Chapter Twenty-Eight

Alessandro's eyes went wide at the list of things that Evangeline wanted to bring to his house. Once he was at her house he called her. "Hi, love." She said through the phone.

He smiled. "Hi, angel. Um," He clicked his tongue. "I saw that you wanted to bring several weapons to my house yet I have no idea where they are."

She let out a small laugh. "I'm sorry love." She said, "Just grab my other things and then we can stop by on our way home once you pick me up. It won't take me long to grab all my favorites."

He chuckled. "Okay angel. I'll see you in a bit."

They hung up and he made quick work of gathering all of the things that she wanted. Once he had everything that she wanted, apart from her weapons, he went to his house. He brought all of her things inside and into his room. He decided to put her things away alongside his. Once he had everything put away he went to his office.

He decided to get a bit of work done until it was time to pick up Evangeline.

It had been a few hours when he finally looked up at the time. He groaned as he realized that he was late. Alessandro jumped to his feet and grabbed his usual knife and gun before going to Luca's house.

He walked inside and grinned at Luca. "Hey, little brother." He said as he walked up to him.

Luca looked over his shoulder with a grin. "Hey, Alessandro. How are you?" He asked as he closed the fridge and walked up to him.

"I'm good," Alessandro said as he patted Luca's back. "How are you?"

Luca shrugged. "I'm alright. A bit better knowing that Evangeline is going to be here whenever I'm not."

Alessandro chuckled. "She's going to be an overbearing mama bear."

Luca threw his head back and let out a laugh. "Oh, she is already driving Aurora crazy." He shook his head. "Won't even let her go to the bathroom by herself."

Alessandro let out a booming laugh. "That's my girl."

Luca shook his head with a loving smile. "She is amazing and I am so grateful that I have her to help me watch over Aurora during this hard time."

Alessandro smiled. "She is amazing." He sighed. "I take it that she's going to be working from your home office until the baby is born and both mother and child are healthy." He stated as he crossed his arms over his chest.

Luca nodded. "She already figured it out. She'll work from my home office and take care of Aurora while I'm at the office. She said she can scan any novels onto her laptop and email them to me. Her work phone has been forwarded to her cell phone and she can access her work email from her laptop." He shrugged. "It'll be the same as if she were still in the office. Same hours. Same workload. Anything that I need to sign will be left on my desk and I'll take care of it once I get home. That or take it into the office the next day."

Alessandro nodded. "So bring her lunch here."

Luca laughed. "If you do that it better be for two. Aurora will be pissed if you don't bring her food as well."

Alessandro chuckled. "Of course. How could I forget the pregnant sister?" He asked playfully.

Luca rolled his eyes. "Let's go see how the ladies are doing huh?"

Without waiting for a response he started leading the way up to the room that he shared with Aurora. Alessandro followed after him and smiled when he saw Evangeline sitting next to Aurora. She was stroking her hair back as she frowned in concern. "What's wrong?" Alessandro asked as he squinted at the worry in Evangeline's eyes.

Evangeline sighed heavily as she glanced at him before returning her attention to Aurora. "She's not feeling too well. She was throwing up and now she's sweating and shivering." She shook her head as she placed the back of her hand against Aurora's forehead. "Yet she is burning up with a sudden fever." She pulled a washcloth out of a small bowl and placed it on Aurora's forehead. "I don't understand this."

Alessandro turned to Luca. "Do you have a doctor on call that can come in and see her?" He demanded.

Luca shook his head. "We haven't been able to find one yet."

Alessandro scoffed as he pulled his phone out of his pocket. "Like I'd let some random doctor take care of my sister and niece or nephew." He shook his head as he held his phone to his ear. "Hey, Richard. Get the doc and his assistant. Have them grab any medical equipment that they need for Aurora. She's seven months pregnant and is very sick. The doctor that she had been seeing said it's possible that whatever it is could be deadly to her and the child if we're not careful. Do it and get them here as soon as possible. Also, have our backup doctor take over in the house."

"You got it, boss," Richard said before hanging up the phone.

Alessandro gave Luca a single nod. "Only the best for little brother and sister." He said in a rough voice.

Luca inclined his head slightly with tears in his eyes. "How long will we have him?" He asked in that same rough voice.

"He and his assistant will be here throughout the rest of her pregnancy and about a month after that just to be safe," Alessandro said as he moved to stand behind Evangeline. He gently caressed her shoulders and leaned down to whisper in her ear. "We'll stay until the doctor gets here. I'm sure he'll want to ask you a couple of questions since you've been here."

She nodded and leaned into him. "Thank you, my love." She whispered.

They sat around Aurora until the doctor and his assistant arrived. Once Evangeline was satisfied with the doctor she and Alessandro made their way to her house. They parked out front and she smiled at him. "I won't take long." She leaned over and pressed a quick kiss to his lips before getting out of the car and rushing into the house.

She made her way through the house, grabbing her favorite weapons as she did. She started in her gym and made sure to grab all of her favorites and the cases for the other weapons she had upstairs. In the end, she had a pair of sai blades that had emerald handles. A pair of twin guns that had her initials imprinted on them in amethyst, a gift from Jaxon from years ago. Two long swords that had been gifted to her by Aurora a couple of years after they had met. She grabbed a thin type vest that could hold all of the daggers that she strapped into it. She also grabbed both of her thigh straps that could hold more daggers or her throwing stars. She had her favorite butterfly knife and a set of small blades that she kept in the drawer of her nightstand. She reached under her nightstand and pulled out her emergency pistol. Once she was sure she had all of her favorite weapons she grabbed all of the cases and headed outside.

