“All that I’m afraid of is the loud squealing that’s going to happen any second-”
Peels of laughter and yelling came from the house. I dropped my head into my hands and groaned. This was going to be such a long trip.
“Come on. It’s going to be fun,” Isa grinned.
Yeah, fun. That’s exactly how I would describe hanging out with five rowdy kids for a week.
✯✯✯✯✯
“Wait, you were the tattletale?” I asked Isa. We had been here almost a week and we had covered pretty much every little thing about the two of them. Tonight, we were talking about their hatred of each other as kids.
“I was the youngest. I had to defend myself somehow. They always picked on me, so I ran to Mom and told on whoever was being mean.”
“How did the two of you survive childhood together?” I asked Aurora and Isa. The stories they’ve told me are crazy. With the way they get along now, I would never have assumed that they were enemies as kids.
“Isa always annoyed me so much. She used to follow me around and copy everything I did. I would get so angry with her.”
“Yeah, do you remember what you did to me in high school?”
“Hey, in my defense, you were lying to me.”
“I was not,” Isa said defensively.
“Okay, so it’s Christmas,” Aurora says, “and I’m upstairs and I hear something downstairs. So, I look from the top of the stairs and see this one trying to unwrap a present I gave her. I called her out on it and she swore she wasn’t trying to peek.”
“Were you?” I asked Isa.
“Yes, but-”
“Ha! You finally admit it!”
“I just wanted to make sure I got a present for her that was just as good.”
“No, you didn’t. You never could stop yourself from looking for presents. You always snuck in Mom and Dad’s room to look for the presents.”
“So, what happened?”
“We were at school,” Isa continued the story, “and my locker was just a few down from hers. Her friends were standing all around her, and right in front of me, she told them about me trying to open her present and how I was such a liar.”
“You were!” Aurora said.”
“Well, yeah, but you didn’t have to tell all your friends in front of me! They all laughed at me.”
Aurora just laughed. “I couldn’t help it. You were always making me mad.”
“I just wanted to be like you,” Isa said.
“Aww, this is so sweet,” I laughed.
“Sure, it’s sweet now,” Isa huffed. “It wasn’t so sweet when she punched me in the temple. I had a knot the size of an egg!”
“Oh, it wasn’t that big. Maybe half a golf ball.”
“You can kill someone by hitting them in the temple!”
These two bickered like crazy. I was kind of digging it.
“So, you guys didn’t get along at all in high school?”
“Well, most of the time. There was the time that Aurora and I recreated the dance from Dirty Dancing.”
“Which one of you was the guy?”
“I was. I even did the final lift with Aurora.”
“How did you manage that?”
“I laid down on the ground and stuck my feet in the air. She would run and grab my hands and I would push her up with my feet on her belly.”
“Please tell me that you two did this in private.”
“Of course,” Aurora stated.
“Except for when we performed it for other people,” Isa laughed.
“That’s,” I shook my head, not quite sure what to say to that. “That’s a little disturbing.”
“Eh,” Aurora shrugged. “If you thought we were weird then, you definitely don’t want to know what we did when we got along.”
“What about Cazzo?” I asked.
“Why do you call him Cazzo?” Isa asked. “He’s never told me what it means.”
“Well, you guys are Italian, right?”
“Yeah, so?”
“Cazzo means dick in Italian, but he doesn’t know that because he never bothered to look it up. As far as I know, he still hasn’t.”
“How come you don’t have a nickname?” Aurora asked.
I shrugged. “Not sure. No one ever gave me one.”
“Wait, so Sam let the two of you date and you lived?”
“Well, he did take me hostage and kick my ass. He made me walk home from Pittsburgh without shoes or a phone.”
“You never told me that,” Isa said smacking me.
“Ow, you don’t have to hit me.”
“She does that all the time. She used to tell me stories of someone else hitting her arm or something and while she was telling me, she would actually demonstrate how they did it. I had bruises all over my arm.”
“At least I didn’t flick you in the forehead,” Isa said.
“You did too! There you go lying again.”
“Nuh uh.”
“Yuh huh.”
“Ladies, ladies. Can we hold off on the liar liar pants on fire for later?”
They stuck their tongues out at each other with their hands open at the sides of their heads, wiggling their fingers like, na-na na-na boo boo.
“Jesus, you two should never be in the same room together.”
“At least I don’t have smelly armpits,” Isa mocked.
“At least I don’t have long nose hairs that I have to pluck.”
Isa stood and pointed her finger at Aurora. “I told you that in confidence!”
“You’d better watch yourself, Gabe. Isa likes to groom other people. Once you live together, she’ll be popping any pimples you get and plucking those long hairs coming out of your eyebrows.”
“What long hairs?”
Isa grabbed my face and held me close so she could see. “How did I never notice that? Rora, go get the tweezers.”
“What? Hell no,” I said, jerking my head out of her grasp.
“It’s just a few of them. It’ll only take a second.”
“No, I don’t care if I have a few long hairs. There’s no way you’re pulling them out of my face.”
“You got waxed for me.”
“That was different. I was getting something out of it.”
