Hailey's POV

A sharp jab in my stomach is instantly waking me out of my sleep. I inhale a deep slow breath, placing my hand on my stomach, attempting to soothe my squirming baby.

He's definitely been kicking the hell out of me since last night but I do feel like I play a big role in that. Isaiah seems to squirm and kick a lot more frequently when I'm anxious and uncomfortable, and I'm uncomfortable 24/7 now that I'm 32 weeks pregnant.

It's hard for me to stay asleep throughout the night now. I'm constantly waking up like every two hours because I'm in constant pain, my entire body aches, especially my lower back. I'm hungry all the damn time but get full super quickly when I eat because there's no room left inside of me to put any food, my sons taking up every inch of my stomach.

I crane my head back to find my shirtless husband soundly asleep still, laying on his side, snorting softly behind me as his son continues to kick the inside of my stomach.

I'm almost half tempted to get up and turn off the night light that's on the other side of the room so that it can be pitch black. I go to bed every night with the light off and Isaac continues to comes after me hours later turning it on to make sure I don't trip over anything in case I need to get up at night.

I rub my hand on my belly a couple more times, slowly starting to sit up, careful not to wake Isaac and sit at the edge of the bed.

I begin to rock myself back and forth very slowly, attempting my hardest to get Isaiah to calm down without waking up his dad.

He kicks me a couple more times when I feel the bed shift behind me and there's a warm hand slowly running up and down my lower back on the inside of my shirt.

"You okay?" I hear the instant worry in my husband's sleepy voice as he places a kiss on my back. My poor man can't ever catch a break and sleep peacefully for one night, something or someone is always waking him up.

I nod my head slowly, already feeling guilty that he's even awake. It's 3:06 am, he's only been asleep for about 3 hours max and has to wake up in 3 more hours to start his day.

"What's going on?" He asked softly.

I shake my head.

"Hailey, talk to me babe."

"He won't stop kicking," I tell him.

I hear him snort softly behind me and feel him wrap an arm around me, pulling me back, "come here, lay back down."

I do. I lay back into bed with him, laying on my back and he's immediately shifting so that he's hovering over my stomach.

He pushes my shirt up speaking into my belly, "me and you are gonna have problems if you continue to disturb my wife's sleep, kid."

I smile, sticking my hand into his hair, running my fingers through it.

Isaac smiles in return and is leaning down to place a kiss on my stomach, "you leave my woman alone, only I'm allowed to disrupt her life."

I laugh softly and instantly feel Isaiah settle down, "I think he likes the sound of your voice, he always calms down when you talk to him."

"You think he's still gonna like the sound of my voice when I'm yelling at him?" He smirks.

"You will do no such thing to our son."

He snorts, "if he's miss behaving, if he's not listening to his mother, you can best believe I'm gonna check his little ass. He's not gonna be the same little shit I was."

I smile, continuing to comb my fingers through his hair, "stay with me later, let your dad have a day, stay home."

He smiles softly, coming up to kiss me on the lips, "I can't, princess, as much as I would want to, I really can't, baby. I have to get this settled and nip it in the bud before it escalates even worse."

"I hate being so far away from you.."

"I know," he places another kiss on my lips. "I'll be gone three hours max. You'll still be out shopping with Ang and the baby by the time I come back into town anyways. I'll be here home waiting for you, I promise."

I nod, "promise me you'll be careful."

"I will. Would it make you feel better if I made Sacramento stay back with you?"

"And have the highly trained assassin go baby shopping rather than protect my husband? No thank you."

He chuckles softly and is leaning down to kiss me on the lips one last time. I wrap my arms around his neck, pulling him down even closer to me, sticking my fingers into his soft black hair, deepening our kiss.

"I miss this," he murmurs against my lips. "I miss you."

I scratch the back of his head softly, "I'm right here.."

He shakes his head, "I miss when things were calm, when they were easier. I swear after I put a stop to these mother fuckers I'm taking an entire month of just for you."

I smile, "don't make promises you can't keep, Matteo."

He chuckles softly, "I hate that Isaiah is almost here and there's still so much fucking heat on this family."

I shrug my shoulders, "that just comes with the name and territory, baby. You never had an issue with it then, don't let it get in the way now."

"I didn't care about anyone else then. I didn't have anyone else to look after then. My life didn't matter then."

"Things will get better, I promise. This feeling, those doubts," I tap a finger against his temple. "They won't last. A lot has happened as of lately but some good has come out of those things. We just gotta focus on the good from here on out and take it day by day, try and push through."

