All Chapters of Mistaken Bride Of The Mafia CEO: Chapter 61 - Chapter 70

KADE'S POVI was looking out the window of my office, and there was Raven and Marcus having lunch in the garden outside. It was two weeks since we first learned she had an uncle. Of two weeks spent watching her slowly unfurl to the family she had thought she lost.Marcus visited daily now. Brought photos and stories. Bits of Arthur’s life Raven had never known. I witnessed the miraculous healing as it was taking place. I saw her laughing more. Saw the shadows in her eyes brighten."They look happy." Oh, that guy is fucking hot,” Javier said, coming to flank me."They are." I agreed. "She needed this. Someone who knew her father. Somebody who can tell her she’s like him.”“You turning back the pages on Marcus was pretty much a clean sweep.” Javier said. "FBI confirmed his story. He really did go undercover on Xaviero.”"I know." I’d spent days checking out every name that Marcus had given us. Pulled strings with contacts in the federal government. Dug through classified files. Everythi

CHAPTER 64KADE'S POVWhen I saw Raven go down, something within me died. Not figuratively. Literally. It was then that something inside me, the part of me that still believed in hope and second chances, broke as she fell.Her white dress. Her beautiful white wedding dress. Red with blood."Raven!" Her name tore from my throat.Everything else happened on instinct. I spun, I saw the server with the gun and I ran. I didn't think so. Didn't hesitate. Just killed.I had my gun out and fired three shots before he could fire even one. Each bullet found its mark. Chest. Chest. Head. The server fell like a stone, dead before he hit the grass.I was on the floor next to Raven then, pulling her into my lap. Blood. So much blood. Soaking through her dress. Spreading across the white silk."Stay with me." I laid my hand on her side where she had been injured. "Don't you dare leave me. Don't you fucking dare."Her eyes were open, but she was not making eye contact. She tried to speak, and there w

KADE'S POVI’d survived one shocking episode after another in my thirty two years. Watching my father die. Losing Celine. Almost losing Raven more times than I could count. But that was nothing compared with standing in the NICU, watching my children fight to live.They were so small. Ethan was one pound, fourteen ounces. Celine was a pound and twelve ounces. Not quite four pounds among them. I had carried heavier weapons.It was sheer torture for the first three days. She wouldn’t leave the NICU, except when doctors sent her back to her room for wound care. I brought her food she hardly touched. Assisted her from the wheelchair when she had to go to the bathroom. Laid by her while we watched our children breathe.The nurses were incredible. Patient and kind as they taught us how to take care of babies we couldn’t even hold yet. They taught us how we can change these little, tiny diapers through the portholes of the incubator. How to take their temperature. How to spot signs of distre

KADE'S POVI had the consent forms in front of me on the table. Pages and pages of legalese that boiled down to one thing: we were authorizing doctors to cut into our daughter’s brain. And there was a six in ten chance she would not live.I had drawn up contracts in the billions with steadier hands. But this was as good as signing Celine’s death warrant."We have to do this." Raven said, though she was selling it as much to herself as to me. "We don't have a choice.""I know." I signed my name. "But I hate it."Dr. Martinez took the forms. “The operation will last about five hours. We'll update you every hour. There’s a waiting room on the surgical floor either very private.”Five hours. Three hundred minutes of life and death, not knowing if our daughter was alive or dead.They had Celine on a gurney and we followed to the surgical wing. A nurse led us into a tiny waiting room that had uncomfortable chairs and old magazines.Raven was still in her wheelchair, staring at the wall. I p

KADE'S POVI was in the direct-surgery ward when Javier called."Santiago is in the hospital. Heading toward the NICU. Armed."I ran. Didn't think. Didn't plan. Just ran toward my family.The hospital didn't allow weapons. It was the first time in years I had not been armed. Vulnerable in a way that filled me with the heebie-jeebies. But I didn't slow down.I went up four flights three steps at a time. Came through the door to the NICU floor and saw him.Santiago Del Rios was posted at the entrance to the NICU. Young, maybe twenty five. Xaviero's son, yet with that more motherly face. He aimed a Glock 19; it was trained on the doubled glass of the front entrance door.Behind that door Raven was, and my children. Trapped."Santiago!" I shouted his name.He pivoted, the gun coming in my direction. His eyes were red-rimmed. Grief and anger coalesced into something dangerous."Kade D'Angelo." He said my name like a curse. "I've been looking for you."I stopped ten feet away. Hands visible