LOGAN'S POV:

I woke up to the soft sound of crying. Mia was tucked under my arms, her head resting on my bicep, her back to me. I felt her tears drip onto my skin and it physically hurt me. I wanted to rip Archor apart for what he did. I hated him, not just for attacking her and trying to get rid of my children but for breaking her heart.

I lay still for a while. Mia was trying her best to stay quiet, muffling her cries by burying her face in the bed covers. She held the hand that was draped over her waist in one of her own small hands, her fingers threaded through mine.

She went quiet, crying into the covers for a while, her body shaking. I couldn't take it any longer and leant forward, pressing a kiss to the back of her head. She stiffened and sniffed before dropping my hand so she could wipe the tears from her face. "How long have you been awake?"

I took my hand away from her waist and played with her long hair. She smelled like vanilla, sweet and simple and I wanted to bury my face against her soft skin. I couldn't get enough of her and being in close proximity to her turned my mind to mush.

"Not long," I answered her, pulling her backwards a little and wrapping the covers around her.

She didn't answer me and rolled onto her back, pressing her cheek against my chest. Her beautiful eyes were red and swollen from crying and I leant down to gently press again to each eyelid. "Did you sleep?" I asked her.

She'd been through a lot the day before and couldn't stop yawning when we went to bed. I'd wrapped her in my arms and she went quiet pretty quickly but I imagined she hadn't exactly had a peaceful night sleep. "A little," she mumbled.

She stretched out beside me before curling into my side. "Are you okay?" I whispered.

She scoffed. "Physically or emotionally?"

I played with a strand of her hair, twirling it around my fingers. "Let's start with physically," I said and she nodded.

"I'm fine."

"And emotionally?"

She sighed heavily, glancing up at me so I could see the pain in her eyes. "I don't know," she answered, tilting her head back down again. "I'm glad the babies are okay," she said, "but I don't know how to feel. I mean... how could he do that to me?" Her voice cracked and my stomach twisted at the sound.

"I'm so sorry," I told her sincerely. I wished there was a way I could fix what had happened but I knew there wasn't. So, I just held her. For at least an hour, we lay in the same position, me on my side, my arm acting as a pillow for her. Her, staring up at the ceiling, tears in her eyes. She cried on and off but never spoke.

"I thought he loved me," she finally whispered, breaking the silence.

I tightened my grip on her. "He does love you, Mia," I told her, "In his own twisted way, he thought he was protecting you."

She tensed before brushing my hands off her and sitting up. "Why are you defending him?" she suddenly snapped, her tears spilling over her cheeks again.

"I'm not defending him," I told her calmly, sitting up and trying to reach for her.

She shook her head. "He wouldn't have done that to me if he loved me," she whispered, her voice barely audible. "How could he do that to me?" she repeated, "How could he try and take them from me."

I reached for her as the dam broke once again and a string of pained cried left her lips. Her body folded up in my arms and she buried her face in the crook of my neck. I tried to calm her, rubbing her back soothingly and reminding her that she and the babies were safe. "I'm so sorry," I whispered when she went quiet.

"I just... I don't know what to do," she hiccupped.

"You don't have to anything right now," I told her. I manoeuvred us so we were lay down again and pulled the covers over her small body. "Just rest," I instructed and it didn't take long before her breathing slowed and she drifted off.

****

"Sir?" A knock at the door pulled me from my work and I glanced up to see Sergio at the door to the office. "Do you have a moment?"

I nodded, checking the time quickly. Mia had been asleep for a while but it was already late afternoon and she hadn't eaten since breakfast this morning. "Make it quick," I said, closing the folder in front of me.

He nodded and shut the door behind him before taking the seat opposite me. "I've been doing some research into Julia Hartley's death," he explained and I raised an eyebrow. I'd expected him to talk about the tension with the Abbatelli family now I'd killed Jonesy. His father, Bruce, was putting up a front, threating war as though he had the allies or men to do so. I wasn't particularly worried; he was waiting for me to offer money or women in exchange for peace so he could back down but I wouldn't give him anything.

"What about her?" I asked, now focusing my full attention on him.

"Well, I managed to find some deleted CCVT from the restaurant where it happened," he said.

I frowned. "She was killed in a restaurant?"

He nodded. "It was empty, they were the only ones in there."

My whole body tensed. "They?" I asked, not sure I wanted to hear the answer.

He nodded and pulled a tablet out of his bag. He opened the footage and handed the device to me. My chest ached when I laid eyes on Mia, only a kid, sitting beside her sister and opposite a woman who shared so many features with her.

Mia's eyes shone and a huge smile contorted her face. I knew she was thirteen when her mother was killed, I'd only recently started to build up my army at the time and was a close partner to the current Don. I took over a few months later and didn't have any dealings with Julia's death, by that point, the funeral had taken place and the Mafia had moved on.

I watched the clip, watching a mother and her daughters laugh. I noticed Julia checked the watch on her wrist several times throughout the meal. When a waitress came to take their empty plates, I watched her enter the door to the kitchen and then, nobody else entered the main part of the restaurant until a group of men burst in. It was clearly planned; the place shouldn't have been empty. The staff shouldn't have all left.

Julia pushed the girls under the table as soon as the door broke down and even though there was no audio, I knew they were both screaming. The girls grabbed each other under the table, trembling when bullets started to fly across the room, shattering windows and breaking tables. None of the bullets were necessarily aimed at any of them but the men moved forward and grabbed Julia, dragging her from her seat.

I saw her eyes wide as she opened her mouth, shouting something, and the next moment, Mia and Ashley ran for the entrance. None of the men tried to stop them. They focused solely on their mother, pinning her to the ground and holding a gun to her head. I clenched my jaw, waiting for the bullet to leave the gun.

But it never did.

The men waited for a while, talking with her while she cried on the floor, unable to move. I fast forwarded the clip until, after ten minutes or so, they dragged her away from the restaurant. I frowned, glancing up at Sergio. "Have you looked for more footage?" I asked him. "Where did they take her?"

He shook his head. "I don't know. But boss... this footage... it was wiped from our systems."

"What do you mean from our systems?" I asked. "By someone inside?"

He nodded. "Exactly."

"So, we have a rat?" That makes things a lot more complicated than I need them to be.

"There's more," he said, taking back his tablet, "I searched for the men that were responsible like you asked and we found them."

I furrowed my brows. "Archor killed them, Mia told me that."

He ran a hand across his face. "That's what I was afraid of," he muttered and my frown deepened. "They were his men," he stated.

My heart felt like it stopped beating for a moment as I stared back at him. "What?"

He raised a brow. "It was his soldiers that killed her... and when I questioned them, they said they were following orders."

My hands curled into fists as I asked the question that I was pretty certain I knew the answer to. "Whose orders?"

"Archor's."