Hailey's POV

"Is there a reason why you keep staring at me Mrs. Matteo?" Sacramento grumbles as he continues to look down at the deck of UNO cards in his hand.

He's currently losing.

Isaac's little cousin Jessica was bored out of her mind the second we got to the safe house and managed to somehow harass both Sacramento and I into playing Uno with her.

She of course had to teach Sacramento how to play and just hit him with a +4 card back to back so most of the card deck is in his hand.

He currently still has his mask and glasses on his face, but even then I could picture the ugly twisted look underneath when Jessie hit him with another wild card on her next turn- serves him right for skipping me two times in a row.

Sacramento's actually hanging out in casual clothes, surprisingly. He was in full tactical gear when he picked me up from my dads house a few hours ago, but he's now wearing a pair of dark jeans with a black hoodie, the hood over his head. He'd almost look entirely normal if he'd just lose the ski mask and dark sunglasses.

Sacramento puts a red reverse card down, skipping my turn, AGAIN, looking in my direction, no doubt a smile hidden under his coverage.

"Take your glasses off," I say, narrowing my eyes over at him.

"I'm sorry?" He frowns, his deep, stern, voice rumbling at the back of his throat.

Something tells me that he's exactly like every other man in this family, not used to talking in such a soft gentle manner.

I look up at him and smile, repeating myself. "Remove the glasses from your face, Sacramento."

He arches an eyebrow. "And now why would I do that?"

I fold my arms across my chest as I sit back in the chair, my smile growing wider than a couple seconds ago, "because I demanded it. Is that a good enough reason for you, or shall we call my husband? We're in doors, Sacramento, playing a card game, you don't need the glasses on."

Sacramento inhales a deep breath, his jaw twitching under the ski mask. He brings a hand up to his shades removing them from his face, revealing black painted skin around his eyes and it takes almost everything within me not to geek out.

Oh my god, It worked, he actually took the glasses off.

I smile at the instant sight of his eyes; Beanie was right, they're definitely green. Unlike my eyes though, Sacramento's are a lot lighter like Rics eyes, brighter.

I almost wanna have Jessica go get a baby wipe from the guest bathroom so that he can remove the black paint from his face, but I think that would be pushing it. I think this is as casual and personal as I'll probably ever get.

"Never pictured you to have colored eyes," I tease looking back down at my Uno cards.

"Jessica!" Mrs. Matteo calls from upstairs.

I incline my head towards the staircase, "go, we'll wait for you."

She nods her head eagerly, taking her Uno cards with her.

"And how do you picture me?" There's a small hint of playfulness in Sacramento's voice as soon as Jessica leaves us.

"Scars, I picture scars," I run a finger down the side of my face.

He shrugs his shoulders looking away, "you don't get to the top without getting a couple scars here and there."

"Which one hurt you the most?" I question.

Sacramento puts his dark sun glasses back on his face and is lifting his head up, pulling the face mask he has on upwards he reveals a long scar going across his upper throat.

I gasp at the length of the scar, "oh my god, you survived that?!"

He chuckles deeply pulling the black material back down, covering himself up, "I'm here aren't I?"

Little footsteps walk back over to where we're at to find a pouty Jessie coming our way.

Sacramento immediately throws me off seconds later when I hear him speak to Jessica in Spanish.

"Qué pasa, princesa? Porque tienes la cara tan larga?"

"Tio Melo said I have to go to bed already," she says in English, pouting even more as she places her stack of cards on the table.

Sacramento looks down at the watch on his wrist, nodding his head, "ya es tarde, mami, we'll finish tomorrow, okay?"

She nods and is quickly running over to Sacramento's arms as he leans down to hug her. "Buenas noches."

"Buenas noches, Sacramento," she smiles and turns to me, hugging me next. "Goodnight, Hailey."

I smile and hug her in return, "goodnight, Jessie."

She puts her tiny hands on my stomach and is leaning in placing a kiss on it, "goodnight baby."

I laugh softly and she's taking off a couple seconds later. She's been so obsessed with my stomach ever since she found out there was a little human inside of it.

I sit back in my chair with my hands on my tummy now as Sacramento begins to collect all of the UNO cards, cleaning up the table.

"You have kids don't you," I utter softly, sliding him my stack of cards.

"What gives you that impression?"

"The way you just were with Jessica. That was another whole level of gentleness." I point out. "Beanie does the same thing. The fatherly side of him peaks out here and there."

He chuckles deeply and nods his head as he sticks the cards into the uno box. "Observant aren't we."

