“Yeah, Son?”
My chin wobbles and my lips tremble. Now that I know Lil’s okay, I can stop trying to pretend it doesn’t hurt. My dad pulls me into a hug but when he squeezes too tight, I whimper and he relaxes his hold.
“Let’s get out of here,” Uncle Antonio says. I turn my head just in time to see him putting a gun into the back of his jeans and covering it up with his black sweater.
“Dad?” I ask when we pull up to our Chalet. “I don’t want Lil to have to see me like this.”
Both him and Uncle Antonio glance back at me from the front seats and then they share a look before they both nod in agreement.
“I’ll give Jessika the first-aid kit and tell her to meet you at your Chalet,” Uncle Antonio says and then he’s stepping out of our car and walking towards Uncle Braxton and Aunt Klara’s Chalet.
"Come on, let's get you cleaned up," dad says from the front seat, meeting my gaze in the rearview mirror.
I nod and open my door. I’ve just closed the door and am walking around the front of the car when a commotion at Lil’s Chalet catches my attention. Aunt Klara is telling Lil to come back inside, with a hand secured around her wrist. The more Lil tugs on it, trying to break free so she can run to me like I can see she desperately wants to, the tighter Aunt Klara’s hold gets.
“Coop!” Lil yells for me, but I shake my head and continue following my dad into our Chalet. Thankful that the side of my face that’s busted isn’t the side that Lil’s Chalet was on. Until my mom and dad can get the blood cleaned up, I don’t want Lil to see me this way. I… I don’t want to scare her any more than she’s already been scared today.
“Coop,” dad says, bringing me an ice pack from the freezer and sits down in the dining room chair in front of me. “Do you want to talk about what happened over there?”
“Not really,” I say, bringing the ice pack up to my nose. I wince at the cold and the bite of pain and quickly remove it, dropping it on the table.
Dad takes the ice pack and holds it to my nose for me. “You need to try and keep the swelling down.”
“Do you ever get scared?”
Dad freezes for a second, his eyes doing that funny ping pong thing between mine, but then he relaxes again. Lifting the ice pack to check my injury and placing it back on my nose.
“Every day,” he answers.
“Really?” No way.
He chuckles. “Yes, but don’t tell your mother that. She’ll never let me live it down.”
I grin, or try to but it hurts. “I won’t.” I pause, trying to think if I should ask him or not. I decide to go for it anyway. “What makes you scared, dad?”
“Lots of things,” he says on a blown out breath. “Losing you and your brother and your mom. Not being a good dad to you and Cam. Snakes.”
I giggle. “Snakes?”
“Yes, snakes! They’re slimy and slither around on their belly’s all day, and they hiss!” he says, his eyes going wide.
I laugh and soon Dad's laughing too. But when I remember the reason why I asked, I stop laughing.
“But you don’t seem scared when you and Uncle Braxton and Uncle Antonio go to work.”
Dad cocks his head to the side and looks at me. “What do you mean, Coop?”
“Well,” I pause and rock from side to side on my chair. “You kill people, right? But you don’t seem scared.”
“What makes you think that?”
I shrug. “We overhear things.”
“We?” Dad asks, removing the ice pack from my nose.
“Me, Lil, Dylan, and Skylar. Lil thinks you guys are just talking about a video game. Skylar got this new game where he has to kill zombies and stuff. We told her that you and the other dads had the same game.”
Dad drops the ice pack back on the table and blows out a harsh breath while running a hand through his hair. He stares at me for a long moment before resting his elbows on his knees and leaning forward. Before he can answer me, though, my mom rushes into the living room.
“Oh my god!” she drops to her knees beside me, taking my face in her hands and looking me over like Dad did back at that place.
“I’m okay, Momma,” I tell her, trying to reassure her. It’s not really a lie. I am okay, just sore and in pain.
“I’m going to kill those bastards,” Mom says, her face turning the same shade of red as the highlights in her hair.
