by Anna Lewis
“What does she think of us now?” I almost pouted.
“Are you kidding? She still loves you, so does my dad. They’re just a little worried about us now is all. She wants to make sure we’re okay,” he said. I sighed and then took a deep breath and sighed again. “Maddy it’s fine, she doesn’t think less of you,” he tried to assure me, but I felt…well I felt bad.
“Josh, because of me you killed a man,” I said, airing out what was really bothering me.
“Maddy, I killed a deranged criminal who would have killed you and our unborn child. Not to mention he was having Gio kidnapped. You know firsthand how much of a monster that man was, but even so, you don’t know the half of his sins. He’s killed and maimed and…tortured…he was evil.” Josh glanced down to take a breath and his gaze slowly met mine once more.
“I just feel like…I mean; how do you feel about that?” I asked him, really needing to know.
“Honestly it might be a while for me to get his face after he died out of my head. But the thought of you and Gio and our baby, the thought of our family getting to be together without his dark cloud over our heads any longer, it makes me beyond happy and that’s helping me heal more than anything.”
“Are you sure?” I asked him, searching his eyes. He was tired, but sincere.
“I’m sure Maddy,” he kissed me, his lips tender, then turned on the TV. We ate cookies and snuggled for a while. Until I couldn’t hold my eyes open any longer.
* * *
I woke up in slow degrees and immediately smelled bacon as well as sticky buns.
“Good morning Mommy.” Gio was standing by the bed with a tray of breakfast for me. I glanced around and saw it was only him.
“Morning honey…” I smiled at him as I slowly sat up, then I realized I had one of Josh’s t-shirts on so I was fine.
“I made you breakfast. Well I helped Aunt Aida and dad’s mom make it,” he placed the tray on the bed and I leaned forward to put it on my lap.
“This looks and smells delicious…thank you sweetie,” I leaned over and kissed him on the head. “So Josh’s parents are here already?” Gio climbed into bed with me and nodded.
“You slept a long time,” he smiled and took a piece of my bacon.
“Well I guess I was tired,” I chuckled.
“Mommy…is daddy in jail now?” I blinked at Gio in shock, not knowing what to say.
“N—no baby…Giovanni died,” I said slowly, holding his hand and keeping eye contact. Gio’s eyes widened a fraction and he took a deep breath.
“Are we gonna have a funeral for him?”
“His family might have one for him…” I said, still speaking slowly. I was trying to get into Gio’s head to see what he was thinking.
“Oh, okay. We don’t have to go right?” I almost smiled, but shook my head instead.
“Not if you don’t want to…?” Gio shook his head, his gaze drifting to the side as he stared off into space.
“No.”
“Alright then, we don’t have to worry about Giovanni anymore,” I kissed him on the head once more before digging into my huge sticky bun. “Do you want some? This is really good.”
“I already had three,” he giggled.
“What! Three whole sticky buns?” Gio laughed again and I continued to tease him. I needed our little moments like this, where it was just us being silly. It was normal, and thanks to Josh we’d have a whole lot more normal to come.
***
Joshua
“Yeah, I’ll be unreachable for an entire week, getting back next Wednesday,” I gave my assistant the details of our Disney trip. The last thing I had to do before leaving was pick out a ring…and make a quick trip to Chicago. That, I wasn’t quite looking forward to.
“Dad can we go outside on the balcony to play with the race cars?” Gio ran over to me with one of the little race track cars. My cousins were over as well as my little brother, of course my mother couldn’t quite keep her mouth shut about things. So the entire family was here to make sure we all were okay and congratulate Maddy on the baby.
“Sure, but don’t throw anything over the balcony, because then it’ll be gone forever,” I told him, making him smile.
“Okay!” He ran over to the rest of the boys who were trying to figure out the best way to assemble the track. They all went out to the balcony in a hurry. I wasn’t worried because the glass enclosure was both tall and thick. They could look out at the city without getting into any sort of predicament. I got back to my call and wrapped things up.
