GABRIEL She was asleep on the bed with the kids when I got back to the house. I stood next to the bed, looking down at the four of them, and for the first time since she came back felt like I could truly breathe. Everything had been a rollercoaster ride from the moment she opened the door to her family home earlier, and it was only now that I felt a sense of calm. I'm not gonna lie; I'm only feeling this way partially because of what I just learned. It had been sticking in my craw the thought that she'd been with someone else. When she'd gone missing all that time, I never let myself imagine it. Even though I knew that she would go on with her life at some point, I wasn't expecting to be here, so I wouldn't have had to deal with it. Now that I know it was all a lie, my next step is to figure out why and who had come up with the ploy. I wonder who had the kind of understanding to realize that I wouldn't have been able to concentrate on anything else while thinking about her enga
GABRIEL "I've already told you, none of you are leaving here. If there's something you need, just say the word, and it's yours." Why does my patient tone set her off? She's been like a grizzly ever since waking up this morning. Maybe I'd kept her up too late. It's not my fault I find her body so appealing. Now that I don't have impending death hanging over my head, I find new freedom in our lovemaking. In fact, I'm finding freedom in a lot of things that I never gave myself a chance to enjoy. But as much as I have changed, she seems to have done some changing of her own. Her mouth, for one, has gone through a drastic metamorphosis. She never used to talk back before. In fact, I can count on one hand the times she'd raised her voice before and never at me. Now she gives me looks, sucks her teeth, and rolls her eyes. Italian brat! "I'm guessing your ass isn't sore anymore, right." And the truth just positively enrages her. It's like stating the obvious is anathema to her. I have to
GABRIEL It's weird what comes back from the past to jar you in the present. As I watched Pop play with the kids, his words from earlier kept playing over and over again in my head. Until he said it, I don't think I'd have realized that I'd stopped addressing him the way I used to as a child. It had been so long that it just got lost in the fog of everything else that has been my life. I remember the twins calling him Poppa, but vaguely and only because he mentioned it, recall myself doing so as well, which leads me to believe that since my sisters had always followed my lead, that they'd stopped calling him that when I did. I felt just a little bit sad that I'd robbed him of that. We stayed for a good half an hour until he got all the hugs and kisses in, and then it was time to go meet with Lyon, Mancini, and whoever else they had hanging around. I'd given up trying to find anything on these guys because they were ghosts. From their public persona, you would be hard-pressed to fi
LANCE I felt like Daniel heading into the lion's den when I approached the door to the twins' suite of rooms. Only I doubt any angel anywhere would tussle with these two. I knocked on the door and opened and entered when given the okay to come in. As soon as they saw that it was me, Anna turned her back while Rosa stuck her nose in the air. "So you're still upset with me, okay, let's hear it; what is it that has got you two so mad at me?" "You know the answer to that already, so why pretend?" "Are you two seriously jealous of this girl? Why? What is she going to take from you?" They didn't have an answer, just looked at each other with frowns on their faces. I guess it's mine and their brother's fault that they're so spoilt, though I've never seen them acting this shitty before. I'm trying to understand their position, hell I'm confused myself with a lot of things that are going on right now, but the one thing I know for certain is that I don't want them acting like this. The
GIANNA I made the call, not sure what to expect. Once the congratulations were over after I told them about Gabriel and I meeting again, and they got through asking about the kids, I kinda got down to why I was calling. Now that I had them on the phone, I wasn't even sure where to begin. I was just going on instinct at this point and hoping that they could see a way to help us out. I wasn't exactly asking them to have their husbands kill someone, but I figured with Natalia's story added to the mix, they'd at least want to investigate this Ricci guy seeing as how they were into rescuing women and young girls from such situations. The truth is, I had no idea what the guys' plans were now that things with Gabriel had been settled somewhat; no one had told me what the next steps were. They didn't say much more than that they'd get back to me after discussing it with the guys, but then they asked a lot of questions which I didn't have the answers to, like where in Sicily Ricci was, et
LYON We were packing up to go since things were pretty much settled on this end. The boy seemed to be getting his shit together and was no longer hell-bent on destroying himself. Then again, the fact that he didn't know where Ricci was could have a lot to do with his easy acquiescence, but who knows. I don't exactly trust these brainy types because they always got some shit going on. If he's anything like the rest of them, namely my own kid, I know he could stand in front of me and lie with a straight face while plotting chaos and mayhem in his head. My phone rang, and I answered without checking. "Lyon!" "Hey Dev, is everything okay?" The others stopped what they were doing to look at me. Since the call was coming from the island, it could be anything. "Yeah, uh, Nia tried to hack into the secured again." "Wait, I'll put you on speaker. Say that again." He repeated himself. "How far did she get this time?" "A little further than before, but we caught her just in time." "
DRACO I hate this, hate telling my children about their brother's birth, hate having to utter the words that would reveal that he didn't come from me. How can I ease the blow? Even now, I'm more worried about Gabe than the others because it's always been about protecting him. It's always been about him knowing that he belongs. I would've given my life, so he never knew about any of this, but it's too late; it's been taken out of my hands. I tried not to resent my wife once again for her selfish act that had brought us to this. She's been beating herself up for days over this and maybe even longer. "What do you mean not your son?" Anna was rightfully angry, and I wish I could take the hurt away, but it was only going to get worst. I had yet to tell them how their mother was abased. It was her choice to tell them the truth. I knew she was doing it in part for the sake of Ricci's other children, who were now under our care. In order for the girls to accept them as their brother's si
GABRIEL "Gianna, baby, where are you?" "I'm in here!" I played with the ring box in my pocket as I made my way towards the bathroom, where the sound of her voice came from. I still get a little choked up these days when I walk into the house, and they're here. It had taken at least three or four days before the pit in my stomach disappeared. That feeling of dread that they'll all be taken from me again. Maybe that's why I've been rushing to do things, trying to bring us up to speed and correct what was wrong in the last almost two years. She doesn't know it, or maybe she does and just hasn't said anything, but everything is new to me too. When she was no longer here, there were things I didn't let myself enjoy or even participate in; now, I have a hankering for all those things. My sisters, in their bid to keep her here with me, keep giving me advice on dating. They seem to think that their brother is a colossal screw-up in that department, and there's no guessing who they hold