Alessandro nodded.
“Thank you for helping me,” I said softly. I didn’t know what the deal was with this guy. All I knew was that he’d gotten me away from that auction to get me back to my family. I also knew that by the way that Holly had looked at him when he’d come in to get me from that dining room, that she either had a relationship with him or had feelings for him. I didn’t know anything else.
He was extraordinarily handsome, seemed powerful and mysterious. He also had an air of extreme danger. And he seemed angry and cold. But she was young. And she was obviously Angel’s sister, which made no sense to me.
I couldn’t process any more feelings about Alessandro and about Angel’s sister. I needed to just get home and feel my boys, smell them, cuddle them. And contact a plastic surgeon about the hideousness on my arm so I could forget this horrible experience and never leave the house without bodyguards ever again.
Tommy
I was in the suite with Tia, Dex, Sarah, and my nephews.
Nino had two other guys on site with him here in Vegas and we’d hired some people locally, through a contact I trusted would not be in any way connected to Denarda.
Tino and a few of his guys were back home watching Luc, Lisa, and the kids. Dare and Angel were on the way to Thailand. They didn’t have any cover, which we didn’t like, but Kruna wasn’t yet our enemy --- not that they knew, anyway.
I’d gotten a text from Zack’s burner phone a few hours earlier, telling me all was well and they’d see me soon. That meant he had Tessa and they were on their way to Vegas. I’d texted him back telling him Will, one of our new guys, would meet them at the airport.
Tia was sitting on the floor with Antonio and Lucas, all three of them coloring in a Spiderman coloring book, when there was a knock on the door. Dex’s phone beeped. He looked at it, moved to the door, looked out the peep hole and then he looked to me, nodded, and then answered it.
Zack and Tessa stepped in and Tia jumped to her feet. The kids ran for my sister, my younger nephew tripping on his pantlegs but rushing back to his feet. Tess fell to her knees and pulled the boys against her and she choked on a huge sob.
Her cheek was bruised, her left arm had a bandage that went from wrist to elbow, and the look on her face? I’ll never forget it. I’d seen her grieve lots in the past few months, losing James, then Pop. But my sister was barely recognizable to me. It was as if the light in her eyes had gone out. It hit me that it was very similar to the look I’d made Tia get the last time she was in Vegas. Tessa was pale, looked frail, and she cried into her kids’ little bodies, her whole body trembling. I moved to her and did something very uncharacteristic of myself. I crouched and pulled her tight to me and she started to wail.
Both boys started to cry in reaction to their mother crying. They’d hugged me while hugging their mother. I swallowed past a lump, feeling all that emotion coming from her, from them.
“Mommy just missed you boys so much,” Tia told them and squatted to join our huddle as Tess fell apart against me.
“Sometimes mommies just love their babies so much that they get weepy. It’s okay.” Tia said this through her own tears and opened her arms and the boys scrambled toward her. Sarah was standing behind us, wiping her eyes.
“I’m not a baby!” Antonio argued, “I’m a big boy!”
“You are, little man.” I ruffled his hair, “And one day you’re gonna be bigger and take care of this family, aren’t you?”
He nodded big and smiled at me, “As big as you! You’re even bigger than my Daddy and he was way big. Before he went to heaven.”
“You’ll be big and strong, buddy. Give us the room, everyone.” I said and Tia and Sarah took the boys into the bedroom. Zack and Dex stepped out.
“What happened to your arm, Tessa?” I whispered, trying to appear calm.
“He carved some letters. The guy…”
“What guy?” I no longer had any idea what the word calm even meant.
“The guy in charge. I don’t know his name.”
“What did he look like?”
“Big ears, stocky, kind of ape-like clumsy. His clothes were too big. I saw when Jimena, the doctor at Alessandro’s changed the dressing. It says LD on my arm in big ugly letters. He did that with a box cutter and then he… he…rape…” she choked on the word and buried her face into my neck, “me. And he sent me to an auction and I was put up for bid. But Alessandro sent that guy Rocco to get me outta there and…”
I was going to blow my fucking top.
“Tia!” I roared, making Tess jump.
Tia rushed out of the bedroom, eyes wide.
“Look after her!”
I let my sister go and Tia moved in and grabbed hold of her.