“Calm down, Angel. Everything was taken care of.”
Mom levels Dad with a look, and I would hate to be him right now. He glances at me before looking back down at Mom.
“We’ll talk later,” he says.
It looks like Mom wants to argue but she stops and turns her attention back on me. "Let's get this blood cleaned up and then I want to look at your ribs. Antonio said you were favoring your left side."
"I'll leave you two to it. I need to go and fill Braxton in on what we found," Dad says, placing a kiss first on Mom's head and then my own. He leaves Mom and me in the dining room while he goes next door.
“Okay, let’s take a look at this face.”
Braxton
“How the hell did this happen?”
“I haven’t been able to find out any information yet, other than they’re a new MC looking to create a name for themselves. When I find something, I’ll let you know,” Ciaran says from the other side of the cell phone currently clutched in my hand.
They took my daughter and Alessandro’s son. The fuckers thought they could take our family. That the Famiglia won’t fight back.
“We’ll find these fucks, De Luca. You have my word on that.”
Ciaran Black was the head of the Greek mafia here in California and he was one intimidating fucker himself. I’m glad I’m not on his bad side, the guy makes what we’ve done the last several years look like child’s play.
“Appreciate you helping us out today,” I say, turning back to look out the window and the street below.
"They messed with your family. Nobody does that in my territory and gets to live to tell about it. I'll be in touch with new information." The line goes dead and I hit the side button to blackout my screen.
He's right. This shit has been happening far too often for my liking. First, it was Klara and now Liliana. Maybe I have been too lenient. Maybe it was time to reinforce just who I am. It was time to put these fuckers back in their place and make sure they never stepped out of line again because something tells me that this was no coincidence.
Chapter 9
Jessika
It's the day after Cooper's birthday and Christmas Eve. We decided as a group that instead of having four different Christmas', we'd just have one. Plus, with Cooper's birthday so close to Christmas, we wanted him to have his special day without the holiday overshadowing it. Naturally, Braxton and Klara's Chalet is the one everyone picked for our central meeting place. Truthfully, I didn't mind not decorating the tree that's already up in our Chalet. When you grow up like I did, where you spent most holidays carrying out hits for your family or being a captive to your own family than celebrating… well, I prefer the noise and craziness that inevitably ensues when everyone is together. It helps keep my mind from traveling back in time to that place.
Braxton, Alessandro, and Stefan are setting up the black artificial tree in the bay window of the bright living room while How the Grinch Stole Christmas plays on the big TV. All the kids are barely containing their excitement at being able to decorate it after the adults have it set up. It’s finally starting to feel like Christmas, and we’re all in the holiday spirit. Everyone except for Cooper.
My son has isolated himself to the dining room table where he can watch the festivities but not participate. I'm worried about him. Alessandro and I…, in fact, every adult in this room, would have gone through what he did last night and be able to put on a bright smile and move on with life, but he's ten. No ten-year-old, no matter how they're growing up, should have to make the decision he did last night. It breaks my heart that no matter how m
uch we protect these kids from the childhoods we experienced or from the risks that come with being who we are, there will always be that one group, that one person who thinks they have a right to take our kids. Who think nothing of pulling innocent kids into this lifestyle. Our kids are not us. I will protect these kids with my life and shelter them for as long as possible so that they can enjoy being kids before this lifestyle inevitably pulls them in. And I can fight it as much as I want, but eventually, they will all be part of the Famiglia. It sucks and part of me hates it, but another part is grateful because no matter what, they will always have each other to watch their backs.
“You okay?” Brielle asks, coming to sit on my left while Klara takes the seat on my right between me and the arm of the couch.
“I’m worried about Coop,” I confess.
They take in Cooper sitting by himself at the dining room table. His head bent and fingers gripping the short strands of hair at the top of his head.
“Anything we can do?” Klara asks.
I glance over at my son and my heart simultaneously breaks while my blood boils. What I wouldn’t give to have those men within my reach.