“Come on, just let me get them out. It’s gonna drive me nuts!”
“No, Isa. I said no and that’s final.”
Her sad face did nothing to make me want to give in. She could just deal with the disappointment.
That night, I was lying in bed with Isa, sleeping peacefully when she slid her body over mine, straddling me and grinding her body against mine. I groaned my approval and gripped her hips, directing her where I wanted her.
“Just do it,” she whispered.
Pain tore through both my eyebrows and Isa scrambled off my lap. I shot up in bed, trying to snatch her shirt, but she was too fast. Isa and Aurora ran out of the room laughing. I ran after them, but they had a good head start. I caught them in the living room, laughing and hiding behind Aurora’s husband, Jon.
“Move away, Jon. You don’t want any part of this.”
“Sorry, Gabe. These women are vicious. If it’s not you, it’ll be me.”
“What?”
Vittoria and her cousin, Carly tackled me from behind and knocked me to the floor. Little fingers dug into my stomach, tickling me until I was barely able to breathe. My arms were wrenched up above my head by strong hands and Isa sat on top of me to keep me from getting up. The kids were sitting on my legs, and then Aurora came into view, grinning as she wiggled the tweezers in front of my face.
“No, you’re gonna pay for this.”
“It’ll be worth it,” she smirked.
“I just want to say that I’m not okay holding down his hands like this,” Jon said. “This feels a little too much like bondage.”
“What’s bondage?” Vittoria asked.
“Nothing,” Isa and I said at the same time.
“Now, just sit still
and it’ll be over before you know it.”
“Aurora, I’m warning you. Don’t you dare. Don’t you- Ow!”
I was lying on the ground, defenseless and half naked as Aurora plucked what felt like fifty hairs from my face.
“Would you stop!”
“I’m just cleaning up your eyebrows, you know, making them pretty.”
“I don’t want to be pretty! I’m a man. I don’t pluck my eyebrows and I don’t wear skinny jeans,” I roared.
“Just a few more minutes, big guy and then we’re all done.”
“Minutes? Did you just say minutes?”
“Babe, tell him,” Aurora said to Jon. “It’s really not that bad once you get used to it.”
“You let her do this to you?”
“Let is a very simplified word. There’s no letting either of them do what they want. At some point, you just stop struggling so you don’t end up with a half-manicured eyebrow.”
I glared in Jon’s direction and shifted my gaze to Isa. “You are in so much trouble.”
“Yeah, yeah. I’m sure you’re really gonna give it to me,” Isa teased.
The next day, we were all packed up and headed home. As we drove away from the house, Isa and I waved and then glared at each other. We didn’t say anything to each other the rest of the trip. I had my perfectly manicured eyebrows and Isa had a mustache that I drew on her face this morning with permanent marker. We didn’t stop at a single rest stop the whole way home.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Isabella
“I’M SORRY THAT I can’t come over tonight. I’m working late and then I have to leave early tomorrow. I don’t want to wake you guys up,” Gabe said over the phone.
“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”
“Don’t forget to lock the doors and set the alarm.”
“Yes, dear.”
“Hey, I don’t want any lip. You know I’ll worry about you. Don’t make this harder on me.”
“I promise to set the alarm.”
“Just don’t forget like the last time.”
“I won’t. Be careful tomorrow.”
“I will. Talk to you later.”
“I love you.”
“Love you too.”
I hung up and smiled to myself. I really was very lucky to have a man like him in my life. He was so good to me and even though I complained about it, I loved his protective side. I had never felt that Matteo had ever worried about the kids or me. When I finally let myself be with Gabe, I realized that I was just settling with Matteo. I should have known when we were dating that he wasn’t the one for me.
“Alright, time for bed.”
“Time fo bed?” Enzo asked.
“Yep, let’s go brush our teeth.”
“I bush my teef?”
“Yep. Go ahead and get started. I’ll be right there.”
“Don’t forget to set the alarm,” Vittoria said as she walked into the bathroom.
Crap. I walked back to the front door and set the alarm and flipped the lock. Gabe would yell at me if he found out my five year old had to remind me to set the alarm.
I brushed the kids teeth and got them in pajamas. Vittoria got some books and read them to us on the living room floor. Enzo was tired and starting to drift off to sleep. I kissed him on the head and gazed down at my boy. He was so freaking cute and I couldn’t figure out why it had taken Matteo so long to realize that. Who wouldn’t be in love with these kids?
A scratching sound got my attention, but I couldn’t place where it was coming from. I placed a hand on Vittoria’s arm.
“Stop reading for a minute,” I whispered.
Vittoria looked at me in confusion, but I was too focused on figuring out what the noise was.
“What’s that noise, Mommy?”
Shaking my head, I pulled her closer. “I don’t know. Stay here. I’m going to get my phone.”
I was going crazy. It was probably a tree branch scratching against the house. Was I really going to call Gabe over here at eight o’clock at night just to check out a noise? He would be pissed if he knew I was scared and didn’t call him. I grabbed my phone, but when the door flew open, I dropped it as I screamed.
