“The plane. The plane we took to get to you just happened to be going our way, and just happened to be willing to not report that we were there. We were simply cargo for trade. We slipped out after some key officials were paid to look the other way, and then the pilot told me a name to look up. He said she could help us find who we were looking for. When we got off the plane, I asked Antony how much money he had left after paying the officials, and he said he didn’t pay them. He thought I had. The only thing I could think was that the pilot must have paid because there is no way those men looked the other way out of the goodness of their hearts. I remember thinking, Wow! Our own personal angel. Funny thing is, the pilot disappeared as quickly as he appeared,” she says, making me even more certain of my instincts. An incredibly uneasy sensation washes over me, sending a chill down my spine.
“Something strange is going on, and I am not sure if it’s good or not. Someone seems to be helping us, but why? What’s in it for them?”
“Maybe it’s someone who hates Michael as much as we do. We finish Michael and everything is going to work out like we want. They obviously don’t want us dead or they would have killed us already. They certainly have had plenty of chances.” What she says makes sense, but something tells me that we are missing a huge piece to this puzzle.
“Maybe. I am not sure yet,” I say honestly. “There are no guarantees that any of this will work the way we want. There is no way to know for sure we won’t all end up regretting what we have already set into motion. I just hope, if there is anything odd about our old friend, that Antony would have recognized it by now.”
“I can understand why you feel uneasy, but you need to trust in your brother. He would die before he let anyone harm you. And no matter what, I will always be there next to you.” Austin, as always, puts my mind at ease by reassuring me of her loyalty and support.
“I knew you would be,” I say gripping her hand tight.
“Between us, your brother, and now John, I would say we have a great start to our plan.”
“Not to mention your new friend. I am sure he would be more than willing to do anything for you.” She tries to look confused, but she knows who I am talking about. She was nearly offered the earth itself to stay and be a full time employee for Fonseca. Married or not, that man is crazy about Austin. He seems safe for now, but I am not going to ask him for anymore help unless it’s absolutely necessary. I don’t want to give him a reason to get any more attached to Austin than he already is.
With my girl at my side, I ride into the old warehouse a skeptic but am reassured by the site of my brother’s smile.
“John?” I say, still holding Austin’s hand as I walk towards him.
“Dace, I am so glad to see you,” he says, taking hold of my face and laughing with tears in his eyes. “I still can’t believe you made it out alive. I saw that whole house going up in flames, and to get out of that without Michael knowing is … well nothing short of remarkable.”
“I couldn’t have done it without my crew and my beautiful girl here.” I pull Austin ahead of me to introduce her properly. John scans her completely looking all kinds of impressed with his obnoxious grin.
“Oh yes, I have heard a lot about you. Ms. Beautiful, for sure.”
“Okay now.” I quickly take Austin’s hand back from the man looking a little too close at my fiancé. “Wow, age is really just a number for you, isn’t it?”
“Hey, is there something wrong with appreciating beauty?”
“When you are drooling all over my girl, there is,” I make clear, still unsure how to act with him. Trust isn’t my strong point, and no matter our relationship to this man, I still find it hard to be comfortable.
“Well hell, you and your brother are still no good at sharing. I tried to sweet talk this beautiful man here,” John emphasizes by putting his arm around Preston. “But then … I get this look ...” he says, pointing to Antony’s annoyed expression without even looking at him. I laugh, instantly remembering how much fun the three of us used to have.
“The man has no boundaries,” Antony huffs.
“Alright, come on into my compound,” John says, escorting us into a disgusting, broken down hallway of an even worse looking building and then loading us into an elevator. “Don’t worry. It looks a mess for a reason, but this baby purrs once you get it going.”
“Get it going?” I ask under my breath as John begins kicking a motor in the floor. Oh no. “Are there no stairs? I don’t mind stairs,” I offer with hope that there are other options. I look towards Antony who shrugs. I had hoped he knew more about this place, but apparently he has never been here before either.
John holds up a single finger at me. “It’ll work. Damn thing better work,” he says, cursing and kicking it some more when it suddenly gets going. Damn thing shoots us downward so fast that we nearly end up in the floor. “Ah-ha there we go.” Once the rickety old elevator stops, it opens up to an incredible, high-tech facility with superior living quarters. “Come on in. Welcome to our new headquarters, for this project anyway.”
