Becca.
Layla and I were dictating to the housekeeper what we needed bought and brought in for the children when Jas arrived at the door to my suite. He leaned on the doorfra, just watching. Alessandro was on a blanket on the floor, blowing bubbles and kicking his little legs in the air.
Dahlia was under a different, lighter blanket as I breastfed her.
“... Lightweight pacifiers, if you can find them,” Layla was saying. “Alessandro won’t take the heavier ones yet.”
“Of course, Miss Garcia,” the housekeeper, Giana, confird. “We can get anything you need.”
“Don’t forget about things you need for yourselves,” Jas called, and Giana turned around and gave a slight bow.
“Yes, I was just getting to that, signore. But they have been terribly concerned about the children,” Giana explained to him.
I liked Giana. I’d never actually t a housekeeper who was in charge of a whole fleet of maids, but she was a no-nonsense woman in her sixties with guntal gray hair and a sharp intellect. I was pretty sure if Patton weren’t available, she could have commanded his armies.
“Becca, would you mind if I played with Alessandro for a bit while you’re making your lists?” Jas asked with a hopeful smile.
Giana and Layla kept going back and forth over needed items while I nodded, and Jas ca in. Even in what must be a tailored suit, he sat down on the floor next to Alessandro.
Alessandro waved a chubby hand, then gripped one of Jas’s fingers and brought it to his mouth, gumming it.
I thought my heart might burst.
“Madam?” Giana repeated, bringing my attention back to her.
“Oh, I’m sorry. What was the question?” I asked.
“I would like a list of items you need for yourself, madam,” Giana said.
“Right. Yes.” I forced myself to keep my eyes away from Jas and the cooing and giggling baby on the floor, and gave Giana’s question so thought. Giana had already established a strict hierarchy. Layla was “Miss Garcia,” as she was a mber of staff. I was “madam” because I was... well... madam, I guess.
I began rattling off things like clothes and toiletries. I was rather sure they wouldn’t be able to get my favorite New Zealand skincare regin here, but Giana wrote it down with just a sage nod of her head.
Layla’s list wasn’t extravagant at all, and Giana seed to approve of that. She smiled at both of us and then left my suite just as I was switching Dahlia to my other breast.
“Powerful little eater, huh?” Jas asked, grinning up at .
“They both are,” Layla confird.
“We started Alessandro on formula, though, since... well... before I had Dahlia.” I paused. I didn’t want to bring up Tally. “Anyway, he’s still on a very high-quality formula.”
Jas nodded in understanding but didn’t speak.
“I barely produce enough milk for just Dahlia,” I said apologetically.
Jas shrugged. “Not to worry. We just double-confirm that Alessandro is on the highest-quality formula there is, and I’ve no doubt he’ll grow up big and strong.”
“Like his grandpa,” I added without thinking.
Jas smiled softly. “Like his grandpa.”
“I’ll just go see about the nursery,” Layla said, looking from to Jas and back again. She rose quickly and exited the suite.
Then it was Jas and and the air crackling between us.
“Take the blanket off?” It was almost an order.
“Why? I’m not done breastfeeding,” I replied, though a shiver went down my spine at his demand.
“I want to see Dahlia,” Jas said, giving big, puppy eyes.
Sotis, Jas could be so sweet. But I also knew the side of him that was stone cold.
I decided to give his sweet side a reward. I pulled the blanket off and revealed Dahlia, who was making little coos and grunts while her cheeks puffed in and out, very determined to get her lunch.
Jas scooped Alessandro off the floor and held him in the crook of his arm, then sat down next to . He smiled at Dahlia and stroked her dark hair.
Dahlia was too busy eating to notice or care.
But I noticed. I didn’t know if it was post-pregnancy hormones or what, but my eyes welled up with tears.
Jas put an arm around and kissed my tears, then bent down to kiss Dahlia’s little head. She stopped nursing, gumming at my nipple a bit now and then, but mostly falling asleep.
“May I?” Jas asked, taking the arm that wasn’t holding Alessandro and holding it out to .
I carefully placed Dahlia in the cradle of Ja’s other arm, and watched, choking back tears, while Jas held them both. The expression on his face was pure bliss as Dahlia slept and Alessandro tugged on one of his jacket buttons.
“I wish I’d been there,” Jas whispered, stroking each baby with his thumb. “I’m sorry, Becca. I really thought I was doing the right thing, staying away. I wanted to keep you and the little ones as far away from the dangers of my life as possible. But all I did was miss out while my enemies and Neal’s ca after you.”
“What enemies do we have now?” I asked, tucking my breasts away and pulling down my shirt.
Jas looked pained. “More than I’d like. But we also have powerful allies.”
“Like ,” ca an older voice from the doorway of the suite.
Jas and I both jumped. I looked at the older man who was impeccably dressed and looked a bit like Jas.
“Oh, Becca, this is my uncle...” Jas began.
“Just call Zio, dear,” Jas’s uncle said, striding into the room.
It was impossible to tell his age, as he was proud and strapping like most Italians. However, I could tell he was older than Jas, at least.
“It’s... nice to et you, Zio,” I greeted him, feeling a bit like my private suite had beco Grand Central Station.
“I’m sorry to intrude. I just couldn’t wait a second longer to see our little new additions,” Jas’s uncle said excitedly.
