•KINLEY•After leaving the hospital I was beginning to feel a bit better.Luca had fetched me, but instead of taking me home, he took me to a street with fancy, and expensive, boutiques."Why are we here?""Gianni instructed me to bring you here. He wants you to get something for his surprise tonight."I had almost forgotten about his surprise."Is this really necessary?"Luca shrugged, "You know how Gianni is.""What is this big surprise?"Luca shook his head, "Can't tell you or it won't be a surprise. And if I ruin it, he will have my head.""Let's go shopping then, I guess?"I had never really enjoyed shopping so I browsed quickly before choosing a white dress, my feet we healing but I didn't think heels would be a very good idea until they were completely healed so I chose a pair of flat sandals."That was the quickest I've ever seen a woman shop." Luca commented as we were leaving the store."I hate shopping. It gets me annoyed."Luca glanced at his watch, "Gianni is in meetings
•TALON•"She agrees to shopping together." Billie spoke. We were walking in the garden, waiting for Gianni and Kinley to return."I told you she would be easy to manipulate. She's just too busy trying to be nice." I shook my head at the thought."Did you have something to do with what happened to Luca?" She asked me with a raised brow.I smirked, "He was a problem, he was getting a little too cocky. He needed to be taken down a notch.""You could have killed him, Talon!""Well, if he doesn't take the warning, next time I will." I could see the look in her eyes. She was scared of me. I smiled, a rush of excitement running through my veins at the thought. A strong and powerful woman like Billie being scared of me excited me, it turned me on.I stepped forward, grabbing her wrist and pulling her closer to me, "What's wrong? Do I scare you?"She held my gaze, "No. I fear no man... It's more like disgust.""You're a terrible liar, Billie."She pulled her hand free from my grasp and pit s
•KINLEY•"Do you know the baby's gender?" I asked Billie while we walked around the store."No, I wanted to leave it as a surprise.""This is cute," I lifted a newborn onesie with animal prints on it, "I know we're meant to be getting stuff for the nursery, but you can never have enough clothes, right?"Billie nodded and took it from me, "True, they grow out of things so quickly!"We browsed the shop for a while longer, picking out a crib and a few other things for the nursery. Billie said she would be hiring a professional painter to do the baby's room but wanted my input on the colours and designs.Again, I found this sudden turn around of her attitude to be a bit strange, and I was sure Talon had something to do with this."I'm always starving these days! Lunch by the beach?" She asked as we left the store."Sure, I don't have anything else to do. I have to stop by the club later though.""I can come with you? It's rather lonely being me, I'm sure you can imagine.""Yeah, I don't m
•KINLEY•I was seated at the dinner table with Gianni and Talon. I wanted to speak to Gianni alone about Billie moving in, but it seemed Talon was trying to push the topic. It seemed to me that he was trying to create tension between the two of us."So, does Billie still want to move in?" He asked.Gianni sighed and shoved a forkful of sinner into his mouth."She does. I asked her to have a look at the cottage today. It might be a good fit for her." Gianni looked over at me, "You had her look at the cottage?"I nodded, "Yes. I figured that the cottage would be better than having her in the house with us."Gianni placed his fork down, "You want her to move in?""It would be easier if she was here for you to be part of the pregnancy and the child's life instead of going between places.""There will need to be rules in place so she doesn't think she can just take over." Gianni said.I rolled my eyes, "Gianni, come on. She's a human being carrying your child. How about we treat her as su
•KINLEY•Billie had moved into the cottage a few days prior, and the two of us were in the mansion, in the room where we were doing the nursery.Gianni had agreed to have one nursery in the main house, and one for Billie in the cottage.The room had been painted a light green with brightly coloured alphabets and animals painted along the walls.Between the two of us we had just rolled out the fluffy mat on top of the carpet."It all seems so much more real now that we're doing the nursery." Billie said."Yeah. Time goes by really quickly, before you know it the baby will be here."She nodded, "I'm so excited.""Hello, ladies. Having fun?" Talon asked as he walked in.I didn't notice the way Billie's body language changed from calm to tensed at his arrival."We're doing okay." I answered, Billie was busying herself with folding and packing baby clothes into the chest of drawers.Talon looked around the room, "It's pretty. Has Gianni even bothered to have a look at it?"Billie shrugged
•KINLEY•I was feeling oddly needy tonight. Gianni was beside me in the VIP lounge of yet another club, speaking to large men in suits about all sorts of things that I would rather not have heard about.I was extremely bored and craving attention. Gianni kept a firm hand on my thigh, but the girls who had come in with the other men seemed to be having a great time. They were drinking and laughing together while they danced.And here I was, glued to Gianni's side. I finished my drink and leaned into Gianni, "I'm going to get another drink." He frowned at me, but I got up and walked out, knowing it would annoy him. I went over to the bar and ordered myself another drinking, turning to watch the rest of the club dancing to the music.A firm hand clamped down on my wrist and I turned into the face of Agent King."Get your hand off of me. Or so help me, I will make sure every mafia member in this club knows who you are."He smirked but let go of my wrist, "We need to talk, Kinley. I want
•TALON•I waited, watching until Kinley left the hospital before I went into Billie's room."What are you doing here?""Checking on you and that Esposito spawn. I see you are making progress with Kinley."She looked away, "Talon, I almost lost my child. I don't know if I want to do this anymore. Kinley is a good person, she's been nothing but nice to me. I don't want to screw her over.""But you will be doing her a favour," I could feel the anger building up in me, "You know Gianni will ruin her.""Talon! We are the ones ruining her. Leave her alone and just admit defeat. I don't want to lose her friendship over this.""What about Gianni? You love him. He should be with you, not her.""He should be with whoever he wants to be with. Yes, I want to be with him and seeing them together kills me more and more each time, but Kinley doesn't deserve to get hurt because of my selfishness. You claim to care about her, but you're okay with hurting her. How is that even possible? You don't hurt
•KINLEY•Gianni was busy in his study with a meeting, the last before our week long trip to Italy, while I packed a few things for the trip. Billie sat beside the suitcase on the bed, chewing at her thumbnail. "Please stop worrying about me, I'm going to be fine. You go and enjoy yourself."I had voiced my concerns over leaving her alone a few times. Although Gianni had assured me that Luca would be back in time to watch over her, and this did ease my mind a bit, I was still concerned for obvious reasons."I know," I paused, "Billie, can I ask you a question?""Yes." Although she said yes, I could tell she was a bit hesitant."Has Talon done anything to you? I noticed you are a bit hostile when he is around."She sighed, "No. He's just a bit obsessed with you. And I find it weird. I thought he genuinely cared about you, but now I think it's a dangerous obsession he has."Her words worried me more than I cared to admit, "Do you think I n