“How long did it take somebody to snatch Carina at the ballet, Lia? In a brightly lit room, with Pagano guards all over the place. How long from when she was standing beside you until she’d disappeared?”
Fifteen seconds was the answer. But Lia didn’t speak.
She did, however, put her hand in his. He closed his fingers around it.
“Carina wasn’t lost that night because she was surrounded by her family. But you are not, not at Brown. What if there had been someone else there while you stood alone at that party for all those minutes? I will always do everything I can to keep you safe, gattina. Always, always. But right now, the dangers come from too many directions. When I can feel that you’ll be safe in those three to five minutes alone at a party, then you can go back to school. But I want you here now.”
He added a word because he knew it would be persuasive in this situation, not because he meant to give her a choice: “Please.”
Lia sucked in a shaking breath. Her hand in his trembled with it. “Okay, Papa. I’ll stay.”
Her voice was full of tears. Nick opened his arms, and she crawled into his embrace and cried against his chest.
He held his sweet girl and comforted her. His heart ached for her pain and disappointment.
But he was not sorry.
~oOo~
Nick had wanted to keep work completely away from his home, but he hadn’t quite been able to make that happen. To every possible extent, he tried to keep it out of his time with his family, at least. So he spent a few hours in his office at the end of most days, after the kids were in bed, getting last updates and giving final instructions for the work that got done in the dark.
In his younger days, he would have been on the front lines of that work. But those days were behind him; he let others carry his flag now.
Donnie was his vanguard. It had been Donnie and Angie for years, side by side, but for the past several months, since Angie had moved over to the Sacco Family, Donnie had been on his own.
He really needed to get Tony up to speed and ready to fully replace Angie. But the idea of replacing Angie was like a toothache, a pain deep and throbbing, flaring to bright heat when poked.
Angie’s betrayal was one of the most painful things in his life—all the more painful because he understood it, because it was a betrayal without malice, without even a loss of love or loyalty. Angie had simply fallen in love, with the exactly right person for him, and the exactly wrong person for Nick. A situation impossible to resolve without loss.
Nick had wanted to kill him at first. Had it not been for Donnie, he likely would have.
They’d found their way out of that strangling thicket, but now Angie was not his. His friend, but not his confidant. Not his strong arm, seated at his left.
And that hole ached. Tony Cioccolanti, loyal, sharp, and strong as he was, would never, could never fill it. He could take the office but not the place. Nick would never trust him the way he’d trusted Angie.
Those thoughts would keep him up all night if he let them, so he shunted them aside. His calls completed, updates heard and instructions given, Nick turned out the lights, made sure the security system was properly set, messaged the guards outside that he was turning in, and went upstairs.
The house was quiet. Lia’s door was closed, and no light shone beneath it. Nick peeked in and saw her asleep, spooning the dog. Imagining how she’d gotten Snuggles up there, he smiled.
All of his children were beautiful, but Lia stood out to him. She favored Beverly, for one thing—the only of the four with her fair coloring and auburn hair. Off and on from the time she started high school, Lia had colored it, always a shade of red, but ranging from brassy to burgundy. Right now, it was as close to her natural shade as he’d seen it in a while, just a bit lighter.
But the thing that had always laid Nick out, from the day of her birth, was the way her resting features seemed so sad. Her eyes tipped downward at the outside points, just very subtly, and she had this pretty mouth like a pout above a pointed chin.