by Lora Leigh
“You bitch!” Gia cursed, and with a hard buck of her upper body nearly managed to pitch Alyssa off her.
Being short sucked.
Gia was taller, stronger, her bones a bit larger. She was built like Margot, while Alyssa knew her shorter, more delicate build was nothing to brag about in a fight.
Even her martial arts instructor had shaken his head at her more than once.
But she’d learned.
Swinging her elbow around, she caught Gia in the side of the head as her nails dug into the other woman’s wrist.
“Bitch!” Gia grunted again, managing to put her elbow in Alyssa’s side before Alyssa threw her head forward, slamming it into the other woman’s and hearing a satisfied cry of surprise and pain.
Alyssa quickly followed it up with her knee to Gia’s abdomen as they rolled again. Her hands nearly slipped from the wrists she was fighting to keep down, and the gun out of her direction.
Dammit. What made her think she could take on an Amazon anyway? This was ridiculous.
“I’ll kill you,” Gia grunted again as Alyssa managed to slam her knee into the other woman’s ribs. “You bitch!”
Hell, Gia needed to learn a few more insults. That one was getting old.
As they rolled again Gia managed a surprisingly hard blow to Alyssa’s face, bringing a grunt and silent curse at the thought of the bruise she would have for it.
As hard as she tried, as much effort as she put into it, size did matter, and Gia had quite a bit on her. Not to mention Gia’s advanced training. Before she could outmaneuver her, Gia had her on her back, lifting her arms, tearing her wrists, and the gun, from Alyssa’s hold.
“Dead.” Gia’s face contorted with rage as she tore her wrists from Alyssa’s hold. At the same time, her weight was lifted, shock on her face as the gun was torn from her grip and Shane tossed her to the floor like a sack of potatoes. Falcone held the gun, staring at it a second before his gaze moved to Gia where she lay on the carpet, staring up at the ceiling as she fought to catch her breath.
Reaching down, Shane quickly pulled Alyssa to her feet, his expression savage, his eyes so blue they were scary.
“’Bastian?” she whispered, fear seizing her, nearly stealing her breath.
“He’s in recovery,” he growled, his gaze on Gia as she continued to lie on the floor. “He’s going to make it.”
Bending, bracing her hands on her knees, Alyssa drew in a hard breath, fighting the weakness threatening to overcome her.
“What’s going on, Gia?” Falcone asked her, his tone like chipped ice, sharp, incredibly cold.
Gia turned her face to the side, staring away from them.
“I trusted you.” Falcone’s voice was low, and as cold as it was, the betrayal in his gaze was just as hot. “You could have come to me, Gia.”
Gia shook her head.
“Why didn’t you come to me?” his voice rose, cracking like a whip in the stillness in the room.
“Why would I?” she sneered, her gaze moving to Summer, hatred spilling from it, spitting back at the other woman. “You keep your nose so far up that little cunt’s ass you don’t know if you’re coming or going.”
Alyssa watched Summer, saw the backward step she made, the shock on her face as she stared at the woman she had believed was her friend.
“Summer?” Falcone snapped. “What does she have to do with this?”
“Everything and nothing.” Gia laughed even as tears ran from the corners of her eyes. “She’s one of those little bitches you love yet you hate. Like a two-year-old without the ability to grow up? So everyone fawns over her. How pretty she is. How sweet she is. And that stupid accent of hers. She sounds like she has a mouth full of fucking chewing tobacco all the time!” she screamed the last words.
“This has nothing to do with Summer!” Falcone yelled back at her.
“She’s why I couldn’t come to you.” Gia came to her feet in a surge of fury and honed instincts.
And in her hand she carried a smaller, though just as deadly, weapon she’d pulled from her ankle.
Falcone simply stared at it as Gia pointed it at his chest.
“Kevin Barkley is your brother, and you again helped him attempt to kill Alyssa,” Falcone stated softly. “I received the proof of your relationship not twenty minutes ago. You’ve had plenty of time to come to me rather than turning this on Alyssa or Summer. You want to blame others for your own mistakes,” he stated icily. “All you had to do was come to me.”
