I wasn't sure what Santiago's plan was but I followed him downstairs to the second floor of the house. We could hear the laughter of our friends hanging out in the living room.

"Gabby! You're not going to believe it!" Nessa shot up from her seat like a madwoman. "We were right!"

"What are you talking about?" I raised an eyebrow at my red-headed friend who was bouncing up and down in excitement.

"Show her! Show her!" she yelled at her younger sister.

My boyfriend and I looked at Sofia who raised her left hand up for us to see, my eyes widened when I saw the beautiful ring on her finger.

"WE'RE GETTING MARRIED!" Sofia and Daniel announced out loud with a big smile on their faces.

"Wow!" I shared a knowing look with Santi before walking over to hug the happy couple. "Congratulations to you both!"

I had to force a smile on my face as I stood in front of my best friend. It was amazing to see my friend so happy with her engagement but I felt horrible knowing Santi and I were about to give them bad news on such a special day for her.

"Gabby and I always swore Sofia was going to be the first one to get married out of all of us...and look at her now!" Ness informed Leo, who had his eyes on Santiago's rigid stance next to me.

"Felicidades primo" Santi stepped forward to hug his cousin and Sofia. "Welcome to the family, Sofi." (Congratulations cousin)

"What's going on with you two?" Sofi tilted her head to look at me. "Why do you look so upset?"

Santiago cleared his throat, before taking the initiative to tell them what we just found out. "We were watching the news upstairs and there was a report on the news...there was a picture of you, Vanessa and Gabriela on TV. The FBI is looking for you girls."

Nessa and Sofi were stunned.

"They said your parents were the ones to report us missing to the FBI." I explained.

"Fuck." Nessa cursed out loud.

"I forgot about them."Sofi groaned and closed her eyes in frustration, "I only called them once or twice after we went to live to the mansion. With everything that's happened I forgot to stay in contact with them...they must be so worried about us."

"I promise you we'll try to fix this" Nessa said to Santi. "We didn't mean to get you guys in more trouble."

"I have a plan." Santi said to all of us. He had to refused to say anything while we were in our room, so I would be hearing this for the first time too. "It's time you girls head back to Chicago."

******

2 WEEKS LATER

When Santiago said it was time for us to go back to Chicago my heart stopped at the thought of being away from him. But he was quick to assure us that the guys and him would be coming along with us.

Which brought me to the dilemma my best friends and I were currently facing.

"How much longer are they going to have us here?" Nessa threw her head back in annoyance.

The three of us were sitting in a small office surrounded by Border Patrol officers in every corner of the building. All of our belongings had been taken away from us to be searched by an officer.

Santi's plan was simple. The three of us would head back to the U.S just like any other normal person, we still had our American citizenship and there was nothing incriminating us to prevent us from going back home. And just like Santi had predicted, we were stopped by officers while trying to cross the first checking point towards the U.S.

We had been sitting in the tiny office for two hours waiting for some FBI agents who were informed of our whereabouts as soon as it was reported that we were trying to cross the border between Mexico and the United States.

The door to the little office opened and we looked up to see a tall 'gringo' walk in with two other agents behind him. The man who walked in first seemed to be the one in charge, he was a handsome Caucasian male who looked to be in his early thirties: dressed in black pants, button-up shirt and tie, over his shirt he wore a bulletproof vest.

I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing when I noticed Nessa mouthing the word "Hot" at Sofi and me.

We were all silent as he read over some papers he held in his hands.

"Vanessa Lazcano, Sofia Lazcano and Gabriela Romano. I'm agent Christopher Hayes and I work for the CIA" He said our names without taking his eyes from the documents in hand. "This bullshit report I'm reading over right now is nothing but lies. I want to know the truth, where were you girls the past few months?"

A CIA agent? I thought we were dealing with the FBI?!

"You've got to be kidding me!" Nessa exploded. "We've been waiting for you for the past two hours and now you're calling us liars?!"

"This is a total misunderstanding" Sofi gave her sister a dirty look before putting on a sweet smile. "We already told the officers everything, we went on a road trip all over Mexico with a few of the friends we made in Acapulco. We tried calling our parents a few times to let them know we were okay but the calls wouldn't go through. We just want to go back home."