"Always," I smile. "Am I right?"

"You are," his voice isn't nearly as deep when he answers. "It's getting pretty late, you should probably get some rest yourself."

"Girl?"

He nods, "my niece, she's five before you ask."

"Five?!" I squeak and smile. "She's so small!"

He chuckles, "yeah they get older as time passes by, I don't know if you knew that."

Is that a- joke?

My smile begins to grow wider, "are you actively in her life? If I may ask, you definitely don't have to answer, I'm just curious."

"I try to be," he answers. "This job makes it a little difficult when my devotion is to your Husband and this faction. She's been in my custody for under a year now and I've only seen her a handful of times."

"W-what happened? If you don't mind me asking. How'd you get custody of her?"

"My brother and his wife were in a pretty nasty car accident about nine months ago. My brother's wife died instantly and I had to pull the plug on him about four days later because they pronounced him brain dead."

"Oh my god."

He snorts softly through his nose nodding his head, "the last time I spoke to my brother was over ten years ago, he hated me and vice versa. I didn't even know I had a niece," he chortles. "I instantly turned her down, I wanted nothing to do with her, I knew nothing about taking care of kids, the boss- or I mean his dad- actually talked me into it and now it kills me to be away from her."

"Why are you so openly telling me all of this?" I wonder out loud. "Don't get me wrong, I like it, I wanna know more, but you've barely said more than two sentences to me the last few times we've encountered each other."

He chuckles, crossing his arms, sitting back in his seat, "because I was given permission, therefore here I am- interacting with you," he waves a hand in my direction.

"You were given permission?" I arch an eyebrow.

He nods, "I take my job very seriously. If the boss says I'm only allowed to speak five words to you, then the max you're probably gonna get from me is three, Mrs. Matteo."

I open my mouth to speak and he's quickly putting a hand up, talking over me.

"No, I will not refer to you as Hailey."

I smiled softly because of course I was just about to tell him to call me by my first name.

"Referring to you as anything other than Mrs. Matteo insinuates that I'm something more than just your bodyguard, Mrs. Matteo. I may be informal from time to time, given the clearance to be, but I am not your friend, we are not friends, we will never be friends."

"Never say never," I tease, dreading this sudden painful conversation that's happening.

Sacramento snorts through his nose again, "I am not Elias, Beanie, whatever you choose to call him. I will not give you any type of special treatment because you think I might have a soft spot for you, Mrs. Matteo. You are not like a daughter to me, I will protect you as if you were my own, but only because I get paid to do so. I am a very dangerous highly trained professional, there's a reason why my identity stays hidden. This family doesn't pay me to be your friend, your husband pays me to keep you alive and I intend on doing so."

"Ew someone got broody and serious fast," I mutter under my breath.

Sacramento chuckles deeply, "negative, you just got comfortable quick the second I gave you any intel on my life. Something you do often. Just because I'm giving you specs of my life doesn't mean I'm a nice guy, it doesn't make any of those other men you befriended nice guys."

"They're a lot nicer than this.."

"I don't get paid to be nice to you, Mrs. Matteo, I can promise you that I'll end up hurting your feelings eventually."

"Geez, I can only imagine how you'd treat your girlfriend or wife if you'd have one," I grumble under my breath.

He scoffs, "my wife isn't married to this side of me, to Sacramento. She's married to the man under the mask, the man worships the ground she walks on, he treats her like the angel she is."

"Wait, wait," I shake my head, bringing a hand up mid air, "I'm sorry- you're married?!?" .

"Last time I checked," there's a hint of a smile in his voice now.

"How long have you been married?"

"Five years."

"Does- she know Sacramento exists?"

He laughs softly, "she does. I actually met her because of this job. When I got this," he lifts his chin, pointing to where his scar is under his mask. "She was one of my many on the clock nurses Carmelo hired on to take care of me."

"Can I hear that story?"

"Which one?" His smile is back in his voice. "How we met? Or how I got the scar?"

"Both?" I smile politely in hopes that he'll open up a little more.

A deep throat clears itself and I'm quickly tearing my attention away from the broody masked man next to me to find Carmelo standing in the open hallway, his hands shoved into his black sweats.

"Sweep the block and stay outside on stand by, Sacramento."

"Yes sir," he nods his head one single time. "Excuse me," he turns to look in my direction and is getting up from his chair, "maybe another time," he says and is stepping out a second later.

"It's late, sweetheart, why don't you try getting some rest. I'll wake you if I hear anything from Isaac."