“And betray my brother,” she sneered. “The funny part is, I would have,” she whispered. “I was going to. When I heard you tell her to shadow me. To watch me, Falcone? You didn’t trust me, but you trusted her?”
“I was worried,” he breathed out, incredulous disbelief filling the sound. “I was worried about you. She was to watch after you, not watch you,” he explained, disgust filling his expression. “Such guilt, Gia. You carry such guilt you must suspect everything and everyone. I should have known months ago what you were doing. I should have known when Summer nearly died in Russia.”
Gia slid a slow, mocking look to where Summer stood still and silent. “Yes, you should have,” she said softly. “I would have let her die.” She gave Alyssa a look filled with malicious cruelty. “Like I let Kevin poison that fucking brat of yours. I knew what he was doing and I didn’t stop him. I didn’t even try because I knew if you had that kid there would have been no keeping Sebastian and Shane away from you. And Harvey would have gone ballistic. Kevin wouldn’t have survived that.”
Alyssa lost the strength in her legs, agony piercing her with such force she nearly cried out.
Her gaze moved back to Falcone. “Good-bye, Falcone. It’s been fun.”
There was no stopping her. The gun came up so quickly, her finger tightening on the trigger. The shot that exploded through the Chapel threw Gia back, shock widening her eyes as her gaze locked to Summer.
Summer was crying. She still held her weapon in her hand, but tears ran down her cheeks as she slowly lowered her arm and dropped the gun to the floor.
“Like I didn’t know how you hated me anyway,” she said softly, but the sound of her voice was that of betrayal. “But that’s for killing that sweet little baby. For breaking all our hearts, Gia.”
“Get them out of here, Shane, now,” Falcone ordered him. “I’ll handle this.”
“Falcone—”
“Go!” he snapped. “Get them out of here. Security will be here in seconds.”
Grabbing Alyssa’s arm and striding to Summer, Shane gripped hers as Falcone scooped her weapon from the floor. Shane was rushing them through a side door as security rushed into the Chapel entrance.
It was over, but the pain and betrayal left behind wouldn’t be easily forgotten, Alyssa knew. It would be impossible to forget. Especially for Summer and Falcone.
27
Alyssa approached Sebastian’s bed slowly, quietly.
His thick, dark blond hair was disheveled, mussed around his pale face. His chest and shoulders were bare but for the large white bandage over the right side where the bullet had gone in.
“He’s going to be okay?” She looked at where Francesca Connor stood at the bottom of his bed, checking his file.
Deep black hair shot with just a bit of silver was gathered in a low ponytail and trailed to between her shoulders. She was tall, five seven at least, and slender. The trauma surgeon didn’t look like a surgeon. She looked like a model.
“He’s going to be fine,” Francesca promised gently. “If he rests, doesn’t overdo things.” She shrugged. “Sebastian isn’t a good patient, though.”
“Well, he is now.” Turning a fierce gaze on him as she moved to his bedside Alyssa decided then and there he would definitely make certain he took care of himself.
He opened one eye. “I hear you’ve been in trouble.” His voice was scratchy, weaker than she was used to you. “Mom told me all about it.”
She breathed out wearily. “I t
hink we need a vacation when you get out of here, ’Bastian. Sun. Sand.”
“Barcelona,” he and Shane both said softly.
“Barcelona,” she agreed, smiling, feeling that anticipation, the warmth and freedom she hadn’t known in eight years. Then she narrowed her eyes on him. “When you’ve healed. Completely.”
“Days,” he assured her.
“Six weeks,” his aunt injected, her voice firm. “No less. More if he doesn’t behave himself and rest.”
“He’ll behave himself.” Touching his arm to feel his warmth, to know he was still there with her, Alyssa let her hand move to his, felt his fingers link with hers, and felt the prickle of tears as emotion swamped her, love filling her until she had no idea what to do with the overload.
“I love you,” she whispered, glancing at where Shane stood beside her then. “I love both of you.”