"From what your parents have told me, you girls have never been this irresponsible..." Agent Hayes looked at all three of us with calculating eyes. "My guess is that you might have run into some familiar faces while you were in Mexico." he looked at me pointedly.

"You think I ran into my father? I haven't seen him in years." I lied without hesitation. "I've made it very clear to my father's side of the family that I don't want anything to do with them... the only reason you're so suspicious about all this is because I'm a Romano."

Agent Hayes glared at me. "I don't believe you."

"I don't care what you believe." I snapped back at him. "We've already given our side of the story, you have no reason to keep us here...we just want to go home!"

"There's been reports that you were seen in Culiacan, Sinaloa with Santiago Bustamante."

"Santiago Bustamante? I've never met him in person." I shook my head.

"But you do know who he is?" he pressed.

"Of course."

When he realized I wouldn't say anything else he pulled out a pen and signed the papers without taking his eyes off me. He gave the papers to the other agent and ordered him to bring our belongings.

"You girls are free to go." he said through gritted teeth.

"Finally" Nessa stood up from her chair and walked out the door without looking back, Sofi followed right behind her but before I could join my friends Christopher Hayes blocked the door with his tall frame.

"MOVE" I snapped at him, trying to squeeze my way through the door to no avail.

"Tell Santi that Christopher Hayes is in charge of bringing his ass to prison. He'll know who I am." he smirked at me and then stepped aside to let me go.

***************

After another long hour of having to wait for a ride we finally made it to Brownsville, Texas where we rented a car to get to our 5 hour long destination: Austin, Texas. While we were in the car I sent a text to Santiago to let him know we were finally free, he sent me back a text with an address.

Santi's plan had gone without a problem. We cleared our names and were no longer considered missing, the guys and him had managed to cross over to Texas, thanks to the many contacts they had working for them in the US (he refused to let us know any details on how they crossed the border) and now they were waiting for us in Austin to get on a private plane that would take us back home to Chicago.

Everything was under control, but something he had not anticipated was the involvement of Agent Christopher Hayes and the CIA. How did Christopher and Santi know each other?

*****

We arrived to an old warehouse located in the middle of nowhere, as always Santi was good at keeping everything hidden.

It's a drug lord thing.

We parked behind the warehouse where a small plane could be seen at a distance, we were greeted by two older men and Leo. Nessa ran into his arms while the other men pulled out our luggage from the car and lead us to the plane.

"What took you girls so long?" Leo kissed his girlfriend and they walked hand-in-hand in front of us.

She rolled her eyes. "We had to wait for some dumb agents to interrogate us and they took forever to get there."

We got on the plane and Santiago was already in his seat having a drink, I rushed over to him and planted a big kiss on his lips. "Miss me?" he chuckled.

"You have no idea" I took the seat next to him and rested my head on his shoulder.

Sofi went to sit next to Daniel and once we were all in the plane the door closed and the pilot told us to put on our seat belts. The flight from Austin to Chicago would only be two, maybe three hours.

"I swear you guys pull private planes out of your asses" Nessa shook her head as she poured herself a drink. "How many of them do you have?"

Santi shrugged. "I think about five or six."

"Damn."

"Santi, do you know Agent Hayes?" I asked my boyfriend.

"Hayes?"

"Christopher Hayes" Nessa wiggled her eyebrows. "Hot piece of..."

"Hey!" Leo glared at his girlfriend.

"Oh hush! Just because I'm taken doesn't mean I can't appreciate a good looking man" she kissed him on the cheek.

"Chris? How do you girls know him?" Santi asked.

"He's the agent who interrogated us while we were in the border." Sofi explained.

"And he told me that now that he's in charge he's going to put you in prison." I repeated what the agent had said.

"When did he say that?" Ness asked confused.

"Right before I walked out" I said to her. "He said Santi would know who he is..."

"He's in charge now?" Santi grinned with an evil smirk. "Took him long enough!"

"Who is he?"

"He's Mike's older brother."

"How come his last name isn't Fullerton like Mike's?" I asked remembering Claire's husband, they did have some similarities now that I could put two and two together.

"They're half brothers, same mom different dads"

Mike has a brother who works for the CIA? How did Mike end up becoming a criminal while his brother went on to work for the government?

