Page 99 of The Red Queen

Epilogue

Ten Years Later

“Cover your core,” Desi instructed, tapping Gavino’s fist and encouraging him to lift it. He did as instructed and then looked at her expectantly. “Now, I’m going to step toward you, hook my ankle around the back of yours and use my hand under your chin to tip you backwards.”

Move for move, she did exactly as she’d explained, but slowly so he could absorb each move. He’d been learning defensive techniques since he was four years old, but she’d waited until he was bigger to learn takedowns. At ten, he was growing tall. Still about four inches shorter than his mother, but tall enough to learn.

She took him gently down to the mat and then released him. After he perfected his basic takedowns, she would teach him how to finish an opponent.

“Madre, you don’t have to hold back,” he grumbled impatiently, pushing himself up and climbing to his feet. “I won’t know how to take a hit if you aren’t hitting me.”

She smothered a laugh and turned away so he wouldn’t see. Gavino was a serious young man who wanted to earn his way within the Savino organization. He didn’t want to be given special treatment, but there was no way Desi was going to harm her child. She couldn’t bring herself to do it, so when it came to sparring, he would have to work with his father, Dino, or Vitto.

She hopped to her feet and turned to face him. “Okay, now it’s your turn to take me down.” His eyes lit with excitement, though he kept his face wiped of expression. Just like his father. “Cover your core and come at me, hook your heel behind mine and drag it forward while using the palm of your hand to shove me back.”

It took him a few tries to coordinate himself, but once he did, he was able to take his mother down to the mat. They continued for the better part of an hour, practicing until Gavino had perfected the takedown and Desi had a sore backside. While Desi pulled back with Gavino, he went full force with his mother.

“Madre, Gavino,padre dice il suo tempo di cena!” A tiny voice reached them, and both looked around as Gabrielle came hurtling through the doorway with Vitto in tow, her hand wrapped around his in a death hold.

Gabrielle loved Desi’s personal bodyguard and tried to hijack him every opportunity she could. Two years after the twins were born, Desi and Giovanni made Vitto their godfather. He was great with all the kids but seemed to have a special bond with the girls. He and his wife, Kristina, had them over to their apartment in Venice frequently.

“Your father says it’s suppertime, does he?” Desi asked, climbing out of the ring, and greeting her daughter with a hug and a wild swing about, whirling as fast as she could in circles.

Gabrielle screamed her laughter until Desi set her back on her feet.

“Where is your sister?” Desi asked, looking around for Gabrielle’s twin, Sonja.

“Which one?” Gabrielle asked, wrinkling her nose.

She hadn’t been overly impressed by the birth of her youngest sister eight months earlier and took every opportunity of showing her parents her displeasure in the matter. Amelie was Desi and Giovanni’s fourth child. She had been a surprise, but a truly welcome one for them as they’d believed they were finished having children.

“The one who can walk,” Desi responded drily.

“Sonja is where she always is,” Gabrielle announced. “In the study with father. I don’t know why she likes it so much. Daddy is boring and his office smells like cigars.”

Desi laughed and took Gabrielle’s hand. She turned to Gavino. “Shower and come up to the house for supper, si?”

“Si,madre.” He grabbed his towel and gym bag and ran for the shower room. He preferred to shower there after a workout. It made him feel like one of the men.

Desi nodded to Vitto, silently asking him to watch the door so her son could have his privacy. Though no one on the estate would dare touch the boy, the wrath to any who harmed him being too great a risk, Desi still took no chances. Not with any of her children. She was the ultimate mother bear; she would tear apart limb-from-limb any who tried to harm her family.

As they left the gym, Gabrielle looked up at her mother with a wrinkled nose, her favourite expression of disgust. “You have to take a shower too, you’re all sweaty and gross.”

Desi smiled. “You will be too when you start training like your brother.”

She heaved a weary sigh. “I don’t want to learn. You can teach Gavino and Meli.” Gabrielle had trouble saying Amelie’s full name, so she and her sister called the baby ‘Meli’.

“You and both of your sisters will learn to defend yourselves,” Desi said firmly. “Don’t make me tell you the story of how I lost my finger again.”

“Ew, gross mommy.”

When the children had reached an age where they began to wonder about Desi’s mutilated hand, she had to come up with a story. She told them a dragon had stolen their father and whisked him away to its lair where it intended to barbecue and eat him. Desi had stepped in to rescue the fair knight, but the dragon had bitten off her finger before she could kill it. Finally, she slew the dragon and rescued their father.

He carried their injured mother back to his castle in Italy and took wonderful care of her. While she was recovering, they fell madly in love, got married and lived happily ever after with their four children.

One day Desi would tell them the truth, but not yet. Though she knew she couldn’t keep them young forever, she still wanted a few more years before she had to let go of the fantasy she’d spun. Gavino had already asked about her finger a few months earlier, having worked out that a dragon probably hadn’t bitten her.

It was Gavino she worried about the most. He was so like his father, calm, cool, intelligent. He analyzed everything, then responded appropriately. But like his father, he was extremely protective, watching out for his sisters and parents. Desi worried that if she told him the truth about what’d happened to her, that he would want vengeance, that he might one day go after Mateo Gutierrez.

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