Epilogue
Gianna
“Mommy! Dolly gone.” Her muffled voice screeches through the door as she tries to jiggle the locked door handle open.
Sebastian groans into my neck, pulling out of me and rolling onto his back. “How are we supposed to make her a sibling if she doesn’t give us the time?”
I smile, kissing his shoulder before climbing off the mattress and grabbing my robe. He pulls the sheets up his naked body as I open the door. Rebecca is attempting to pull our daughter down the hall with a sheepish look. “I’m sorry, Mrs. James. She got away as I was preparing breakfast.”
It took a long time for Sebastian to convince me to get a nanny.
I was determined to do it myself, but after months of barely sleeping since Charlotte was a very colicky baby, I broke down.
And I’m never going back. Rebecca has become part of the family, having been with us since Charlotte was eight months old.
Now she’s two going on thirteen with an attitude that puts mine to shame.
“Good morning, Love Bug. Good morning, Rebecca,” I say, squatting down to Charlotte’s height as she runs toward me.
I pull her into my arms, hugging her close and nodding at Rebecca that I’ll take her back downstairs in a minute.
She leaves as I pick up my little girl and carry her into our room.
Sebastian puts his phone down, his eyes softening as they fall on our daughter.
Charlotte wiggles, trying to get out of my hold.
“My girls, so beautiful,” he says, and my heart grows even more for him.
“Tell Daddy that we’re on the hunt for Dolly and he needs to get out of bed,” I say, nearly laughing at his expression. It’s clear he wanted me to give her back to Rebecca and join him back under the sheets.
“Get out.” She pouts and I set her on the floor. Charlotte runs right out the door and yells, “Daddy help Dolly!”
I clutch the robe tighter around me as Sebastian moves off the bed. His tight buttocks flex as he grabs the boxers and faces me. The butterfly tattoo is now joined by a small caterpillar, but like always, my eyes drift to the large crest and my heart clenches.
For the most part, our life has been relatively normal.
If you count being followed by bodyguards and more money than any human should have as normal.
I’ve met Christian, the leader of the Outfit, a couple times during holidays, but otherwise, that part of Sebastian’s life never touches us.
He kept his promise, and my anxiety does lessen with each passing month.
One of the compromises was when Charlotte grows older, she’ll be sent to a large, private academy.
The sort of place that highly influential people send all their children since it’s unknown unless you’re part of this world and guarded better than a prison.
He walks toward me with a taunting grin, grabbing my waist. “We could just lock the door again and…” He tilts his head toward the bed.
My fingers skate up his chest to wrap around his neck. “I know you want another baby, but it will happen when it happens.”
He sighs, leaning down to kiss me just as Charlotte screeches Daddy again. Sebastian groans into my mouth.
“She’s lucky she’s the most precious thing to ever live, or I’d find her utterly annoying,” he mutters, letting go of me to grab a shirt and sweats out of his drawer.
I chuckle, pulling out my own clothes and following him down the hallway. Stopping short at her doorway, I hold my hand over my mouth just as he takes it in.
“Love Bug, didn’t you and mommy clean your room yesterday?” he asks, horrified.
“Yes,” she says, tossing another stuffed animal onto her bed.
My shoulders shake as I try to conceal my laughter. Her room is absolutely destroyed, probably worse than it was yesterday.
I tap his back. “Daddy’s turn to help.”
He grumbles, moving past me as I head downstairs to help Rebecca with breakfast.
She smiles when I enter the kitchen. “I found Dolly, Mrs. James.”
I pick up the squishy button-eyed doll and sigh. “We’ll give them time to clean the room and then let them know.”
Rebecca smothers her smile and nods, moving to pull out the eggs and sausage while I start piling the fruit to cut and peel.
When I hear the thundering footsteps of my husband, I wash my hands and wait for them at the bottom of the stairs.
“Dolly!” Charlotte gasps and squeals as soon as she sees me.
“Oh, when did Mommy find that?” Sebastian asks with an unheated glare.
I smile sweetly. “Just now of course.”
He sets our daughter down with a humph and I hand it to her before Charlotte runs off to turn on cartoons in the living room. Sebastian catches my waist. “You’ll pay for that later.”
“Pay for what?” I tease as he kisses me, his hand squeezing my ass.
He rolls his eyes and moves to grab out daughter as Rebecca and I finish, then set up the table. After buckling Charlotte into her highchair, I sit next to my husband.
“What’s the schedule today?” he asks. What he really means is what are Charlotte's plans because our days revolve around hers.
Her little eyes scrunch and she looks up at Rebecca, who nods at her encouragingly.
“Remember you wanted to visit the animals. What’s that called?”
She pouts further.
Being the impatient person he always has been, Sebastian leans over. “You want to go to the zoo, Love Bug?”
Charlotte beams. “Yes! And see the lions!”
I grimace, not being a particular fan of zoos or aquariums. Or leaving my house in general. I’d rather create a craft about lions.
Sebastian glances at his vibrating phone before scrambling out of his chair with an urgency that scares me. I follow him as he’s flipping through the TV channels, standing at his side as we take in the breaking news.
“Shit,” he mutters under his breath.
My mouth drops open as I watch the full blown gun fight over some kind of accident going down on the border of New York and New Jersey.
“What is going on?” I ask.
Sebastian has his phone pressed to his ear.
“The Irish and the Italians just declared a very public war and made it everyone’s problem.
” His finger points to the corner of the screen.
“And Luca Genovese just became the center focus of every agency’s man hunt.
Fuck, this is bad. Christian, are you watching this? ”
I frown and walk back to the kitchen. Rebecca glances at me warily as I grab my phone off the counter, calling my brother.
“I’m safe,” he answers immediately.
My shoulders slump in relief. “It’s all over the news.”
“Yeah… It’s bad, Gianna. I don’t know exactly what went down, but there are dead men all over Luca’s mansion, Gio is missing, and I’m pretty sure the woman Luca was seeing was an Irish spy.”
“You should come stay with us,” I say, looking over at my husband and kid. Sebastian kept his promise and kept his dealings out of our life, and from my understanding is pretty much completely above board on everything he does for the Outfit.
Matt sighs. “I can’t. I—Gio is our brother. I have to find him, help him. Don’t come to the US.”
“A brother we barely know. I don’t want you to risk your life.”
“We’ve gotten closer over the past two years, as much as we could,” my brother says tensely.
I have no desire to meet Gio or get to know him.
In passing, Sebastian mentioned that my biological father had been killed, and I felt nothing for the man.
As far as I know, my parents died in a car accident when I was a teenager.
“Please just be safe,” I say before we say our goodbyes and hang up. Rebecca had packed up a plate and taken Charlotte into another room as I linger close to Sebastian, waiting for him to finish his call.
He turns to me with a harsh expression.
“Do you have to leave?”
He shakes his head. “Right now, we’re watching and waiting. I may have to go to Chicago to help Nico tighten up some things, in case the government starts to get a bit overzealous. The office here is fine.”
“And if Luca calls in his favor?”
Sebastian rubs his hand down his face, his thick wedding band glinting in the light. “Then I’ll have to answer.”