“What project?” Austin asks.
John turns to her with a sudden seriousness. “The final take down of the Colletto crime family leader.”
“The leader was their father. It’s hard to say now who the leader is or who is worse,” Austin snaps at him.
“Actually, it has been Michael for some time. Dominic was a successful man, but he was under the control of his father, that is until his father passed the torch to Michael. Dominic was nothing but a figurehead. He didn’t have it in him to kill ruthlessly like his father or Michael.” John continues on, showing us the details of the place and where we can sleep and eat and so on, but I know Austin’s mind is preoccupied with what he said. She and everyone else overlooked Michael and were always watching Dominic. Such is the sleight of hand! Kept you looking elsewhere why the other hand did all the dirty work. No one knew, not even me. “So that is about it, other than that I should probably introduce you to Brandon and Jeremy, the only two co-workers I could trust to work with me on this.” John opens the door to a room filled with information pinned to walls, a huge table covered in files, and a computer connected to a large screen at the end of the long room. The two men working in the room stand up immediately and look over us all with an awkward smile.
“These guys have been here the whole time?” Antony asks. Apparently he hasn’t met them yet either.
“No, I wanted to introduce you to them once Dace got here,” John says, moving in next to the men.
“Why?” Antony asks moving next to my side, allowing me to feel his body begin to shake with nervous anticipation.
“Well, this is Jeremy, my brother,” he says, pointing to a man with a similar build to his but with a little less grey in his hair. He nods, and John moves onto the much younger man. “And this is Brandon, my son, and … yeah, I guess there is no better way to say this than just come out with it. Boys, this is your uncle and brother.”
I want to say more to him, but I don’t know how. I have speculated for a long time about his true identity. The best I can do is make an awkward suggestion with my hand. “You are our ...?”
He nods. “Yeah, I am. I have known from the beginning, but in order to protect you and your mother, I thought it best to never let anyone know otherwise.” He pauses, reaching out to take Antony’s hand and mine. “So I would like to introduce myself. My name is John, John Chrisp, and yes, I am your father.” He smiles proudly at us, although I am not sure either of us know how to respond even though we have both always suspected. It all feels so awkward, much more so than I anticipated. “I know it’s not the greatest way to introduce myself, but it’s all I’ve got for now, and the best part is … or maybe not the best part, I am a …” Oh shit! Why do I suddenly believe I am going to hate him? “Well, here it goes. I am a FBI agent, something that’s probably obvious to you now, Dace, I guess. I am a lead agent which means I get access that most don’t. As a matter of fact,
that’s how I met your mother. I tried to turn her against your father … I mean, her husband. Wow. I still don’t know how to talk to you boys. It was much easier when you were kids. Just tell you I am the kings’ royal guard and you are the kings. I use to greet you two with, my lieges. You two would giggle, so cute too.” He looks up at us, and our faces must read a mix of shock and confusion. Rightfully so as we are still trying to comprehend the fact that not only are we being assured who our father really is but also that we have an uncle and another brother. “I’m sorry. This is a lot to take in, so I will stop talking and let you ask any questions you wish.” Antony and I both remain silent.
Preston steps forward and takes Antony’s arm. “Yeah, so this is amazing. A father, an uncle, and a new brother all in one day, in a single minute even. May I suggest a meal? There is nothing like a sit down dinner to bring people together and bring out the get to know you opportunities. Any preferences on food?”
“Italian,” all of us newly-related men say at once. I sigh, wanting to say what kind, but Preston nods and speaks up with exactly what we all seem to be wanting but hesitating to say it to prevent an even more awkward moment.
I have been lying on our new bed since we all separated, and it’s where Austin finds me when she comes to tell me dinner is ready. She climbs in and lies on my chest, looking down at me. “You know, he is kind of charming. A little rough around the edges but handsome. Good looks runs in the family, huh?” she asks, tugging at my shirt.
“Who? My father, my uncle or my brother … the new one?” I sigh. Austin laughs behind her hand. “I am not feeling the humor, sorry.”
