Xander

After Zar and Alistairhelp me to my feet, Zar takes me over to one of the seats. Sebastian hands me his handkerchief to clean my face. They say nothing nor ask any questions as I get myself together. When I’m ready, I relay what the doctor had told us. Their faces look as sad as mine as they begin to give me condolences.

“Has she been under any type of stress lately?” Zar asks, sitting next to me.

I blow my nose, shaking my head. “No, she hasn’t said anything to me about being stressed about anything lately. She was excited her real estate company is doing well. Same shit as back in the day with her family. She was sad because we weren’t going to be together for the holiday, but I had made arrangements for her to fly in the following weekend, so I don’t think that might’ve been it.”

Yiannis taps my knee, then says, “Why don’t we go in and ask Sabre what led up to this? I owe it to Jeroen to find out what happened to his first grandchild. Come on, son.” He extends his hand out to me.

I nod as I take his hand and we stand. Having Yiannis call me son, felt right. After Father died, he quickly stepped in and became my father figure. He chewed my ass out when I got into trouble and gave me a father’s wisdom when I needed it. To me he was like my second Father.

Zar turns to Hendrix, Mike, and the others, then tells them, “You guys stay out here. Father, Grandfather, Alistair, and I will go in with Xander.”

They give different responses of acknowledgements. I’m relieved that they don’t feel some type of way for not going in, but I don’t think Sabre would’ve felt comfortable with all eleven men standing around her bed.

I lead them to the door, then open it. Sabre is looking out of the window but turns her head in our direction as we enter.

“Hey,” she weakly greets, wiping the tears from her face, then trying to sit up in the bed.

“Take it easy,” I say as I go over to the bed, then pull her into my arms. She lays her head on my chest. “Sabre, can you tell us what occurred before you ended up at the condo?”

“They, he,” is all that she can get out before she softly cries.

I hold her tighter, caressing her back as I look at the others who have expressions of concern but are waiting for her to finish.

Sabre raises her head, looking at Zar, Yiannis, Sebastian, and Alistair standing in the room.

She sniffles. “I...I don’t...”

I whisper in her ear, “You know these men and if they are here with me, then you know they are here to help you. Now, if something fucked up has gone down you need to tell us.”

She shakes her head up and down with tears running down her face. Her body trembles. Fuck, I never seen her like this.

“So, I had this new client who wanted to buy a condo downtown. Everything was on the up and up and there were no problems with them buying it. We were in the last days of the closing dates so I decided to stop by the condo to give it one last run through before the property became theirs. Well, when I went over there, I noticed there were two large SUVs parked in the designated parking spaces but didn’t think nothing of it since the other tenants probably knew the space was still vacant. As I parked and got out of my car, I recognized one of them was the buyers, but I’m thinking why are they here already? They haven’t closed on the condo so I knew they shouldn’t have moved in already. Thinking I would let them know that, went into the building.” She begins to cry again.

I comfort her, saying, “It’s okay, I’m here now. No one will hurt you, I can promise you that shit.”

Sabre relaxes, then continues, “There was no one in the front of the condo, like the living room, den, or sitting room, so I kept going to the back and Lord I wish I hadn’t. The closer I got to the game room, I started to hear voices. My heart sank when I recognized one of them, but I thought I might’ve been hearing things. What’s messed up about it is, you see this shit in horror movies and the black person always makes an exit at that point, but noooo my ass just had to see if the voice belonged to the person I thought it was.” She pauses. “When I got to the room my client, Eduardo Santiago, was there with I guess some of his men. They stood around a man that was bloody, stripped to his underwear, tied to a chair and just from seeing his side profile, I recognized him to be Assistant District Attorney Marvin Bowers. He had been in the news lately for prosecuting a high profile case against some drug dealer and gang member who killed someone. As I began to wonder why they had him like that, that’s when I noticed Greg, my younger brother, was standing with them.”

“Greg? What the fuck was he doing there,” I question. “We went by your house as soon as we touched down and while there Greg, Joshua, and two Spanish guys showed up. Greg says you called him in hysterics so he and the two Latino dudes went and picked up Joshua, then came to your house.”

Sabre moves to the side, putting space between us as she looks into my face. “I never called Greg. You were the only person I called.”

“That little lying fucker,” I hiss.

“Sabre, what else happened?” Zar asks, stepping closer to the bed.

“Like I said, they had the guy tied to the chair, then Eduardo turned to Greg and told him, ‘this is what we do to those who cross us.’ As the guy was pleading for his life, Eduardo raised a gun with a silencer, shooting him several times. Before I could stop myself, I called Greg’s name, causing them to turn in my direction. I guess I startled them, because when they turned towards me, Eduardo let off two rounds at me. I ran up out of there, and hit the stairs, fearing going to my house. So, I went to your condo. When I got there, my adrenaline was off the charts and when I saw the blood I thought I had been shot. I made my way to the condo door, typed in the code then stumbled to the bathroom. I remember calling you, but nothing after that. Just waking up here with you, then finding out about our baby.”

I roar with anger as I let Sabre go, then stand. “Those motherfuckers! They are the reason why you lost our baby!” I began to pace, fisting my hair.

“Xander, try to calm down,” Zar encourages.

I whip my head in his direction. “Calm down? Calm down? My baby is gone because of what they did and you want me to calm down. Fuck that!” Hot rage burns inside of me as I stop, pointing my finger to the ground. “Because of what she witnessed and that asshole Eduardo shooting at her, she lost our baby. Brother or not, Greg is going to catch these hands, and as for that motherfucker Eduardo, he has signed his own death warrant. I’m killing every one of those motherfuckers!”

Zar holds up his hands. “I get that but calm down for a second.”

I stare my best friend, my brother in the eyes, then ask in a low voice, “How would you feel if it was Nina who lost your baby?”