STELLA (3 years and some months later)

"Hey Moms! How long do I cook this for?"

"Brah, you know she hates it when you call her that."

"So? Lucy calls her mom, all the time."

"And she tells her to quit it, too, lolo."

"Be nice to your brother, Kai." I chide him, as I walk into the kitchen, while pulling my hair into a low bun. Miles grins then sticks his tongue out at Kai.

"And stop calling me Moms, Miles." 

Now Kai sticks his tongue out, at his twin brother. I grab the left over lasagna, from yesterdays dinner, in Miles' hands and put in the microwave, setting the timer.

"Thanks Moms!" Miles laughs, ducking and running out of the kitchen, before my hand makes contact with the back of his head.

Kai laughs, "You know he does it because it bugs you, right?"

I nod, knowing it's also because of Lucy. "Remember, my friend is coming tomorrow. This place better be cleaned up, when I get back from work, including your guys' room. If I go in there and it smells like it did last month...you'll both wish I left you, in Hawaii." 

"Naw, you've been saying that almost two years now, mo—Stella, but you know you love us. We keep you young!" Miles comes back in the kitchen, bouncing around. He has more energy than the damn tiger, from Winnie the Pooh.

"I'm pretty sure, I've aged ten years, since meeting you two." I stuff my bag, getting ready for work.

They begin to argue over who will clean what. They've become like family, since meeting them. Even though there are days when I want to strangle both of them.

"Alright, I'm off to work. You know the rules, no games or TV, until your homework is done. And no friends tonight. Lucy should be home soon from work, too. And whichever one of you took a dump in the half bathroom, is in charge of cleaning up both bathrooms, DISGUSTING!"

They both start cracking up. Boys. 

I tell them bye and remind them to be good. Miles gives me mock salute, while Kai throws me a Shaka sign as I walk out the door. I pull my phone out and send Lucy a text letting her I'm off to work. 

My phone chimes as I'm putting my helmet on. I secure my bag over my shoulder and swing my leg over the bike. I pull my phone out of my jacket pocket, to read her message.

L: Okay, mom. Be safe. Love you!!

Me: LUCY stop calling me that, Miles is starting to do it, too.

She replies by sending me three kissing face emoji's and a peace sign. I sigh putting my phone away.

We've been in Miami for almost eight months. It feels longer than that but the longest place we lived in, was Hawaii for nearly a year. Normally, in other states or countries, our stays were usually only a few weeks,

After I drove away from Chicago, more than three years ago, I headed west until we got to Utah. I ditched the car and bought another used car and headed south until we got to Texas. From there I decided to head west again, stopping in Vegas before eventually going to California and stayed with Zeeko's cousin Abraham, for a couple of months.

While there, Abraham introduced me to a friend of his, named Tej. A computer and technical genius, maybe even more skilled than David and Mateo combined. He helped doctor up a few documents I would need to travel, especially since Lucy was with me.

That first year we traveled to Italy, France, Greece, and Thailand. We even spent a couple of months in South Africa as well. While there, Lucy somehow got us involved in a nonprofit organization, that was building a school for a small village.

From there we visited Australia, Brazil and Hawaii. That's where the twins came into to our lives.

I had stopped to get gas after Lucy and I spent the day hiking. While the tank was filling up, I had asked her if she wanted to come in with me, to grab some snacks. But she was in the middle of reading a book and shook her head at me. I smile remembering that day clearly.

***Flashback***

"Will this be everything for you, Miss?" The cashier asks as I was skimming over latest celebrity gossip, on the magazine headlines. The door bell chimes, signaling someone else has come in.

I look up at him to respond and do a double take as his eyes had widened to the size of saucers. His palms out in front of him. My eyes move up to the monitor behind him. There are two masked figures behind me, with guns pointed at the back of my head.

"Give us all the money in the till and no one will get hurt." A voice says from behind me.

"And snacks! Throw in some snacks, my good sir." Says the other masked person. They definitely do not sound like adults.

