manages to track down the Cartel members who leveled Silvano’s team, and we take them out one by one.
I feel like a man running out of time. My skin itches as the last few grains of sand in the hourglass spill. I will never stop fighting, but I am beginning to worry about the future of the city. More importantly, the future of my family. The thought kept me from sleeping all last night, and so I call Alexis into my office first thing.
She arrives with messy hair and sleepy eyes and slumps into the chair across from me. “Angelo said you had something urgent to talk to me about?”
I take a second just to look at her. Even having just rolled out of bed, she’s still easily the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. She blinks wearily and frowns when I don’t answer right away.
“Gabriel?”
The world floods back in around me, and I remember why I called her here.
“Things are getting more and more dangerous,” I tell her. “I’m worried that it’s no longer safe for you and Harry to be around me.”
She presses her lips together. “What are you suggesting?”
“I think perhaps you two should get out of town for a bit. Go somewhere off-the-grid. Somewhere safe.”
The color drains from Alexis’ face, and her eyes widen. “Are you trying to get rid of us?”
“No,” I say, shaking my head. “I don’t want you to go.”
“Good. Because I’m not going anywhere.” She thrusts her chin out and folds her arms. The effect would be a lot more dramatic if she weren’t wearing pajamas with little hearts all over them.
I open my mouth to argue, but Alexis cuts me off.
“This is my home, Gabriel. You are my home. I don’t believe that I could be any safer than I am here, and as long as here is where you are, then it’s where I am too.”
Her eyes flash, daring me to tell her no again. And I’m tempted. I’m tempted to have her dragged out of the mansion kicking and screaming, because if that’s what it will take to keep her and the baby in her womb safe, then I should.
But she’s not wrong. At least here, there is a bevy of guards, security systems, and cameras. If someone attacks the mansion, backup can arrive in as little as five minutes. If I send her to a safe house, she will only be safe as long as nobody knows where she is.
“Fine,” I say. “But if anything goes down, you need to follow my instructions to a tee. Understand?”
“Yes.” She nods with soldier-like intensity. “I know how this works.”
“Good.”
A long second passes between us, and I nearly say more. I nearly say that I don’t know what I would do if something happened to her, and that it would drive me wild with grief. I nearly say even more than that.
But then Alexis swallows and sits forward in her chair, and the opportunity is gone. “You came back late last night.”
It’s neither a question nor an accusation, just a statement.
I nod. “The Irish set a bomb off in one of our warehouses. I was on the scene until late.”
“That’s horrible,” Alexis says, eyes widening.
“It’s not uncommon for them,” I tell her.
“Was everyone okay?”
I think of the soot-blackened faces, the wide, staring eyes. I shake my head. “No. Three dead.”
I watch as the coating of shock and horror on Alexis’ face drip away to reveal the anger underneath. She understands me now, perhaps more than she ever has before.
“We will make them pay, Alexis,” I assure her.
We. I like referring to us as a we. I can tell Alexis likes it too because there is a dash of pride in her eyes when she nods.
“I have something to tell you,” she says. “Ruby Flint came to see me at the office yesterday.”
I bristle at the very mention of the woman’s name.
“If she’s harassing you…” I begin, but Alexis shakes her head.
“She tried to get me to flip,” Alexis says. “She painted a beautiful picture. Me and the two babies, out in a little house in the countryside somewhere, far away from all the blood and lies.”
For a second, the image appeals to me too. I picture Alexis safe, with Harry and his sibling chasing butterflies, sunlight gilding waving fields of wheat. But Alexis is right. The safest place for her is by my side.
“Aren’t you going to ask me what I said?” Alexis prods a second later.
I’m surprised to find that