I thought the triad was bad with sneaking their way into my house, the yakuza has divers. In my lake.
This is Yuto's business.
I reload my gun, turning to look behind the fence.
I see a couple more snipers up in the tree, following to the group of guys walking through the forrest.
And then i see movement by the bushes on my side.
It broke out in a gun war a couple minutes after everyone went inside. I don't even know where Arabella is or if she's okay but Luca is there, Luca's dad too. All her brothers and i know Valentina would kill before she let anything happen to Arabella.
The movement starts again and then i see the tip of the gun pointing out.
Followed by a tiny hand.
And a tiny shoe.
Romeo Reign is going to give me a fucking heart attack.
I look at one of my men, "Cover for me?"
He nods his head, i run quickly across the open grass while bullets go flying. I pick the gun up from the ground as i slide a little, ducking behind the bush.
"What the fuck are you doing, Romeo?" I look around him, "Are you hurt?"
"Mommy is." He tries to reach the gun from me. I move it away, he frowns, "Papa, i need it."
"You are four years old, you do not need a gun." I raise my voice, "How did you get this?"
"Stole it from Nico."
"Romeo, you're not supposed to be here." I look over the bush. "For fucks sake you can't do this shit."
"Need to help mommy." He mumbles.
"That is my job. Not yours. You are a child." I'm lecturing my child in the middle of a crossfire, who would have knew?
"Mommy is sick." He raises his voice at me. "She's bleeding."
"Where?" I keep his head down.
"Baby." He points to his stomach. "Sick."
The worst things happen at the worst times.
"I need to get you inside."
He looks at me with wide eyes, "No."
"This isn't for discussion."
This child, fast motherfhcker, slides between my legs and runs away into the open part.
I run after him, seeing the red dot on his chest, i throw myself ontop of him, wrapping a arm around him so landing on the ground didn't squash him.
I hear more gun shots go off and then i feel it pierce into my back.
"Papa." Romeo looks at me.
I use my knees to keep steady, covering his body with mine. "Don't move, Romeo. Pretend you're sleeping."
"Papa you're hurt."
"I'm fine. Don't move."
I could feel his chest start to raise, "Romeo, calm down. Papa is fine." I've been shot before. I can handle this. Because of how muscular i am, a lot of the bullet wounds don't seem to hurt me too bad. Or i'm just a stubborn prick and pretend i'm not hurt.
He starts humming a song, closing his eyes shut but i stay as still as i could. I can't move until i know it's safe.
"I'm sorry papa." He mumbles again, then starts humming the song again.
I don't reply.
"Roman." I hear Asher shout. "You gotta go quickly."
I pick Romeo up, Asher's face when he seen the child dropped.
I could feel the bullet wound so i run with him as quick as i could in through the back door. There was blood over the kitchen floor, towels everywhere.
"Mommy." Romeo shouts. "Mommy."
I push his head to my neck so he didn't see all of the blood, walking into the living room, "Where's Arabella?"
"Ambulance just came." Carlo looks at me, "You don't look good."
"Papa got shot." Romeo gets off me, running to his siblings. "It's okay." He hugs Ilaria.
Carlo checks my back, "That... doesn't look good."
"I'm fine." I take my blazer off.
"I'm calling another ambulance-"
"In the middle of a damn crossfire? I'm fine. Where's Katrina?"
"Upstairs."
I walk to the bottom of the stairs, shouting up for Katrina. "Did Arabella get to the hospital okay?" I ask Carlo.
"Valentina and Luca are with her, they'll call me once they arrive. She's going into labour."
"She's too early." Far too early.
"We know."
Katrina looks at my back, "You need hospital, Reign."
"Carlo, come with me." I put my blazer back on, "Kids, come on, let's go to mamma."
Ilaria and Matteo were crying, Carlo picked them up. Romeo grabbed onto my hand and we got into the car quickly.
I was about to drive off but Asher runs over, "Your men have it handled, they got Yuto and aren't giving up until they leave." He gets in the car, putting Ilaria on his lap.