Alessandro jumped out of the car and rushed to help her. "Holy shit angel. How many weapons do you have?" He asked in astonishment.

She laughed. "These are just my favorites, love." She said as she helped him pile them into the car.

"Where do you even get your weapons?" He questioned as they climbed back into the car.

She grinned. "I have a friend. He's very good at getting me almost any weapon that I want." She winked at him. "However, a couple of the weapons that I have with me were gifts."

"Gifts?" He asked in shock.

She laughed as she leaned her head back against the headrest of her seat. "I love weapons of all kinds. Especially the bright, sparkly ones. I'll explain them all to you once we get home."

He shook his head as he started driving. He made the quick trip to his house before parking in the garage. He helped her bring all of her weapons upstairs to his room. "Alright." He said as he placed some of her cases on the bed. "Explain these to me as you get them set up. Because I know you want to set them up."

She giggled. "Yes, I do." She started opening the cases and started explaining as she pointed to each one. "These are my long swords. Aurora actually bought them for me two years after Luca and I ran into each other. She said that at the time they caught her eye and knew that I would love them." She shrugged and moved on to the next one. "Those are from Jaxon. He bought them for me when I finished my training years ago. Even had my initials engraved into them in amethyst lavender. The others I all got from my friend."

"Where is this friend of yours?" He asked with wide eyes. "I'd love to talk to him about getting our weapons." He said with a chuckle.

She laughed as she got her weapons set up around the room. "He's Irish. I can give him a call. I helped him go into hiding years ago."

He nodded as she slid her cases under the bed. "Thanks, angel."

She pressed a small kiss to his lips before throwing herself back on his bed. "I meant to ask." He said as he laid down next to her. "Who did your gym? It is amazing."

She looked at him with a wide grin. "I did." She shrugged. "For the most part anyway."

He stared at her with wide eyes. "That is amazing."

She shrugged. "I learned a lot during the years that I was an assassin."

He pressed a kiss to her temple as he pulled her into his chest. "Do you think you could build us a gym like yours?" He asked as he ran his fingers through her thigh-length hair. "Or at least draw up the blueprints so my usual handyman can do it?"

She smiled up at him. "Sure. I can draw up some blueprints and your handyman can help me." She shrugged. "I'm very specific when I do things so he's going to have to follow along."

"I'm sure he'll be fine with that," Alessandro said with a grin.

They went quiet as they simply held each other for a while.

After a couple of hours of simply laying together, Alessandro looked down at her. "Are you worried about going after Nikolai?" He asked in a whisper.

She inhaled deeply before answering. "To be honest I'm not worried about Nikolai." She said in a rough voice. "I'm worried about the assassins that'll be with him. He usually has at least four of them with him. If he somehow learns that we are coming after him he will assign more assassins to protect him. He'll most likely get more guards assigned to him as well." She clicked her tongue. "Now I'm not too worried about the guards and soldiers that he'll have. I could easily take out an entire army by myself but with your help and my family's I can focus on the assassins."

"What if he does get more protection?" He questioned. "Are we going to have a plan for that?"

She scoffed. "The plan will stay the same. I'll focus on the assassins and you guys focus on the foot soldiers. Even if he does double his protection detail at least half of the assassins will side with me or simply refuse to fight." She ran a hand through her hair. "I have helped most of the assassins in that camp. If any of them even thought that they'd be protecting him from me they'd refuse." She let out a small laugh. "Hell half of them would probably even come looking for me."

"So you think that you won't have to fight all of the assassins that he brings with him?" He asked as he looked down at her.

She gave him a nod. "Yes. So even if he does double his protection detail I won't have to fight off too many of them. Some of them would even help me." She sat up and rested her forearms on her knees. "So we have a plan. We have our fancy clothes and every single detail planned out. The only thing that we need is the location. Savannah is working on that for me right now."

Even as she reassured Alessandro that everything would go as planned she knew deep down that she was going to need a backup plan. She knew that she probably wouldn't be able to get close enough to Nikolai if he knew that she was coming after him. She was hoping that if he did find out he would only double the assassins. She had a feeling that she'd get very unlucky and he'd at least triple his protection detail.

As she sat there thinking about it she knew what she was going to have to do. Nikolai would never let anyone get close enough to kill him. Not even her. He would only let her get semi-close so that he could capture her and take her to a secret location. Somewhere no one would be able to find them while he attempted to break her. She knew that he wanted her at his side. To help him dominate the world.

She bit her lip as an idea suddenly popped into her head. If she let Nikolai capture her she could bide her time while he tried his poor attempt at breaking her. She knew how to get out of every single type of confinement, handcuffs, chains, ropes, etc. She could wait until he let his guard down and then take advantage. Get out of whatever confinement he put her in and kill him. It wouldn't take much effort for her to kill him and then anyone else that got in her way while on her way out. She was the best assassin in the entire universe for a reason.

She glanced at Alessandro over her shoulder and felt her heartache at what she was thinking. It would practically kill the both of them to be apart for whatever amount of time they'd be separated but in the end, they'd be free of Nikolai. Everyone would be free of him. She roughly rubbed her hands over her face and shoved them into her hair. It was going to be the hardest thing she'd ever had to do. She blew out a rough breath as she stood up and went to the closet.

She grabbed some pajamas and went to take a shower. She had a lot on her mind and she wasn't sure what she was going to do.