by Tiffany Jade
"Hanging in there Luc," I tell him with a conspiratorial wink, his lips almost curve into a smile. Which for Luca is a full blown, toothy grin. The guys shake their heads and Luca stands, the rest of the boys taking that as their cue to follow him over to the pool table in the corner of the room. He racks up the balls as the joking continues around him.
Gray shakes his head at me.
"What?" I ask him, going to rest my head on his shoulder but quickly jerking away as I remember he is sore. He grabs me and lays my head down himself.
"First off, your little head weighs a lot less than the force that slammed into me yesterday so chill, and secondly, you even got my hard ass cousin who barely likes me to like you? What in thee actual fuck?"
"I told you Grayson," I look up at him and bat my eyes. "I'm the Queen—that means everyone loves me." He rolls his eyes but laughs and I soak in the sound. I lean up for a kiss which he quickly returns.
"If everyone loved you I would not be nursing this giant bruise on my chest and some possibly," he flinches again as he tries to take a deep breath, "definitely, bruised ribs." He speaks against my lips with a smile. I mean he has a point.
"Poor baby," I pout for him and pull back a bit. "Do you want to go see a doctor today and get checked out?" I mean it seriously but being Grayson....
"Hell yes Dr. Liviana, please take me to my room and nurse me back to health!" He pulls me up from the couch and tugs me towards the door.
"I meant a real doctor Grayson!" He shakes his head and continues to lead me out.
"Hey!" Nate's shout stops us as we reach the door.
"My fuck," Grayson mutters.
"Hey it's usually Daxon," I play whisper, Daxon hears and bows.
"We are having a party tonight," Nate continues, "you two better come, since you're like the stars of the show or whatever."
"Isn't it a little soon to be having a party? I mean yesterday was a lot." I look for support but all the guys look at me like I'm speaking another language. I forget, partying is like a whenever the hell I feel like it kinda thing when you live like them.
"If you're scared to lose to me and D at beer pong you can just say so Liv," Gray wraps his arm around my shoulder but gives me a challenging smirk. "Just like laser tag."
"HA! Oh! Okay! Never mind," I turn to Nate. "We will definitely be there!" The guys all smile, even Luca with his lip twitch. I turn and walk out the door with Grayson on my heels.
"Babe!" I keep walking, "Queen!" A few more feet. "Liviana!" He grabs my arm and pushes me up against the wall in the hallway, then boxes me in with his arms. I smile up at him.
"How does it feel to know that you are going to lose at beer pong for the rest of your life Grayson?" I ask him sweetly. His eyes sparkle as he looks down at me. The walls he used to have built up completely gone. Actual light, happiness, and love replacing the cold. He grins.
She sparkles. All of her. A fucking halo in this hell hole surrounding me. Is calling her the light at the end of my tunnel cheesy?
Fuck yes it is.
But she is.
She grins up at me waiting for my answer and it takes every ounce of brain cell in me not to drop to the floor and ruin the plans I had for her in Italy next month. The vacation I promised her was happening, even though I hadn’t let her in on it yet.
I had time. I knew I had time now. Time to make everything perfect. For her.
Cheesy fucker.
I clear my throat while she looks at me, waiting for an answer here dumbass.
"I'm hoping that one day I'll be able to convince you to be my partner so I can experience that win," her smile makes me smile.
She thinks for a second. Wiggling her nose.
"Have you ever been partners with a girl before?" I laugh instantly at the comment. A dig back to that day at the beach. I change my expression to the one that she loved to call my 'fuck boy' look. She holds back her laugh but I can see it.
"Most girls don't want me for that." I lick my lips and look right at hers. Because I remember this moment perfectly, just like every moment with her.
She rolls her eyes.
"For real though, I know I'm not the best player. I could learn a lot from you, Queen. Plus," I wave around my house, "You're new here, you could use a partner." She loses her battle against her laugh. She sticks her hand out.
"Partners then," she giggles out. I shake her hand and then pull her into me. My lips landing on hers.
Hook.
Line.
Sinker.
She caught me.
Epilogue
One month later…
San Remo, Italy
“I know it’s not really the tropical vacation you mentioned, but I hope you don’t mind the location,” Grayson smiles as we walk along the beach.