“There she is!” Marge was almost full steam ahead as soon as Maddy came down the stairs.
“Mom, relax…” I said and she rolled her eyes at me before taking Maddy into a huge hug.
“Oh…everyone’s here,” Maddy said with wide eyes, her gaze searching for me.
“Yeah…there was nothing I could do to stop it,” I went up to her apologetically and gave her a small kiss on the mouth. I could tell she wanted to go back upstairs. Her hand kept coming up to try and hide the bruise on her face, her split lip.
“That’s the thing about family…we’re nosy and we meddle, but it’s only because we love you,” my mom piped in and took Maddy’s hand so she’d stop fidgeting.
“No, I think that’s just the thing about my family,” I said, making Maddy giggle. Everyone stayed over for dinner and dessert. Gio’s new cousins were bummed he wouldn’t spend Thanksgiving with them, but I promised we’d all travel to Georgia for Christmas. When they were gone Gio got excited about packing his own ‘Disney’ clothes and shot straight to his room.
“I think we’ll have to check his fashion sense,” I told Maddy as she cleaned up a few cups, chuckling.
“You’d be surprised, he’s actually pretty coordinated,” she said, her voice upbeat. The family really cheered everyone up, including Aunt Aida who deemed it okay to head back home for the evening. We had only one more day in the city then we were on the first flight out. Thankfully when I called Donovan to double check things, he pulled some strings so that we could actually leave the state.
“So…I have to talk to you about something,” I stepped into the kitchen and she stopped what she was doing. Maddy’s gaze was both curious and wary. “I’m going to Chicago…”
“What? Why?” she asked, her tone panicky, though she kept her voice low.
“To meet with Giovanni’s father. Like you said, I need to make sure things are actually done here.” Maddy stared at me for a long, long time. But she took a deep breath and then nodded her head.
“I understand…thank you for telling me,” she added, a small smirk on her lips. Though she wasn’t meeting my eyes.
“Hey, everything is going to be fine alright?” I tilted her chin up and she locked her gaze with mine.
“How do you know that?”
“Kane set everything up. I won’t be with Jackson’s guys, but the meeting will be airtight. No one is laying a finger on anyone else.”
“Will Kane be there with you?”
“He can’t leave the city just yet, but he’s sending me with trusted men…these guys were with us when we rescued you, they’re no joke.” Maddy took several deep breaths, her hand settling on her belly. I put mine over hers and it visibly took her a lot to get her words out.
“Okay…just come back in one piece or tell Kane I’ll have it out for his balls.” Her comment surprised me, as did the vehemence in which she said it, I had to hold in my laugh though, because she was serious.
“I will get him that message…” I said instead.
“When are you going? Aren’t we leaving for Orlando early tomorrow afternoon?” she said, just realizing the timeline.
“I’m leaving tonight…in an hour actually,” Maddy’s eyes widened and I held up a finger before she could say anything. “I’ll be back by the time you wake up in the morning,” I promised her. “Maybe even before then.”
“I don’t know Josh, this makes me nervous,” she admitted. I leaned forward
and gave her a soft kiss on the lips.
“There’s nothing to be worried about. I love you.”
She let out a deep exhale and nodded her head.
“I love you too…”
I went upstairs to grab my essentials and soon was on my way to the airport. I still used Jackson’s security service of course. He insisted I at least continue to use a couple of his drivers who would also act as security and whatnot. Getting to the airport was uneventful, Kane’s four guys were waiting for me just outside a rented private jet. Kane wanted to be untraceable just in case, so we didn’t use the one my company recently procured.
“So did Kane fill you in? We got a response from Ennio, Giovanni’s father, he’ll meet us at the location Kane set up and it’ll be a one on one between you and him,” Devon, one of the men who was right in the thick of things taking out Giovanni’s guys, filled me in.
“So…what will you guys do?”