“Hey, you know how to use the l word,” Sebastian joked weakly. “Knew you had it in you.”
But his eyes were drifting closed, weakness overtaking him as he slipped back into sleep.
Leaning to him, Alyssa let her lips touch his and felt the faintest response.
“Love you, ’Lyssa,” he sighed. “Love you.”
He was going to be okay.
Beside her, Shane slipped his arm around her waist, holding her close as both of them watched over Sebastian.
They were hers. Her Goof and her Cowboy. They were hers now.
“I love you both,” she whispered. “So much.”
“Forever,” Shane vowed. “We’ll love you forever, Alyssa.”
Epilogue
FOUR MONTHS LATER
BARCELONA, SPAIN
DE LOREN HACIENDA
Shane and Sebastian stepped warily into their grandfather’s office, remembering well the last time they were called in for a meeting in such a way.
They paused just inside the door, allowing it to close softly as they faced Fernando and Sebastian’s parents, as well as Lucien. Standing off to the side like a recalcitrant teenager, arms crossed over her checkered blouse she wore with jeans and boots, Alyssa shot them a look of silent amusement.
Sebastian restrained the groan that threatened to break free. This was becoming a weekly thing. Fernando demanding their presence to demand they do something about yet another of their wife’s shenanigans as Fernando called them.
Sebastian rubbed at the back of his neck, aware of Shane breathing out a hard breath. They stepped forward together, uncertain of what she could have done. For the first time in the weeks they had been at the hacienda, their grandfather’s expression was bland rather than a mix of amusement and bemusement. He rarely knew what to do with her, or what to say to her.
“What did you do this time?” he muttered as he neared his wife.
She gave a little roll of her eyes. “He’s blowing it completely out of proportion you know.”
Hell.
Fernando’s expression lapsed into one of complete amazement. He looked from Alyssa then back to them then to Lucien.
Narrowing his eyes on his brother, Sebastian watched as Lucien lowered his head, pinching at the bridge of his nose and giving it a little shake.
“I promised them I wouldn’t do it again, for a while,” she muttered, crossing her arms over her breasts. “They wouldn’t even listen to me. Just called you like Summer’s parents used to call Momma.” Exasperation filled her voice. “Completely uncalled for if you want my opinion.”
“Sebastian. Shane.” Fernando stared back at them broodingly as someone smothered a chuckle, probably his father, Sebastian thought. He was completely smitten by his daughter-in-law. As far as he and Tabitha were concerned, Alyssa could do no wrong.
“Yes Grandfather?” Shane asked broodingly. “What did she do this time?”
“This is really unnecessary, Grandfather.” She turned to the old man with a winsome smile, her expression filled with such sincerity. “I did promise after all.”
The old man stared back at her, his expression softening as he stared at that smile. Sebastian couldn’t blame him. That same smile had the power to blow their minds as well.
“Grandfather.” It rarely worked on Lucien though. He adored his ‘little sister’, as he called her, but that smile rarely affected him.
Alyssa glared at him. “Tattletale,” she muttered.
“I was viewing security tapes from several weeks ago, Sebastian,” Lucien informed him then. “I was given quite a show.”
“Look.” Alyssa stepped forward, her hands on her hips, her expression less than pleased. “I said it won’t happen again.”
“I will make certain of that,” Lucien drawled.
“It can’t happen again,” she bit out.
“Alyssa,” Lucien growled. “Your safety.”
“I just learned I’m pregnant, Lucien. I would never risk my baby.”
The room went silent.
“That was a month ago,” she informed him archly. “I always make certain I’m not pregnant before doing something…” she smiled, pausing. “… the males of this family would disapprove of.”
Still, no one spoke.
Fernando sat down slowly, still staring at her in shock, while Sebastian felt a surge of such emotion explode inside him that it nearly brought him to his knees.
“A great-grandchild,” Fernando said softly. “I have a chance to see my first great-grandchild.”
“Good God, he’d let her hang glide if she wanted to,” Lucien growled. “Father. Mother. Stop staring at her like that.”
