The Mafia's Babies by Kaycee Romano (rocket ebook reader txt) 📖

"Fine." He rolled his eyes. "But I am not going to help out with anything." He added.

The kids squealed with happiness chorusing an "OKAY!". While the orthopedic surgeon looked calm and unbothered from outside, the twinkle in her eyes gave away her excitement about having the three puppers at home.

River got up and walked back to Mateo's side.

"What do I do with you three?" Mateo chuckled to himself as he wrapped his arm around River's waist again.

"You have no choice but to bear with it, now do you?" River winked at him, being sassy as always and making Mateo chuckle as he thought how similar his girlfriend and daughter were when it came to their sassiness.

"We are so happy that the pups would not be separated." The saleslady approached the couple. "I guess the children understand since they are twins and always together?" It was a question since she didn't know if they were really twins or siblings.

"Yeah, they have been together since in the womb and cannot live without one another." River smiled, looking over at the twins. "Alright kiddos, go select the essentials we would need for the pups."

"OKAY!" They squealed again.

"I will guide them." The saleslady said and walked away in the direction they had ran, George and Davis following them.

"You too, Victor." River laughed while Mateo shooed him.

"Did you know your laughter is like music to my ears?" He asked.

"Did you know that is one of the cringiest lines in the history of cringe." Mateo let out a laugh while River gave him her usual smirk.

"I need to talk to you about something serious." Mateo's voice and demeanor changed instantly and River was alerted at once.

"What?" The playfulness in River's eyes were gone and she was all ready for business.

"I think that Sia must have disappeared on purpose." He said. "That's the only reason I could come up with after thinking for so long about it. It's not easy to get hold of her and even if someone had managed to, she must have escaped or send us some sort of message by now."

"But-" Mateo had all her attention. "What if that someone is waiting for something to happen?" Mateo had thought about it too, but there was something missing.

"Did you get any info on that detective?" River asked, suddenly feeling restless. She felt kind of guilty that she had been care-free and happy while one of her closest friends had been missing for a while now.

"His slate is clean." Mateo said.

"Too clean?" River asked, somehow knowing the answer before hand and knowing very well what it meant.

"Too clean."

"Who's keeping tabs on him?" She asked.

"Ricardo." Mateo said, placing his hand on the small of her back and pushing her forward, deciding to rejoin the children.

River trusted Ricardo to an extent, though not completely. He was a good man and he had been nothing but nice to her, and from the story that Adam had told her about the Italian man, he owed his life to Mateo and The Adesso Family and hence would never betray them. Anyone else might completely trust someone like that but the cynic in her had engraved in her mind that it was the people who one least expect who puts a dagger through their heart.

"I just hope everything turns out fine." She said.

"It will."

The two of them smiled, forgetting all their tension at once, when they saw their two babies waving at them, holding a number of dog toys in their hands.

Though the life they had was pretty messy, the four of them had each other and that was all that mattered, right?

Family is all that mattered.