“We’re all rolling up to the restaurant, but we’ll make sure we wait outside with whomever Ennio brings.” I nodded my head, just imagining what it would be like. I’ve seen pictures of what Ennio looks like, funnily enough he has an odd resemblance to Robert DeNiro. Kane chose a popular restaurant in North Side. It wasn’t necessarily Ennio’s territory, and it was a heavy foot traffic area so no one was getting shoved into any SUV’s or killed out on the street.
The flight was smooth, boring really. I couldn’t stop thinking about what I wanted to say to the man. I hoped like hell he’d agree to leave Maddy, Gio, and I well enough alone.
“Let’s go, car’s waiting,” Devon got everyone into motion as soon as the pilot deemed it safe to get up. Outside on the tarmac was one Mercedes SUV and one sedan of the same make. We went right from the plane to the cars and were on the way. My phone rang, it was Kane.
“Hey look, uh, I don’t have to tell you to be careful with how you come across because I’m sure you know. But…be careful in how you come across. Ennio doesn’t have to kill you on the spot. Unlike his son, he’s very methodical.”
“I’m just going to talk to him like a man, father to father really.” I said, stifling a sigh.
“Alright…well good luck,” he said and ended the call. The car ride seemed to last forever as we drove from the airport to the restaurant. The place was huge as we pulled up to it. As soon as I got out of the car we were approached by two normal looking men in light jackets and jeans. Completely unassuming. Devon and the driver were right there to stop them from getting too close.
“You’re Joshua Aberdeen right?” the one on the right asked me and I nodded. “We need to do a wire check before you go any further.” Devon took the detector that the man offered and waved it all around me until the guy was happy. “Ennio’s inside, tell the hostess you’re going to table three,” he said.
Devon gave me a nod and he walked me to the entrance. The restaurant had a tavern like feel to it and it was packed for the time of night.
“I’m gonna go spread out with the rest of them, you know what to do if you’re in trouble.” I had a small panic button in a watch Devon lent me for the occasion. I gave him a nod and went ahead to tell the hostess what table I needed.
***
“Here you are sir, enjoy.” The woman gave me a kind smile before she hurried back to her post juggling tables and customers. She really needed some help up there.
“I take it you are Joshua Aberdeen. The man who killed my son.” I looked down at Ennio, he was dressed in a simple grey sweater and slacks. His eyes were a sharp dark brown and his manner was as if he owned the entire planet and no one knew it. I had to say I was intimidated, but I didn’t show it. He gestured for me to have a seat and I did.
“I have to say…I never thought I’d be meeting with you,” I admitted and Ennio chuckled.
“True…I never thought that my son’s ridiculous pursuit of a woman who left him for good reason would land me in this scenario either.”
“If you don’t mind me being blunt…”
“I require it actually,” he conceded with a small incline of his head.
“You let him do it,” I finished.
“When he told me his ex-fiancée had left him and taken his son I felt for the boy. Giovanni was taken from me when he was only two. The difference is I didn’t drive my wife away. She cheated on me and decided to start another family with someone flashier at the time. She came back years later when Giovanni and his half sibling were pretty much grown and in college. All in all, I didn’t want history to repeat itself. So I gave him some resources and sent him on his way,” Ennio told the story as if it were some fond tall tale.
“Surely you had to know that he was unstable?”
“I did know this. Ever since I approached him with an offer to join the family business and he saw firsthand what it all entailed…something changed in him. I didn’t know the extent of his change until I was notified that he had some of ours go to New York to scare the woman instead of simply take his son back. I knew then that unless he followed what I told him, he’d be lost. Either in madness, incarceration, or death. He didn’t listen to me.” Ennio sat back in the booth and only then did I realize that not one server had come to our table all that time.
“So…there are no hard feelings here?” I asked slowly. Ennio took a deep breath and almost shrugged.
“Not hard enough that I would have anyone come after you or your family. After all, Gio is my grandson, I wouldn’t put him through more than he’s already been.”
