Page 90 of Borrowed Bride

“Marco, what’s going on? What’s happened?”

“Cherry, Tara. Fawn needs you. I got this.”

They both leave and Marco cups my face, kissing me softly. “It’s okay. I promise.”

“What happened?”

“Let’s get Freya back to bed first.”

After she’s settled and we’ve checked on the twins, Marco fills me in as we slowly head downstairs.

“They were after Leo. Some small family wanted a chance at taking down the big dog and heard he was leaving town. They assumed that made him an easy target.”

“Oh my God.” I place one hand over my still-racing heart. “Is he okay?”

“Absolutely. They didn’t stand a chance against Fawn.”

“Damn. But everyone’s okay?”

Marco takes me in his arms at the bottom of the stairs. “Everyone is fine. Are you okay?” He studies my face. “Did that scare you as much as it scared me?”

“I think so,” I laugh softly. “I was wondering what I would have to do to protect our three babies.”

“Luckily, we have a trusted family for that now,” Marco says. “We’re not in this alone.”

He kisses me softly and leads the way back to the dining room, where we walk in on Leonardo telling Carmilla how amazing Fawn was at tackling one of the intruders. Spirits are high and the room is brimming with warmth.

Marco is right.

We’re safer now than we’ve ever been.

This is not the life I would have chosen, and it was a painful road to get here, but I have a true family and despite our differences, we all would kill for one another.

Woe to anyone who messes with us.

38

GIANNA

“Iknew it was too good to be true,” Marco mutters. “We’ve kept them off these shores for so long I’m honestly surprised it didn’t take them longer to try and return.”

Marco stands a few feet away from the ladders of the yacht, his gorgeous body glistening in the Mediterranean sun while he deals with whatever important issue Leonardo has called about.

I keep one eye on the conversation the best I can, but the majority of my attention is on my children in the water beside me as another dolphin swims over to investigate the splashing from my eldest, Freya. She’s eleven now, with her twelfth birthday on the horizon and she has no idea how turbulent the beginning of her life was. I’ve done everything in my power to keep our children out of that life, beyond a few basics in the case of disaster.

I don’t want them growing up like Marco did, and certainly not like me.

“It kissed me!” Freya squeals. “Mom did you see?! Did you see?!”

“I did!” I laugh as Freya pats the dolphin on the nose. A foot away, the twins Emil and Sanzio are playing with a ridiculousnumber of inflatables, but they are equally as ecstatic to see dolphins up close. I swim near them, keeping an eye on the dolphin as my two five-year-olds splash hard and laugh.

“Now be careful,” I warn Sanzio as his hand splashing comes a little too close to one of the dolphins. “You don’t want to scare them.”

“Okay!” he replies cheerily and focuses on splashing his brother instead. They dissolve into giggles just as Freya hooks her hand around a dolphin fin and allows herself to be pulled along a few feet.

A holiday in the Mediterranean feels like an impossible dream, but Marco and I strive to give our kids everything they could ever want, within reason. I don’t want to spoil them but it’s hard. Growing up with nothing, I want my kids to have everything.

As my children have the time of their lives in the water, an alarm beeps from the back of the yacht, signaling that we’ve all spent enough time in the ocean.

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