorgeous view, but because of Catia…and Ellie.
But the windows are too large, he thought now with a scowl. Even with the bodyguards outside and on the floor below, the building had the public access of a hotel. Security might be breached. It was too vulnerable by half.
He had to find Wright. Now.
“I'll be back,” he told Ellie abruptly.
“What's wrong?” she said, looking at him with piercing eyes.
Maldição, he had a hard time lying to her. But he wanted her greatest concern to be shopping for baby clothes and playing with Catia. Not worrying about some crazed man from their past who wished them harm.
It wasn't that he thought Ellie was too weak to deal with it. On the contrary. He'd realized her strength when he saw her coming down those stairs in Leblon holding Catia's hand. She'd achieved the impossible that day—done something that Diogo could not do no matter how hard he'd tried.