The Life - Rebirth (The Life 4)

“Unc, what’s he talking about?”

“He told you to think, not me. Why are you asking me?” He huffed, gave both of us the stink eye, and left the room, headed for the stairs, and I’m guessing, the twins’ rooms.

“I’ll go with you to see those guys, but can I see my grandkids before we go?”

“Sure, Poppa, sure!”

“Nice!”

I don’t want to be anywhere near here when the fireworks start because I’m not playing mediator today, but this for sure oughta be good.

I’m putting off telling them the truth about Gabe just for a little while longer because I know it’s going to hit them hard, and I’d like my kids to hold onto a little bit of innocence a bit longer.

If these people think they hate that poor girl now, wait until they learn that they have to share their brother with her. It’s going to be a long dirty fight. Is it so bad that I want to enjoy a few days of peace with my grandkids and getting to know my daughter-in-law again before the shit starts?

Maybe I should pull one of my parents’ tricks and high tail it to the island for a few days, leaving my wife to deal with the mess she’s created. Even thinking that made me feel like an asshole. It’ll get done, things will get sorted, and the Russos will be fine. If I find it odd that I’m now protecting Ricci’s children, well, truth is stranger than fiction.

GABRIEL

It’s weird what comes back from the past to jar you in the present. As I watched Pop play with the kids, his words from earlier kept playing over and over again in my head. Until he said it, I don’t think I’d have realized that I’d stopped addressing him the way I used to as a child.

It had been so long that it just got lost in the fog of everything else that has been my life. I remember the twins calling him Poppa, but vaguely and only because he mentioned it, recall myself doing so as well, which leads me to believe that since my sisters had always followed my lead, that they’d stopped calling him that when I did. I felt just a little bit sad that I’d robbed him of that.

We stayed for a good half an hour until he got all the hugs and kisses in, and then it was time to go meet with Lyon, Mancini, and whoever else they had hanging around. I’d given up trying to find anything on these guys because they were ghosts. From their public persona, you would be hard-pressed to figure out that they’re into this kinda stuff.

One’s a biker who builds custom bikes that cost more than some people’s houses, and the other’s an entrepreneur, yeah, okay. Everything else is just speculation and conjecture and from what little I’d seen of them was way off the mark. I understand because that’s exactly how I am.

The thing is, I know why I’m the way I am, but why are they? What’s the story behind all this? I know Mancini claims to want to save me, but for what purpose? What’s the end game here? I didn’t contact Memnon because I didn’t want to put him in that position. That’s why I’m going to have a sit-down and see whether I want to deal or not.

I wondered what it would be like, to focus on something else for once. To look forward to living when I’d been so hellbent on dying. Knowing that you’d lived past the day you thought you were going to be dead is an odd feeling. It doesn’t feel so much like borrowed time but a rebirth.

I’m still not clear about what I’m going to do about Ricci. He has to die, that much is certain, for Ma, Natalia, and all the others he’d hurt. But I can’t have his blood on my children’s heads, and I won’t leave Gianna again for any reason. Pop would kill him in a heartbeat now that grandpa has been found, but he’s trying to go legit and was almost there. I won’t put that on him.

It took us ten minutes to get to the house. One of the men from the night before opened the door like he was expecting us. I took the room in at a glance, and so did Pop. He took left. I took right, backs to the door, entrance barred. So far, so good. I closed my eyes and inhaled, held it, then released. “Three on the bottom, four on the top.”

“Told you! Didn’t I tell you?” That sounded like Mancini as he came from a room off to the side with Lyon by his side.

He was smiling big and wide as they approached, then four others, some of whom had been there last night, including Mem, came down the stairs. “Pretty good kid, pretty good. Let’s go inside and talk. Draco, nice to see you again. Thanks for all your help in bringing this together.”