The Rocchetti Queen - Bree Porter Page 0,27

be heading toward the same fate as Danta. Though, Toto had warned me the night of the SWAT raid...but there could’ve been a thousand reasons why he did that, and it did not negate him from being able to murder his wife.

“Hopefully, wherever she is now, Danta is happy.”

Nina nodded, eyes briefly misty. They had been so close, and I knew how it felt to lose someone close to you, someone you considered your best friend. I squeezed Nina’s hand in comfort.

“Have you tried the cookies?” I asked her. “They’re delicious.”

Across the room, I could see Alessandro showing Dante off. He held our son in the crook of his arm, face scrunched up as the men poked at his toes and belly.

Nina gestured to them. “Everyone is very happy you had a son.”

“I had little choice in the matter.”

I caught the gleam in her eyes. “As a woman, a son is a very handy thing to have,” she told me. “Especially when the leadership is currently in such disarray. Having a son, an heir, is nothing but an advantage.”

The hidden subtext beneath her words was easy to decipher. I smiled and held out my glass, “To more sons.”

She clinked her glass with my own, “To more sons.”

“Can Alessandro and I expect your family’s support when the time comes?”

“My family was never going to be an issue,” Nina told me. She pointed to the di Traglia family. “But that one might.”

I could only agree.

The reception went off without a hitch. There were no bombs, so massacres. Only our family and the other Outfit members all celebrating my son’s baptism. I didn’t realize how much I had expected something to go horribly wrong until the last person left, and I took a deep relieved breath.

Alessandro found me in the kitchen, helping the staff clean up the plates. When he entered, everyone else suddenly found somewhere else to be.

“You scared them off,” I laughed, as he wrapped his arms around my waist, burying his head into my neck.

“They probably think I’m going to have my way with you.”

I turned my head into his. “A couple of weeks.”

“Trust me, baby, I know.” He pressed his lips into the crook of my neck, sending shivers down my spine. “Everyone is gone.”

“I know. Thank goodness. Do you think Dante had fun?”

“The only thing Dante cares about is pooping and your boob,” Alessandro said.

I jabbed him mockingly with my elbow, and he leaned out of the way, laughing. “Do you think everyone had a good time?”

“I do. My father ate like ten of those cookies.”

“I didn’t get to speak to him and Aisling,” I said. “I’ll go see Aisling tomorrow with Dante. Speaking of Dante, where is he?”

My husband smiled against my shoulder. “Your son is with Dita.”

“Oh, he’s my son now. What has he done?”

“You’ll be able to smell it.”

Not even a moment later, Dita came into the kitchen, holding Dante out. My son looked pleased with himself, which became clear when I saw his back. All up his backside was green poo. The smell swarmed the room, strong enough to make our eyes water.

“Your son is a stinkbug,” Dita told me sharply.

“He gets it from his father.” I cut my eyes to Alessandro. “I got up three times last night to feed him. It’s your turn.”

My husband laughed but did as he was told.

I found Aisling’s address by accident. She had never told me, but I had seen it on a letter once when I was going through her handbag for a Chapstick. I didn’t realize she hadn’t given me her address until I was standing outside a rundown apartment complex, with cracked windows and stained ceilings.

“Is this the place, ma’am?” Oscuro asked, just as confused as me.

I nodded. “Apartment 22.”

Hopefully, Aisling answered and not someone else.

I pushed the pram ahead, passing a cat with no eyes and a man smoking by the elevator. The elevator smelled like piss and creaked as it took us up the second floor.

The second floor was no better, with dusty carpets and flickering lights. Oscuro looked like he was going to scoop Dante and I up and fling us out the window. When my foot stepped into something wet, I almost allowed him to do so.

We reached Aisling’s apartment, the door freshly painted a bright red, causing it to stand out in the hallway.

I knocked.

Oscuro shifted on his feet, glancing around, like one of the cockroaches was a threat to my life.

The door swung open and a little voice