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last update Last Updated: 2024-09-01 07:46:32

A few hours later, Riley moved toward the garden where Tiffany and Lucas were, according to Mrs. Caldwell. She could hear their laughter as soon as she opened the back door, and her mood lifted.

"Can I join you?" she chirped as she saw them playing catch.

Tiffany's eyes sparkled with delight while Lucas' grin spread wide beneath his freckles. "Sure!" they chimed in unison, welcoming her into their circle.

The air was alive with the sound of their laughter as Riley slipped seamlessly into their game. She scooped up the ball with surprising grace, muscles coiling and releasing with each throw, her athletic build finding its purpose in the simple joy of the moment.

"Wow! You are so good at this!" Tiffany exclaimed.

"I played softball in high school." Riley giggled. "I was very good at that."

As the ball exchanged hands, zipping from Riley to Tiffany, then rocketing towards Lucas.

River watched from the patio, and his eyes softened at the sight. But the warmth that flickered in his chest
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  • The Mafia Boss's Pregnant Bride   272. I Don’t Cry

    “You’re not gonna like this,” Nico said, dropping his pack on the table with a heavy thud.Landon looked up from the map spread out in front of him. “Tell me anyway.”Nico pulled a thumb drive from his vest and tossed it down. “Spotted a squad moving low through the southeast ridge. Eight guys. Tactical gear. No insignias. They didn’t look lost.”Max leaned forward from where he was cleaning a sidearm. “Mercs?”“Trained,” Nico said. “Quiet. Coordinated. The kind you don’t send in unless you’re planning to take something and walk away without a trace.”Daphne stood by the wall, arms crossed, back rigid. “Did they see you?”“No,” Nico said. “They weren’t looking for me. They were looking for us.”Daphne pushed off the wall and stepped closer. “He’s not here to kill us,” she said flatly. “Not yet.”Max looked over at her, eyes narrowing. “You sure about that?”Daphne nodded. “If he wanted a body count, we’d already be counting. He’s after control. He’s here to collect.”Landon met her ga

  • The Mafia Boss's Pregnant Bride   271. She Belonged to Me

    The jungle heat didn’t bother Marquez. Not the sweat that clung to his collar, nor the thick, buzzing insects that circled like vultures.He sat in a leather chair that had been dragged into the center of the old hacienda, a man with a kingdom built on bones and silence. Around him, his men stood still as statues. None dared speak unless he invited it.He liked it that way.The world had tried to put a leash on him once, called him too violent, too erratic, even by cartel standards. Fools. Weak men flinched from chaos. He had learned to shape it.The door creaked open.Dutch entered first, his scarred face split by a grin that always made people uneasy. He carried a laptop under one arm. He was his most trusted man. No, he was more than a man. He was his weapon. They all were.“I’ve got something,” Dutch said, setting it on the table.Marquez didn’t glance at the screen right away. He sipped his drink. Rum over one perfect square of ice and waited.Dutch knew better than to keep him w

  • The Mafia Boss's Pregnant Bride   270. Real Family

    Daphne stood at the edge of the Villa’s south wing balcony, staring out toward the jungle where the last traces of smoke curled into the sky. Her fingers gripped the railing tight, white-knuckled.Landon found her there. Silent. Motionless. The only sign she was still breathing was the rise and fall of her shoulders, too steady to be calm.“They burned the decoy site,” he said quietly.Daphne didn’t look at him. “Good.”“They left bodies. Ours. Mercs. Scorched beyond recognition.”Still, she said nothing.He stepped closer, voice quieter now. “They think you are dead.”Landon leaned against the railing beside her, close enough to feel the heat still radiating off her skin. “This isn’t the end. They’ll dig deeper.”“They can dig until they choke on ash,” she said.She turned her eyes back to the trees, but Landon didn’t look away from her.“You scared the hell out of me,” he said.Daphne let out a short, humorless laugh. “Which part? The ravine? The mercs? Or the fact I didn’t die like

  • The Mafia Boss's Pregnant Bride   269. Her Scent

    In the command room back at the Villa, Max studied the monitors. Three feeds from drone cams. Two scouts were posted in the underbrush along the trail. One thermal signature map that pulsed faintly like a heartbeat.“They took the bait,” Landon said, stepping behind him. “Four trucks, two on foot. No insignia, but they’re Marquez’s style. Military patterns. Not cartel flash.”“Tracker units,” Max muttered. “Which means recon first. Then kill.”“They’ll find nothing.”“Oh, they’ll find something,” Max said, glancing at the red dot Camille had marked on the trail’s midpoint. “We just control what.”Down by the shoreline, Nico adjusted the position of a disguised mine, sweeping leaves carefully back over the tripwire with a twig. “Birdsong still quiet,” he whispered into his mic. “Cam, you have eyes?”“Three shadows cresting the southern ridge,” Camille replied. “All armed. Mismatched gear. No formation discipline.”“Mercs?”“Or desperate,” she said. “One’s limping.”Nico grunted. “Slopp

  • The Mafia Boss's Pregnant Bride   268. Let Them Come

    The room was too quiet.Max stood over the table, staring at the map as if he could will it to give him answers faster.“He thinks someone already found her.”Landon and he had a map laid out on the table. It had pins…blue for sightings, red for confirmed hits, and now a single black pin pressed into the coastline just east of Tomas’s villa. The conversation Camille had pulled from Tomas wasn’t just valuable intel.It was a warning.The door creaked open behind him. He didn’t turn.“You are pacing,” Landon said, voice cool but clipped. “That’s bad.”Max didn’t glance up. “Camille confirmed it. Marquez is spiraling. He is trying to hunt Daphne down harder than ever.”Landon walked in slowly, arms crossed, tension clinging to him like a second skin. “You think he knows where she is?”“No. But he suspects someone does.” Max pressed the black pin into the map harder, the tip biting through the board. “He’s tightening the noose.”“Then we cut the rope.”Max nodded once. “He’s paying for pr

  • The Mafia Boss's Pregnant Bride   267. The Mission

    The dress was black silk. It was elegant, sexy.It clung just enough to blend in, not enough to stand out. The kind of thing a quiet mistress or a discreet secretary might wear at a party like this. She'd chosen it on purpose.Camille moved through the crowd like a shadow, her expression soft, her smile rehearsed, her heels clicking just loud enough to be noticed without being remembered.Tomas had invited her as his "companion" for the evening. The fourth this month, if the whispers were true. He liked to rotate them. New faces kept his reputation glossy and untraceable.But Camille wasn't here for champagne.She was here for information."Stay close," Tomas murmured against her ear, guiding her toward the table near the balcony. "This crowd bites.""Only if you taste sweet," she said, her accent smooth and foreign.He laughed, charmed. Predictable.Tomas liked beautiful things. Especially beautiful things that pretended not to see the rot under his fingernails.Camille sat beside hi

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