Teaser #1:
Frank and Joe stared at their
father in law and crossed their arms over their chests as the tension ratcheted
up. Steve narrowed his eyes and looked
at his sons, “Are you going to say anything or are you going to stand there
like two statues?”
Ray turned to Steve, “See, I
told you they hadn’t changed, they still act like they’re teenagers called on
the carpet for misbehaving and they’re still as stubborn and arrogant as ever.”
Steve continued to stare at
his sons, “Keep the judgment to yourself Ray, my boys may have been wild when
they were young but they’re responsible men.”
“I have yet to see any
evidence of that,” Ray said with a snort.
Ant and Alberto looked at
each other before slumping down on the couch, hoping to get out of eyesight of
the adults. “Dad, I hope you and mom are almost here. Mr. V is going in for the kill on Poppa Frank
and Mr. JC.”
Carlo sighed, “Oh fuck.
I’m pulling in front of the garage.”
“Daddy, there’s a lot going
on you don’t know about,” Annie said in a calm voice as she sat at the table
near her father. “And none of it is
Frank or Joe’s fault, they haven’t done anything wrong.”
“Carlo’s here,” Frank said
and he and Joe walked to the front door.
“If they haven’t done
anything wrong, that would be a first,” Ray said as he glared at their backs.
“Daddy, stop that. You refuse to see they’re grown ass men and
aren’t teenagers anymore… and even when they were teenagers they weren’t any
worse than any other boys in the Pack,” Rose said with a frown.
Ray slammed his fist on the
table knocking the bowl of fruit over scattering it over the tabletop. “THAT’S WHAT I’M SAYING… THEY WEREN’T ‘ANY
OTHER BOYS’. THEY WERE DESTINED TO BE
LEVEL 5’S AND THEY ACTED LIKE HOODLUMS.”
“My sons may be a lot of
things, but they’re not hoodlums Ray,” Mara said as she rolled her eyes.
Flanked by Frank and Joe, the
Alpha’s walked into the kitchen and nodded to Ray, Bianca, Steven and
Mara. Carlo drew a calming breath before
saying, “Welcome home… but I’m surprised to see you. According to your schedule, you’re not due
back until the Winter Festival.”
“Enzo called and left a
message that they needed us, and it was bad.
We left as quickly as we could,” Steve said with a frown.
“Why didn’t you call and ask him
what he wanted? Or call me or Joe to
find out what was going on?” Frank asked with an identical frown.
Mara smacked Steve on the
arm, “Didn’t Bianca and I say the same thing?”
Steve rolled his eyes, “We
weren’t sure how close things were being monitored and didn’t want to alert the
wrong people we were returning. When we
arrived we were concerned with the empty houses until we saw on Rose’s calendar
you were at the lake and we’ve been sitting here waiting on you to return. Though why you’d be at the lake if things
were so bad the youngsters were calling us has us dumbfounded.” Ray nodded in agreement.
“Anyway, we knew you were
returning today because the little ones have school tomorrow,” Mara added with
a smile.
“Mamaw, we’re not little
ones. I’m eighteen and have an
intended,” Vin said with a smile as he walked into the kitchen and stood next
to his father; the others filed in and did the same including Ant and Alberto who
stood next to their intendeds. Rose and
Annie looked at their father before moving in front of their mates and Frank
and Joe put their arms around them and kissed the top of their heads.
Carlo looked at the
clock. “It’s almost 8 and I know we’re hungry
after the drive.” The boys nodded
slowly, the tension and anger radiating throughout the room for once
overwhelming their need for food. “Gina please
order pizzas while I contact the Level 4’s and Mr. P to come over. We’ll discuss everything while we eat.” He continued to watch the staring contest
between Frank, Joe, Ray and Steve. Opening
the bond to Frank and Joe he said, “If I
knew these two were waiting on us, I would’ve stayed at the lake for another
week.”
“You and me both,” Frank replied as Gina ordered fifty x-large pizzas, forty 2-liter
bottles of soda, salad, chicken wings, fried mozzarella, fried zucchini and
breadsticks. He turned to the youngsters,
“If your homework is done and everything is ready for tomorrow go watch TV
until the food gets here.” They hurried
out of the room anxious to get away but still wanting to hear what was going
on.
Dom turned the TV on,
adjusting the volume so it wouldn’t be obvious they were listening and Vin
looked at his younger brother, “What the
hell did you say to Pops and Papaw? And
why did you call them?”
“The rest of the Team was there, Mr. P said none of
the Elders going into the safe room knew where we should go and Sophia said we
knew two people who would. So I called
and said, ‘We need you. We need both of
you, it’s bad, real bad.’ I figured
they’d call, not come,” he responded
as Gino and Sophia nodded.