"Arabella is in the hospital." I start driving, speeding through the lane and going past the limit on our way to the hospital, thankfully i wasn't pulled over by anyone so i get out, picking Matteo up as Romeo independently walks and Ilaria clutched onto Asher.
I go to the front desk, "Arabella Reign."
The woman types, "Relation?"
"Husband."
"Delivery room 4, you'll have to wait in the waiting area."
"Thank you." I read the signs, leading the way until we get there. "I'm going to get a nurse, call me if anything happens." I walk away quickly, down into the ER.
"Reign?" One of the ER doctors im too familair with looks at me.
"I got shot." I take my blazer off, "Sniper."
She leads me into the trauma bay, "I can't count how many wounds of yours i've treated and how you're not dead yet." She cuts down my shirt, disinfecting the area.
I should have bought an extra shirt.
"Just take it out quickly, my wife's in labour."
"I'll be as quick as i can." She starts working on it.
Thirty minutes later she had removed the bullet and put dressing around the wound. She gives me a spare scrub shirt that was too small but it did, so i run back up to the labour floor.
Valentina looks at me, "You can go in, Asher's in."
I thank her quickly, running into the room.
Oh my god.
"Where are they?" I ask her, she looked beautiful despite this all. I could tell from the blood everywhere that she had given birth, but from the look on hers and Luca's faces it didn't seem to be good.
"NICU." She closes her eyes, "I'm so tired."
A midwife smiles at me, "They we're born a month premature, the younger one is in critical condition but the older one is stable." She explains quickly, "Arabella, can i get you anything?"
"Wanna go home."
The midwife just smiles, cleaning up the mess.
Asher leans forward, "Did you get your bullet sorted?"
"Bullet?" Arabella looks at me, "You got shot?"
"I'm fine." I can hardly feel it to be honest.
"Is... are the kids okay?"
"All good, outside." I look at Luca, man wasn't even blinking. He looked numb.
The door opens and another midwife walks in, "Are you planning to breastfeed, Arabella?"
Her eyes were closed, she didn't answer.
"She is, we've already discussed it." I answer, "Is she okay?"
The midwife checks her neck and vitals, "She's probably just really tired. This is a stressful situation to be put through." She tucks Arabella's hair behind the ear. "Are you the father?"
"He is." I point to Luca.
"Do you want to see the older of the two?"
"No." Luca kisses Arabella's hand. He wants to be here with her.
"Can the grandparents see?"
"Of course, you can even too."
"Go." Asher nods.
I get up, walking to get Carlo and Valentina. "We can see one."
The midwife calls a nurse over to look after the kids and then leads us to the NICU, we had to put masks and hair coverings on, even clothes protection.
There's was a few babies in here, she stops at a tiny boy, a head full of hair, moving and breathing fine. "Are they both boys?"
"Yeah." The midwife smiles, "You didn't know the genders?"
"Gender reveal was today but..." I look at him. He's tiny. But he's moving and he's breathing and his heart seems to be beating fine. "Is he okay?"
"We need to monitor him for a couple more hours but he's healthy. He's doing everything on his own and that's a very good sign, there's always going to be a NICU trained nurse in here so don't worry." She hands me a latex glove. "You can gently pat his tummy."
Luca needs to be the first one to do that.
"I'm okay." I look at Valentina and Carlo crying over their grandchildren. "Did Luca have a name?" I ask them.
"Him and Arabella were still choosing." Valentina wipes her eyes, "He's beautiful."
"Oh he is." The midwife smiles, "They both have the moms nose, and they both have a head full of hair, i've never seen a baby with so much hair." She smiles fondly.
Arabella said Ilaria was born with a lot of hair too. Arabella's hair is thick, it must be from her.
"Does Arabella know the genders?"
"She's rejected them." The midwife nods her head, "It's completely normal and she informed me she did the same thing when the triplets were born. She didn't want me to tell her anything and i respected her wishes. She'll come around, i know she will. It's a hard time considering both of her babies were sent in to the NICU as soon as possible, she hasn't seen them, held them or anything."