Isaac's lips tug to the sides into a wide smile as he leans down to give me another kiss. "Put your hand on my chest."

Taking my left hand out of his hair I place it on his chest to feel his heart beating incredibly fast.

"That's how much of an effect you still have on me, Hail. Don't you ever doubt my love for you, baby, because that shit is eternal. I pray to God that he takes me from this earth first when we're both old and wrinkly because I can't live one single day without you. I'll love you in this lifetime and the next one."

I feel my eyes instantly burn as they begin to brim with tears and nod my head completely speechless. Isaac goes to wipe the few lone tears that manage to roll down my face, "let's go back to sleep, we have a pretty busy day later on."

***

It was definitely a busy morning, that's for sure. I woke up a little bit before 7 am to use the bathroom and Isaac was always gone to start his day.

I went back to check my phone to find that I of course had a message from him telling me how much he loved me and how tired I must have been because I didn't feel him wake up or anything, which is true. I can usually feel when he gets out of bed or hear when he turns on the shower or if not wake up when he gives me a kiss goodbye but this time I slept through the entire morning almost.

I climbed back into bed and was actually rudely awakened by some deep voices in the hall, one of them of course being Carmelo's about two hours later.

Apparently they're installing a new surveillance system in the house and will be installing the same program in our house as well seeing how it's nearly done so Carmelo needed me to sign off on the men entering the house.

Seeing how the house was filled with workers I actually grabbed my breakfast that Beven's made for me and ate it in the bedroom, not wanting to be bothered or watched.

I took a long bubble bath after breakfast and laid around in bed watching tv for about another hour or so before I had to start getting ready.

Isaac and his dad are going out of the city to handle some business in the afternoon and suggested that I start doing some baby shopping with Angela. This way I can get out of the house and not be in my head the entire time he's gone.

I agreed to go only within city limits because being so far away from his boundary lines made me uncomfortable, nothing good ever comes out from stepping into the city.

It's nearly 2pm by the time I go downstairs and wait in the living room for the guys to pick me up.

I've texted Angela a couple times this morning telling her that we should be picking her and the baby around 2pm but she has yet to reply nor open any of my messages, which is pretty common now that she's a full time momma.

I'm actually extremely happy to be able to hang out with just her and the baby, anytime we hang out these days, Dion and Isaac are always lingering close by, I can't remember the last time I had a girls day.

Isaac mentioned a couple weeks back that Dion wants to propose to Angela so it's my job to walk by any jewelry store and poke my head inside to get some ideas on what type of style Ang likes.

I'm dying for the day those two get engaged. They're actually waiting for the baby to be six months before they move out into her own places because they're currently still living at Ang's parents house.

Little does she know that Dion has already been house hunting for the past four months and has found a two story house for sale just down the street from where Isaac and I are moving too, guess some things just never change.

My phone begins to vibrate in my hand and Angela's caller ID picture is displaying on my screen.

I answer the phone, gluing it next to my right ear. "Hey, Ang, I'm just waiting for the guys to show up and then we'll pick you up."

There's a deep sigh on her side of the line,"I'm really sorry, Hailey, I can't go shopping with you after all. The baby woke up with a fever after her nap so I'm taking her to urgent care with my mom before Dion begins to freak out."

I smile softly, a little bummed that she can't make it, "no you're fine, Ang, she comes first. Have you told him yet?" I asked.

"Yes," I can already picture the eye roll in my head. "Thankfully he's busy right now. Isaac has him up and down since he's out of town, if not he'd be losing his shit rushing home."

"Sounds like him," I smile. "Well I hope everything turns out fine. Will you please keep me updated on what happens?"

"Of course, I'm sorry again, Hailey, I feel really bad."

"Stop it, you have nothing to feel bad about. This just means that Isaac gets stuck doing baby shopping after all."

"We'll go for sure tomorrow or Friday if you don't end up going. This way Isaac doesn't get tortured. God forbid the man have a free day and spend it shopping for baby things."

I laugh softly and nod my head although she can't see, "sounds good, let me know if you need anything."

"I will, Hail, bye."

I smile, say goodbye, and hang up the call. I go into my messages going into Ric's thread ready to tell him not to come after all when I hear the front door open and Patrick and Aj are entering the living room a couple seconds later.

"Hey," he smiles. "Ready to go?"

I shake my head, "we're not going anymore."

"Why not?" Ric frowns walking over to the couch, taking a seat next to me.

"The baby's sick," I explained. "Ang is taking her to the doctors."

"She okay?"

"She has a small fever."

He nods in understanding and begins to smile, " pretty soon that's gonna be you."

