Giovanni tossed another look in the direction of Kei and processed her request. Compassion wasn’t something he dealt in, personally or business wise. No one ever had any compassion for him, including her since she fled and allowed another man to enter his daughter’s heart.
“Uccidalo,” he said, with a smile in his voice.
Mira stepped in front of Kei. Giovanni froze as did his men. Did she understand his order? How could she? She didn’t speak Italian. He had ordered Dominic to kill the man who stood between him and his Bella.
“Take it back! Take it back, Giovanni, right now. I won’t let you hurt him!”
Eve reappeared and went straight for Kei. The toddler pushed past Dominic’s legs to give her stepfather the toy. “Poppy!” she said.
Giovanni narrowed his eyes on the man as he lifted his daughter in his arms. She called him father? Mira allowed this? And he was to be compassionate? Dominic looked over to Giovanni not sure how to proceed. He could sense the same astonishment from Lorenzo. What she had done. Taking his child was one of the most unforgivable sins. In a blink he could have his way. Now he was too mentally wounded to act. His hesitance showed his men a sign of weakness Flavio had predicted. His father had waged a mafia war and sacrificed his honor and family for the love of a woman. Here he stood two years into doing exactly the same.
“Do you hear me? I said no.” Mira shoved him square in the chest. He barely moved but she had shoved him hard. He felt her conviction, and it furthered his pain. Had she shed one single tear for him? Missed him? Had she felt anything for him at all?
“No!” she shouted in his face. As if his silence was due to this fucker, and not her blatant lack of loyalty.
He grabbed her wrist and yanked her forward. His mouth curled into a snarl. “Nessun movimento!” He ordered his men not to move and pulled her toward the first room he could locate. He heard Kei call her name and knew his men wouldn’t let him get any further. Giovanni tossed Mira into the room and slammed the door. She whirled around angrily.
“Don’t you ever put your hands on me in anger again!” she hissed.
“What type of woman lets the man she claimed she loved think she is dead and steals his child from him? We have a name for you, your kind. Shall I say it?”
“Don’t you dare, if you do I won’t let you take it back!”
Giovanni paced before her, his chest tight with grief, but mostly jealousy. She was his and that gave him comfort over the years. Looking at her now he had to wonder if it was all a lie. All of it.
“You coward!” she said.
“Che cazzo dici?” Giovanni advanced on her. “Coward? Is that what you think I am?”
“Yes. Coward. It takes a coward to order a man’s death. That’s what you said out there. Kill him is what you said.”
Giovanni stood perfectly still. Mira glared at him while her bold words continued to filet his soul. “All you can think about is you! You said you would protect me. You said you were harmless. Loving you cost me my best friend. Loving you cost me my sanity! I didn’t have to steal anything from you. You walked away and left me alone to fend for myself!” she raised her voice. “That man out there kept me from suffering the same fate that Fabiana did and I won’t let you hurt him, because of your fucking ego!”
The accusation wounded him deeply. He would have cut out his heart to save her one minute's pain. When he opened his mouth to say so nothing escaped him.
Mira trembled before him on the verge of tears, and he could barely look at her. He didn’t want to hurt her, but part of him needed to discipline her. She was his woman, even if she didn’t think so. If she shed one tear for him, it would make up for the thousands of tears he’d shed in his dark lonely world without her.