“Honestly? I don’t know,” I say eventually,
“Maybe you should talk to the guys and see what helped them when they were Cooper’s age,” Kai suggests, scaling the back of the couch and plopping himself between Brielle and me. Bri scowls at him but soon gives up and shifts over to give him room.
“Yeah,” I say, looking up to see Alessandro watching Cooper too, his brows pulled into a frown. “That’s a good idea. How’s Lily?”
Klara shrugs, "she's acting like nothing happened. She was really worried about Cooper last night and was upset when she couldn't go to him after he got back, but this morning she was her usual bubbly self if a little annoyed at her father." A small grin slowly tugs the corners of her lips. "He's been even more overprotective than usual."
“When is it ever going to end?” I ask no one in particular. “Will it always be like this?”
“I mean we all knew what we were signing up for when we fell in love with the men we did, but for all their faults the Famiglia has never and will never bring kids into any of their business,” Klara answers.
“He’s going to be okay, Jess,” Kai says, pulling me into his arms. “They both will,” he adds, looking over my head at Klara. “They have strong parents who they look up to.”
The four of us sit in silence for a while, watching the men set up the tree but with our thoughts on our children.
“How many men does it take to set up a fake tree?” Klara asks, changing the subject to which I’m grateful.
If I keep thinking about the men who took my son and Liliana, nothing would be able to stop me from going out and hunting them down. Cooper managed to kill one of them before Alessandro and Antonio got there. They said that it looked like the guy may have been working for someone else too because there were a slew of dead bodies around the place. My gut tells me that this isn’t over. Someone out there was trying to hurt us.
Klara accidentally nudges me when she shifts to get more comfortable and I tune back into the conversations and activity going on around me. We all turn to watch the guys shuffling the big 9-foot tree back and forth.
"Three and one supervisor," I laugh, my gaze darting to where Antonio is, in fact, supervising the perfect position of the tree in front of the window.
“This is almost too painful to watch,” Brielle comments.
“But I can’t look away,” Klara adds, and we all giggle in agreement.
“A little more to the left,” Toni says. “You’re other left.”
“I swear to Christ, Moretti, you’ll be leaning to the left when I’m done with you,” Alessandro grits out between clenched teeth. I snort, looks like someone is a tad bit cranky today.
Klara side-eyes me after having heard Alex's outburst. "Is he still on a sex ban?"
My cheeks heat. “Yes, but not on purpose. With everything that happened with Lily and Cooper, and Cameron developing a bit of a fever last night… it was just the last thing on either of our minds.”
“Ooh, no sex and no sleep. Explains why someone is extra growly today,” Kai says, propping a foot up under him.
The other ladies giggle and I sigh. “He really doesn’t do well without some action,” I say, and as if to prove my point, Alessandro comes stomping around the tree and gets right up into Antonio’s face. His anger and frustration seemingly making him grow several inches in the process.
“Jess,” Kai warns. When I glance at him beside me, his fists are clenched tightly causing his knuckles to go white.
"Fuck, okay." I hand Brielle my drink and push up off the couch to go save my husband before this turns into a duel. Kai might not be the fighting type, but when someone threatens his husband all bets are off and vice versa for Antonio. And our number one rule this week, while we were all on vacation, was no violence. However, that seems to have gone out the window after what happened to the kids.
Alessandro and Antonio are standing toe to toe, their noses almost touching when I start pushing myself between them to face my own husband. When I get a good look at his face – eyes blazing, and jaw clenched – I realize how stupid I’ve been, I’ve known from the beginning that Alessandro thrives on violence and sex. Take one away and the other increases in importance. It’s why his daily routine consists of beating the shit out of the punching bag in our basement gym. It’s why he’s perfect as the Capo of the Famiglia. He needs it. And it’s not his fault. It’s the way they were raised; him, Braxton, Antonio, and Stefan. They were all raised by Lukas De Luca in some sort of capacity.