"Don't remind me," I sigh, my anxiety already attempting to peak. "It's coming all too soon, I feel like we just found out I was pregnant last month."

He snorts softly, "I know what you mean, I feel like you guys just got married."

"Crazy how time flies when you have so much going on huh.."

He nods, nudging me with his shoulder. "We'll go shopping with you," he inclines his head towards Aj, who immediately begins to nod. "You don't need Ang to have a good day out. You deserve to enjoy yourself, Red, destress a bit."

"Ric-"

"I may not know a lot about babies like Ang but we can definitely carry heavy shit," he smiles.

"Like cribs!" Aj exclaims from where he's standing.

I smile, "thanks guys, but I'll just wait for Isaac to come back home."

"Come on Red, let's get you out of the house, your husband already gave us the clearance, don't let this ruin your day out, we'll be as supportive as we can. The trucks are on stand by already."

"We can even gossip if you want too," Aj wiggles his eyebrows. "We can talk about your husband and your new brother in law!"

I giggle softly, "you mean your boss and possibly new under boss?"

"Yes," both boys answer at the same time and instantly break out into a deep chuckle.

"Fine," I smile. "But we stay in town."

"We can even stay in the truck and just drive down the street if that's what makes you comfortable. Get some food and chill?" Ric wiggles his eyebrows.

"We're supposed to be working, not hanging out, idiot."

"You're working, I'm hanging out," Ric jabs back.

"Hailey was my friend before she became my bosses wife."

"There he is," I smile looking over at him. "There's the old annoying witty Patrick I used to love so much."

He doesn't say anything in return, he smiles softly and gets up from the couch a second later extending a hand out in front of me, "after you Mrs. Matteo."

I smile and reach for his hand as he helps me up from the couch and we begin to walk out of the house.

There's two black SUVs parked outside in the driveway, the doors opened to the truck in front. We walk over to them and Ric is helping me climb into the back seat and they're soon settling into their seats a few seconds later, Ric in the driver seat.

We're on the road for about ten minutes, driving towards a little baby shop downtown when Aj begins to cough in the passenger seat and Ric is turning to look at him more than usual.

"You good? You need me to pull over?"

Aj shakes his head as he slowly begins to wheeze, "I'm f-fine."

"You're wheezing. Non stai bene."

"Is he okay?" I asked, leaning forward in my seat. "Are you okay?"

Aj nods as he continues to cough, his breathing picking up now as he attempts to catch his breath, lowering his mirror.

Ric quickly looks over his shoulder, "hand me that black bag on the seat, red."

I nod and reach for the small black toiletry bag that's next to me, "what do you need?"

"His inhaler."

I quickly unzip the bag and fish out the inhaler that's laying on top of some prescription bottles, handing it over to Aj in front of me, "you have asthma?"

He nods, reaching for the inhaler. "T-thank you," he wheezed.

I smile in return and watch him patiently inhale medicine into his lungs.

"Why do you think your father in law kept him in surveillance for so long? Five minutes of running away from the bad guys and he's a goner," Ric teases, looking in Aj's direction, carefully watching him.

Aj's arm immediately shoots out, shoving Ric on the arm. "F-fuck you."

Ric tilts his head to the side, sticking his ear out to him, "I didn't catch that, what'd you say?"

Aj cracks a smile acting as if he's gonna sock Ric but stops about midway when Ric is putting a hand up.

"Adolfo, please calm down. Don't waste the little air you do have on me."

"Y-you're a dick."

I place my hand on Aj's arm, he turns to look back at me. "You okay?" He nods. "Do you have them frequently?"

He shakes his head, "they're mild. I didn't even know I had asthma until I had my physical done with Leo."

"You guys get physicals?"

"Oh yeah," Ric answers. "Carmelo likes- or liked his men in shape. You didn't come out of that warehouse if you didn't pass the physical exam until you were physically equipped. Can't be getting winded while trying to bash someone's face in."

"The ex boss used to be real careful with who he recruited," Aj says, speaking a little more clearly now. "Your husband definitely has one of the biggest factions in the city, but Mr. Matteo- he didn't just recruit anyone. Him and Don would do major background checks on you and your entire family. You don't go looking for Carmelo, he always came to you, it's a privilege to be allowed to work for this fandom. I almost didn't make the cut when he found out my mom was schizophrenic, he initially thought I'd have the same genes."

"Oh my God-"

"I of course didn't," he quickly shakes his head. "But that doesn't mean he didn't keep a close eye on me for the first couple years. Finding out she was schizophrenic actually kind of put a lot of things in perspective and my childhood started making a lot more sense."

