33. Gabriella
33
Gabriella
“ H ere.”
I meet Lily’s concerned but also exasperated eyes as she hands me a first aid kit. Muttering my thanks, I take it and watch her pick up another one before she rejoins Rose where they’re working on my idiot brothers.
“I’m sorry,” Dimitri apologizes again, pulling my attention back to him.
I dig through the first aid kit for the supplies I need and gather them on my lap. “It’s fine.”
I can feel his narrowed eyes burrow into me. “When a woman says fine, she means anything but that.”
“Have a lot of experience with that, Dimitri?” I ask.
“With you?” he asks, catching on to my sarcastic tone. “Yes.”
Across the room, Michael shouts as Rose uses wipes I know burn on his split lip. I purposely pick up the same wipes and add the packets to my pile. Dimitri notices and sighs but stays silent. Smart man.
“What were you thinking?” My anger lingers, simmering beneath the surface.
“I was thinking about protecting you.”
I roll my eyes and ignore his growled “angel,” to say, “I was in no danger. My brothers would never have hurt me.”
“Not intentionally, no,” he agrees. “But they could have on accident.”
It’s frustrating how sound and right his logic is…annoyingly so.
Following the announcement of my pregnancy, my brothers lunged at Dimitri. It was unfair two against one, but Dimitri handled himself just long enough to give Enzo and dad time to grab my brothers. Still, he has a split brow and is going to have a nasty black eye once the swelling goes down. His nose is bleeding but doesn’t appear to be broken, thankfully.
Thankfully, they refrained from drawing for their guns, and I’m relieved that the fight ended as fast as it started. Had it gone on any longer, there’s no doubt someone would have ended up with bullet holes.
I get why everyone is upset. It's a lot of news to take in and not all of it's pleasant to hear. But instead of acting like grown fucking men, my brothers succumbed to their hot Italian blood and acted without thinking. A trait I also share, given how I’m treating Dimitri for doing nothing but defending himself and me.
“You’re right,” I concede. “Thank you for protecting me.”
“Always.”
We share a smile before I press an alcohol swab to his brow, and he hisses, shifting away from my touch and the stinging pain.
“That’s for hitting my brothers.”
Dimitri tosses a sneer in their direction. Michael and Raphael sit in front of Rose and Lily, being similarly doctored. While there’s an entire room between us, you can still feel the tension in the air. “They struck first.”
“True,” I admit with a single shoulder shrug. “But they are still my brothers.”
“And I am your husband.”
As if I need reminding of that small but huge detail. I doubt anyone in this room will forget it anytime soon, either.
“A husband you love, apparently.”
I pause mid-application of the butterfly strip to his brow. Peering down, I meet his knowing blue eyes staring up at me. Of course he heard me. How could he not have? And there’s no reason to deny it or keep it bottled up any longer either.
“Of course I love you.”
“Oh, that’s good. I wasn’t sure, since you know I’ve said it several times and you haven’t said it back once.”
He’s toying with me. I recognize the playful gleam in his eyes. Not sure now’s really the time, given our company, but I can’t help but meet his challenge.
“I’ve said it twice now.”
“Then you have some catching up to do.”
I lean in closer, tilting his face upwards, his chin finding a resting place on my chest, creating an intimate connection between us. “How about I make it up to you later and show you all the ways I love you?”
“Hey, lovebirds,” Enzo interrupts. He's standing in between us like a referee keeping watch. “Think you could save the PDA for another time?”
Having caught our position, Michael growls, “I hate him.”
Rose snorts. “No, you don’t. You just don’t know him.”
“I know enough,” he snaps back.
“I think you two would probably get along really well if you tried,” Rose suggests.
“Doubtful. I’m not a lying undercover FBI agent.”
I feel Dimitri groan into my chest while Rose and I share a look of annoyance.
“Do you think you guys can try to get along? For me?” I ask my brothers, my tone serious. “I love you both, but I also love him. So, don’t make me choose. Because you won’t like my choice.”
Both of my brothers have the decency to lower their gazes, my threat coming through loud and clear.
Dad enters then with Mom following behind him. He carries a tray of drinks while Mom carries a tray of food. They set both down on the table as Dad asks, “How’s your hand, Raphael?”
Raphael’s shooting hand was hurt during the scuffle, and now his knuckles are torn and bleeding. At Dad’s question, he flexes his hand and barely winces. “It’ll be okay. I have the best doctor looking after me.”
With a blush, Lily reaches for his hand and then sets a bag of ice wrapped in a towel on top of his injured hand. “Here, hold this to your hand. Doctor’s orders.”
Raphael does as she says, bathing in the glow of his love’s attention. It’s nice to see Raphael so happy. There was a moment last year where I feared he would never find it. Before Rose and Liam were found, Dad arranged for Raphael to marry a woman who was younger than me. Shortly afterward, Dad dissolved the contract. Only the girl, Emilia, didn’t seem to understand what that meant. And after what she did to Lily and Mei, handing them over to Xiao, she’s lucky Dad let her go home to Italy alive. My brothers wanted her dead, but they respect crime family politics and the importance of keeping alliances intact. However, she'll never set foot in the states again.
“I want you to know, Dimitri,” Dad says, his voice eerily calm and even as he studies the amber liquid in his glass. “The only reason I did not kill you the second you announced your secret is because you saved my daughter’s life from the Italians. And the only reason I did not kill you for marrying my daughter without my consent is because you also saved the life of a man I consider a son. Consider us even.”
Dimitri nods, the weight and meaning of my dad’s words falling heavy on his shoulders.
“I can’t believe I’m going to be a grandmother again,” Mom exclaims. Her excitement is infectious and lifts the heavy atmosphere a fraction.
“It’s twins, by the way.”
“Are you-are you serious?” Mom stammers.
Dad raises his glass in a toast as his way of saying congratulations. He’s happy for me, for us, I can tell, but I also know that it’ll take some time for Dimitri to win him over completely. But he will. He won me over, after all. Although I think Dimitri will need to try something other than romantic gestures and dates to the Playground . Something tells me Dad won’t be into that very much.
“So what now?” Rose asks. “If the FBI is looking into the High Table, what do we do?”
I sometimes forget she’s an O’Leary and youngest daughter of the late Irish mob leader. And when she's married to Michael, she’ll stand by his side just as Mom does for Dad, supporting him in his rule as leader of the High Table. If there is a High Table after this.
“I go back undercover,” Dimitri reveals his plans for the first time, even to me. “I need to track the missing girls and uncover the leader behind it all. I think if I do that, it could be enough to earn my freedom from the FBI and prevent them from continuing to investigate the High Table.”
“That’s a very ambitious plan,” Raphael comments.
“I don’t like the idea of you going back undercover,” I share my reservations.
“I know,” he says back, squeezing my hand. “But if I don’t, Sergei will get suspicious. He’s already suspicious as it is.”
“How so?” Michael grunts, his curiosity outweighing his anger.
“Ever since Igor died, he’s become increasingly paranoid. He even accused me of betrayal when he heard from our men that Gabriella was seen at the Playground the night of New Year’s.”
“How did you play that one off?”
I tilt my head at Dimitri, my curiosity now peaked too. “Yeah, how did you?”
He looks at me with a hint of shame, and I know I won't like his answer much. “I told him you had a silly little girl crush on me and wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
I smack his arm. “Are you kidding me?”
Michael snorts while Raphael chuckles, but it’s Enzo who busts out laughing.
“It’s not funny, Enzo!” I shout at him.
“I don’t know about that,” he defends his outburst with another laugh. “We may just be friends yet, Dimitri.”