"Thanks for that," I wave a hand in the direction that Sacramento just left.

Carmelo frown's confused.

"Sacramento was just about to spill the beans on his life before you rudely interrupted"

Isaac's dad smiles softly and is crossing his arms along his chest, shaking his head. "I highly doubt he would've given you much. She's a touchy subject."

"His wife?"

He nods, "The man is so good at keeping things hidden that he hid his wife away from the world and myself. She isn't even in his file that I have on him because I have nothing to jot down."

"You don't know who she is?"

"I knew who she was," he starts to smile a little wider. "I knew the woman I hired on to keep my most valuable asset alive when he got his throat slit open. That woman- she disappeared years ago when Sacramento got his hands on her, the second he became obsessed with her. That woman no longer exists, there's no trace of her whatsoever."

Excuse me?

"That's how dangerous and good Sacramento is at doing his job, Hailey. He completely erased his wife from this world to hide her and keep her safe from everyone and everything. That's why Isaac is wary about you trying to be friends with him."

"Incase he ever retaliates?"

He nods, "not that I ever think he would, I trust that man like I trust my son, more than Dominic sometimes."

"How'd you find him? How'd he become a part of this family?"

Carmelo's lips tug to the side, "a story for another time, let's get to bed it's late."

I shake my head, "please, Carmelo, I'm too anxious to sleep." I glance up at the clock on the far wall to notice it's almost midnight and I feel wide awake. "Talking distracts me from my overthinking thoughts, it calms me down," I tell him.

He nods,"fine, just this one time," he waves a hand towards the couches beside us.

I get up from the table making my way over to the longer couch as Carmelo takes a seat on the smaller one to my right.

"I found Sacramento when he was in his, I don't know- early 20's," he ponders. "He's probably in his early 30's now, he's been with me for about almost ten years."

He smiles softly, "he was a little delinquent when we first found him. Dominic actually came across him one night when he was underground handling a racket. The poor guy was getting jumped by six fucking guys and let me tell you- Sacramento was putting up one hell of a fight when Don passed by with his crew."

"Wait a minute, Sacramento was getting jumped?"

Carmelo nods, "oh yeah, he's definitely not the same man he is now then when Don found him. He was a lot more rugged, scrawny, temperamental. It took years to break him into who he is now, a lot of training and bulking up."

"How long has he been Sacaramento exactly?"

"About six years I believe, he wasn't in charge of his team for very long when he had his accident."

"W-what happened?"

"He trusted the wrong guy," he answers shortly. "His old right hand man led him into his own death. He was jealous of him, of the position he was in, the man I made him into, apparently he thought he was more deserving so he tried teaching us both a lesson by taking him out leaving me no choice to appoint him as head lead."

"Oh my god."

Carmelo nodded his head, "Sacramento's ex military so you know he definitely didn't go down without a fight. He actually took out his own guy with his throat slit open by the time we got there."

"How does someone even survive something like that?" I mutter.

"It honestly just depends on the severity of the cut and if it tears through any arteries and veins, luckily he had missed both but he still bled out pretty badly." Carmelo begins to shake his head, "I still remember that call as if it was yesterday, all you could hear was the sound of Sacramento drowning in his own blood, gurgling as he tried to call for help."

"That's horrible.."

He nods, "we immediately rushed over to their head quarters and walked into fucking chaos. Sacramento was laying in a pool of his own blood near his bed, he actually had multiple stab wounds, not just to the neck because his guy got him while he was sleeping. He had some type of rag wrapped around his neck soaked in blood, unconscious, when we found him."

"He tried to stop the bleeding on his own?" I frown.

He nods.

"How does someone even have time to think without panicking?"

"Sacramentos is perfectly capable of being able to function in high stressful situations due to his training. And I thank God he knew exactly what to do, I don't know if he'd be here right now if he hadn't been properly trained. After that I eliminated his entire team, minus one person. He started from the bottom all over again, new men, a new team, hiding his identity from everyone."

"Except that one person?"

"Except that one person," Carmelo smiles. "Per his request of course. That's the only other person I've seen Sacramento care for other than his wife and niece now. He didn't even shed a tear when he found out his biological brother was dead."

"You really know how to pick them, Carmelo."

He smiles a small chuckle coming out, "broken vulnerable men are the easiest to manipulate and mold. I can promise you every single man in this faction has a sob story that will break your little sympathetic heart."

"It doesn't mean they're all nice though," my voice slowly trails off as I glance down at the carpet.