I guess Carmelo really wasn't lying when he said that every single one of his guys had a sob story, these men truly were broken when he found them.

"Can I ask you a personal question, Aj? Without you getting uncomfortable or feeding me a bullshit answer?"

"Of course," he nods his head, as Ric pulls into the small shopping center.

"Why did you accept it? Carmelo's offer. Knowing the reputation that he had, why go through with it?"

Aj inhales a deep breath, glancing in Ric's direction, they meet each other gaze for a quick second and Ric is nodding his head once, putting the truck in park.

"Because I was lonely," he answers, shifting his attention away from me and down in front of him. "When your that lonely and desperate I'll even take help if it came from a fucking kid. I was bouncing around from shelter to shelter, living behind a bowling alley in a tent, starving when I came across Dominic and his men."

His lips tug to the side, a soft smile on his face, "they were beating on some guy and from the looks of it I knew they weren't going to let him live, that I was probably going to be next just for seeing their faces and they were gonna do just that. The look in Bean's eyes that night will forever haunt me, he was ready to put a bullet in my head. I immediately started begging for my life, a life I didn't even know I still cherished, a life that had no meaning. I started panicking telling them that I knew no one, that no one cared about me, I wouldn't say anything about anything I saw, I had no one to tell and instantly seen the shift in Dominic and Beanie's eyes and knew I was fucked."

"Next thing I knew Beanie was knocking me out cold and I was waking up in the boss's office. I remember the fear I felt when I first saw him sitting in front of me, I nearly wanted to shit myself. He offered me a way out, I would never go wondering when my next meal would come, I would never feel hungry, cold, worthless, desperate, all I had to do was work for him, I had to sign my life away to the devil, and I did- I was already living in hell how much worse could it get."

"Do you ever regret it?"

He stays quiet for about a second or so and begins to shake his head, "given a second chance I wouldn't change a damn thing, I'd choose the same route. I'd probably be dead right now if it wasn't for your father in law."

***

I hate this.

I can't decide on a damn thing I want to get. Ric, Aj, and I have been walking around Once Upon A Time for at least half an hour and the only thing that I have in my shopping cart is a 3 piece newborn romper that says 'Hi, I'm new here,' with a hat and mittens, with another single onesie that says, 'mommy's new man.' I hate having to make any big decisions without Isaac, I hate that he hasn't opened any single one of my messages because I've been sending him pictures and snaps of almost anything I want to get.

I hate that he's busy, that Angela couldn't be here because as supportive as Ric and Aj are trying to be, it's just not the same.

"Has Carmen tried to reach out to you?"

I shake my head no as we walk down the crib isle, Aj walking a little behind us, the shopping cart in his hands now as he pushes it forward.

I got my eyes on a gray 6 in 1 convertible crib that has a drawer in the bottom but I can't get myself to spend $500 on a crib and then another $800 on a matching 6 drawer dresser so all we're doing today is window shopping, getting ideas .

"Why do you ask?" I glance back over at Ric, who's strangely quiet now.

He shakes his head, "I told her she should reach out to you the last time she and I spoke."

"When did you guys talk?" I asked.

He shrugs his shoulders, "a few weeks ago, I think. We had lunch."

"Lunch?! You guys had lunch without killing each other?!"

He chuckles softly, shaking his head, "not exactly, we were down each other's throat. She- she wanted to work things out and get back together.."

"You didn't?"

He shakes his head again looking at the floor, "the kind of love I had for her wasn't healthy. I would've given her my entire world and she gave up on me, us, the second it got tough. She might've been the girl I loved at the time, but I hate the person she became with not only me, but her best friend."

"Ric-"

"I hate that she used me as an excuse for your fall out. I might've dragged her down into the pit with me when it came to the shit with Carmelo, but you guys had been friends way longer before I came along."

I shrug my shoulders, "she made her own choices, Ric. I stopped dwelling on it months ago, I stopped missing her months ago. It took me a while to accept it, but sometimes friends grow apart."

He nods, "I just feel bad is all. If it weren't for me-"

I place my hand on his arm, "stop it. You blame yourself for so much already."

He nods silently.

"Let's go to Rush bowl instead," I say, looking back and forth from Ric and Aj. "Not really in the mood to shop right now if you couldn't tell."

Aj nods a big smile on his face now," I can always fuck up a smoothie bowl."

I turn to my left, to Ric. He smiles, inclining his head to the side, "let's go get smoothie bowls."

I smile genuinely excited as we start to walk back up to the front of the store, "I wanna hear all about your new girlfriend on the way over there."