I nod my head, "Does she need to breast feed them?"
"The sooner the better but we can feed this fella here all he needs until he goes back to his momma." She smiles at him.
We spend a couple of minutes in there before going back into the room. It was all cleaned up now and they said we could bring the kids in.
Arabella adjusts her bed so it's in a sitting position and i keep the kids with me as they walk in. "Mommy." Ilaria cries.
Arabella smiles, "I'm fine, baby." She chokes on her words.
I'm going to murder Yuto with my bare hands for making me miss this.
Romeo keeps his distance, Matteo was anxious too.
"Where are they?" Romeo asks, looking around the room.
Arabella pouts, "They're in a special place called the NICU." She wipes her eyes, "They're a bit sick right now."
"Like you?" Romeo frowns.
"Worse than me." She combs her fingers through Ilarias hair.
Romeo tugs on my hand and motions for me to pick him up, i do it and he rests his head in my neck, "I'm sorry, papa."
"We'll talk after-"
"I don't like when mommy is hurt." He hides his face, he does that when he's going to cry. "I'm sorry papa."
I take him out of the room, letting him wrap around me. "Don't let momma see you cry, she's gonna get worried." I rub his back.
"You got hurt. Mommy got hurt." He cries. "Babies got hurt."
"It's not your fault, Romeo. Pinky promise." I look at him. Is it wrong to say a kid is adorable when he cries?
Because Romeo is fucking adorable when he cries.
I wait until he's calmed down and then mask us leaving by getting snacks from the vending machine. I walk in and hand the juice boxes to the kids, putting Romeo down, he sits with Ilaria and reassures her that everything is fine again.
"Luca." I put my hand on his shoulder, "Come on."
"No-"
"Take him please, let him see them." Arabella let's go of his hand.
"I want to be here with you." He chokes on his words.
"I'm fine. I have Asher." Arabella smiles at Asher who winks back at her.
Luca stands up, walking out of the room but as soon as i'm out, he hugs me.
I think i've hugged Luca once.
This is a weird feeling.
Do i rub his back like i rub Romeo?
I gently pat his back, "He's cute."
"He?" He looks up.
"Shit." I smile.
He seems to lighten up a little bit at that and the midwife brings us in again, with the right protection on again.
"He's cute." He pulls a glove over his hand, "Oh he's tiny."
"His skin is thinner than normal so be a bit gentle." The midwife says.
We both observe as he gently rubs the baby's tummy. He was so small but he made a sound when Luca rubbed his belly and that made Luca smile like i've never seen before. "Hey buddy." He cries.
He asks to take a picture to show to Arabella and when arrive back into the room, he does exactly that and she smiles fondly too.
After three hours of waiting, the kids all falling asleep with Valentina in the corner of the room. The older one is wheeled in.
"He's ready to be breast fed and seems very hungry." The midwife smiles, "He's healthy, completely, everything seems fine."
Arabella's eyes illuminate when she sees him and suddenly she's more gorgeous than she was at the beginning.
"Oh he has my nose." She gently lifts him up, knowing how to.
The baby coos.
She kisses his head softly, "He's tiny." She mumbles, "Will... is that bad?"
"He's small but he weighs 7 pounds which i'm saying is pretty healthy, especially considering how premature he is. Wanna feed him?"
She pulls her hospital gown down with the help of Luca and holds the baby in her arms. It clutches to her breast, somehow knowing what to do.
She smiles down at him, "He has a blue eye."
"He might grow out of it, he might not. If he doesn't it's called heterochromia."
"My papa had that." Carlo smiles, "Remember, Luca? Nonno had that."
Luca nods his head, gently stroking the babies hair.
"How's the other one doing?" Arabella asks.
"We've stabilised his breathing, he's able to do it on his own but he still is hooked up to machines."
"But he's okay?"
