“Listen.” Chiara starts, moving closer to me. “There is no guarantee of anything in this life, Aisling. The only thing we can count on is that they love us and will do everything they can to protect us and that includes coming home to us. I can see from your perspective how this can be scary and unbelievable, but this life is real and often spills over onto our very front door. All we can do is stick together and believe in the men who love us.” Huh. Easy for her to say. “Besides, you are going to have plenty to keep you busy, with a new baby and a house to decorate and run.”
“A house?”
“Yes. There are more mansions on the grounds. Just beyond the trees in both directions. That’s why you can’t see them. It is secluded enough for you two to be on your own, but still close enough for us to all get together.” Holy shit. She is serious. “Jozef didn’t tell you?”
“I think he might have mentioned it, but I think I thought he was joking with me.”
“Oh no joke. You are going to love it.” I am about to ask her if we can go see it, when the front door opens and in walks a gorgeous, tall woman, wearing a black leather jacket. She looks not only exotic and dark, but she looks serious and on a mission.
“Chiara!” She calls out walking into the kitchen.
“Hey Giulia. What’s up?” Chara answers back. The mystery woman looks like she wants to say something, but then spots me and Jozef’s mom and her face pinches.
“You must be Ms. Wojcik. It is nice to meet you.” She holds her hand out and they shake.
“I am. Thank you for allowing me to come and join my sons.”
“No thanks necessary. You are family now.” She turns her full attention on to me and I immediately begins squirming and feeling like I have done something wrong. “Who are you?” My mouth feels dry as I shrink under her intense scrutiny.
“Giulia, this is Jozef's fiancé, Aisling. Aisling, this is my big sister Giulia.” She looks me up and down before setting once again on my eyes. This is the woman that is running the mob now? She looks like a freaking model. I am seriously out of touch.
“Nice to meet you, Aisling is it?”
“Yes. Nice to meet you as well.” her smile seems genuine and I finally let out the breath the I was holding.
“So what’s up?” Chiara asks her putting another one of the sweets in her mouth.
“I just wanted to come and check on you. Make sure you didn’t need anything.” she says looking around. “I can see I had nothing to worry about.” she laughs looking at the food on the table.
“Nope. Paulina cooked for us. Here. Have some.” She offers her sister some food but Giulia shakes her head.
“It looks delicious but I can’t stay. If you need me, you know how to find me.”
“I do. Thank you for checking in.” She nods and walks out. I can’t help but think I am surrounded by badass women who have learned to adjust to this life. Can I be one of them?
CHAPTER
NINE
JOZEF
I feel like shit for not being there when she woke up after crying so fucking much. I did what I could to make her feel better. I fucked her over and over until she passed out and fell asleep. It wasn’t until I was sure she was asleep that I remembered the dozens of messages I heard come through my phone. I didn’t want to answer then while we were with the doctor, or once she started crying so I waited.
When I finally looked at my phone, there were messages from my brother telling me her apartment has been broken into again. It seems they have beat up the landlord looking for information on his man and Aisling’s whereabouts. Fucking glad I didn’t tell him shit.
“Jozef this is your operation. What's the plan?”
“We have to hit them all at once. If we don’t, Popov will have a head start.”
“That is solid.” Nose says, widening his stance.
“Nose got the blueprints for his penthouse. We have visuals on all power boards and the security system in his place is now in our control.”
“How the fuck did you manage that?” Caliber, one of my brothers men asks, clearly not convinced.
“We got someone on the inside of Silencio to give us the codes to his alarm systems, gained by electronically peeking into his keypad. Now we know the strokes, how it is armed and have access to disarm it remotely.”
“Well fuck baby brother.” Jak hits my back and puffs his chest out in pride.
“Now that they know Aisling has not been there and is not coming back, he moved his men from in front of her building. Here is where the majority of his men are.” I open the map of the building his men occupy. “The rest are at his penthouse guarding him. My intel says he called in two more. Seems he has an inkling something is coming.”