JOHN PAUL

I startle awake to the sound of my phone chiming from a text messing coming through on the nightstand. I open the message and see it's from my father, telling me to meet him in his room.

I sigh, rubbing my face; so far, I'm not enjoying all these fucking meetings lately. I get up quietly and get dressed quickly, not wanting to wake up Charmaine, who's still sleeping soundly.

I smile as I look over at her, remembering how unexpectedly confident she was the night before. I pull the cover over her, careful not to wake her, and walk out of her room.

When I reach the bottom floor, Joey walks out of the kitchen with two coffee mugs, and he hands me one as he looks me over.

"Weren't you wearing that yesterday?" He smirks before taking a sip of his coffee.

I avoid his question by asking him another. "Did you shower already?" Noticing his curly hair appears damp.

"I wanted to get in an early workout before meeting with Tony." He shrugs. I look at him, narrowing my eyes at him. He's never been one to wake up early; even if there's business to attend to, he literally waits until the last second to get up.

"Before 7 a.m., why?"

Joey looks up at the ceiling, annoyed. "I don't know, man, I couldn't sleep, alright? My mind is just running non-stop lately." He takes a deeper drink of his coffee. I look at him closely, and I see the light shadows under his eyes.

"Is this about Annalisa?" I ask, genuinely curious.

He stops walking. "What? Why the hell would this be about her?"

Even though he's on edge, I look him directly in the eyes. "Joe, you haven't been the same since that night, on the dinner cruise. I know you said nothing was bothering you that night after we got back to the beach house, but you know you can talk to me, man."

"Are you two about ready?" My father's stern voice has me turning around.

Joey and I both nod and follow him silently. His large room has a corner office where he stands behind the desk pulling out a long tube from under it. The familiar scent of his cologne lingers in the room, as well as the faint smell of cigars.

His desk is bare except for a photo of me as a kid, wearing my old baseball uniform when I played little league. On the other side is a picture of my mom when she was younger, and the cross necklace she used to wear dangles from one of the corners of the frame.

He opens the tube and slides out another roll, and unrolls it, laying it out over the top of the desk. I lean over and look at the blueprint and see it's a layout of the event center where the benefit will be this year.

"This year, the benefit will be held at the Broadway Event Center in Manhattan. It is going to be a masquerade type of an event, which makes things a bit more risky for us, as everyone attending is required to wear a mask."

"We, of course, will be wearing comm pieces so we can communicate with one another, but the masks will be a hindrance in not being able to recognize one another. Each of us has a blueprint of the building; you both need to study the layout and know where each exit is located in each building area if something happens.

With you just arriving yesterday, it doesn't give you much time, but something is better than nothing. We will rotate assigned areas throughout the night to keep everyone's eyes fresh."

I review the blueprint, the layout is basic--not too many intricacies that would pose an issue, and then a thought comes to my mind.

"Why don't we have everyone that is with us wear the same type or style of mask? It would help in being able to recognize who's with us while we are there."

My father looks at me for a moment. "Good thinking, John Paul. I'll pass that on to Timo." He rolls up the blueprint and hands it to Joey and another copy for me.

"Now, since you two will be involved more, you need to be aware that we will have a visitor with us for a while. We don't know how long his stay will be, but the purpose of his visit will be for training the men since we lost our trainer." He informs us. "The men need to be refreshed on different techniques as it is."

"Who is he?" Joey asks.

"You two know him, Santino Leonetti. He worked with Dominic for several years before moving back to Italy, remember? He's been there on work detail but answered Timo's call for assistance with what's been going on."

"I remember him. He would train with us when we were younger. He was around my age when he started traveling with Dominic and left a few years later." I say as I remember the guy I had looked up to, being someone I wanted to imitate and follow around when I was a kid. He's about seven years older than me.

With my father always gone or working, he spent a lot of time with Charmaine and me until he started traveling with Dominic, and then he left one day and never came back.

"When does he arrive?" Joey asks as he brings his cup of coffee up to take a drink.

"He'll arrive the morning after the benefit. That'll be all for now, gentlemen." My father says, dismissing us.

I head to my room to shower quickly and change my clothes before going back to see Charmaine. I knock and turn the knob, peek in, and see she's still lying in bed; her bare body is exposed in the rumpled sheets.

I walk in, shutting the door behind me, locking it before I make my way to her quietly and sit next to her. My fingers trail lightly from her low back up to her shoulder, sliding her hair to the side.

She turns slightly and blinks her eyes open, smiling when she sees me. "Hmm, morning." She says sleepily. She turns over onto her back, revealing her beautiful chest, as she stretches her arms above her head.

She doesn't know how incredibly sexy she is by doing the simplest things; she seems to realize her naked body is exposed and quickly pulls the sheet up over herself, blushing.

