The Life - Rebirth (The Life 4)

“Fuck if I know Mancini, with your spook ass. Stay outta people’s shit.”

“Oh no, he’s having another meltdown.”

“Fuck off, Law!” I ignored their laughter and headed downstairs in the house across the street from the Fontane residence.

Mancini’s lying ass had convinced these people he was shooting a movie, and these fools bought it and gave up their place for a few days.

Of course, he’d paid off the remaining twenty years on their mortgage or just about for the privilege, but still. I don’t see why we couldn’t just hide out upstairs at the Fontane home. That’s until I remembered that the kid could hear people breathing through walls, fucking X. Men bullshit.

“Hey!” I greeted the rest of the team that had been watching the monitors from downstairs, close to the door in case things went south and we had to go break shit up. Teens can be kinda vicious when they’re mad. “I don’t think he’s gonna let any of them back over there, so we might as well go pack the kids shit up and take it to the Russo residence.”

“Yeah, let’s do that. But take your time; we should let those two introduce the babies to the family first.” Mancini had followed me downstairs.

“What about me?” Jimmy asked. I can’t get a bead on this kid. He seems laid back and unassuming, but I’m not so sure about that. I get the feeling that he and his sister-in-law, Arianna, get up to some shit.

“Oh, you Jimmy, your theatrical debut is just about to start.”

I laughed my ass off and walked out the door to head across the street. I like this Gabriel Russo kid. The way Mancini talked, I thought he was another book worm, ninja, mad scientist fuck wit along the lines of Mengele and the pothead, but the boy’s got the right moves.

In the face of all that anger, he’d been able to rein it in and keep his cool. If Kat had run away with my kids…. Sheeiit. Maybe I oughta give the kid some pointers; these women are slippery. Before you know it, she’d have him apologizing for her taking his kids and keeping them away from him. Add the fact that she’s a Lyon, and well, that’s a double whammy for his ass.

She’d had more than enough time for my wife and her gaggle of hens to fill her head with some shit. I expect Kat’s nosy ass to be on the phone with her phone tree bullshit, wreaking havoc and causing mayhem before the night is over. Just another day in the burbs.

GABRIEL

“What are their names? My sons?”

“Um, Gabriel and Gianni.” I looked in the rearview mirror at the three very quiet kids in the back who were busy looking at each other. The twins used to do that, still do, in fact. It’s one of the ways they communicate. I’m trying to remember if they started as young as this, but it’s too far back to recall.

“Gabriel, I can’t go with you; I have to go back. I….”

“Go back where? To him? You want this guy to die? Tell me; you say he’s never been around my kids; how was he planning to marry a mother of three without ever meeting her kids?”

“Does it really matter?” She recoiled against the door from the look I gave her.

“I’m trying really hard here, Gianna.” I wasn’t about to have this conversation in front of my kids. In fact, I’m trying really hard to see things from her perspective and cut her some slack and was sure that once things settled down and I no longer had the fear of what-if playing around in my head, like what if I’d gone through with my plans and left my children alone in a world without me, that I would be able to see her reasoning somewhat and be able to move past it. But then she said something that made me want to pull my hair out.

“Shouldn’t we get a DNA test? How sure are you that they’re yours?” For that, I could only give her a wide-eyed look

“Have you seen your kids? I mean really looked at them at any time in the last two years. They couldn’t be more mine if I carried them myself. Are you trying to piss me off? I suggest you don’t.”

She’s screwing with my thought process. As I’ve said time and again, none of my teachings lean towards the romantic. I had no plans on ever getting involved with anyone, far less having a child. So, everything that happens between Gianna and I is basically just raw human nature, which I know can be fucked because humans are not the nicest species on the planet.

I figured my ingrained sense of right and wrong should keep me in good standing. I sent her away, not out of malice, but out of the love I bore her and to protect her against anything that could harm her because of my doings. What the hell was her reason for keeping first her pregnancy and now my kids away from me? “Did you hate me that much?”