“Your very own Italian villa with a private beach? Yeah I think I’ll suffer through the location,” I roll my eyes at him as he wraps his arm around my waist and chuckles.
The weather was too cool to swim but I didn’t care, we were alone, with no more distractions from insane exes, murderous fathers, and interrupting brothers. We could have been anywhere and as long as he was there—I would have been happy.
“Our very own Italian villa, Queen,” he winks as he leads me away from the water. He keeps his arm around me and pulls me in closer, keeping me warm against the chilly evening. “Let’s head back to the fire,” he turns me around and leads me back to where our evening had began.
He had surprised me with a walk down to the shore as the sun had started to set. The reason behind him sending me out shopping all day became clear when I took in the fire pit he had set up. He had thrown blankets around on the sand and had brought down a basket full of food that we had enjoyed together while watching the sun set over the water.
“Tonight was amazing.” I smile up at him as we near the fire. He kisses my cheek and smiles.
“Was it, Queen?” I nod, and he starts smirking. He pulls his phone out of his pocket and types quickly. An almost immediate response comes back and he turns me around, pressing my back to his chest and wrapping his arms around me. “It’s about to get more amazing,” he whispers into my ear, sending shivers down my spine.
“What do you m—” the first BOOM makes my body jerk so hard I almost fly out of Gray’s arms, his body shakes with his laughter.
Fireworks.
He turns us slowly as they erupt all around us. Gold and silver sparkles everywhere I look. My heart races as my eyes bounce, trying to take it all in.
“Only the best for you Liviana,” I can feel his smile as he whispers to me again. He holds me and sways in a slow dance, keeping me moving to watch the whole show. I can't catch my breath at the beauty of it all.
His arms drop as a final burst of fireworks sounds. I notice his arms are gone but as I begin to turn to him I freeze as the fireworks take on the shape of a golden crown, floating in the night sky. I watch as they fade away, leaving behind a smoky outline. It blurs as tears fill my eyes.
I flip around and am met by Grayson, on one knee, a simple black box in his outstretched hand and that damn smirk on his face.
“Is this better?” he asks, tilting his head to the side.
“Y—”
“SAY YES!” A shout makes me flip around.
“You have GOT to be fucking kidding me. In his sleep—I swear to God,” Grayson grumbles behind me as I catch sight of Daxon on the balcony of the villa, waving his arms. Next to him stands Dean and Gigi—Gigi is smacking D on the arm, I’m sure telling him to shut the hell up. I burst into laughter as I turn back around to Grayson.
“They got in while you were shopping. They insisted on throwing you a surprise party, but well—Dax,” Gray rolls his eyes as I grab his hand and tug at him to stand. He obliges, wrapping the arm that isn’t holding the ring around me.
“So what do you say, Queen?”
“To what, Grayson?” I grin up at him and bat my eyes in the way I know drives him crazy. Now he’s rolli
ng his eyes.
“What have you done to me—” he shakes his head but chuckles. “You already know the worst sides of me Liviana, the parts of my life that I hide— you’ve seen them. And for some reason I will never be able to comprehend, you are still standing here in front of me. You bring light to the darkness that has surrounded me for so long. Before you, I was fine with this life—I didn’t want it, but I had no reason to really try to do better. But here you are, and for the first time I see a life where I want to still be around in fifty years. Chasing your fine ass around with my walker,” he winks at me as my eyes begin to fill with tears again. “I want to do better—with you. I want to be better—with you. I told you before that I know you deserve so much better than me, and I’ll believe that until the day I die but damn, Queen, I promise that I am going to try my hardest to be a man worthy of you.” He smiles as he pulls back a bit and takes my hand again—holding the ring up next to it.
“So now what do you say, Queen? Will you marry me, Liviana?”
“Seriously, just say yes already!” D shouts again from the balcony and this time Grayson chuckles.
“Yeah—what he said.”
“Yes, Grayson.” He slides the ring onto my finger, his hands shaking. “Was that scary?” I ask as I wrap my arms around his neck and stand on my toes to plant a kiss on his cheek.
“Liv, you terrify me.” We both start laughing as sounds from the villa start to get louder. Music starts to play and lights start flashing. I begin to walk towards the party when Gray flips me around and pulls me close. His lips land on mine in a heated kiss. “Queen Demonte…I really like the sound of that.”
