Ruthless Mafia Daddy (Alpha Mafia Daddies)
Ruthless Mafia Daddy: Chapter 22

“What the fuck do you mean, Rosa is missing?” I stalk outside the office to my car.

Marco sounds desperate. “She hasn’t come home from school.”

“Where the hell is Xander?” I reach into my pocket for the keys to my Mercedes. “He’s meant to be with her.”

“He dropped her off at school, and then I sent him on a few errands regarding Sergio.”

I tighten my grip on my phone, fighting the urge to launch it across the street.

“Why the fuck would you do that?”

“She had gone inside the fucking building, Andre. There’s no way in hell Lorenzo would storm in there and take her. She was safe.”

“Clearly, she fucking wasn’t!”

I ignore the concerned looks of bystanders as I unlock my car and climb into the driver’s seat, pressing the ignition and letting the engine roar to life. “He is meant to be watching her at all times. Find someone else to do your dirty work. We have plenty of lackeys desperate to kiss your ass if it means getting in our good books.”

“I trusted Xander the most with this⁠—”

“Enough, Marco. If something has happened to Rosa, it’s on you, not Xander.” I let out a long breath. “So, what do we know?”

“Xander called when she didn’t show up at six, wondering if volleyball practice ran over, but the coach said she never showed. Apparently, you called up this morning and said she would be missing practice today.”

“I did what?” My fists clench around the wheel as I pull away from the curb.

“That’s what I thought…”

The screen on my dashboard flashes with an incoming call from Xander.

“Stay on the line, Marco.”

I push the button to answer the call, narrowly dodging a yellow cab. “Yes?”

“I’ve tracked Rosa’s phone to the Westchester mall, sir. I’m on my way ther⁠—”

“No, I’ll deal with this. Meet us back at the house.”

“Yes, sir.” Xander hangs up.

I click back through to Marco and grind my teeth as I realize what my sister has done.

“She’s at the fucking mall.”

“Of course, she is.” Marco chuckles.

“There is nothing remotely funny about this Marco.” I slam my hands down on the steering wheel.

“This was always going to happen, Andre. She’s fifteen, for Christ’s sake, she wants to go out.”

“For once, can you not play devil’s advocate here, Marco. Especially not when our fucking sister’s life is on the line!”

My brother lets out a sigh.

“Fine. Do you want me to go collect her?”

“No, I’m already on route. I’ll meet you back at the house.” I disconnect the call.

My hands are shaking the entire drive out of the city toward the Westchester Mall.

I send Rosa a text telling her to meet me outside in thirty minutes. The message comes back as read, but she doesn’t bother to reply.

Fine. If she wants to be like that, so be it.

I load up the tracking app on my dashboard so I can make sure she doesn’t wander off anywhere else. I try to ignore the feeling of dread that Lorenzo might have planted her phone at the mall to distract us.

“She’s safe,” I repeat to myself the entire drive out of the city.

The mall is packed with students looking to blow off some steam after classes.

I drive across the entire parking lot and park outside the entrance, scanning the sea of navy and white uniforms for Rosa. I spot her almost instantly, sitting on a bench with her friends, slushy in one hand and an armful of bags in the other.

When she spots the car, she rolls her eyes and gets to her feet, waving goodbye to her friends.

I grind my teeth together, my eyes never leaving her as she takes her time walking over to the car. I lean over and open the passenger door and she slides in, tossing her purchases onto the back seat.

“Shut the door.” My voice shakes with rage.

She sighs, slamming the door shut and leaning back in the plush leather seat, taking a long slurp of her slushy.

I wait to speak until we’re back onto the highway, heading out of the main city.

“Would you like me to remind you of the conditions of our deal?” I keep my eyes forward on the road.

“I went to the mall. Jeez, Andre⁠—”

“You did not just go to the mall,” I snap. “I gave you clear rules and boundaries to keep you safe, Rosa, and you broke those rules.”

“It was Haley’s birthday, we wanted to get food⁠—”

“I don’t give a shit why you did it.” My jaw hurts from clenching it so hard, but I do my best to keep a lid on my anger.

I don’t want to scare my sister into obeying me. I’m not my father. But she needs to understand the severity of her actions.

“It won’t happen again,” she mutters, sipping her slushy.

“You’re damn right it won’t because I’m pulling you out of school.”

“WHAT?” Rosa turns in her seat.

Her glare on me almost physically burns, but I keep my eyes forward. “There’s literally only two weeks left! Come on, Andre, I have varsity games and homecoming⁠—”

“Not anymore. And don’t even think about summer camp.”

“Are you trying to ruin my life? I didn’t skip school to do drugs or get wasted. I went to the mall. Scratch that, I didn’t even skip my classes, I skipped one volleyball practice!”

“I don’t care what you skipped or where you went. You broke the rules, and I warned you this would be the consequence.”

“Fuck you,” Rosa spits. “You’re an asshole. You can’t treat me like a child, I’m fifteen.”

“You want me to treat you like an adult?” I yell at her. “Try fucking acting like one.”

“You should trust me,” she yells, her voice thick with tears.

“And you should trust me! Yet, you purposefully disobey.” I blow out a breath.

“Look. I do trust you, Rosa.” I run a hand through my hair. “It’s everyone else I don’t trust.”

Rosa is quiet for the rest of the drive back to the house. I’m glad because I’m too caught up in my own thoughts to have the energy to argue with her. All I can think about is what Lorenzo could have done if he got his hands on her…

“Go to your room,” I order her as I park the car in the garage.

She doesn’t even bother getting her bags from the backseat, choosing to storm past the row of supercars and disappearing through the door that leads to the kitchen.

I sit in silence for a moment, letting my body calm down. It was already on edge after fucking Lila in the breakroom, and now this…

“Fuck.” I lean back, closing my eyes for a moment.

Every muscle in my body is tense, and I instantly think of Lila. How in this moment I want nothing more than to have her straddling my lap, bouncing up and down on my cock. The feeling of spilling inside her would definitely take the edge off.

I curse myself.

How can I give Rosa a hard time for breaking the rules when I did the same today? I knew Lila was trying to taunt me, to get me to break. And it fucking worked.

That dress. My cock had been rock solid all day, and I snapped.

My fingers itch to touch her again, to drive straight to her apartment in the city and storm through the door and pin her against the wall, the door, the bed.

“I’m losing my goddamn mind.”

I force myself to get out of the car before I make another stupid decision.

The kitchen is empty, with no sign of Marco either. He’s likely in his own study on the other side of the house.

I have no interest in talking to him either, so I head up the stairs toward my office.

It grates on my nerves when Marco doesn’t side with me when it comes to matters regarding our sister. I hate always being the bad guy, but he’s young and still has a lot to learn.

I never signed up to play the guardian role, it’s not something I was interested in. Even with Valentina, I was hesitant to bring children into our world, knowing that they’d likely have a target on their head from the moment they took their first breath.

How could I do that to an innocent child? It would make me just as much a monster.

The moment I close the door to my office, I pour myself a scotch and take a seat behind my desk, switching on my computer and opening up my security app.

I quickly check all the cameras in the house, noting Rosa pacing around her room on the phone.

She looks pissed, but I’d rather have her mad at me and alive, than dead.

Marco’s in the main living room, also with a scotch in hand as he works from his laptop.

I move on to the penthouse apartment in the city, and to the cameras at Mason’s International. Everything is as it should be.

I’m about to switch over to my emails when I notice a new folder named Lila in the app.