The cashier nods his head vigorously, pulling money out as fast as he can, from the cash register.

"Dude! They broke up again!" Says the one furthest away from me, he's pointing at one of the celeb gossip magazines, with his gun.

"Shut up, Lolo! Focus!" Says the other.

"Zayn is stupid AF giving up Gigi. Man, if she was mine, there'd be no way I'd ever let her go."

"For all you know she dumped his ass. Besides, you know, they'll probably get back together next week. And there's no way she'd go for your broke ass, anyway!"

I use their squabbling as my opportunity to make a move. Turning swiftly, I grab the gun from the guy closest to me. I twist it, gaining possession of it, but then notice it's a fake.

I throw a quick combination on him, when he takes a step towards me. I grab his arm and flip him on the ground. 

"Damn! She just Jackie Chan'd your ass, brah!" Says the other one. I step towards him and he holds his hands out.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, it's a fake, don't hurt me!" He points the gun at the guy on the ground and presses the trigger.

It's a freaking squirt gun.

"You put water in your gun?" Groans the guy on the ground. "Stop getting me wet you idiot!"

"Cops coming." The cashier comments, grabbing all of our attention.

The one on the ground, scrambles to get up but struggles to gain his footing, due to the water on the floor. "Go, Miles, Go!" He yells at the other one.

Miles turns to run, but a huge Polynesian guy walks in and Miles slams into him, losing his balance and falls, knocking the other one back on the ground with him.

The large man quickly recognizing the situation, grabs a hold of Miles, who's closest to him and pulls him up by his shirt.

Miles screams. And when I say scream, I mean squealed like a girl. His voice cracks as he yells. "Kai! Help me!"

Kai scrambles up to his feet and runs at the large man. He starts punching the man in the stomach, in hopes he'll let go of Miles. But the large man grabs Kai by the throat.

"What you think you doin? Stealin'?" He questions them. "Should be in school. Not robbing people."

He drops Miles then pulls the masks off of Kai. His coarse, curly hair, falls down to the top of his shoulders. He's just a kid.

The large man bends down and yanks at the top of the mask on Miles' head. He yelps as his hair pops out of the mask as well; he looks just like Kai. They're twins.

I notice the subtle differences between them as I keep looking at them. Miles eyes' and skin tone are a tad lighter. While Kai's nose is a little wider and he has a small mole under his right eye.

"We didn't mean any harm, we just trying to score money for food, brah." Kai claims.

The large man lets go of Kai and looks over at Miles, and just like me, notices their worn out clothing and less than healthy looking frames.

I hand the cashier money for my purchases and then give them to the one named Kai. "Here. Get out of here. Don't pull this crap again, unless you want your lives to go from bad to worse and end up in jail or dead."

Kai takes the bag from me and looks down at his brother. "Let's go Miles." 

Miles stands, warily, keeping his distance from the large man. Kai looks over at the cashier. "I'm sorry," The cashier, nods back at him.

Kai turns to me, "Mahalo." He turns and hurries out the door. "Mahalo," Miles repeats as he follows his brother, giving a wide berth past the large man, as he exits.

"'A'ohe lokomaika'i i nele i ke pâna'i," The cashier tells me and smiles. I look over at the large man, who nods as if agreeing.

"I'm sorry, I'm not familiar with the language, what does that mean?"

The large man responds, "It means, No kind deed has ever lacked its reward. Hope those kids don't waste the chance you give them today."

That's deep. 

I was just trying to get out of here before the cops came and it's too late as I see two uniform clad officers walking in. I move back towards an isle subtly. Hoping, Lucy has enough sense not to come running in here. I busy myself looking for more snacks.

"Your security alarm was triggered. What seems to be the problem?" One of the officers addresses the cashier. I can feel their eyes on me as they survey the store quickly.

"e kala mai iaʻu (I'm sorry) I accidentally hit the button, forgive the inconvenience." The cashier states.

