FARRAH "Is something going on here that I should know about?" Damian looks accusingly at me in Dr. Sanchez's office. "I've been calling Abe with no luck." Abe is the other bodyguard who's currently on shift. "I think that was my husband's uncle on the way to my room." I gulp, my heart rate skyrocketing. "I'm not sure, but with everything going on with my husband right now, I think he might be trying to hurt me." Hurt is a mild word, but Dr. Sanchez is in the room, and she already looks freaked out. I don't want to worry her any more than she already is. "And you were planning to do what exactly?" Damian wants to know. "I need to get out of here." "Against my advice!" Dr. Sanchez looks at me like I'm crazy. "What if you need blood? You do realize how serious your condition is, right? You are not just risking the lives of the babies, but yours, too." "I'm a sitting duck in the hospital." I shake my head at her. "And if someone kills me, there will be no babies or me anyway. Trus
FARRAH "Oh my God!" I scream. "T.J!" Damian doesn't even stay at the crash. He just swerves his car and goes around the wreck. "What are you doing?" Kevin shouts at him. "You have to stop, we have to help her!" "Are you okay? "Damian looks at me in the rearview mirror. "I'm fucking fine!" I'm about to lose it. We just left a kid there in a crashed car. "We have to go back and help her." Damian is still calm as he grabs his phone from the console and dials 911. He calmly tells the operator that there was a crash with the address, and then he disconnects before the operator can ask any questions. Phoebe is sobbing next to me, and I feel my own tears wetting my cheeks. We just left Alma there. What if she was badly hurt? Who was that behind the wheel of the truck, and why did he crash into her? The windows weren't even tinted of the car. If they were looking for me, they would've been able to see I wasn't in that car. "The three of you better listen to me and listen to me carefu
ALESSANDRO Dario is waiting for me when I walk out of jail the next morning. I don't like the look in his eyes. "What's wrong?" I want to know immediately. He holds the keys to his car out for me, and I grab it. I may be the younger of the two of us, but I've always been the one that was in control. He's never seemed to mind. It's just how our personalities work. "Farrah is gone." The earth drops from beneath my feet for a moment, but I take a deep breath. With Farrah, I've found that there's always an explanation. I get behind the wheel and wait for him to get in beside me. "What happened?" "One of her bodyguards was found with a single stab wound. Luckily, he's not dead." Dario sounds worried. "The hospital's cameras were conveniently out of order for about two hours, but both her and Phoebe are gone. And the other bodyguard." "What about Thomas?" "Still missing." I'm trying to keep my cool, but I bang on the steering wheel. "Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!" Thomas has a few numbers I
ALESSANDRO As soon as I stop in front of the quaint cottage, a shot gets fired from me from somewhere in the house, and I duck. I slowly get out of the driver's seat with my hands in the air. If this guy is as dangerous as Thomas said he is, I will be dead in the next second. "My name is Alessandro Moretti, I believe my wife is in there." I shout, hoping they can hear me. I take it as a good sign when I don't get shot at again. The front door opens, and a sight for sore eyes greets me. I run to that door as fast as I can, and then I scoop Farrah in my arms, her smell that is uniquely hers enveloping me. "What the fuck did you do, asshole." She sobs in my neck. "Are you okay? I thought you were in jail." I pull back so I can look at her. There are dark circles under her eyes, and she looks tired, but she's always the best thing I will ever see. "What are you doing on your feet?" I ask her. "You're not supposed to be walking around. You're supposed to be still." She hugs me ag
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Trey looks worriedly at me, his eyes darting back and forth in the dark street. "This ends tonight." I go over my body again, making sure for what seems like the hundredth time that I have all my guns and hand grenades in place. It seems like the fuckers are playing right into my hands. Thanks to Enzo's intel, I have the remaining four elders all under one roof in one night. By now, they must know that Fabiono is dead, but they still think I'm inside that jail. They probably know it was me, too, so they're most likely having a meeting to decide what they're doing next. Little do they know, I'm striking while the iron is still hot. Trey shakes his head, his eyes on the surveillance footage on his phone, all courtesy of Evan. Farrah was right, I did orchestrate Evan's bullying so I could be his savior. It was one of the best things I ever did, too, because I now have access to a satellite that gives me vision all over the world. And I have a gre
FARRAH "I'm so sorry, Thomas." My bodyguard is a lone figure at the grave of his wife. "Me too." He says softly with his head bowed. "I was so busy with..." He doesn't complete the sentence, so I take his hand in mine and squeeze his. "It's okay to say it." "I was so busy protecting others, I didn't take care of my own family." He completes the sentence on a sob. "You know that's not true." I tell him. "You were looking after all of us. You just didn't think her past would catch up to you." "But I should have!" He turns guilty eyes to mine where I'm sitting in a wheelchair next to him. "That's what I was trained to do, and I failed my own wife." He's going to feel guilty for a while, probably forever, so I don't say a word. Alma's killer was from a religious society who has been following her and Thomas's lives for a while now. They believe that she betrayed her country and her religion. She would have been stoned to death if she was in her own country. The government has tak
I look down at my three babies, where they're all bundled in the same incubator. They were born on thirty-three weeks, but none of them had to be incubated. I'm so proud of them, all of them able to breathe on their own. I was so worried, but they did it. I've never cried so much as I've been crying in the last week. The pediatrician said they should stay in the incubator for at least two weeks, and they were each placed in their own one. But the nurses said when they're apart, they cry, and when they're together, they don't. It's the cutest thing ever. Alessandro can't tell them apart because they look exactly alike. I don't know how, but I know who is who. Their father proudly named them, and right now, Arcangelo's mouth cutely yawns, even though they're sleeping. One week until we can take them home. Right now, they've wearing onesies courtesy of their aunt saying Thing One, Thing Two, and Thing Three. I miss Phoebe in the house, but she has to follow her own path, and she
"Shot, shot, shot, shot, shot!" I throw back my third shot of burning, cheap tequila, and grunt. I can already feel the buzz of the alcohol rushing through my system, making me lightheaded and having me stumbling on the ridiculously high heels my sister is making me wear. "Easy tiger!" The culprit laughs and grabs my arm to steady me. "When did you become such a lightweight, sissy?" "Since I've been studying and working twenty-four seven!" I wipe my mouth and remember too late that I'm wearing a scandalous shade of red lipstick. Luckily, my sister is a genius when it comes to the art of make-up because the back of my hand comes back clean. "You are so beautiful." Sammy gushes at my sister, her eyes shiny behind her glasses from only one shot of tequila. Most people are enamored by my sister when they first meet her. She's beautiful with a raucous personality, making her noticeable wherever she goes. She enjoys the attention, too, soaking up everything thrown her way. "You guys ar