Ric chuckles, nodding his head, "she's not my girlfriend."

"Yet," Aj turns to smile over his shoulder as he stands in front of us, the two onesies set now in his hand as we get in line for one of the cashiers. The shopping cart is long gone.

"Ugh!" I groan, rolling my eyes. "I forgot to take a picture of the crib to show Isaac."

"The rustic gray one right?" Aj asked. I nod. He hands me the baby clothes. "I got it, I'll run back and take a picture while you guys pay."

I reach for the onesies, "thank you."

"Here," Ric, sticks his hand into his black pants, handing Aj the truck keys. "Go turn the truck on instead, get the AC going for her so the truck isn't so stuffy when we're done. I'll go take the picture."

He nods silently reaching for the keys and is waking away a second later.

"I'll be back in less than a minute," Ric winks.

"I don't mind going with you, Ric."

"And make you lose your spot," he points a thumb to the long line behind us. "No. I'm asthma free, I can run fast."

I laugh softly and nod my head, my hand immediately flying to my stomach as I get a sharp pain.

"Woah, what's going on?" Ric takes a step closer towards me. "You okay?"

I nod, "I got a sharp cramp in my stomach."

"Has that happened before? Is that normal?"

I shake my head, "it's never been that sharp before, but he has been kicking the shit out of me these past couple days. Ah," my hand quickly flies back down to my stomach as a second sharp pain hits.

Ric yanks the baby clothes from my hand and is handing it to the cashier, "hold these for me, I'll be back." He looks back over at me, "smoothie bowls can wait, let's get you home and check out real quick."

I don't argue with him, my anxiety is already attempting to get the best of me that something could be wrong and begin to walk towards the store exit.

The double doors slide open and the warm air is instantly hitting me on the face. If I didn't despise the summer time before I did now that I was pregnant. The heat and I just don't get along anymore.

A loud boom is quickly causing my heart to drop as a car in the parking lot is exploding a second later and people are starting to run all over the place in a panic.

The explosion in front of me is so loud that the recoil is immediately knocking me down on my ass and causing my ears to ring.

I feel a pair of hands on my arms pulling me back into the store a second later, the AC air immediately hitting me.

I look behind me, at Ric, to see his lips are moving but there's no sound coming out of him, his voice is muffled by the loud ringing in my ears.

I look away from him- back in front of me, over to the truck that we came in almost an hour ago to find it now engulfed in flames and feel my heart instantly get heavy.

Aj.

"Red!"

I immediately look back up at Ric who's now at my side, I shake my head, my eyes instantly burning, "A-Aj."

He shakes his head, "d-don't, I c-can't think about him right now.. Y-you're my only priority. C-come on, you gotta get up, we gotta move."

"M-move?!"

He nods and is walking back around behind me and is squatting down, sticking his arms under me. "Whoever the hell was in charge of that is most likely sticking around to see if it was successful."

"I don't understand-"

"The truck was clean before we left the house, Hailey, they planted the explosive while we were in here shopping. The rest of the team is on the way."

No, no, no, this can't be happening right now.

"Come on, red, you gotta get up."

Ric places his hands on my face the second I'm up and standing, tilting it side to side, inspecting every inch of me, "are you okay? Are you hurt? Bleeding anywhere?"

I shake my head looking down at my body, "I-i don't think so, nothing hurts."

"Then move as fast as you can," he commands, instantly grabbing my hand and pulling me deeper into the store as his right hand reaches for his gun.

Ric clings onto my hand tightly as we push our way through the panic people trying to make their way out of the store.

"S-shouldn't we be following the crowd, Ric? W-we're going in the opposite direction."

He stays quiet, his focus directly in front of us as we make our way back to the back of the store. We go through a pair of swinging doors and continue to make our way further and further back until he spots a small room in the back of the building.

"Stay here, don't move," he says in a low voice, moving towards the small office.

He pushes the door open, immediately pointing his gun into the room and is turning to look in my direction a second later, tilting his head to the side, calling me over to him.

I feel my body shudder as I stay rooted to the spot he left me in, looking behind me, "w-we can't stay back here, Ric."

He walks over to me, grabbing me by the arm and begins to pull me into the small office. There's no windows in here so the air immediately smells stale and it's instantly upsetting my stomach as he pulls me further into the room.

"We got no other option, red. If we go out there we're out number, there's no way I can keep you safe. I need you to stay in here, I need you to stay hidden. Don't you dare leave this room, you understand me."

He continues pushing me towards the back of the smelly office, walking around the metal desk, telling me to take a seat and hide behind it.