"Precisely. Some of those men that I saved out there don't come back from it, they stay broken. You've been lucky enough to deal with a handful of decent men out there, blessed really, but not every guy in this faction is a decent human being, not all of them have good intentions. Not everyone is Emiliano, Hailye, they can't be saved, they won't switch up because they have a sudden soft spot."

"Why let them be a part of this organization then?"

"Plenty of reason," he starts. "One of them being loyalty. I give every man the same decision when getting initiated. I save their lives in return for their loyalty and devotion. Some of them in the end turn out to have some really good qualities, some of them have to be broken in a little more, it's a progress but I've never once forced anyone to be a part of this family if they didn't want to be. I give respect as much as I demand it."

"Except Ian.."

He shrugs his shoulders, "babycakes was different. He was a kid when I found him. I didn't throw him out into the field," he uses air quotes. "Until I knew he was somewhat mentally stable. He would've killed himself any day if I hadn't ran into him."

I slowly begin to smile looking over at Carmelo.

"What are you smiling about?" He frowns.

I shrug my shoulders sitting back into the couch, placing my hands on my belly feeling Isaiah starting to move around.

"You swear your son gets his sympathy from me, from your wife, but I think he gets it from his father, regardless of him knowing whether he's sympathetic," I smile. "I've never met anyone so willing to help others, you should let more people see that side of you, rather than the angry scary mobster."

Carmelo smiles, "go to bed, Hailey."

I giggle softly, instantly looking in the direction of the hallway opening to find Sacramento coming back into view.

Carmelo's smile immediately falls the second he sees him standing there.

"We have a problem sir."

My heart quickly falls to my stomach, "Isaac!?"

Sacramento shakes his head looking in my direction, "he's fine." He turns back to Carmelo and then back to me, staying quiet looking back over at Isaac's dad.

"She's fine, spit it out," he growls.

He nods, "team three breached sir."

Carmelo frowns, "that's Cris' team?"

Sacramento shakes his head, "our men flipped. They opened fire on your son's team." His voice begins to get softer. "Cris got caught in the crossfire, they're on their way to Saint Frances."

Instant chills run up my back as I watch Carmelo bolt off of the couch and run upstairs leaving Sacramento and I alone in the living room.

"I suggest you get dressed if you have any intentions on riding back with him to the hospital, Mrs. Matteo."

I nod my head slowly getting off of the couch, making my way towards Sacramento, a sudden nauseous feeling in my stomach now.

"Hey," Sacramento wraps hand around my arm as I attempt to pass him.

I look up at him. It's insane how ridiculously tall he is.

"Breathe," his voice is soft. "The boss is fine, your husband is fine."

I nod and head into the guest bedroom they currently have me in and grab my sweater and slip into my shoes.

Five minutes later we're storming out of the house with only Sacramento as the rest of his team stays at the house with Jessica. Isaac's dad is riding up front in the passenger seat with Sacramento on the driver's side, both of them speaking softly in Italian here and there as Adriana and I ride in the back seat.

We get to the hospital about half an hour later seeing how their safe house is so far out in the country and out of the city.

There's two men that are dressed exactly like Sacramento standing outside of the hospital entrance, with another two standing near the elevators and stairs.

We climb into the elevator to find three more men dressed exactly like Sacramento on the floor they have Cris on.

There's one standing near the elevator as we climb out, another one in the hall, and finally the last one is with my husband standing near the waiting room talking to each other.

My heart immediately begins to beat in my chest at the sight of him. He's in very similar clothing to Sacramento and his men. He's in some black cargo pants, some black boots, along with a black T-shirt with his bullet proof vest still on.

"Hail?" He frowns the second he sees me, instantly walking over in my direction.

I rush over to him and he's immediately wrapping his arms around me, cupping my face a second later, "what the hell are you doing here, baby?"

"I needed to see that you were actually okay."

Isaac shakes his head, "I'm okay, princess, not a scratch on me," he leans down to place a kiss on my forehead.

"Is he okay?" I asked looking up at Isaac. "What happened?"

He shakes his head again, pulling me back in for another forehead kiss, "we'll talk about it later, let me talk to my dad."

I nod, placing a kiss on his lips before he steps away from me and is walking towards his parents who are hovering close by.

"Hey ma," he hugs his mom.

"Hi baby."

"What happened?!" Carmelo quickly exclaims.

"Are you okay son? How's Cris doing?" I retort looking in Carmelo's direction, crossing my arms along my chest.

He immediately narrows his eyes.

"He's fine," Isaac says, pulling away from his mother . "He lost a lot of blood so they needed to do a blood transfusion, they were able to remove the bullets. He's in a room now."

