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“How are you?” Ivory asked her. Tears filed Calla’s eyes, but she fought them back for the kids.
“I’m okay,” Calla lied. She was holding it together for the kids, but I thought for me, too. She felt like she had to be strong in the face of what happened, when really that was my job. I was there to catch her and put her back together.
She’d break down, eventually. It was unavoidable given what she’d gone through. But she’d be okay.
“The guys are in the office waiting for you,” Samara said as she tended to the kids and brought them into the kitchen. The smell of Ivory’s cooking came through the house, and I knew without a doubt that the three of them would be ready to explode when we went home.
Some people spoiled with love and affection.
Ivory spoiled with love and affection, food and a weird ass lizard.
I left them in the capable hands of the only women I trusted to help guide them through it, barely hearing Samara ask Calla a soft question that I felt to my bones. “Do you need to do yoga?” she asked, and it was something so
jarring in its simplicity that I never could have expected Calla’s voice would be teary when she answered.
“Yes,” she whimpered.
Ivory distracted the kids with whatever concoction she’d cooked for them, and Samara gave my wife the only therapy she knew and welcomed. I made my way to Matteo’s office, striding into all eyes turned to me.
"Calla and the kids are good?" Lino asked immediately, and I nodded in response.
“Ivory and Samara have them covered.” The worst of the worst had been avoided thanks to Georgio and Lino distracting the kids. They hadn't seen much beyond the trauma of Calla being hauled away from the car after Jason was shot. It was enough, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been. I doubted Calla would have been pleased if they'd seen me split a man's face down the middle with a hatchet.
“This is why it's better to just stay single. When I think of what I’d do—” Enzo trailed off, trying to fight back that monster he kept caged inside himself. He was the only one who felt at odds with the criminal aspect of our lives, with the sheer violence, but he enjoyed it just as much as any of the rest of us.
“Your day will come,” I warned him. “And then you’ll understand that you will burn the world down to protect her.”
Scar's eyes met mine, silently probing like he always did. Wondering how Calla and I made it work given my history. We saw ourselves as different sides of the same coin.
The boy whose family had tried to force him to rape, and the boy who had been a victim of the streets.
And all that went along with them.
"The move on Calla can be taken as nothing other than the first act of war," Matteo growled, confirming what we all knew. We'd been on the edge as it was, but a move against one of our wives was unforgivable.
"I've been calling in favors we're owed. They've all agreed to stand with us, even the ones who don't agree with our opposition to trafficking. Territory is territory, and we all know that violating it goes beyond a difference of opinions. It's an insult to the families,” Don said, and I appreciated the man’s proactiveness. There was nothing he couldn’t accomplish, even in a short timeframe.
"They'll come if they're called?" Lino asked.
"Every one of them," Don agreed, his eyes moving from man to man.
We all knew the costs of war.
Death. Destruction. Loss.
"So it begins," Matteo sighed, looking ominous as he stared at each of us.
Epilogue
Calla
Eight Months Later
Ines spun around in the poofiest pink dress I'd ever seen, looking like she belonged in a rose garden outside a castle.
To be fair, the Bellandi Estate wasn't exactly far off. She had a massive smile on her face as Sadie took her hand and helped her out of her shoes so they could go jump in the pink bounce house shaped like a castle that Uncle Matteo had surprised her with for her birthday. He didn't seem to care that only Axel and Ines were old enough to enjoy it alone.
Luna had squealed for joy when Aunt Sadie then snagged her from Matteo and brought her in to bounce with her lightly. I'd thought he might have a heart attack, like his precious fourteen-month-old Little Moon couldn't handle it. But he'd relented quickly when she screamed as he tried to pull her out.
