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It was five in the morning. Bloody five in the morning when the couple and their kids were woken up from their peaceful slumber by a yelling gorilla.
Adam was already fully dressed for the short vacation while River glared at him in her hoodie and leggings, yawning to herself as she slightly rocked the two babies sleeping in her arms, their heads on each of her shoulders.
Mateo tried to hold one of them but they just downright refused. Grumpy and cranky Lucas and Kiara need their Mommy. Nobody could replace her. Not even their Papa.
Though River didn't show it, the fact that the kids clung onto her made her happy. They had been spending most of their time with Mateo since they found out that he was their Papa. River did want them to forge the kind of bond the babies had with her but that didn't mean that she wasn't a teeny tiny bit jealous of all the attention her little darlings were showering their father.
She knew it was immature and stupid and senseless but she just couldn't the jealousy and feeling of triumph.
River glanced over at Mateo and quickly averted her eyes when she saw that his eyes were already on her, a ghost of a smile on his face.
Ugh.. His stupid confession last night had gotten her completely flustered and confused.
River Johnson was pretty sure that the dumbass had said that on purpose to make her feel exactly the way she was feeling right now. And also to make her blush – that seemed to be an all-time agenda of this Mafia dude.
Dumbass.
"What is taking her so long?" Mateo wondered out loud. Alessia was yet to come out. Adam had sworn that she was the first one he had woken up, way before he had even gotten ready, just for the sake of torturing her and by the time that he was ready, she had even brought out her luggage which was sitting by the door. But the assassin was nowhere in sight.
"I am not very sure that she's upstairs. She could be doing one of the security guards for all we know." Adam commented.
River mentally smacked her head while Mateo smacked Adam's. Mateo did not get mad at his best friend for saying that about his sister because one, the guy was blunt and there was no taking that away from him and two, Mateo had thought of the very possibility himself.
Alessia enjoyed sleeping around as much as she enjoyed murdering people. She even had a phase where she would kill her victims mid-sex. His sister was fucked up and he had no one to blame but himself and his family for it.
"Owww.." Adam whined like a kid, rubbing his red temple.
"Go see if she is upstairs. And if not, go find her wherever she is." Mateo said, moving closer to River as he pointed at the stairs.
"Why me?"
"Because I can't climb stairs-" Adam and River looked at him with a 'Oh really?' look. "And River's holding the kids so you go."
Adam muttered to himself as he walked away towards the stairs.
River cleared her throat, composing herself and turned to her dearest baby daddy.
"How long are we staying there?"
"A couple of weeks." He hummed. He looked very amused, enjoying himself quite well.
Not funny dude.
Why did he make things so freaking awkward? At least awkward for her because he was enjoying every teeny bit of it, while she was flustered and a stuttering mess.
"So what have you thought about what I said yesterday?" He brought it up yet again. And she had to give it to him, he had this air of confidence around him about this matter.
"I haven't thought about it actually." The surgeon countered, giving him a sarcastic smile before adjusting the kids in her arms.
"Well, you have time until this mess is over." He shrugged, his face suddenly solemn.
And the seriousness of the situation caught up to us again.
And she also realized that she hadn't told him about the whole Alfredo thing because they were so busy with the kids and then his little stunt after we got back from the hospital.
"Mateo.." River sighed. He turned her. She had his entire attention now.
"I feel like the last incident was meant to scare us and not to harm us." River voiced out her thoughts.
His eyebrows furrowed as he looked at her, trying to make sense out of what she had just said.
"What makes you say that?" He asked. "The doctor clearly said you were overdosed."
"Well he could be on their side." She shrugged.
"River, you didn't see your condition when we rushed you to the hospital. You were bleeding from your nose, you couldn't breathe. We thought you were going to die." He whisper-yelled, keeping his palm on their sleeping Kiara's hair.
"Exactly. How can something that looked so life threatening be treated within a few hours? And only end up with a few ruptured capillaries? And I came home in the evening like nothing happened." She listed out, whisper-yelling back at him. "Am I the only one finding this extremely fishy?"
"What are you trying to say?"
"I don't know. This was either a warning or a distraction. I think we all need to be on our guard."
Mateo nodded though it looked like that little ape-shit wasn't going to even contemplate what she had said. "Don't worry, we are always on our guard."
This was one of his biggest problem – that he never listened to anything the other party has to say. Well, sometimes he did. But when it came to making any decisions, he completely blocked out anyone else's opinion and went solely with whatever seemed right to him. It wasn't that he was always wrong, but sometimes it was better to get a hundred opinion before doing something.
The next vacation for example. They had moved from New York to Wyoming because Mona Petrov was after them. And she had managed to reach them there, so now Mateo had decided that they were moving to Amalfi, Italy. It was his own decision which he just imposed on River. And she was just going along with it because she thought that maybe nobody can hurt them in Mateo's hometown and also Mateo needed to rest.
But it didn't mean that she was satisfied with Mateo's decision to run away from problems. She realized he tended to do that a lot – at least when it came to his children and her. He moved them at the whiff of danger and he left them as soon as there was a disagreement with River. He was flawed like that.
"What's taking them so long?" River wondered out loud.
"Oh nothing." Adam walked down the stairs. "Alessia didn't pack her 'most important stuff' yesterday though she had packed yours, which are in those bags over there and she went back to sleep right after leaving them at the door." He let out a dramatic sigh. "Now she is turning the whole room upside down packing all of her 'stuff'."
River rolled her eyes as she walked over to the couch and sat down, making sure the kids were comfortable. "You could have helped her you know?"
"And have my hands cut off for touching her precious things? No thanks." Adam said dramatically and then asked, "You okay doc?"
River turned to look at the two men who looked concerned. "You look like you are going to break down any second now."
What?
"I will be in the car." Adam announced and walked out.
'Please no. I don't want to have a conversation right now.' River prayed to herself.
She looked up at Mateo as he walked closer to her.
"I am scared. That's it. The kids could have eaten those cookies." River said. "I have this gut feeling that maybe we shouldn't go anywhere right now."
"I am doing this for you three." He sighed and crouched down in front of her. "The enemies managed to get our people on their side. The safest place right now is Amalfi. Nobody is going to attack us in the Boss' territory."
River nodded though she didn't think the next one would be an attack.
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