Jas’s smile was slightly annoyed, but he stood to hold out the babies for his uncle to see just the sa.
Jas’s uncle clasped his hands under his chin, looking from one to the other. “They’re absolutely perfect. So perfect. Well done, Jas.”
“Thank you, Uncle,” Jas replied.
“I’d like to hold Alessandro, if I may,” Jas’s uncle said, settling himself in a chair. It wasn’t really a request.
Jas eased Alessandro into his uncle’s waiting arms.
The corners of the older man’s eyes crinkled as he looked down at Alessandro. “I have such high hopes for you.”
High hopes? I frowned at Jas.
Jas was trying to give his uncle a significant look, glancing from him to .
Don Valentino was absolutely unfazed.
“What hopes?” I asked Jas.
“He’ll inherit everything, of course,” Jas’s uncle said before Jas could answer.
Jas squeezed his eyes shut and pulled his hand over his face. Obviously, this wasn’t sothing he wanted to know, or at least not know right now.
“So... let get this straight. You’re expecting Alessandro to be a... Don?” I inquired.
“One day, yes,” Jas’s uncle responded, booping Alessandro’s nose.
My eye ticked. “Jas?”
“We’ll talk about it later,” Jas murmured, trying to shush .
I didn’t like being shushed. Especially when it ca to the future of one of my children. “Alessandro is going to find a nice, safe place to grow up. He’ll go to a good university, then maybe travel the world or find a job he loves to do. But I don’t want him mixed up in all this.”
Jas sighed and folded himself into another chair in the room. He didn’t want to have this conversation. Probably especially in front of the current Don Valentino.
Tough titties.
Ja’s uncle seed to really notice for the first ti. “Becca,” he said with infinite patience, as though I were a spaniel that had just peed on the carpet, “Alessandro is in this. He always will be. So will you. There’s nothing to be done about it. Our enemies know about you, Neal’s enemies know about you. They know about the children. This is not a temporary move.”
My stomach plumted into my feet. “E-Excuse ?”
“You’ve been brought here to live safely. Permanently,” Jas’s uncle restated.
I snapped my head in Jas’s direction. “That wasn’t the agreent.”
Jas rubbed his forehead as though he had the mother of all headaches. “I didn’t want to have to throw you over my shoulder and drag you here, Becca. I figured we’d talk about it later, after you’d had so ti to adjust.”
“Ti to adjust?! I won’t have Alessandro living a life of cri!” I yelled.
Jas’s uncle chuckled. “It’s adorable that you think you have a choice in the matter.” He said sothing in Italian to Jas.
Groaning, Jas responded in kind, then got to his feet and pressed the house intercom. “Giana? Would you mind getting Layla back from the nursery? Becca and I have so things we need to discuss.”
“At once, signore,” Giana replied.
Then Jas crossed to his uncle and took Alessandro back in his free arm.
If I weren’t afraid he’d accidentally drop them, I would have rushed over and snatched them both away right then and there.
When Layla appeared, looking a bit bewildered, I stabbed a finger in Jas’s direction. “Take the children to the nursery, please, Layla. I’m about to strangle their father/grandfather.”
Layla quickly gathered up the babies and trotted out of my suite.
Jas’s uncle rose, smoothing out his suit so that it was once again pristine. “I’ll leave you two to it. It seems you have much to talk about.”
“Oh, you have no idea,” I seethed.
Jas’s uncle chuckled and let himself out.
I faced down Jas then, my hands on my hips. “I had every intention of returning to New Zealand one day.”
“You can. For vacation,” Jas murmured, rubbing the back of his neck. “But I’d rather we bought a different vacation ho there. Not that there’s anything wrong with the one you chose, it’s just that the Michaelson Brothers left it a bit of a ss, and I’m not sure you want to go back to it after what happened there.”
“Vacation?!” I shouted. “Vacation?! THIS is a vacation, Jas. Once you have things sorted with the Michaelson Brothers...”
“Once Neal has things sorted with the Michaelson brothers,” Jas corrected .
“Fine. Whichever. When this all dies down, the children and I are going to live elsewhere. You can leave this life and co with us, or stay here and visit occasionally, but I won’t have Alessandro mixed up with the mafia!” I started to pace, fuming.
“And the rival families? And Sergei’s son? And our other enemies?” Jas asked, arching an eyebrow. “How many dragons do you think I can slay, Becca?”
“As many as it takes!” I stord up to him, poking him in the chest. “This is YOUR fault and YOUR ss and YOU have to clean it up!”
Jas sighed. “It’s not that simple, Becca.”
“MAKE it that simple!” I argued.
Jas gripped my upper arms. “Do you even hear yourself right now? Becca, when I disappeared to Japan, that was exactly what I was trying to do. Keep all the dragons off your back. But it didn’t work. Now, that ship has sailed. This is it, Becca. This is reality. There is nothing else I can do.”
I was so angry that I couldn’t stop myself from letting out a frustrated sob. “This is not how it’s supposed to be, Jas.”
Jas wrapped his arms around and held to his chest. “I know. But it’s the way things are.” He kissed the top of my head. “Why don’t you lay down and get so rest? We’ve had a long couple of days of travel and quite a bit of excitent before that. Then, let at least show you around this place and let you see what life is like here. It’s not so terrible, Becca. You might find this is just the right place to be.”
I pushed away from him, shaking my head.
“This will never be the right place to be.”
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