The music pounds as the party goes on around me. I can’t believe she said yes. How I got lucky enough for her to agree is fucking beyond me. I see her dancing in the middle of the room, surrounded by my sisters who have already welcomed her in as family and I can’t help but smile.
Everybody I walk past pats me on the back. Probably just as fucking shocked at my luck as I am.
“Grayson!” Nate pops up from behind me with a weird look on his face.
Fuck.
“Gotta be tonight?”
“Sorry bro,” he tilts his head over toward the door where Luca is waiting, an even more pissed off look than usual on his face.
“Fuck.”
Nate grabs Dax too and we head over.
“Well, lay it on me,” I look to Luca while he hands me a stack of papers. Sitting on top is a police report. “You’re fucking kidding me. How?”
“It’s in the rest of the report, but seems like it was an inside job. The whole facilities camera system went down at the same time—hell of a job, these guys were good.” It takes a lot to get a compliment out of Luca when it comes to computer skills, so I know whatever happened to that system had to be impressive. He pulls out another paper out of the stack and hands it to me. “The names of the escapees are listed—all sixteen of them—only four have been apprehended.”
I thumb through the papers, my heart racing. Six dead—one convict, five guards. Two lawyers and one FBI agent MIA. As my eyes scan the page I feel her come up behind me.
“What’s wrong guys?” I take a deep breath before turning around to face her. Her smile instantly drops, the sparkle in her eyes fading.
“Everything is fine, Queen. Go enjoy your party, I’ll be right out.” She glares at me and turns to Luca.
“What’s going on, Luc?” Luca coughs as she turns on him. He shakes his head so she turns her glare on him too.
“Fine, I’m gonna go get Mama—”
“NO!” I grab her hand and stop her as we all shout.
“Then fill me in. Now.”
A collective sigh comes from all of us. Her glare turns to a look of worry as we all stall.
“Seriously, what’s going on? You’re freaking me out. Gray?” Her arms find their way around my waist as she scoots in closer. I hug her back and kiss her on the forehead. Steeling myself.
“Serafina’s missing—” her intake of breath makes my chest ache.
“Missing? How the hell do you go missing from a high security federal prison?!” She looks around at all of us, but we don’t have the answers yet either. “Seriously? You guys are kidding right? Like some kind of engagement prank? Haha?”
Dax shakes his head as she meets his eyes.
“That’s not all,” Dean shows up through the doorway, shoving his phone into his pocket. We all look to him, frozen in place. Because of course it can get worse, why the fuck not? “I just got off the phone with one of our contacts that was watching Gio’s recovery. He woke up a couple of days ago.” Liv buries herself into my chest, holding on tight. I try to focus on her as my heart starts to pound.
“He’s on his way to prison now right?” Nate pops in, hopeful, but we all know it can’t be that easy.
“Well he was—until the transport van literally fell off the face of the fucking Earth.” Dean shakes his head in disbelief as he speaks.
“So—just to clarify—both Gio AND Serafina are missing?” Liv squeezes her arms around me one more time before she turns herself out of my arms to face everyone. Her spine straightens as the guys all nod grimly at her. She takes a deep breath and moves to my side, grabbing my hand. “Alright. Well boys, what are we going to do about it?”
From the Author
HI! Welcome to the end of Some Way! I hope you enjoyed this ride along with me. I hope it made you smile, made you laugh, maybe made you sit on the edge of your seat, and gave you some sort of an escape.
This story would not have made it if not for the love, encouragement, comments, messages, and sharing of all the amazing people who had to trudge through the first drafts! You all gave me the push I needed to share the movie that plays in my head and I can't thank you enough for that! I love and appreciate you all so much.
If this is your first intro to Gray and Liv, thank you so much for being here! I hope you truly enjoyed their story and would love any and all feedback that you may have!
This is not the last you will see of the Demonte and Moretti boys, they have lots more to tell so please stay tuned to see what trouble finds them next! You can come hang out with me on Instagram @TiffsJaded, I would love to connect and chat with you!
Sending you all the hugs, love, and good vibes!
xoxo-Tiff