Man of the House: A Dark Bad Boy Romance(80)

I looked down at Alexei, and he laughed up at me again.

“Are you my baby?” I said softly.

And then my phone started buzzing.I walked quickly over to Kaley and handed him off, opening the phone.

“Yeah?” I asked.

“It’s me,” Rafa said. “I think I got a lead on some cash.”

“That was fast. How much?”

“About half of what we need. The Latinos are looking for some smack, and we happen to have a surplus.”

I nodded. “Set it up.”

“Will do.”

I hung the phone up. Kaley smiled at me.

“Work?” she asked.

“Work.” I looked at her for a second. “Call Sonya and give her the brat. Let’s go back to that jungle room and finish what we started.”

Kaley laughed. “No, thanks.”

“You sure? I’ve been thinking about slipping my thick cock deep inside you all f*cking day.”

She blushed. “I’m sure.”

“Your loss.” I gave her another long look, her holding that damn brat. That warm, squirming little brat.

I walked to her door, opened it, and quickly left.





15





Kaley





I shouldn’t have been so surprised that Vince was able to calm Alexei down like that, but I was anyway. Vince was Alexei’s father, so it made sense that they would have some special connection like that. But it was still such an interesting surprise to see this tattooed badass mobster holding and talking to a little baby.

Then he had to go and ruin it with his dirty talk, of course. Not that I particularly minded it, but I was trying to keep my distance from him. It made it hard to stay away when he kept talking about doing to me exactly what I wanted him to do.

I wanted him to touch me, to run his coarse fingers down my soft skin. I wanted him to slip himself between my legs, press his cock deep inside me, make me beg for it, make me say his name. I wanted him to want me, to take me, to make me feel amazing again.

But our families were at war, and besides, I had Alexei to think about.

There was a knock at my door. “Come in,” I said, assuming it was Vince, back to tease me some more.

But it was Sonya. “Hi, Kaley,” she said. “And hello, little Alexei.”

“Hi, Sonya. I don’t need you today. I’m going to watch him.”

She smiled at me. “Actually, I was sent here by someone.”

I raised an eyebrow. “If it was Vince, forget it.”

“It wasn’t Vince.”

I cocked my head. “Can you tell me?”

“Actually, I’m not supposed to.” She was smiling hugely.

I sighed. “Are there always this many secrets in this place?” I asked her.

“Of course there are, sweetheart.” She walked over, and I handed Alexei over to her. “But you’re from a mob family, so you should be used to it.”

I laughed, shrugging. “You’d think.”

“Go ahead on outside. You can’t miss her.”

“Her?”

Sonya smiled. “Whoops. Just go before I say anything else.”

I smiled and then turned and left the room, walking out into the hallway.

Just ahead, I spotted her. Louisa Barone, the beautiful, strange daughter of Arturo. I walked over to her. “You got me in trouble,” I said.

“I know.” She shrugged. “You’re fine.”

“I guess so.” I stopped in front of her. She was wearing tapered sweatpants and a loose white T-shirt, and her hair was piled up on her head in a messy knot. She looked absolutely ravishing, and I felt a little jealous.

“Why’d you call me out here, Louisa?” I asked her. “Want to drag me somewhere I shouldn’t be again?”

“No,” she said. “Someone wants to meet you. I was told I have to make introductions.”

She didn’t seem happy about it.

“Who?”

“Come on.” She turned and started walking. I hurried to catch up.

“Where are we going?”

She didn’t respond or look at me.

Louisa was an odd bird. I didn’t know what to make of her. One second she was kind and outgoing, and the next she seemed totally withdrawn and uninterested in me. She was clearly just doing what someone had asked her to do, and I wondered who had the power to order around Louisa Barone.

There were rumors about Louisa, things I had overheard the men whispering about. Apparently she was a mad woman, totally crazy, and Arturo kept her locked up in her room. That was clearly not true, though she was a little weird. She also supposedly was hideously deformed.

I was beginning to learn not to trust most of what I heard second-hand.

Of everyone in the Barone family, Louisa was the most enigmatic. Lucas worked for the family, and so he was out in the world all the time. But there were rare sightings of Louisa outside of the compound, and none that I’d heard of in the last few years. I liked her, but I was wary of her.

We quickly moved down the hallway and finally stopped outside a door. She knocked once and waited.

The door slowly opened. A very pretty woman was standing there, maybe around my age or a bit older. She had long hair, sparkling eyes, and an easy smile that instantly made me feel at ease.