Paulo looked up, “I want to know what names they used to fly
back. I have their passports flagged and
none of their names came up.”
Ant looked up from scenting
Sophia, “Tell Dad.” Paulo nodded and told his Alpha, his
uncle and dad that he had flagged all the aliases they had been given and none
had been used.
Carlo, Frank and Joe sat on
the bench and Carlo narrowed his eyes, “What alias did you use to get
here? None of the passports you were
given were used.”
Steve and Ray glanced at each
other before Steve asked, “Who taught the three of you how to forge passports
and use aliases? Since we didn’t know
what was going on we assumed our aliases had been compromised so we made new
ones.”
“We told the AC and European
Council we were taking a week or two off to rest and booked suites at a resort
in Lake Como , Italy
“We used different identities
at each airport; didn’t take a direct flight here, booked flights and didn’t
get on, changed directions so if somebody was following us they had no idea
what we were doing or where we were going.
We even flew separately at times so if anything happened at least one couple
would get here to see what the hell was going on,” Steve shrugged.
“After landing at Miami
International we bought a used car without GPS or Onstar so we couldn’t be
tracked. We were careful and
backtracked, avoided tolls, took back roads, stopped at small out of the way
places to eat and one couple slept while the other drove and monitored the road
behind us,” Ray said with a steely gaze.
“We know where the Packs are located, so we skirted around their base.”
“We even took the batteries
out of our cell phones and bought a disposable in case we needed it. We paid for gas, food and everything else
with cash so we couldn’t be tracked using credit cards,” Mara smiled at her
sons.
“We used standard protocols
and did everything by the book.
Apparently it worked because even with the computer genius in there you
didn’t know what we were doing,” Steve finished with a smile towards Paulo.
“That won’t happen again, I’m
adding facial recognition into the search program,” Paulo retorted as his grandparents
smiled.
Without commenting, Frank and
Joe got up returning with Todd, Carmelo, Mr. G, Vinnie and Mr. P. Rose introduced Todd to the grandparents and
Ray and Steve smiled. “I’ve heard about
your family and glad Vin and Dom found their mates,” Steve said in a sincere
tone.
Todd smiled, “They probably
haven’t had time to tell you since it only happened a couple of days ago but Lorenzo
and Damian are intendeds to my daughters Erin and Caitlin; my second oldest set
of twins.” The youngsters filed into the
room and began to get things ready for the arrival of the food.
“Luna has truly blessed our
family,” Bianca said as she smiled at her grandchildren. Her gaze settled on Ant and Alberto and her
expression changed instantly to one of steel, “Are you treating my
granddaughters well?”
“Yes, ma’am,” both boys visibly
swallowed under her gaze.
“Bianca, our granddaughters
would never let a man treat them bad,” Mara said as she smiled at the boys then
narrowed her eyes. “And if they did,
Sophia and Maria know how to put them in their place.”
“And if they didn’t, we
would,” Ray added in a menacing tone as Ant and Alberto swallowed nervously
while Sophia and Maria smiled.
Teaser #2:
Teaser #2:
Victor and Sal returned and as
they were getting ready to enter the box Victor put his hand on Sal’s arm,
“Listen...”
“Do you remember what I said
when you and Sal almost got into a fight the day after the Full Moon Ceremony?
I’m gonna expand on it… If you embarrass me one more time, I will come into
your room while you’re sleeping, tie you to your bed, chop off your twig and
berries with a dull rusty knife, grind them up in the blender and spoon
feed them to you,” Gabby hissed as she calmly adjusted her chiffon skirt
making sure it wouldn’t wrinkle.
“Oh come on Gabs, all I did
was mention how long it took you to get ready for your date… I didn’t say
anything about you being so nervous that you didn’t eat all day,” Angelo said
with a laugh before he grunted as Gabby turned around and hit him in the
stomach with her pocketbook.
“Not. One. More. Word. I swear
I’m not playing around and I brought backup just in case,” she opened her
pocketbook removing several items.
“What kind of backup would you
have?” Angelo said with a snort.
“These,” she stated handing
him several photos. The loud sound of Angelo’s gasp was heard as Gabby smiled
evilly. “That’s right; I brought your baby pictures. I think the boys would get
a laugh at you getting a bath in the kitchen sink and laying on the rug
bare-assed naked with your little teddy bear.”
He ripped the pictures into
small pieces and shoved them in his pockets. “Now you don’t have anything to
show,” he said triumphantly.
“Ah ah ah. I have extras,”
Gabby replied in a sing song voice as she took another set out of her
pocketbook.
“You wouldn’t dare,” he
hissed.
“Don’t try me,” she whispered
as Sal and Victor entered the box.