Her eyes travel down my dress shirt, and her eyebrows come together. "Why are you dressed?"

"I can fix that," I smile as I stand up and start undressing, causing her to laugh. I lay over her once I'm undressed, loving how our bodies fit together. She reaches up, playing with my damp hair.

"And you showered too?" I nod my head, and she chuckles. I kiss her collarbone and make my way up her neck until I kiss her, I'm expecting her to pull away, remembering her morning breath concerns from our time in San Diego, but she doesn't.

"Had an early meeting with my father." I move to lay next to her, pulling the sheet down gently, and trace my fingers across the dips and curves of her body, watching, fascinated as her body reacts to my touch. Goosebumps form on her skin and her nipples stand to attention.

"JP..."

"Yes?"

"My eyes are up here, Mr." I hear the smile in her voice.

"Oh, I know exactly where your eyes are, princess...but I've only recently had the pleasure of discovering other parts of your body that are just as beautiful and captivating as your eyes."

She laughs, "You're incorrigible, John Paul." She pulls the sheet over herself, but I tug it down again, slowly. "Can you tell me what your meeting was about?"

"It was more about the benefit; we got a copy of the blueprints of the building to get familiar with, in case something happens," I tell her as I run my fingertips down and across her chest and stomach.

"Does my Uncle think something will happen there?"

"Everyone knows Timo attends the benefit each year and has since my mom passed. So it would not only be stupid not to anticipate something happening but dangerous." I inform her and watch as she runs her fingers lightly over my hands. "Also, I found out its theme this year is a masquerade."

"Hm, that sounds fun." She runs her fingertips lightly over my forearms and traces a few of my tattoos.

"Do you remember Santino Leonetti from when we were kids?" I ask as I play with a lock of her hair in my fingers. She looks confused for a second before recognition comes across her face.

"Yes, what about him?"

"He's going to be visiting to help train the men since..." I don't finish and look up at her quickly, watching as her face falls slightly. "I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking."

Charmaine shakes her head and cups my face with her hands. "You didn't do anything wrong JP, it's just I hate that I sometimes forget, and then it hits me, you know?" I nod as I lay back and pull her close to me.

I sigh as I recall how I would forget too when my mom had first passed. "I remember I would run to go see my mom, after she passed, for the first few days when I returned to school, forgetting she wasn't here anymore."

She turns and moves up on me, so her chin is on my chest. "I know this probably isn't going to come outright, but I'm grateful to have someone who knows what I'm going through and understands it, and I'm glad it's you, John Paul.

I have my Uncle, but we're not close. You've always been there for me, and I don't know how I would have gotten through the first few weeks without you by my side." Her eyes shine with emotion as she tells me.

I move to lay her back, and I look down at her. "Char, I know this is new with us, and maybe it's too soon if I do this now. But, the truth is, I wanted to tell you ever since that morning Dominic came home and found us here, in your room."

As I look at her, I see she's as focused on me as much as I am on her. "You've felt like family for as long as I can remember, but it changed into something more...It was after we kissed. Not that night I was drunk, but before that, when we kissed each other for the first time; when we were kids, do you remember?"

She smiles, through her tears, nodding. "I wanted to kiss you again ever since that day, but when you said to promise never to do it again, I secretly hoped you'd change your mind one day..."

"You've loved me since we were kids?" Doubt flashed across her face. "But you've dated and been with other girls."

I look down, ashamed, and then back up at her. "Going out with those other girls was me trying to see if I could change my feelings for you. I mean, from my point of view as a kid, being raised like siblings, I kept thinking something was wrong with me for feeling that way towards you, and then as time went on, I got scared that if you didn't feel the same way, I would lose you."

"And then I thought, I'd rather have you in my life as a friend than nothing at all, even though it would kill me to see you with someone else. And now, with the threats and attacks, and I'm not saying anything else will happen, but I can't risk you not knowing how I feel about you.

Those letters you found in my room after I was drunk, they were meant for you; what I'm trying to tell you with all this damn rambling is, I'm in love with you, Charmaine. What I should have told you when I gave you the bracelet on your birthday with the sempre charm is that I've always loved you."

"You don't have to say anything," I tell her as I observe her. She smiles as she reaches up and brings my face to hers, kissing me softly, and pulls away, looking at me.

I anxiously wait as she starts to say something. "John Paul, I—" 

A knock at the door has us both looking towards it.

"Charmaine, are you awake?"

Fuck. It's Timo.

I look down at Charmaine and see she's just as alarmed as I am. We move quickly, and I grab my clothes, running to her bathroom. She follows me, grabbing her robe, and pulls it on hurriedly.

I shut the door to the bathroom and start getting dressed, but I realize I don't have my boxer briefs; I must have dropped them.

And then I hear her as she opens the door.

"Morning, Uncle!" 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~