“I know, Honey. It is a lot to take in right now, but on the bright side, you have more to your family than you thought. You have an extended family that you can share holidays with. More people for you and Antony to gross out with sex stories. You know, Antony talking about his friend Fred who has boobs and likes to try and put his penis in between them to get himself off. You talking about having sex with me. You know… gross stuff.”
I raise up and smile. “Actually that’s not entirely true anymore.”
“It’s not?”
“No, the Fred stories don’t really bother me anymore,” I say, enjoying her irritated reaction.
“Okay Mr. Funny Guy, so tell me. How are you handling all this? It’s all making my head spin. I can’t imagine how you are feeling.”
“Not sure yet. I might feel better about everything if you give me a kiss though.” Crawling up my chest, she lays one on me that gets my cock stirring. “Be careful, Trouble. We do have a dinner to attend, I don’t have time to properly take care of you right now.” I roll her over onto her back, making sure her lips are warmed and loved. “We will need to test the sound barriers in these walls later. I don’t want to worry about making anyone feel uncomfortable by the noises you are going to make.”
“And why would I make noise? I don’t snore. I am a sound sleeper when we are together,” she says proudly.
I trail my finger around her lips. “Maybe on most nights, but considering what I plan on doing to you tonight, I expect some major sound appreciation coming from this mouth tonight.”
She hums with excitement, “Come on, my hunk of a man. Let’s go get to know your family so we can get back here and get plenty of bed rest.” Austin takes my hand and pulls me into a room where a table of food is set up along with a table setting for each person. For a basement warehouse, this place seems to provide all that we need, plus some. It is certainly more extravagant than we have been used to at hotel-home “We didn’t have all the equipment we needed, but we made do, and Preston made some tasty sauce while Antony worked his magic with the bread.”
“Antony said it looks good and put it in the oven, you mean?” I laugh knowing his lack of domestic skills all too well from our days at hotel-home. “I learned quickly the last year to never put him in charge of cooking anything. Even toast was a challenge. I still don’t know how you got toast soggy?”
“It was supposed to be cinnamon toast,” Antony explains.
“Cinnamon? Where was the cinnamon? There was no cinnamon. There was barely any butter.”
“We didn’t have any, so I used what we had.”
“Which was what?”
“Cereal, but I had already poured the last bowl full while you were making the eggs. Which is why I felt like I should make you toast.” Antony waves his hands in the air like he should be applauded for his efforts.
“So you dug out soggy cereal from a bowl you were eating and then put it on the toast you served me?”
“Not the whole cereal just the cinnamon, I put the rest of the cereal back in the bowl and ate it.” I swear at him in Italian, and he looks at me shocked. “What? I hadn’t spit on it or anything. I tried at least. Shut up, asshole. You are supposed to be grateful I’m alive and treating me with love, not giving me a hard time.” Antony curses at me, never admitting that I was right, and he never will out loud.
“Oh, baby brother, I give you a hard time because I love you,” I laugh, wrestling with him as we always have since we were kids, until Brandon walks in. We both suddenly feel guilty for having fun together, for knowing each other more than we know him. I don’t know why. It isn’t our fault.
“Don’t stop on my account. I am not expecting you to act like you don’t know each other just because you don’t know me. I mean, you two are full brothers I am just your half-brother you never knew about. It’s going to take time, but eventually, I think you will learn to like me a little bit.” Brandon smiles before taking a seat at the table and motioning for us to do the same. “Jeremy, my … um … our uncle, and our father will be here shortly. They are discussing something they found out a few minutes ago.”
“What did they find out?” I ask.
“I’m going to let them give you the details. Trust me, they will want to tell you. It’s good news,” Brandon says, looking me over as if he is getting his first real look at me.
I nod, smiling toward Antony who still seems wary of all this. I understand his skepticism. We have never had anyone but each other that we could fully trust. Anyone we took a chance on destroyed that trust. I look at Austin’s smile and quickly realize maybe not everyone.
When Uncle Jeremy and my father, John, walk in, they are all smiles. “So I assume there is something great to share with us?”
“Yeah, your brother, Michael, is giving a speech this Saturday at a fundraising dinner.”
“And so why is that good?” Antony asks, ignoring them for some reason and turning to me, habit maybe.
“Because that gives us our first opportunity to attack his reputation. The first part of his life we want to take away,” I inform him with John nodding in agreement.