“But Lucien, a grandchild,” her mother exclaimed with a little hitch of her breath. “My first grandchild.”
Alyssa was staring at him and Shane worriedly.
“I wasn’t pregnant then,” she assured them. “It was just a little ride.”
“On Diablo,” Lucien snapped.
“And he loved me.” Excitement filled her voice. “He was a sweetheart, I swear he was. And he runs like the wind, Sebastian.”
He blinked at her.
Diablo was huge, midnight black, and completely unridable. Or so Lucien bitched often.
“That fucking horse is in love with her,” Lucien growled. “And that’s besides the point.”
She was pregnant.
Nothing else mattered.
Because as she said, she would never risk their child. For the next nine months or so, they would have a wife that walked as though on eggshells.
And they would have a child.
She flashed them a smile of such joy that Sebastian felt his heart melt all over again. She was his beloved, she was their beloved.
He took a step toward her.
“You’re certain?” he whispered.
“Have you been home yet?” The little seaside home his grandfather had given them.
Sebastian shook his head.
That smile that tilted his lips … If she hadn’t held his heart before, she held it now.
“Test strip is in the bathroom.”
Before he could move, Shane did. He swept her up in his arms as she gave a joyous little laugh.
“Coming?” she asked as Shane walked past him, heading for the door.
“She has you two wrapped around her little finger tighter than a Christmas puppy,” Lucien informed him broodingly.
“Fall in love, brother,” Sebastian suggested softly. “And then tell me that.”
Turning, he followed his cousin and their wife. And the child they had created together.
It would never matter which of them fathered the babe, he or she would always belong to both of them.
Just as the mother belonged to both of them.
WASHINGTON D.C.
We’re pregnant!
OMG. I’m god-mommy!
Of course you are. Come see me Summer. I miss you.
Very soon sugar. I promise ☺
Better be soon. Love ya
Love ya:P
A tear dropped on the phone’s screen before Summer tossed it to the mat
tress and returned to staring at the wall, slowly dampening the pillow beneath her cheek with her tears.
It was so much easier to fool Alyssa by text than it was by voice. Thank God her friend hadn’t actually called. Had she done so then Summer would have never hid the tears, the pain she couldn’t stop.
“You look like a fucking Barbie doll, bitch,” Gia muttered as Summer arrived at Falcone’s home for a pre-assignment briefing.
“Why sugah, that was the point behind it all,” Summer laughed, believing the other woman was teasing.
The pretty sundress bared her shoulders and the upper mounds of her tanned breasts. It hugged her body like a lover from breast to scant inches below indecent along her thighs. She looked good. She knew she did.
Left loose but for the small amount pinned back from her face, her hair hung down her back in rich, black curls, falling to her waist with a healthy, silken sheen.
“Take the tobacco out of your mouth,” Gia sounded irritated, but she would always flash Summer a smile to show she was teasing. That was her way. Or so Summer thought.
Her brothers hadn’t liked Gia. Especially her older brother, Caleb. She and Caleb had gotten into a horrible fight when he called Gia a trashy little tramp.
Margot never said anything nasty about Gia, but she rarely gave any notice to Gia when she was around either.
“You should cut that stringy hair,” Gia snarled as she watched Falcone help Summer braid the long strands. “It’s a fucking hazard…”
“I would spank you, little one,” Falcone laughed, tying off the braid. “Your hair is lovely.”
“I would have let her die…” Hatred filled Gia’s voice.
“She always sounds like her mouth is filled with chewing tobacco…”
How stupid she had been. So stupid. She should have known how Gia was lying to them all these years. It was her fault Alyssa had lost her lovers, her fault that sweet little baby had died. Oh God, how had Alyssa ever forgiven her?
Perhaps she hadn’t really forgiven her. Alyssa was so sweet she would never deliberately hurt anyone. Especially someone with the history they shared.
They had saved each other so many times. Now, there was no one there to save Summer, though. No one to take away the agony resonating inside her. And it hurt. Oh God, it hurt so bad she couldn’t stand it.