I do as I'm told, I take a seat and look up at him and shake my head, "where are you going?"

He crouches down beside me, keeping his eyes on the door, looking away every few seconds. "I need to head back out there. I need to try and take out as many as possible before backup shows up."

"You can't go out there alone, Ric! You just said it yourself, you're outnumbered!"

"We both can't just sit here, Red, they're bound to find us, you. I need to do something, anything, I need to keep you and that baby safe, alive, for as long as I can."

"Ric, please, If something happens to you I'll never forgive myself."

Ric places a hand on the back of my head and pulls me in kissing me on the forehead, "then I guess I better not let anything happen to me huh?"

"Ric-"

"I'll be back as soon as I can, I promise. I'm locking that door behind me, don't you dare fucking open it for anyone if it isn't anyone on your team or your husband. You stay behind this desk the entire time you got it?"

I nod.

He returns the nod with a small smile inhaling a deep breath, "thanks for being a good friend to me when I needed it the most, Hail."

"Don't you dare fucking die."

"I won't," he grins and is standing back up to his full height a second later. I watch him walk around the desk and exit the small office, but not before locking the door and leaving me alone inside.

I hear him jiggle the door knob a couple times, ensuring that it's locked and settle back down behind the desk, attempting to control my breathing.

The sharp pains from earlier are definitely gone but now replaced with anxiety and honestly I don't know which I would rather prefer at this point.

The air in here feels so damn thin that I have to inhale through my nose and exhale through my mouth, but I know that it's probably the panic in me that's making my breathing uneven.

I reach for my bag beside me and immediately begin to take everything out, completely panicking even more when I can't find my phone and instantly want to cry when I realized that I dropped it when the explosion happened. I had it in my hands when the recoil pushed me back.

I get on my knees and turn around looking for a landline in the room. I pick up the phone that's on the desk and place it next to my ear, instantly disappointed when I don't hear a dial tone coming out. The phone quickly drops out of my hand when I hear a round of gun shots at a distance a second later and fall behind the desk again, panic quickly making its way up my back and throat again.

"Calm down. Calm down. You're okay, we're okay." I tell myself quietly, placing my hands on my stomach, leaning my head back on the desk.

I flinch at every single gun shot that goes off, you'd think I'd be accustomed to them by now, to the adrenaline, the danger.

I inhale a deep breath and immediately reach for the lipstick tube that I dumped out of my bag, instantly relieved.

I take off the cap and stare at the small blade inside of the tube, slowly twisting it up the gift.

Thank you Carmelo.

It may not be a gun, but if I get close enough I can definitely jam it into someone's neck just like Carmelo taught me to do so months ago when he gave me the small blade.

It's definitely not gonna bring my opponent down, unless you hit the right veins, but it's definitely gonna slow them down giving me enough time to get away or anything for that matter.

I nearly drop the tube of lipstick as I put the cap on when I hear the door knob rattle a soft knock after.

"Mrs. Matteo? Are you in there?" They jiggle the door knob again.

I don't move. I stay glued in my spot, completely quiet, the tube in my hand just to be safe.

"Mrs. Matteo?" They jiggle the knob for a third time and I hate the fact that I don't recognize the voice.

If Ric was able to get to someone he would have come back himself, he would have told them I was in here, rather than them guessing and calling my name out, or so I told myself.

Regardless, I can't risk letting whoever is at the door in, I don't even want to risk letting them know that I'm in here by asking for their name because I don't want to put my son in danger, it's not just me anymore, I don't come first, he'll always come first now so I waited it out.

My hands are instantly flying to my ears as two loud shots go off outside of the door and it's falling in a couple seconds later, making a very loud sound as it hits the floor.

"Mrs. Matteo," the deep voice says. "I know you're behind there, it's okay, you can come out."

My frown deepens as the voice begins to sound more and more familiar and I'm slowly peeking my head out to find none other than Val standing at the doorway, gun in his hand.

"Val??"

He smiles, "guess I got here before everyone else huh?"

I smile for a second, immediately relieved to see him, "where's everyone else? Is Ric okay?"

Chills are instantly running up my spine as his voice drops, "let's get this over with." He points his gun in my direction causing my heart to quickly fall into my stomach, "get up."

I shake my head, my hand tightening on the knife in my hand, "the hell are you doing??"

"Get up, Hailey!"

I flinch at the sudden tone of his voice and slowly start to get up from the floor, making sure to keep the small tube hidden in my hand.

Val takes a couple steps forward and is offering a hand as I struggle to get up and I'm immediately swatting it away.