I place another set of snacks on the counter, appearing as if I had not known what had just transpired. The cashier smiles at me as he rings up the snacks again.

*End of Flashback*

I started seeing the twins near where we lived after that day. I found out later, they followed us; which made me paranoid as hell, wondering if I missed anyone else, lurking around.

They eventually approached me. Kai said he needed to repay me, in order to make his wrong choice of attempting to rob the store, right. I told them it wasn't necessary but they just kept coming back.

We learned, they were runaways, fleeing from their abusive father. He blamed them for their mother leaving. He constantly told them they were too hard to raise, because they never listened, and were always fighting in school.

They told us they only fought in school because some of the natives teased them, for being mixed kids. Their mom is black and their father is a native Hawaiian.

They started having dinner with us here and there and eventually stayed more and more. I made a deal with them just like Lucy, they would have to do home schooling, chores and if they started giving me trouble or not hold their end of the bargain, it would end our little adventure together.

They are a year older than Lucy and just had their seventeenth birthday. When I asked what they wanted to do, they said they wanted to go to Disney World since they'd never been. Miles was in heaven, taking pictures with any and all the characters, we'd run into.

Kai on the other hand, was trying to act like he was too cool for it, but you could see the happiness on his face while we were there. Lucy loved it, too and dragged me along for all the rides with her. I had fun too, never experiencing anything like it myself.

They're good kids and just like Lucy flourished with learning. Kai is the more serious, studious one and likes to be challenged. He's already taking on some precalculus classes. But they're both really good with building things and even constructed a wall to close off the loft so it's more of a bedroom, now; which is actually their room.

Miles is more like Lucy, creative, and artsy. He has a great ear for music and plays his ukulele or guitar all the time. Both Kai and Miles have great voices as does Lucy. Many nights are spent with them singing covers of songs.

As more time has gone by, they've come to know more and more of what I'm working towards. They all know they are free to leave when and if they ever choose to because I don't know what the future will be like. They know there are dangerous people looking for me.

Despite the danger, I can't bring myself to keep them from making friends wherever we move to. They all make friends easily and are good about keeping things basic with friends, not sharing important details.

With the help of Tej, I was able to get each of their original birth certificates and social security numbers. They all have part time jobs and save up to buy their own things. I usually handle the bigger expenses like groceries and a bulk of their clothing needs. I've also made sure they've had check ups and visited the dentist regularly.

Thinking of Tej, reminds me he's coming out to Miami as my plan to take down Giovanni is coming together. It's taken a lot longer than I would have liked, but I haven't lost my focus and will be making my first move.

Gio may have several connections, but Cristian has more. Tej found information circulating about a contrat hit Cristian put on Gio as well.

With Tej working his magic, I've also been able to track several of Gio's businesses but he, himself has been more tricky to find.

I also asked Tej to looking out for anything regarding Enzo and my other friends, but Enzo's made it impossible to find him. At least, I hope that's the case and not because something terrible happened. 

There was a time he thought we located Cristian, but it ended up being a dead end.

I take a deep breath as I shut off the engine to the bike after pulling into the parking lot at work. I've worked a lot of odd jobs, using several aliases over the last few years. When we got to Miami, I went back to using my real name, but use a different last name.

I figured enough time has gone by and the fact that everyone notices the scar on my eye, pretty much hinders any chance I have, of not being recognized anyway. People have told me it's light but I know it's something people remember when they see me.

I walk in the front door and am greeting by one of the regular bouncers, "You're cutting it close, Raven. Boss is in a mood. Steer clear."

"Thanks, Bruiser."

Raven is my stage name. I work as a performer--no not a stripper--although we do use a pole for some of our performances. And while some of our outfits are really skimpy, we don't actually remove all of our clothes. 

After a rocky start, I've managed to build somewhat of a good rapport, with the club manager. I'm hoping to get in, on the inner dealings of the business as quickly as I can, eventually leading me straight to the owner. 

I guess I should mention, the club is actually owned by Giovanni, himself.