THE MAFIA BOSS'S BABY REACHED FOR A TERRIFIED WAITRESS—THEN THE MAN WHO FEARED NOTHING SAW THE NECKLACE HIS MISSING WIFE HAD BEEN WEARING
Chapter 01 - THE MAFIA BOSS'S BABY REACHED FOR A TERRIFIED WAITRESS—THEN THE MAN WHO FEARED NOTHING SAW THE NECKLACE HIS MISSING WIFE HAD BEEN WEARING
## chapter 01 - The Baby Who Reached for a Stranger
The feared man in the gray suit had two armed bodyguards behind him, blood on his knuckles, and an eleven-month-old baby crying so hard that every conversation in the private dining room had stopped.
Then the waitress stepped forward.
"Don't come any closer," one of the guards warned.
But the baby stretched both hands toward her.
And the man who could make a roomful of dangerous people obey him with a glance whispered, "That's impossible."
What nobody in the restaurant understood was that his son, Gabriel, had stopped reaching for anyone after his mother vanished eight months earlier. Nurses, relatives, and specialists had all tried. The child would tolerate being fed and changed, but he resisted strangers, startled at men's voices, and rarely slept more than two hours at a time.
Now he was leaning out of his father's arms toward a young waitress he'd never supposedly met.
Her name was Sophie Bell. She was twenty-six, behind on rent, and working two jobs. She had a faint crescent-shaped scar beneath her chin and a silver star on a chain at her throat. She hadn't come into that dining room expecting to meet anyone important. She only wanted to get through the last table of the night.
But when Gabriel caught the necklace with his tiny fingers, his father's expression changed.
Because Luca Romano had seen that star before.
On the neck of his wife, Elena, the night she disappeared.
And the waitress was about to tell him the one thing that would turn his fear into something far worse.
"Please," Sophie whispered, looking past the bodyguards. "Don't take him back to that house."
***
Sixteen minutes earlier, Sophie had been counting tips by the service station. The money came to eighty-three dollars, enough to make a partial payment on her mother's electric bill but not enough to cover the late fee on her apartment. Her supervisor, Brenda, tapped her shoulder and pointed toward the private room.
"Table seven. VIP. You're taking over."
"I'm supposed to clock out in twenty minutes."
"Then this had better be quick."
Brenda's expression told Sophie not to argue. Two black SUVs were parked outside; the restaurant owner had appeared in person; and security staff had asked employees to leave their phones in the lockers.
Inside the room, the little boy was screaming. His father knelt beside a white-clothed table, holding him close. Luca was thirty-seven, broad-shouldered, with neatly combed dark hair, tattoos rising above the collar of his black shirt, and a healing cut at his cheek. A gray suit jacket stretched over his shoulders. Everything about his posture suggested immense restraint.
"Sir, perhaps some warm milk?" Sophie asked.
One guard stepped into her path. "Back up."
Sophie stopped immediately. She was frightened, and she knew the man's reputation. Everyone working that evening had heard of Luca Romano and the shipping companies, clubs, and illegal favors associated with his name.
"I only wanted to help," she said.
The baby's cry faltered.
He looked at her.
Then he reached.
Luca stared at the little hand opening and closing in her direction. "Gabriel?"
Sophie stayed where she was. She didn't touch the child or move closer without permission.
"May I speak to him?" she asked.
Luca nodded, stunned.
"Hey, sweetheart," she murmured. "You're having a hard night, huh?"
Gabriel hiccupped, then reached farther. Sophie instinctively touched the silver star at her neck. It flashed in the chandelier light. Gabriel made a small sound—two syllables that could barely be called a word.
"Ma...ma."
Luca's face drained.
"Where did you get that necklace?" he demanded.
Sophie closed her fist around the pendant.
"It belonged to my sister."
"What's her name?"
She hesitated, and in that hesitation Luca saw something he recognized: not the calculation of a thief, but the terror of someone who knew an answer could put her life at risk.
"Elena," Sophie whispered.
Luca had spent eight months searching for his wife. Detectives had found her abandoned car, her blood on a jacket, and a witness who claimed she'd been taken by an enemy family. The police had never found her body. Luca's own advisers insisted she was dead.
Sophie stared at the distressed baby. "I didn't know this was her son," she said. "Not until I saw his eyes."
Luca rose slowly. His guards straightened.
"You're coming with us."
Sophie recoiled. "No. Please. My mother is waiting for me."
Gabriel began crying again as Luca stepped backward. The sound pierced Sophie more deeply than the threat.
"Then let me explain here," she pleaded. "But first, send those men away. Someone in your own household has been lying to you."
May you like
At the doorway, a phone began to ring. Luca's chief of security looked at the screen and went rigid.
"Boss," he said. "It's your brother. He says the baby's nanny just disappeared."