Two men in black walked into the house and calmly shut the door. “Come here.” His terse voice rumbled through the room. I couldn’t move. I was frozen in place. But when he brought out the gun, I ran over to him. I couldn’t risk him turning it on my kids.
“Punch in the code before the alarm goes off.”
I swallowed hard and was just about to punch in the numbers when I remembered that Gabe had told me to enter the distress code in a situation like this. I hadn’t actually thought I would ever use it. I quickly pressed in the code, hoping it had been right.
I backed away just a little bit, but the man shook his head, stopping me in my tracks. “Where is it?”
“Where’s what?”
“The necklace. I know you have it and you’d better hand it over or I’m gonna make you watch as I kill your kids. And then I’ll kill you. Slowly.”
“I-I don’t have it,” I stuttered. “It was already handed over to the owners. I never had it.”
“That fucker didn’t tell us he got the necklace back,” the second guy said angrily. “You told me we were gonna be rich!”
“Shut the fuck up. I’m thinking.”
The man paced the floor for several minutes. I did my absolute best not to piss my pants as he started tapping the gun against his head. I tried to think of something to do, but what could I actually do? I should have stayed that weekend at Reed Security with the kids. I might have learned something.
“If you never had it then how the hell do you know about it?”
“Um…” Think, Isa. Think! The man pointed the gun in the direction of the kids. “My boyfriend found it and returned it,” I cried. I didn’t want to give up Gabe, but my kids were in danger right this minute. We could deal with the rest later, if we got out of this.
He stalked toward me, pushing me back toward the wall. My head smacked the wall hard when he wrapped his hand around my throat and slammed me against it. I cried out in pain, but tried to keep the tears from falling. I was seeing two of him right now and that wouldn’t help my kids any.
To my horror, Enzo walked up to the other man, pulling on his pants in a jerky move to get him to notice him. The man scowled down at him.
“Dat yo gun?”
The man looked strangely at him. “Yeah, it’s my gun.”
“It not my gun?”
“No, it’s not your gun,” the man said in irritation.
“It yo gun.”
“Would you shut the fuck up, kid?”
“It a bwack gun.” Enzo smiled up at the man. I could just barely keep an eye on him, but there was no way I could get out of this man’s hold and take my son away from that monster before he annoyed the man so much that he killed him. Movement outside the window caught my eye and my eyes widened slightly. Vittoria must have seen it to because a small smile touched her lips.
“And dat yo bwack pants.”
Enzo was continuing to chatter away, totally oblivious to the threat.
I forced my eyes back to the man with his hand wrapped around my throat. He had also been watching Enzo. He squeezed my neck until I was seeing black spots. I saw Vittoria run across the room. I needed a distraction.
It all happened so fast. I slammed my knee up into the man’s groin. He groaned as he released me. Meanwhile, Vittoria had pulled out a box and was now about to throw something shiny. She whipped it through the air just as the front door burst open. The shiny thing plunged into the man by Enzo. My attacker rolled over and pulled his gun just as shots were fired. Brain matter shot out the back of his head, all over my floor. I covered my mouth, but it didn’t stop the vomit that rose from my belly. I leaned over and threw up all over the man who had just been holding me by the neck.
“Gabe! Yo here?” Enzo shouted. Everything was swirling around me in
a mess of confusion. What the hell just happened?
“Yeah, buddy. I’m here.” Gabe knelt down in front of my son and smiled.
“An yo fwend here?”
“Yep.”
“Bu my fwend no here.”
“I know,” Gabe nodded.
I just stared at the scene before me, barely able to register what had just happened. Vittoria was over talking with Sam and showing him these shiny things that matched the one she had thrown at the man. Sam was walking toward me now, but I was just staring off in space. If I thought too much about what was happening, I might throw up again.
Sam took my hand and guided me over the man on the floor. I was vaguely aware of him pushing me down on the couch. Bile clawed at my throat again. Something was shoved in front of me just seconds before I threw up again. A strong hand was on my back, rubbing soothingly up and down. I wiped at my face and dropped the bag to the floor. I dropped my head into my hands and tried to control the pounding of my heart and the churning in my stomach. It was so hot all the sudden. The hotter it got, the harder my heart pounded. And the bile started working its way back up my throat. I shot off the couch and ran out the front door into the cool night air. I took deep breaths, trying to calm myself.
Strong arms wrapped around me and hot breath caressed my neck. “It’s okay, baby. I’ve got you.”
I sank into Gabe’s arms, letting him take control and guide me back to sanity. He talked to me quietly, telling me anything that would continue to calm me down. When I finally felt strong enough, I turned in his arms and wrapped my arms around his waist.
“You okay now?”
“Sure, it’s just another night for me. Men breaking in, my son jabbering to a man with a gun, my daughter throwing silver stuff across the room.”
“A ninja star.”
I pulled back. “A what?”
“A ninja star. She learned how to use it the weekend she was at Reed Security.”
“You taught my five year old how to throw a ninja star?” I shrieked.
He shrugged like it was no big deal. “I wanted her to have something she could use to protect herself. A knife was out of the question. It’s just too hard for a five year old to throw accurately and have the strength to pierce the skin.”
Gabe Page 24