Chapter 28
Emmeline
“Get on the plane.”
I knew better than to argue with Donatello. “Don’t do anything stupid.” I pulled him in for a quick hug.
“He’ll be fine,” Jaxon snarled, pushing me up the stairs.
“Get off me,” I snapped back at him, hurrying into the plane. The pilot was ready to take off. All the soldiers needed to do was to eliminate the last group of enemy soldiers who’d made it their mission to fuck up the rest of our day.
“We’ll need to talk,” he shot back.
“About what exactly? That you acted like an ass? That you still don’t understand that this is my life to live the way I want to? That Donatello is a great guy, no matter how you’re going to try and paint him as some traitor? Which one, Jaxon?”
He appeared hurt, as if I’d just punched him in the gut as he’d done with Donatello. “I’m sorry. I was worried about you. Okay? Vanishing wasn’t like you.”
“Yeah? Well, that’s because none of you wanted to see me as an adult perfectly capable of making my own decisions. I’m not stupid.”
“I never said that.”
“But you implied as much with your actions. I don’t mind you being protective, Jaxon, but give me some room to breathe.”
The puzzled look on his face only grew deeper. “I’m sorry, sis. I really am. I just don’t want anything to happen to you.”
“And it’s not going to. Donatello…” Sighing, I clenched my fists. “He will protect me. He isn’t betraying you. Somewhere inside that pea brain of yours, you already know that.”
“Yeah, well, he had a funny way of showing it.”
My brother was many things including a brilliant leader, a talented musician, and a damn good assassin.
He was also a loving uncle and from what I could tell, an incredible husband to Anastasia, but he sucked at being a brother.
At least right now. We couldn’t finish this conversation. Not here. Not now.
But I did have one last thing to say to him. “If a choice needs to be made between my husband and my brother, I will choose him. Just know that.”
He remained unblinking as he studied me, finally nodding after a few seconds.
With anger keeping me tense, I moved toward the back of the plane, taking a seat away from where the soldiers would park themselves, and likely Jaxon as well. Not because I didn’t want to sit with them. I just didn’t want to be near my brother.
Pop! Pop! Pop!
Hearing additional gunfire, I rushed to the opposite side of the plane, a flash of fear replacing my rage when I captured sight of Donatello. He was on the ground. For a split second, my heart stopped.
Then I became an animal who’d been caged, racing toward the front of the plane.
“Emmeline. Stop,” Jaxon called.
“Don’t you dare try and stop me. Don’t you fucking dare.” I was halfway down the rickety stairs when Donatello tossed his head in my direction, immediately lunging from his crouching position toward me.
I flew into his arms, already sobbing like some blubbering idiot.
“Hey. Hey. I’m fine,” he said, nuzzling into my hair.
“I heard more gunfire.”
“I was just doing my job. I’m fine.”
Shuddering, I pulled away, but he held both sides of my face in his cupped hands. The kiss was important, the need to feel him as close as possible completely overwhelming. We rubbed our hands over the other, both hungry for each other.
I sensed a presence a few seconds later and allowed Donatello to break the kiss.
“He will always have your back, Emmeline,” Alexander said. “Let’s go home.”
Donatello grinned, even though his face was already covered in bruises. He just didn’t care. I’d seen so many times that he was willing to make good on his promise to protect me, his life meaning nothing to him in his efforts. That bothered me more than I could express.
We loaded up, Alexander the last and the one to close the jet’s door. He headed into the cockpit to tell the pilot we could take off while I pulled Donatello to the seat I’d selected.
When we were settled and able to ignore our surroundings if only for a little while, Donatello lifted my chin.
“Nothing will happen to me, sweet Ambrosia.”
“Before we were married, you made it sound like I wouldn’t accept anything less.”
“What?” He pulled back, his eyes searching mine. “I don’t understand.”
“You mentioned that us getting married was to keep a promise made to me. When was that?”
He laughed. God, how I adored the twinkle in his eyes. “Not one that I made to you. One that I made to myself a bunch of years ago.”
“Which was?”
“I promised myself that one day I’d marry you.”
“When was that?”
His slight hesitation made me nudge him in the stomach.