He grabs ahold of my arm the second I'm back up onto my feet and is dragging me out of the small room and back into the store.

"Look who I found," he sneers as he continues to pull me by the arm, coming into view with a handful of men I don't recognize.

"Hailey!" Ric exclaims, attempting to get up from where they have him.

One of the two guys that are at his side instantly kicks him in the back of his legs causing him to fall back down onto his knees as the other man besides him grabs a handful of his hair and is pulling his head back, placing a very large blade at the base of his neck.

"Ric!" I attempt to move forward.

Val quickly lets go of my arm only to reach for a handful of my hair, pulling me back to him.

"Get the fuck away from her, you fucking trader!" Ric growls, a bruise already forming under one of his eyes, a couple freshly open cuts on his face.

Trader? Val's the mole?

I quickly look back at him, "why are you doing this?"

"Because he still sits at the fucking top of the food chain, at the top of the throne."

"Who?" I frown not following. "Isaac?"

"Carmelo!" He snarls. "He still gets his happy ending after everything! He doesn't get to just go about his day after killing one of us because he simply wanted to, because he's having a bad day! We're still human beings, we're still people, he doesn't just get to throw us out like we're fucking stray dogs. We devote our entire life to that fucking family, to that man, to still get treated like shit."

"He's no longer in charge though, Isaac-"

Valentine grips the back of my neck, bringing me into him, "I know who the fuck is in charge! I became nothing the second your husband took over!"

"You've been betraying The Matteo family since way before KP took over you fucking rat."

Val turns to look at Ric, "no one asked for your two cents, Patricio. The entire family can burn for all I give a fuck!" He spits. "They're both exactly the same. Who do you think raised him?! It's only a matter of time before he starts treating us the same way. With The Matteo's out of the way the other three families have agreed to form an alliance, working with one another equally, dividing territories among each other evenly. He just had to stay fucking dead."

Three? I mentally frown at myself. Do they still think that Cris is on their side? Val knows about Isaac and Cris connecting the families together. He knows they're biologically related. I'm pretty sure he would've said something to the other families; unless Cris is still playing them? Or is he playing Isaac and Carmelo now?

A small whimper escapes out of my mouth as he continues to squeeze harder on the back of my neck bringing me in even closer. I immediately regret it when I see the amusement in his eyes.

"And because Marv was my friend," he snarls. "I had to bury him no questions asked because his partner was too much of a coward to get his own hands dirty."

Is he talking about Beanie?

"Instead he had Sacramento and his team shove their guns in our faces stating that we either buried Marv in the certain time frame he was giving us, or they were going to bury us alive right along with him."

I keep my attention on Val, listening to him whine and bitch, carefully starting to take the cap off of the lipstick tube, shifting it in my hand without being too obvious, careful not to drop it and start to slowly twist it up until I feel the entire blade sticking out.

"Don't worry, Val, I'll make sure that my husband buries you right along with your friend," I say while dropping the cap on the floor.

Valentine looks down at the sudden sound, at the cap on the floor, a small frown on his face now and I take the opportunity to jam the small little blade into the side of his neck as he's distracted and he's quickly letting go of me, cursing under his breath in Italian as he pulls the pocket knife out.

He looks down at it in his hand for a second, at the sharp blade covered in his blood now and is quickly looking back in my direction, "Fottuta stronza!" He swears and is back handing the shit out of my face a second later, knocking me over on my hands and knees.

"Hailey!" Ric shouts with worry from where they're holding him.

The sting from the hit immediately makes my eyes water, blurring my vision as I look in front of me, attempting to crawl away from him.

I need to stay alive long enough for the rest of the family to get here, I need to keep distracting him from getting his hands on me, or even on Ric for that matter.

My heart nearly begins to pound in my chest as my vision clears up and I notice something sticking out from under the aisle shelf's mess that's on the floor in front of me.

It's stuck under a couple of food items, you can barely see it from where I'm at so I know for a fact that Val definitely can't.

My heart immediately begins to thump even crazier at the sight of it.

It's a fucking gun.

The barrel is barely sticking out of the bags of chips mess, but it's definitely a gun.

I don't react, nor do I shoot for it immediately, afraid that I won't make it to it on time before Val gets his hands on me once he sees me shooting for it.

Stay calm, think clearly. I can practically hear Carmelo's voice at the back of my head.

I turn around to face Valentine to find him looking a couple shades lighter than he was a few moments ago. If we're guessing here I'm gonna go ahead and say that I actually hit one of the main veins Carmelo has taught me to strike.

