Alexander Vittorio POVAfter I have Mama settled in a seat, I sit down beside her and take hold of her hand.I wait for the private jet to take off and reach flying altitude before I look at her and say, “I have a lot to tell you.”She frees her hand from mine and rests her palm against my jaw. “You’ve changed. There’s no sorrow in your eyes.”“Remember Anya, the girl who was in captivity with me?”“The one your father killed?”“Yes.” A smile spreads over my face. “She didn’t die.”Shock registers on my mother's face. “God is good.”“I’m going to marry her,” I inform Mama. I take hold of her hand again, then say, “I have a son, Mama. Anya named him after Marc Vincent.”Mama’s face crumbles, her grief for the loss of her eldest still unbearable.I wrap my arms around her and pull her to my chest, then whisper, “Vincent is three years old. He’s amazing. I can’t wait for you to meet your grandson.”She clings to me as she sobs, “You’re a papa.”“Yes. I can’t tell you how incredible it is
Alexander Vittorio POVMy heart is beating out of my chest as I stop the G-Wagon in front of Anya’s house.“This house?” Mama asks, her eyes wide as she glances around the neighborhood.“Yes. I’ve already installed a state-of-the-art security system, and you’ll have a guard with you twenty-four-seven.”Mama pats my cheek. “You take such good care of me.”“Let’s go.”We climb out of the vehicle, and I wrap an arm around my mother’s shoulders as I walk her to the open front door, where Anya is already waiting.My woman looks nervous as fuck, and there’s fear darkening her eyes.I give her a comforting smile, and as we reach her, I switch from Russian to English. “Mama, this is Anya.”My mother stares at the woman whose supposed death broke me.“So beautiful,” Mama says. She glances at Anya up and down. “And healthy.”“Ahh…thank you.” Anya takes a cautious step closer. “It’s such a pleasure meeting you.”Mama stares at Anya until my woman gives me a panicked look.I move closer to Anya a
Aryana Joy Monteverde Santini POVDespite the hardship, I would have to open up the food business – Tambayan Rolling Barrel Bar & Restaurant at Ermita, Manila, Philippines.I couldn’t help but smile and look back on the days I started to work here when I officially left my life in Quezon City. Placing my hand on top of my head and thinking of my life and my future, I wanted a normal life as what I envisioned during my childhood days.I looked so much like my mother who married my father in a different fashion which I was so grateful for. I couldn’t imagine how hard it would be to look into her face and see the familiar features of me.“You’re silly,” I remember my mother joking with me, making her giggle. I handed her the whisk and helped her step up on her stool so that she could reach the counter. “Whisk together all of the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients, okay?”I nodded and clumsily mixed everything together, having the time of my life as some of it splattered on the coun
Rocky Ace de Luna POVMichael Cortez and Simon Portes. Those two delinquents had made a mistake. A serious mistake. As I dragged them down the dark alley, I wondered if they’d gotten that message left.About two months ago, they mugged some old lady three blocks away. They’d been lucky I wasn’t anywhere near that spot. If I were, I would have beaten the shit out of them. Then this would never have happened tonight. Aryana would have locked the place up and gone home, without worrying about a couple of assholes trying to earn their stripes.Cortez and Portes had been desperate to get into the Gregorio family. They thought they deserved to be part of a crew because they thought they were so big and bad. Yeah, right. I’m pretty damn sure I proved otherwise to them tonight. Hell, Aryana had been on the path to proving otherwise. I never thought I’d see the pretty barmaid with a shotgun in her hands, but she looked like she knew how to use it.If nothing else, she’d scared those two asshole
Rocky Ace POV I grunted, nodding. None of us knew her well, but we had eyes. She’d be hard not to notice. “She actually pulled a shotgun on them.”“Seriously?” Craig grinned. “I’d have liked to see that.”Yeah, it’d been quite the sight. “I took care of them for her.”“Ouch.” Craig cringed. “That had to hurt. Them, I mean.”“It did,” I confirmed with a nod. “If I ever see them again anywhere near the Tambayan Rolling Barrel Bar & Restaurant again, they’re dead. You tell me if you see them, okay?”“Will do,” Craig nodded in agreement, Montero joining in a few seconds late. He all but fell into the corner booth we chose. With another groan, he leaned his elbows on the sticky table and palmed his face.“Damn…” he croaked. “That hangover’s killing me. Craig, you tell him the plan.”“Ace’s right,” Craig uttered in an annoyed voice, tossing a sideways glare at him. “I should have stopped you before you got drunk out of your fucking mind.”“Ah, shit…” Montero muttered, his eyes shut as his
Craig Gomez POV Shaking off glass shards, I nodded. My hands were bleeding, but I could grip the steering wheel. The side mirror was missing, but I pulled out into the street, tearing recklessly through the intersection. “You guys okay?” I called out, my ears still ringing.“Yeah,” Montero spat. He’d been closer to the blast than us, but he’d had more room to duck behind the protection of the back seat. “What about Rocky Ace?”My heart sank as I looked over at the passenger seat. My friend had been thrown forward, his face resting on top of the dashboard. Shards of glass were lying around his head. A larger chunk had been lodged into the side of his neck. Blood was spilled out, disappearing under the collar of his white shirt.“Ace!” I shoved his shoulder, panic filled me.His groan was barely audible, but at least it reassured me that he was alive.Montero leaned forward, cussing as shards of glass cut his hands. “Rocky Ace, can you hear me?”There was another groan.“Fuck!” Montero
Aryana Joy Santini's POVHe was the tallest of the three, at least 6’ 3” with brown hair and a short, well-trimmed beard… His upper body seemed to be suffocating in that tight, blue shirt. It was tight around the arms and across the chest. Perhaps Craig should have considered a bigger size when he bought that one, but it wasn’t like I was going to complain about the view. Nor about those dark green eyes that sometimes seemed to look right through you.My throat went dry as I stared up at him. He was so damn handsome and so damn close. I didn’t know him, but his concern about his friend touched me.But then my friend appeared. Pilar paused in the doorway, pulling off rubber gloves and leaning close to Craig to throw them away. “Your friend is going to be just fine,” she announced, bringing a broad smile to Craig’s face.“Thanks, Pilar.” He offered her a warm glance, his smile widening. “Can I go see him?”“You can, but I gave him a strong painkiller. He’s on the couch and likely to be
Montero Villar POVWhat a fucking crazy night.We drove back to the city slowly, Craig’s wreck of a car limping along. The first chance we got, we’d ditch it. Craig was surly about that. Ace was surly in general. I couldn’t remember the last time when we spent hours together and talked so little.Nobody was willing to speak. We all knew what a close call that had been.I wanted to blame shock for this weird silence, and yet, I couldn’t. We’d all come close to getting killed, more than once. In our line of work, we’d been shot at and stabbed, but this sort of gloom was a complete first. After a gunfight, we’d all mention this or that about our enemies and brush it off. Bullets and guns were part of the life. We got to suck this up, long before that goddamn van blew up right behind Craig’s car.XXXThe next morning, I woke up feeling better. The night was behind us. We’d survived. Rocky Ace was too thick-headed to be laid out by an injury like that. It was over.At least until the text