“Okay, Big Guy. Let’s go.” I put my palms on his broad chest and give him a little push to encourage him to take a couple steps back. Reluctantly he does and I can hear Kai doing the same with Antonio behind me. “We’ll be back,” I tell the others, slipping a hand through my husband’s and pulling him along with me through the front door and down the path to our own little private escape.
“Jess-”
He starts but I cut him off when I shove him up against the entranceway wall, one of my hands curling around the back of his neck and pulling him down so I can kiss him and effectively shut him up. Alessandro growls, his big hands roaming over the globes of my ass before lifting me up. I curl my arms behind his neck and wrap my legs around his waist and he carries me up the stairs, kicking open our bedroom door and depositing me into the middle of the queen-sized bed.
“This is going to hurt,” he warns, and I grin, leaning up on my elbows.
“I’m counting on it.”
Chapter 10
Klara
"What's wrong with Uncle Alex?" Lily asks, crawling onto the couch beside me and lifting my arm so she can snuggle into my side. I kiss the top of her head and then smooth down the blonde fly-aways that have come loose from the black and gold headband.
“Nothing, baby. You ready to decorate the tree?”
“Yeah!” she says loudly, almost head butting me in the chin when she scrambles to sit up in her excitement. Blue eyes identical to my own, sparkle back at me. “Coop says he got something for me.”
Her expression immediately dims. Little lines appearing across her forehead as her brows draw in, and the corners of her lips turn down.
“What’s wrong, Lily?”
"But I didn't get anything for him." Her eyes begin to fill with tears, and I can tell it really bothers her. My girl is a giver. It makes her happy to see others happy; even at six-years-old. She'd rather see someone else smile than worry about herself. How the hell Braxton and I ended up with a daughter like her, we'll never know. But we couldn't have asked for a better daughter.
“We did, though. Remember? We went shopping for Cooper and Cameron and the twins?”
“But it’s not from me,” she stresses, her blue eyes pleading with me. For what? I’m not sure.
I quickly glance at the cable box above her head. “Well, we have a litt
le time before the shops close. Why don’t the two of us go see what we can do?”
Her smile is back instantly and her face lights up. “And pedicures?”
I laugh. I probably should’ve seen that one coming. “If we can find a place open then we can get you a pedicure.” And maybe mommy can get her hair done. I leave that last part out, though.
Lily lunges for me, her arms wrap around my middle and squeezes me in a tight hug. Then she’s bounding off the couch and running for her shoes and coat. Several minutes later, Lily is strapped into her car seat in the back of the SUV and we’re headed into town.
“Momma,” she says from her car seat.
“Yes, baby?” I’m stopped at a red light, so I look over my shoulder at her.
“Why does Coop hate me?”
"He doesn't hate you, Lily. He's just hurting right now." The light changes and the cars in front of me begin to move so I turn back around to concentrate on the road.
“He told me to leave him alone. He never tells me to leave him alone.”
I can hear the sadness in her voice and my heart cracks a little more. “Maybe he just needs some time, baby. Don’t be mad at him, though. Just be there for him.”
She's quiet for a while. I glance in the rear-view mirror and see her face pensive as she stares out the window on her side. "I'll never leave him. Never." She nods in finality to herself and then goes back to taking selfies with my phone.
When Lily and I park back in front of the Chalet, the white fairy lights are turned on, transforming the outside of the Chalet into something you’d see in a Hallmark movie. I lock the car and follow Lily into the house. The smell of peppermint and gingerbread hitting me almost instantly.
“It smells so good in here,” I say, hanging up my coat and taking Lily’s before she runs up the stairs to make cards for Cooper and the twins.
The tree is still undecorated, but there’s green garland running along the edge of the fireplace mantel and up the railing of the stairs. Four stockings are hanging down over the fireplace and there’s a string of Christmas tree lights lying across the living room floor like they were in the process of being untangled and then someone abandoned them. I find Braxton and the others in the kitchen, standing around the island.
A Famiglia Christmas Page 5