“Okay, so what are we taking away?” Antony asks, sitting back in his chair and getting impatient with my avoidance of the total plan.
“The plan is to eliminate him piece by piece. The first part is to ruin is his reputation. Take that away, then it’s much easier to take everything else. No one cares about the problems of a man that they can’t stand. If anything, they root for him to fail. Once we eliminate his supporters, we get a better shot at destroying his empire and then him. Saturday though, that doesn’t give us a lot of time to set something up.”
“We don’t need much to put the first part into action. All we need is a huge screen and some great speakers,” John says happily. “Let’s not talk about business right now. We have time, trust me. Let’s enjoy this wonderful meal together.” We all agree and dig into the food with little conversation, which ends up being too quiet for Austin.
“So, since no one else is going to ask, I will. Raya. How did you two get involved? How did you end up having two sons together and not once did she think to leave Dominic?” She seems proud of herself and dares me to give her a dirty look with a sharp look my way.
“That’s a fair question, I suppose. It wasn’t easy to get to know her. She was guarded about the peopl
e she would talk to, but I eventually gained her trust to a degree. Raya was so beautiful. I couldn’t force myself to be mean to her. No matter how much I needed to try and convince her to talk to me or give up any information, I wasn’t able to make her do anything she didn’t want to do. Our affair started innocently, I swear. I looked into her eyes and said, ‘We want your husband’. And she said, ‘Good luck’.” He laughs. “Stubborn woman wouldn’t give us anything, but I couldn’t leave her alone. I was afraid for her. He was cheating on her every chance he got, and she knew it. She challenged him constantly, trying to give him a reason to kill her it seemed. I assumed he loved her so much that he couldn’t give her what she wanted. Hell, I found myself preventing it, pushing her back, giving her every reason to stay home and wait for him … a respectful death for her maybe. He left her alone for months while he was away doing business here and there and anywhere but home. I saw her beginning to search for a reason to die, yet I still pushed her to stay home, be faithful, and stay alive. I tried to convince myself that it was more important to get the job done than to listen to my heart, but it didn’t work. I finally told her I was putting in for a transfer because I couldn’t be around her anymore. It hurt too much, and I guess my honesty finally won her over. She began feeding me whatever information she could. We met up constantly, talking and laughing until we would run out of time and she would have to return home. It wasn’t long before we began making up reasons why we would have to spend all night together. We tried and tried to keep it simple and unemotional, but how do you spend so much time with someone you admire and not fall in love with them?” He pauses as if he seems to be remembering her. “She would wear this horrible blond wig and dark sunglasses that hid most of her face to meet up with me. She was like a bad movie character.” He laughs as he describes it to everyone, but no matter how he describes it, I can’t imagine my mother wearing a wig. She hated hats—anything on her head. She refused to hide from people. She said she wanted to make sure she was easily seen by everyone so they knew who’s coming at them and who’s leaving. She never walked with her head down. I guess she must have really cared about him if she would do something she hated that much for him. “Yeah, she was something with her crazy disguises. I think it made her even more exciting. Eventually, we took our relationship to the next level, talking about the future and being married and growing old together. Whenever he was around and I couldn’t see her, I would go crazy. I couldn’t stand her pretending to be devoted to him, having to be in his bed with him and not mine. I stopped caring about the case against him and offered her a way out. I made her an offer I knew she couldn’t pass up, and sure enough, she didn’t. Once she agreed, I spent months and months helping her learn how to be someone else and preparing her to get lost forever. My every moment was spent watching her, protecting her, and living upon her every breath, anxious for that day to get her out and be hers forever. She was anxious too. Her only doubt was leaving her children. She would obviously take you two with her, but his children would need to stay. They were older and would need to agree on their own. Otherwise they could put all of your lives in jeopardy. Plus, we knew Dominic would never stop looking for them. She couldn’t stand the thought of never seeing them again. She loved them so much, so even up until the day before she was supposed to leave, she swore she could find a way to get them to agree to come with her. I was blinded by love and believed she knew what she was doing. If she said she could do it, I believed she could and would be able to get out of there in time. Little did I know that she was being watched so closely. Little did I know he would cut her off before she could ever escape him. I thought she was too beautiful for him to destroy. I still believed he loved her, despite his unfaithfulness. I guess not.”