The Gambler(41)

She was out by the time he got back into the room and climbed into bed  with her. He pulled her into his arms and wrapped them around her until  he too gave in to the weariness of the long night.

The dream started out like so many others he'd had over the years. She  was running through a field of flowers and he followed, calling out for  her to wait, to not enter the woods where he knew danger awaited. Like  always she kept going and he felt the fear hit him in the bowels like it  always did as he tried to catch up. No matter how fast he went, he  could never make up the distance between them.

This time the dream changed though and she waited for him at the edge of  the woods. She looked … different, somehow. Her face no longer carried  the soft roundness of youth; instead he was staring down at an older  even more beautiful version of the little sister that he'd lost. He  looked down between them as she reached out and took his hand. It felt  so real in his, that little hand that he remembered so well.

"Stefano." He was taken aback by how real that sounded, how real  everything appeared. He knew he was asleep, and that this was a dream,  what else could it be after all? but it felt so completely different  from all the others that had come before.

She led him away from the woods and to a meadow hidden on the other  side. There was a garden there, with stone benches and those little  fountain statues. Butterflies of every color flew around and he could  hear birds chirping in the branches of the trees. He could even smell  the sweet scent of the flowers, and feel the sun on his face.

"Alice … what?"

"Shh." She held her finger up to her lips as she pulled him down next to  her on one of those benches. There was a stream there unlike any he'd  ever seen before. He watched the water as it flowed calmly and waited  for her to begin. A part of him knew what this was, knew that it was a  little more than a dream, yet he couldn't wrap his mind around it. He  never was any good at the hoo doo shit.

"I've missed you Stefano, all these years I've been wanting to come to  you, but it wasn't the time." She smiled and squeezed his hand as he  looked down at her. "She's something isn't she?" He knew who she was  talking about, his Jenna, so he just nodded his head.

"You mustn't stay mad at her you know, your anger can hurt her more than any bullet ever could."

"What am I supposed to do? She doesn't listen, and she's gonna get  herself killed. I thought she needed me, but she doesn't does she? She  can take care of herself well enough without me … "

"Is that what you think? Nothing can be farther from the truth; she  needs you more than ever. It's hard to explain but I'll try. You see;  your Jenna has no real understanding of the things she's capable of.  It's almost like being programmed, only no one programmed her, it's just  the way her brain works."

"She sucks up information like a sponge and she watches everything  around her, then she implements it. But she has no real understanding of  the way this world works. She compartmentalizes things, like this last  thing here. She knew her dad was in trouble and that he was scared. In  her way of doing things, she worked out the dynamics and did what she  thought she needed to do. That's how her mind works, like fitting the  pieces of a puzzle together, very methodical."

"She senses things, and there have been times when I've given her a  little nudge here and there, like when that pig had her hacking into  places. But in essence, she really is just the innocent you thought her  to be when you first met."         

     



 

"How do you know that?" she took a while to answer, and when she did all she would say is ‘I know you both'.

"Do you know how they say that there is someone made for everyone? Well  in this case it's true. She was made for you and you her. The day you  were dying, she came to me, not I her. Your pain was so great that day  that it reached out to her, she was too young to understand what was  really going on I think, but she found you in that moment." She smiled  in fond memory.

"A lot of what she does now is to protect you, I told her once in a  dream that your heart was broken. I don't know exactly what she made of  that, but from then on she's gotten it into her head that she has to  protect you. She's fiercely protective of those she loves."

"What you're afraid of though is no longer necessary, everything has  been taken care of, and unless she finds herself in that position again,  you have no worry of her running off and getting into danger again. I'm  sure you'll protect her from such things in the future. Besides, the  children will keep her too occupied for much else." She laughed loud and  long as if at some private joke.

He felt his heart jump at the mention of children, and before he could  form the words she answered him. "Yes, your flower is with child, it's  early days yet but your son will be here before you know it." He wanted  to stay and talk with her like this forever, but he wanted even more to  get back to his Jenna. Then he felt guilty for the thought.

"There's no need to feel guilty Stefano, I'm your past she and your  children are your future. I'm happy for you, happy that we had this."

"Will I see you again?"

"Who knows, I'll be around some, but who's to tell if we'll need to do  this again? Go my brother, go and be happy. You no longer have to worry  about me, and remember, you didn't fail me; those men were at fault,  never you. I never held you responsible, for any of it. You were and  will always be, my perfect big brother."





His eyes flew open in the bed next to her. His heart was beating out of  control as he tried to make sense of what had just happened. Was it  real, or just a figment of his imagination? He turned her gently onto  her back and looked down at her flat stomach. A son!

"Angel?" she awakened when his lips touched the soft skin of her tummy.  With her hand behind his head, she held him in place as he peppered her  with kisses. He was no longer angry, that feeling that had been dogging  his heels for the last twenty-four hours was no longer there.

When he climbed up her body and slipped into her, he felt whole again.  He held her as close as it were possible to, as he moved inside her, his  face buried in her neck; before he lifted his head to whisper words of  love and admiration in her ear.





Epilogue





Their lives are somewhat settled these days, nothing at all like in the  beginning. For one, there're no gunmen hunting them down and they're a  little freer in their movements; though he still kept her heavily  guarded twenty four seven. He could leave and go to the office once in a  while as the need arose, and always on those days, his greatest joy was  hearing her laughter when he walked through the door on his return.

It still sent shockwaves through him. Like tinkering bells in an open  field on a hot summer day. Alice had been right, with the absence of  anything resembling danger or any of the other shit she'd been exposed  to, she was just a sweet, innocent girl. She never talked about what had  happened and as far as he could tell, she'd put it all out of her head.

He'd learned what had happened that night from news reports, so there  still remained a mystery as to how she'd pulled it off. Of the men who'd  been there that night, none had survived; she'd leveled the place with  C4. He didn't even want to know where the fuck she'd got her hands on  it.

Her grandmother had done the expose` and her ex assistant was now  spending life in prison for his part in the plot to kill her. The men  behind the hit had been brought to justice and their dealings behind the  scenes had been laid bare for all the world to see. Andros had gotten  recognition because the damn senator couldn't keep her damn mouth shut  and would tell everyone who would listen about her new grandson in law's  work with the special children as they called them.         

     



 

He'd learned to live with all the hoopla until it started to get on his  damn nerves and he'd threatened bodily harm to the next asshole that got  in his face with a camera. Now their lives were nothing but peaceful  and calm. Well not entirely, but close. Gramps had taken it upon himself  to move onto the estate and Andros was always putting out the old man's  fires, when he wasn't standing over the two of them to make sure they  weren't getting up to shit that would land them all in a holding cell.

Jenna was just as Alice had said, her days were spent looking after him  and the kids, and since he kept anything even resembling danger away  from her, he hadn't seen a return of his little criminal. He'd set up a  game room downstairs, where she spent most weekend nights after the kids  had been bedded down, skinning him and his men out of their money. The  only thing he hadn't been able to break her out of was the chocolate  kick.

As for that he'd let her parents live, but he still had a strained  relationship with them almost four years later. He was never going to  forgive them for being so fucking stupid, but Jenna loved the two  idiots, so he tolerated them at his dinner table on Sundays.