"He hasn't been able to capture his own brother, what makes him think he'll be able to capture me?" Santiago laughed along with his cousins.

"Is there some beef between you guys or what?" Nessa asked curiously. A question I was dying to know too.

"Nah." Santi said confidently. " He's a good guy, just doing his job: capturing bad guys like me."

A good guy who seemed to be very determined to put my boyfriend behind bars. Santi didn't see him as a threat but after meeting this Chris, I knew he was a new addition to our long list of enemies.

And it was better to be well informed, I'll have to meet up with Claire and ask her a few things about her brother-in-law.

"I'm putting on some music" Santi connected his phone to a blue tooth that played music through the speakers. "Any suggestions?"

"I feel like listening to some old school R&B!" Nessa piped up.

"Got it" he smirked.

"I thought I told ya Ima star.

You see the ice?

You see the cars?

Flashy lights. everywhere we are.

Livin like, like there's no tomorrow"

Jeremih's song "Imma Star (Everywhere We Are)" blasted through the speakers.

I let out a loud laugh while Nessa gave my boyfriend a weird look.

"I was thinking some Trey Songz..."

"I found this song appropriate since I have so many planes that I own and so many cars and so much money." Santi joked with my friend.

"This was my song back in the day" Sofi danced along to the music.

My cell- phone vibrated in my pocket and made sure it was safe to get up before excusing myself to take the call in the tiny restroom. The call was from an unknown number but it was probably my mom checking up on me.

"Hello?"

"Bellisima Gabriela?" a familiar voice spoke through the other end of the line. A familiar voice with an Italian accent.

Gavin Ruozi. The Italian who was sent by the Cosa Nostra cartel to kidnap me.

"How did you get my number, Gavin?" I asked annoyed.

"Ti ricordi di me?! How are you, my dear?" (You remember me?)

My Italian wasn't the best but the similarities with Spanish was enough for me to understand what he said. "Of course I remember you! Cut the crap, Gavin. Why are you calling me?!"

"Tsk Tsk...Still as feisty as ever." he laughed. "I'm just calling to inform you that we'll be going to Mexico very soon. Luca wants to do some business with your Santiago, we want you to be the one to deliver the message to your boyfriend...since we're friends and all. We don't want to cause any trouble, just talk."

"Luca Moretti?" I choked out. "He's coming down to Mexico personally?"

"Yes darling, and he's dying to meet the princess of the Mexican Mafia"

"W-When will you be coming?"

"I'll give you a call two days before we leave. We don't have a certain date as of now." he paused before continuing "Still, you better let Santiago know."

"Okay."

"I'll see you soon, Gabriela. Ciao!"

Oh my God. Luca Moretti, leader of the Cosa Nostra wants to do business with Santiago? This can only end badly.

I walked out to see Santiago and my friends having a good time, they were enjoying the music and everyone was laughing at Nessa and Santi who were having a singing battle.

"Kissin' on my neck, nibblin' on my ear-" Nessa sang in a high pitched voice.

"You say you wanna chill?" Santi joined in. "Go ahead and have a beer!"

They all looked so carefree, I didn't want to ruin the moment by letting them know who I had been talking to on the phone.

I went back to my seat and just for a while pretended that everything was okay, I pushed my worries about Luca Moretti and Christopher Hayes to the back of my mind.

I placed my hand over the tiny bump on my stomach, it was barely noticeable but it made me so happy to know I had a little baby growing inside of me, a baby I would protect with my own life if I had to.

This Mafia life has so many perks: the luxury, the money, the private planes, the cars...but all these perks come at a high price: death, loss, suffering.

A price we would all have to pay in due time.

The music used on this chapter or any part of this story does not belong to me, all the rights belong to it's rightful owners. I only use music as inspiration to write the chapters found on this story.

I want to thank Leslie Sosa for the lovely book cover on this chapter of Santi and Gabriela. Thank you so much for taking the time to make that for me :)

And I want to thank every single one of you who have stuck till' this last chapter of MTTM. There will be a sequel, this story doesn't end here...Go on to the next chapter where you will be able to read a brief synopsis of the second book and an author's note from me.