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"See for yourself," Alessandro whispered before unlocking the deadbolt and turning the knob.
I peered around my best friend's bulky body, and what I saw made me gasp.
"Gavriel?" I asked.
My brother stood proudly at the threshold. One hand calmly in his pocket, another resting on the doorframe. My feet moved before my mind could comprehend what was happening. I shoved Alessandro out of the way and tackled Gavriel in a bear hug. Relief, warmth, and shock overwhelmed my system as I sobbed hard and loud. "You're alive," I yelled in disbelief. "You're fucking alive."
Gavriel awkwardly patted my back as I held him. I refused to let go. He was the only family I had. He was my hero. "I wasn't expecting this," he growled in a low voice. I squeezed him tighter as I soaked his suit jacket with my tears.
"You're alive," I cried out in disbelief. "You're really alive."
"I died, too, you know," a soft voice said. I opened my eyes and pulled away from Gavriel to look at Sunshine. She wore a timid smile, and her black hair was tied up in a high ponytail. She looked exhausted and slightly pale, but she was here.
I pushed my brother aside and wrapped her up in a hug. "Are you okay?" I asked while petting her. It was like I couldn't believe she was really here. If it was possible to die from relief, then I'd be cold and stiff on the floor. Sunshine was here. She was okay.
"I'm fine. I'm puking every hour of the day, and I just want to sleep until the first trimester is done, but I'm fine."
It was such a normal thing to say. What about the plane crash? What the fuck had happened?
I pulled away and eyed her stomach, expecting to see a small bump. Naturally, there wasn't anything there. It was still too early. "Baby Moretti, I am so thankful that you're okay," I said in a high-pitched voice. "Auntie Grace has a lifetime of spoiling you to look forward to. We're going to start doing family dinners more regularly."
"I can't even think about food right now," Sunshine said before pressing her fingers to her lips. "But okay." Her voice was muffled.
I spun around to look at my brother again. "Is everyone else alright?"
"They're in the car. We need to leave soon," he answered in a monotone voice. I still couldn't believe how calm he was about all of this. Maybe that's just who he was. Maybe his care and compassion was more like a whisper.
I gulped in air. Oh shit. They were alive. "You're alive," I whispered in disbelief.
"I think we established this," my brother replied dryly.
"You asshole!" I yelled before slapping his arm. He cocked one eyebrow at me. "You made me think you were dead!"
"That was kind of the point," he replied before looking around. "Look, I don’t want to show our faces anywhere until we can get to the safe house. I’m not comfortable with my wife and child being out in the open like this. Get your reunions fucking over with so we can take this conversation to a more secure location? And make it quick, we need to go get Nix."
I turned around and saw that Alessandro was already throwing what little we had into a paper sack. Gavriel and Sunshine followed us inside the motel room. "Why? How?" I sputtered. "Nix? He left this morning; how do you know where he is?"
“The dumbass tried turning himself in. He was trying to trade your safety for his life. Stupid idiot almost ruined everything. He was lucky I have an assassin that does contract work.”
I gasped. Nix tried turning himself in? Why on earth would he do that? I clutched my chest. My heart was pounding hard at this revelation. “So he’s not dead?” I asked.
“Not yet, at least,” Sunshine answered.
“Holy shit,” I murmured.
Sunshine smiled before leaning against the wall. "The Ringleaders are very powerful."
"Not as powerful as me," Gavriel growled.
Sunshine gave him a tight smile before nodding. "You're still the best crime boss, Sir," she placated him. Of course my brother would be on an ego trip about this. "But we have more to lose, now," she whispered before patting her stomach affectionately.
"Baby Moretti," I cooed.
"Baby Moretti," she echoed. "It isn't just the Ringleaders. It's everyone that the Bullets have ever pissed off. We realized that we were bringing this baby into a world where it has hundreds of powerful enemies. We figured the only way out is...death… I don’t want this baby to be scared. I want to be a good mom. I want to protect him or her from the world. We can’t do that while running the Bullet empire. It was a hard but necessary choice. The Ringleaders just pushed up the timeline a bit."
"You faked your death?" I asked incredulously. "You purposely crashed a plane that everyone thought you were on?"
"It was a borrowed plane. I found a Ringleader that charters his private fleet. An eye for an eye. Or a private jet for a private jet, in this case. I also might have found some rapists and murderers to put on the plane for more evidence. The bodies were incinerated, so they were impossible to identify, but the flight log helped our case. I have a man on the inside. The Ringleaders are convinced. We are done."