“On the first day I met you.”
* * *
Whoever had said love was blind was a fool. If it were, dealing with the emotions surrounding the entire life-altering concept would be easier.
Accepting that I’d fallen in love with anyone had floored me, so much so that even now as I sat rigid in one of three leather chairs in Alexander’s office, I couldn’t stop fiddling with my wedding band.
I also darted looks toward Donatello from time to time.
Of course we were attempting to remain extremely professional during the various meetings being held with the family and several of the top soldiers within the regime.
Alexander hadn’t tried to shove me aside as he’d done before under the guise of protection.
Perhaps because of the speech I’d provided, the phone call I’d made on the day I’d gotten married or because of the notes I’d put together and had thought to bring with me to the church. My intuition had told me something would go wrong that day.
Our indifference to each other during these meetings was about the difficulty we were having connecting. Since returning, being around each other had been difficult. Why? Why was there a sudden change from the heavy banter or the pretend fighting? Or the passion?
Neither one of us had managed to put a decent sentence together during the time spent with each other.
And the tension.
The tension was crazy.
Maybe we were both still reeling from Jaxon’s reaction, but after a full week? Plus? Anastasia had obviously kicked Jaxon in the butt because he’d been much nicer to both of us the last few days.
The worst part about not being closer to my husband was the physical separation. He’d been staying at my house and while the family probably thought we were happy little newlyweds, he’d slept in a chair near the front door when he’d slept at all.
Donatello could chalk it up all he wanted to protecting me, but I knew better.
Perhaps our sudden, quick marriage had been all about the adrenaline rush caused by continued danger and the passion that had embroiled us. And maybe karma was trying to tell us something because Francoise hadn’t emailed our marriage certificate as he’d said he would.
In reality, if we wanted to stay married, we should have another civil ceremony in New Orleans, but it was apparent that Donatello didn’t want to.
Great. Now I was feeling sorry for myself.
On top of everything, the family was holding a small wedding reception for us tonight. Tonight. We were supposed to pretend we were madly in love and get through a lavish party.
I was already sick to my stomach.
“As we anticipated,” Alexander continued. “The Brotherhood wasn’t happy with decisions made years ago.”
The family meeting had lasted two hours.
As I’d suspected, my brothers had purposely kept me out of the loop of possible future dangers.
Granted, there didn’t need to be scrutinizing eyes on every person or entity we’d crossed over the years.
One of the best aspects of children growing up in the electronic age was the ability to place the list of known enemies in a database.
With hacking capabilities and surveillance as technically capable as those of any military operation, our father and now my brother could keep a close eye on their physical whereabouts.
But there was a lot more that went into keeping track of the whereabouts of those who would just as soon destroy our entire family.
Given the crash course from various sources over the week since our return from Brazil, I was completely cognizant of just how savvy and dangerous they were, all while usually remaining behind the scenes.
Their power and influence as well as the volume of money and properties owned altered everything from financial and stock markets to various billion-dollar deals throughout the world.
Even certain military operations since it had long been suspected a Saudi prince and other royalty were members of the Brotherhood.
However, I knew enough about the history of crime syndicates to know better than to underestimate the Five Families of the Cosa Nostra.
Since a few months before when Alexander had been made honorary member, even if he was doing little more than holding the position open for when Anastasia and Jaxon had a son.
They were powerful. They were ruthless. And they were very unhappy that the Brotherhood was in the throes of attempting to pilfer their business operations throughout Europe.
I wasn’t the only person in the room who was itching to drive a stake through the heart of the vampires, but Alexander had learned to become a prudent leader. He had no intention of falling on his sword or allowing his rage to get the better of him.
When the Brotherhood fell, and according to him, they would, it was going to be a permanent solution to a dangerous situation.
That meant putting hundreds of pieces together. Providing information and details to different organizations including national and international law agencies. The thought was to have someone else clean up the mess after we made our point.
Don’t fuck with us.
Sinclair laughed. The rush to Miami had been nothing more than a ruse that we’d fallen for given our recent expansion into Miami. “The bastards think we’d hit a brick wall.”
“They don’t know how close we are to the Five Families,” Alexander reminded him.