Man of the House: A Dark Bad Boy Romance(58)

I wasn’t f*cking around. I wasn’t the type of man to take these things halfway. It was all or nothing, like everything in my life.

I parked my car and climbed out, tossing the key to the valet. He nodded to me and climbed in as I walked into the main foyer of the house.

The Barone mansion was f*cking ridiculous. It was the epitome of wealth, with gilding and expensive paintings and million dollar chandeliers everywhere. Since the mansion was meant to be the center of the Barone power structure, it had to exude all the wealth the family had. It was like a centerpiece, meant to show exactly how the family meant business.

As I moved through the foyer, a familiar face appeared by my side.

“Morning, boss,” Rafa said.

“Morning,” I grunted. “Food?”

“In the office.”

Rafa was the second in command of my crew and, ever since Lucas went all f*cking weak on me, my closest confidant. I had brought him up through the ranks back when I was promoted, and I trusted him with my life.

We moved down a few hallways, finally entering into a side room. It was my office, very literally my office. There was a desk in the back, a small table against one wall, a computer, filing cabinets, and a little desk for Rafa. There was coffee and bagels on the table.

I grabbed some coffee. It was weird for a mobster to have an office, but the mob wasn’t what it used to be. Sure, we still went around breaking knees and being violent f*ckers, but it was also a business these days. We had accounts, we had investments, and I needed a place to manage all that shit, somewhere that wasn’t my piece-of-shit apartment. I could get business done in the Barone mansion, and since they had way more room than they knew what to do with, it had been easy to carve out a little spot.

Rafa sat at his desk. “You hear from Bao?”

“Not today,” I grunted.

Bao was our contact with the Chinese and the guy I was dealing with for the most part. He was a shady man but had come through for me in the past, and so I trusted him.

“Shame. I heard some boys saying they didn’t think the deal was going down.”

I raised my eyebrow at that. “Do you think that’s true?”

“Nah, boss. Of course not. But people are talking, is all.”

“It’s happening,” I said. “And when it does, our crew will be the best-armed in the whole f*cking mob.”

“Damn right.”

I sat back in my desk, kicking my feet up on the top. I took a sip of the coffee and sighed to myself.

This f*cking deal was a huge pain. Bao was supposed to sell me a bunch of old army surplus weapons and equipment, shit like rifles and body armor, but it was hard getting it into the country. We’d hit a few problems recently, and I could tell my people were starting to get concerned. We had a lot of money tied up in this, and we needed the goods.

Especially if we were going to keep expanding our territory. We’d been chipping away at the gangs around us in the past few months, but with some serious firepower, we could take it all in one fell swoop.

My mind was a stressful mess of plans and contingencies when suddenly the phone rang. I grabbed it on the third ring. “What?” I said.

“Sir,” the man said, “this is Alan at the front gate. Someone is here asking for you.”

I paused, frowning. Rafa looked up at me. “Who is it?” I asked.

“She said her name is Kaley Kozlov. She said you know her, sir.”

Kozlov? That was a Russian name. One of the more prominent bosses in the Russian mob was named Kozlov, though I’d never had dealings with him before.

“Are you sure she’s asking for me?”

“She asked for you by name, sir. What should I do?”

I paused, frowning. “I’ll be there in a second.” I hung up the phone and stood.

“What’s up?” Rafa asked.

“Follow me.”

I walked out of the office, Rafa in tow, and headed outside. We snagged a golf cart and hopped into it, riding it back down the driveway toward the front gate.

A bunch of armed men were standing around. I couldn’t see her at first since they had her surrounded, but they parted as soon as I pulled up.

I got out of the cart and stared at her.

I recognized her instantly. It was the nameless girl from months ago, the girl I never thought I’d see again. She looked exactly the same, beautiful and sensual, and the memory of that night came flooding back, making my cock hard.

Alan came up to me. “Do you know her, sir?”

“Yes,” I said. “What’s she doing here?”

He looked uncomfortable. “Sir, she has a baby with her.”

I looked closer, and sure enough, she was holding something in her arms. She stared back at me defiantly, anger and fear in her eyes.

She was holding a baby. I stared at her as shock began to rise up through my body. She was holding a baby, just about thirteen months after our night together. That kid couldn’t have been more than four months old at most.

I took a step toward her, feeling dizzy.





3





Kaley





My heart was pounding as I walked up to the gate of the Barone family’s enormous mansion.

Earlier, I had pretended like I was getting a ride from Soph to work. I’d bundled up Alex and snuck out the back, making sure my mother and father didn’t hear me. I hated living with them, but when I’d had Alex, I knew I had to take a break from school and get some help in those early months.