“Thank you Ennio…this means—”
“This means it all stops. No more of your hired men coming after my guys or trying to uncover anything. Do not contact me again, I did this purely as courtesy due to the ordeal you were put through,” his voice was firm as he held my gaze with a singular focus.
“I understand.” Ennio nodded once and then got up and simply walked away. I let out a huge breath once he was gone. When I saw about four guys from the surrounding tables get up to leave as well was when I realized Ennio was hardly alone in here…and he really had offered me a courtesy. A waiter came up then asking for my drink order, but I declined and got up to leave as well. Devon came up behind me out of nowhere as I made my way to the still waiting car.
“How’d it go?”
“Good…he said he understood what I did and that we were done.” Devon let out a breath of relief.
“Good shit man,” he clapped me on the shoulder just before we got in. I couldn’t wait to get back to Maddy.
* * *
“What are you still doing up?” I found Maddy reading a book, wide awake at four in the morning. She was sitting up in bed, all the lights on and everything.
“Waiting for you,” she said simply.
“Yeah, but I texted you and everything,” I said with a chuckle.
“Well the baby and I needed to see you in the flesh before we could fall asleep.” I laughed and went over to her side of the bed, kissing her soundly on the lips.
“You and the baby? Whose eyes aren’t even developed yet?” I chuckled.
“Actually they are, his or her eyelids are just fused shut right now,” she said, making me laugh all over again.
“Are you naked under that shirt?” I asked her, sitting down and caressing her collarbone.
“I am…but you can’t peek or touch until you give me the details,” she teased, pulling my hand away in the process.
“Ennio…he’s not mad at me for killing Giovanni. He understood that I needed to do what I had to. He had given up on Giovanni long before it got to what happened upstate. Plus, he says he doesn’t want to put Gio through anything more and that since we’re done…we’re done. No more PI’s, no more getting into contact with him, or going after any of his guys.”
“Thank God, that’s…music to my ears,” she said with a smile. I kissed her thoroughly then, sliding the t-shirt of mine she normally wore to bed over her head. Her breasts were so full and heavy; I could honestly play with them all day.
/> “Josh…that’s going to make things go a lot faster,” Maddy said breathlessly. I smirked and stopped rubbing her nipples with my thumbs. Instead I pressed a kiss to both before I nibbled on her neck and slid my hand underneath the blankets. She was already moist, her folds slick as my fingers moved against them. Maddy gasped, her hips circling against my hand as I rubbed her clit.
Her hand travelled south, pressing against my erection and rubbing it through my jeans. I moved with her hand almost languorously. I could savor her all day. I felt her legs stiffening just as she moved with my fingers with more fervor. Her other hand gripped my arm tight and soon she was shuddering delicately against me as she orgasmed. I turned her on her back and slid down so that I could hook her legs over my shoulders. Not wasting any time before my mouth was on her, sucking her clit into my mouth. She jerked against me, a moan leaving her lips as her fingers pushed into my hair.
“Josh…I want you inside,” she breathed, almost begging.
“I’m just getting started Maddy…” I told her, pausing what I was doing of course, making her cry out in slight dismay. I flicked my tongue against her clit relentlessly, until she was shuddering and pulling my hair with both hands. Then I slid two fingers into her and thrust right against her g-spot, making her orgasm all over again. Maddy was a sight to see. Her head thrown back against the pillows as her chest heaved with the ragged breaths she was taking in. I kissed up along her belly and stopped at her breasts. I sucked one nipple into my mouth while I quickly undid my jeans. I had to separate from her briefly as I pulled off my clothes and laid back down.
“Please Josh…” she breathed.
I kissed her neck before I slid into her in one thrust. As soon as I was deep inside she came again…saying my name on a sob as I kept going, chasing my own release and to be honest it didn’t take long, I was already close. My orgasm punched right through me, my vision wavered and my knees turned to jelly as I came hard. I emptied into her with a sort of abandon that came from having to worry about nothing but the woman I love.
