The Beginning (The Life 1)

When I was his age, if I ever got to that stage…fuck. That cub I’ve been trying to contain just knocked down the first bar in his cage. The twins’ tutor my ass. If she’s his and some awful fuck happened to her in there, I’m gonna have to protect these people, and quite frankly, after all the stories I’ve heard in the last day or so in my house, I don’t want to.

I turned to Fontane, who was standing in his busted front door talking to his wife. I still have no idea what went on inside, but whatever it is, it couldn’t have been good. Not if it put my son in that kind of rage-hell. “Fontane, this is my responsibility. I’ll make sure it’s taken care of.” I’d already sent a couple of my guys to look into getting a new door. This one was for shit. It looks like the boy took an ax to it.

“What’s going on? My wife says your son just busted down the door and took Gia.”

“Your guess is as good as mine. We’d better go talk to the kids, get to the bottom of this.”

“No, Felix, you can’t leave us here alone with a busted door. Anybody could just walk in off the street.” He looked torn, something that cost him a few more ounces of respect from me.

As a man, as a father, if I came home to see someone driving off with one of my kids and my door in shambles, I’m going after the stolen lamb, but that’s just me. Since I know in part what it’s like to have your balls in a woman’s hands, I took pity on him, plus I needed to go see what’s up with my son. So, I offered for him to come by later, showing none of the disgust I felt when he just let me walk away with a nod. I don’t think my kids will be spending any kind of time over here.

I left two of my guys back there to wait for the others, who went after the door and headed for home. I’m both proud and a little bit wary about what I saw tonight. When I first heard Gabe running down the stairs, I thought at first one or both of his sisters were chasing him in one of their games, but there were no sounds of laughter or infectious giggles from the girls.

By the time I stepped out of the office doorway to see what the stampede was about, he was out the door, leaving it open behind him. The first thing I noticed was that he was wearing his martial arts uniform outdoors, something he hadn’t done since he was seven. And he wasn’t wearing any shoes.

I only had seconds to put all of that together before he was hopping into one of his mother’s cars, which was another dead giveaway. No one touches my wife’s cars, not even our kids. I didn’t have to tell my men to follow as I made my way to my own ride, where the driver had already hopped behind the wheel.

I’m not sure what I’d expected to find at the end of this chase. Quite frankly, my first thought had been Lance, that something had happened to him. Now I think maybe that might’ve been better. Had it been Lancelot, Gabe would’ve pounded his fist into someone and get it over with, but ooh-boy. This is a whole other breed of fucked.

“Where is he?” I found the women sitting around the kitchen table having one of their powwows. Sophia stood up and came over to me.

“He’s upstairs. How are things over there?” My wife is no fool.

“Just a busted door, nothing we can’t handle.” I’ll tell her later about the tiger cub I saw come out of those people’s house.

I’d bet anything that he went in that house one way and came out another, and I’m not talking about the door. Now I’m going to be the one dealing with this shit because a cub on the loose in NYC is a far cry from New Hampshire. “Pop, do we have acetone?”

“Yeah, there should be some…”

“No, Gabe, I already spoke to Susan; she’s gonna take care of it, don’t do anything; it might make it worst.” I’m lost.

His sisters jumped up from their chairs, but I headed them off. “Gabe, come with me.” When did he learn to cover the sound of his footsteps? I closed the door to the office, “Have a seat. Do you want a drink?” I wasn’t exactly kidding when I made the offer, kid looked like he could use one. He still had that cold dead stare in his eyes.

I hate to even think it, as possessive of him as I am, but part of his blood, going back generations, is vicious as fuck, or so I’d learned after years of digging into Ricci and his family. He declined the drink offer and sat staring straight ahead. “How’s she doing? What exactly happened over there?”