"I have high hopes." The midwife smiles. "This one can stay with you tonight, and hopefully by tomorrow the other one is better."
"Thank you." Arabella smiles.
Asher smiles at them, "He's so cute."
Arabella keeps looking down at him.
Asher and I take the kids home, everyone was staying around so they all got into mine and Arabella's bed.
We let Luca and Arabella have their privacy for the three days until the other one was called out of the NICU.
We leave the kids here with Rosa and Carlo and we head up with Valentina.
She was breastfeeding that one while the other one laid in her lap when we walked in.
"He's okay." She looks up, "He doesn't cry a lot, but he's okay."
I kiss the top of her head, looking at the both of them. "They're identical?
"Yes, born three minutes apart." Her eyes dart from each of them. "Are my babies okay?"
"Oh they're fine, Ilaria is causing havoc with everyone who won't play barbie with her, Matteo is drawing on everyone and Romeo is... Romeo." Asher laughs, "God they're adorable."
"We need to pick names, wanna help?" She points to the chairs.
I sit down first, then Asher does, then Valentina does and we all just stare at her. She's beautiful. Like genuinely the most beautiful woman i've ever seen in my life.
"Stop staring at me Reign."
"You're beautiful."
"I look like hell."
"You look like a goddess." I correct her.
Luca takes the older one off her, "We kind of wanted the O theme." He looks down. "Mario-"
"No." Arabella shuts him out, "No Mario, No Sergio, no fucking Luigi either."
"Mario and Luigi would be perfect." Asher says.
She gives him warning eyes and he apologises quickly. "They need to be pretty names."
"Vincenzo." Luca smiles at the baby.
"Too close to Vincent." I hate that motherfucker.
Arabella shivers a little, "It's cold."
"It's cause your boobs are hanging out." Asher unfolds the extra blanket lying at the edge of the bed. She gives him warning eyes again that he apologises too quickly and then sits back down.
"Emilio is nice." Valentina speaks up, "Alessio too."
"I was told Ilaria was a boy, so i picked out Alessio...." She looks at Luca, "Alessio?"
"Alessio and Ciro?"
"God no." I shake my head, "Ferrari will think it's named after him and his ego doesn't need to be any bigger."
Arabella giggles, "I like Leonardo too, and Lorenzo."
"Leonardo and Lorenzo go nice together." Asher smiles, "And then their middle names can be Luigi and-"
"Don't finish that, Reid."
"Yup." Asher leans back.
"Alessio and Emilio go well together." Luca says and the baby clutched to Arabellas breast makes a sound, pulling away.
"He likes it." She pulls her shirt up, burping him. She taught us how to do this on a doll.
"So which one is which?"
"Older one Emilio?" Luca asks, "I think Alessio suits him."
"So..." Arabella rocks the baby, "Emilio Valentino Armani Reign."
Valentina smiles, "Thank you."
"Of course." She smiles. "And Alessio Luca Armani Reign."
"Yes." Luca says adamantly, "I love it."
Alessio & Emilio.
"Good, finally got that out of the way. Roman Reign, how did you get shot?" She looks at me.
"Uh... Your son... our son... is..."
"Don't tell me Romeo shot you."
"No. But he did run out in the middle of a cross fire."
She looked angry.
"But he's apologised and he knows where he went wrong. He was trying to kill the guys because you were hurt." I explain, "He's okay, i'm okay."
"Did you scold him?"
"I was sort of occupied with you and the twins but... He did cry."
She shakes her head, "No more children."
"Not even one more?" Valentina smiles, "They're so cute, you make adorable babies."
Arabella's straight face turns into a smile, "Maybe one-"
"You said five." Luca points at her.
"Well you and Asher both have two so i think it's only fair for Roman to have two too." She give me her big puppy eyes.
"I think Romeo is enough for now, we have years." I wink at her.
She smiles back, and then the twins start crying. At the exact same time.
Can't wait for the next couple years of this shit.
=
=
=
=
=
this book is over soon #crying
word count: 3091