"Bullets?!"

Isaac nods as he reaches for my hand, clinging onto it.

He says something in Italian and adds, "he got clipped on the side, they barely missed his lung."

"Cazzo. You find the rest of the team?"

Isaac shakes his head, "only the three, he's still missing. Cris' team took out eight of the dozen."

I glance back and forth from both men, wondering who the hell they're talking about. I know it has to be their mole that I've been looking for but I wonder who it can be.

"Find. Him." Carmelo snarls, his upper lip twitching for the sudden anger. "Find him and put an end to him."

Isaac shakes his head, "I already told them to bring him in, I wanna know everything he knows."

Carmelo shakes his head this time, "he was a part of my integration team, Isaac, he won't talk, he won't fucking break. End him before he can taint any of the other good men we have left."

"Dion already put the stress call out, Pops, they should all know by now if anyone comes in contact. He won't make it out of the city."

I watch Carmelo's lip curl into a disgust look, "out of all fucking men."

"It'll get settled dad, I'll take care of it, you have other things to worry about."

He nods silently, "can we go in?"

"His moms with him right now.."

I watch Isaac's moms facial features immediately churn at the mention of Cris' mother.

"I'm sorry, ma, she has the right to know."

"No, that's fine," Carmelo's answers. "We'll come back, let me know when she's gone."

"The hell we will," Adriana hisses. She jabs a finger into her husband's chest, "you have just as much right to be here.. Sacramento!"

I turned to look in his direction. He steps away from the masked man he was just talking to, "yes ma'am?"

"Go get her out of that room," she points a finger down the hall. "My husband would like to see his son."

"Yes ma'am," he nods. "MK," he tilts his head in the direction of the hallway, saying something in Italian.

The man MK nods in agreement and takes a couple steps forward before Carmelo raises his voice.

"Don't fucking move, MK! She can have her privacy," Carmelo glances over at his wife. "We can come back, we will not disrupt her time with her son."

"Of course not, because she's the only one allowed to disrupt around here right," Adriana sneers.

Carmelo's voice immediately drops to a softer tone, "Adriana-"

Isaac's mom quickly picks up her hand about mid air silencing her husband, looking now in her son's direction, a knowing look now on her face.

He inhales a deep breath and is inclining his head to the side as he looks in the MK guys direction and he disappears into the hall a second later.

"You eat dinner?" Isaac pulls on my hand, gaining my attention.

I nod. "You?"

His lips tug to the side, "you won't like the answer so let's just pretend I did."

I roll my eyes, "you can't keep skipping meals, Isaac. You barely touched your food last night."

He shushes me and is leaning down to place a kiss on the side of my face, "I'm not the one growing a baby inside of them."

I rolled my eyes for a second time, playfully this time and let go of his hand, swatting him in the stomach.

Isaac's been so busy with things back at home that he's been getting into the bad habit of eating one meal a day or barely even eating anything at all. Surprisingly he ate on the five days we were on vacation, only because I allowed him to do very minimal work.

His phone was constantly ringing nonstop that I even picked it up at one point and told him men to stop ruining my damn vacation. If no one was dying they had no right calling this damn phone, they could get in contact with Dominic or Carmelo, who I had to politely remind that he was left in charge.

Needless to say my husband found that an immediate turn on and turned his work phone off for the remainder of days we had left and focused all his attention on me, or my body at least.

He definitely made up for a lot of the time lost when we had thought his dad was dead and barely even looked in my direction.

I instantly get a nervous feeling in my stomach when I see MK and a lady following closely behind him, walk in our direction.

She's definitely Cris' mom.

He has her skin complexion. It's tan, but not as tan as Isaac and Carmelo's, hers is probably a shade or two lighter. She has dark wavy hair that goes up to her shoulders, her makeup beautifully done just like Isaac's mother and every other woman in this lifestyle.

Her figure is almost identical to Isaac's mom, only Mrs. Matteo definitely has more curves and her face doesn't have as many age lines in her skin.

There's an almost nervous look on Cris' moms face as MK steps away from the five of us.

She clears her throat softly, "Carmelo," she looks up at him and then over at Isaac's mother. "Adriana. It's been a long time."

"Not long enough," Adriana snarls, taking a step forward.

I immediately lose my mind as I watch her connect her hand with Cris' mom's face, the very loud slap echoing the quiet waiting room.

Carmelo quickly pulls her back a couple steps, "Adriana!"

"That's for keeping my husband's son away from him."