There's a trail of blood running down the side of his neck, bleeding onto the collar of his white button up shirt as I slowly begin to move my way up the floor, backwards towards the gun, trying to be as discreet as I can be.

Valentine removes his hand from his bleeding wound, pointing his bloody hand in my direction.

"Val leave her alone," one of the guys near Ric says. "Go get stitched up before you bleed out, we'll handle it."

"I'm fine!" He hisses, moving towards me.

"You barely have any color left on your face, Val!" The other guy shouts. "Get to the fucking truck and get stitched up!"

"I said I'm fine!" He growls, never taking his eyes off of me. "I got this. She's mine."

I instantly begin to shake my head no as I continue moving backwards, my hands hitting a couple items that have fallen onto the floor, never taking my eyes off of Valentine, attempting to be as sneaky as I can.

"I'm gonna enjoy tearing that baby out of you," he snarls, whipping a blade out from behind him he rushes over to me.

My heart begins to slam in my chest the second my hand comes in contact with the cold metal of the gun and I'm quickly grabbing it and pointing it in front of me.

Don't think, just do.

Taking the safety off of the gun I fire two rounds into Valentine's chest.

He immediately stops dead in his tracks looking down at me on the floor a now puzzled look in his eyes, his face contouring in pain as he staggers down to his knees.

My hands quickly begin to shake as he looks down at his chest and reality sets in of what I've just done and he begins to cough up blood.

He's so close to me that my stomach churns as I feel his blood splatter onto my face.

"Don't. Talk. About my son," I hiss, my hand tightening around the gun again.

His lips tug to the side, his teeth coated in red now as his shirt continues to get blotched with bigger and bigger red stains.

"A-atta girl," he smirks falling onto the floor, landing near my feet and I'm quickly scooting back getting further away from him as a small puddle begins to form under him.

"You little bitch," one of the two men near Ric snarls. "You're dead."

"Run!" Ric shouts as he attempts to move forward.

I don't hesitate. Keeping a tight grip on the gun I attempt to get back onto my feet, but the guy that was standing to Ric's left is quickly grabbing onto a handful of my hair, pulling me back down.

I immediately wanna cry as my back collides with the floor and a sharp pain is shooting up my spine as I attempt to roll onto my side to find Ric holding the other man that was at his side in a choke hold.

"USE THE FUCKING GUN, HAILEY" He shouts as he drops the now unconscious or dead man on the floor, rushing in our direction.

I quickly bring the gun back up in front of me, aiming it at the other man near me but he's quick to kick it out of my hand.

"Stupid naive girl," he grins and is sticking his left arm out beside him, firing his gun in his hand, causing Ric to fall to the floor.

Tears instantly begin to brim my eyes when I see that he's not getting up and attempt to scoot further away the sharp pain still shooting up my back.

My ears quickly pick up on more and more rounds of gunshots coming from outside and immediately begin to panic as the man in front of me rushes over.

Ignoring the pain I manage to turn around onto my hands and knees, quickly crawling towards the gun he kicked out of my hand but land short when I'm feeling an intense burning pain in my lower stomach and I'm flying on my back, the wind entirely kicked out of my lungs.

The man in front of me grins widely, wickedly, as he drops down to his knees on top of me, his hands instantly wrapping around my throat.

"If I'm not making it out of here alive, you aren't either princess," he snarls, tightening his grip.

Time immediately begins to slow as I hear my own heart beat pick up and fight for its life, my life.

Pay attention to your surroundings.

My head feels like it's about to explode as I reach for the gun that I know it's to the right of me, never taking my eyes off of the man that's in front of me.

I can feel the blood leaving my brain as my vision starts to get blurry and feel incredibly weak. It's taking every and any fight left in me to pick up the gun from the floor when I feel the cold metal brush against my fingertips and hold it against the man's temple as I fight to keep my eyes open, to stay conscious.

I feel the instant relief on my neck as he comes to terms with what's to his head and before he can unwrap his hands from my throat I'm pulling the trigger, feeling his entire weight drop down on top of me.

A second later his body is being pulled off of me and I'm turning to my side, inhaling a deep breath as I feel an instant rush of blood hit me in the my head, the feeling of passing out never easing up as I attempt to catch my breath, choking on the little air I'm getting into my lungs, my brain.

I feel a warm hand run up and down my back and a deep voice mumbling next to me but all I can hear is the sound of my own blood rushing back into my head as my vision attempts to clear up.

"Look at me, red!"

I turn to look over my shoulder to find Dion crouching down beside me. "D-dio-on?" I rasped.

He nods pulling me into his arms, "hey," and my world is instantly going dark and I'm passing out in his arms a second later.