Red

C H A P T E R F I F T Y

“Gabriella! Gabriella! Gabri-” My eyes shot open and Graces little face was frowning at me aggressively. I smiled at her, suddenly feeling very nervous. “Where’s my daddy?” She asked, clutching her bunny in her hand.

“He needed to work sweetheart, he asked if I could bring you here.” She looked around my room, I did too. Then she hugged her bunny tighter, clearly feeling uncomfortable.

“Where is here?”

“My house.” I answered enthusiastically. “There’s lots of cool, fun stuff to do here. You like swimming? We have a pool.”

“No.”

“Oh.” I chewed my lip. “You like movies right? We have a movie theatre room.”

“No, the movie theatres are too loud.”

“Hm.” This was harder than I thought. How do we entertain a five year old when we don’t have any toys or games. She started fiddling with the ears on her bunny. “You like makeup?”

“Yes.” She smiled and I relaxed.

“Amazing! I have a whole bunch of makeup and a house full of boys dying for makeovers! You don’t mind making some boys look pretty, right?” She giggled.

“No silly, I do daddy’s makeup all the time.”

My face illuminated in the most obvious way.

“You do?”

“Uh huh! His nails too and when we play hairdresser he lets me put bows in his hair and clip ear rings to his ears.”

“Grace, that is so fucking amazing. I need to see that someday, okay?” She nodded.

"So fucking amazing, okay.”

I stood up from the bed and held my hand out for her to take and she didn’t hesitate, bringing her bunny along too of course.

Gracie was in awe of the safe house, she kept asking if we were rich. I guess Ace didn’t flash his worth around her.

I introduced her to the family at breakfast, she clung to my waist hiding with shyness at first but Angelo cracked the jokes and she soon came out of her shell, warming up to him quickly.

Some of these men had children themselves, they knew how to talk to her and what to play. In fact, I was the most ridged and fearful around her, not that she ever noticed.

I glanced at Grace. She was giggling her little ass off at the idiot men who paraded around in her fashion show. She had planned to make them do a whole dance show for our staff and was teaching them the steps.

“Gabriella, c’mon!” Grace shouted. I forced a smile onto my face and bounced over to them. Letting her paint my face too. She concentrated so hard and my makeup still looked like shit.

“Do I look gorgeous?” I asked, fluttering my eyelashes and pouting my lips. “Or do I look like a scary monster?” I growled and made a claw with my fingers. Gracie giggled, grabbed my face and leaned in to kiss my nose. It was sweet and unexpected.

“No, you look pretty.” She said softly, smiling like her daddy does.

“It’s your turn now little one!” I took the makeup out of her hand and leaned in to paint her face.

“So I’m gonna give you a lot of cuts and bruises, you’re gonna look so cool! You ready?” She nodded, her hair bouncing on her shoulders. I laughed and then started painting a very realistic display onto her face.

She giggled as the paintbrush made ticklish strides across her face and then once I was finished we all admired how realistic she looked.

“Okay Gracie, we’re gonna play another game.” I took her hand and led her down to the wine cellar. “We’re gonna play tag but with a difference, when the bad guy catches you they must tie you up and you have to get free.”

“I’m the bad guy!” Angelo shouted, stomping towards her with a fun growl. She laughed and ran, her small feet pitter patting on the dusty floor. “Got you!” He said and tickled her. “I’m gonna tie you up now.”

We played a few rounds with easy ropes before we made them inescapable. I watched her though. The way she moved and struggled the hold was like she had been taught the best methods to escape them. So obviously Ace did teach her a few things.

“I can’t get out!” She complained, pouting her lips all moody. I laughed.

“That’s okay Grace, I’ll fight the bad guy and save you.” I put up my fists and Angelo put up his. We didn’t full-blown spar but he did play pretend fight and Gracie seemed to be having so much fun. It made everything feel so much better, my guilt a lot less.

Angelo took pictures of her before untying her, making them look realistic and once we had gotten everything that we needed we moved onto the next game. It was exhausting.

I was wiped.

Looking after a child was hard work! We played game after game. The boys they had enough energy to keep up with her but me, after sliding down the grand staircase on several mattresses and pulling pranks on all of the staff, then playing a very competitive of game of ‘the floor is lava’ I decided it was time to cuddle on the sofa and watch a movie just to unwind.

Gracie chose Frozen and sang her heart out until eventually, by some miracle, she fell asleep.

I lifted her into my arms and took her upstairs to my bedroom. I was just getting ready to jump into bed when one of the men knocked on my door.

“Ma’am, we have an intruder set off the ground alarms.” My stomach ran nauseous almost instantly.

“I want three armed security men based outside this door, never to leave Grace unattended at any time, for any reason. Make Angelo one. She likes him. If she wakes up, I want him to deal with her.”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Follow me to the camera room and silently alert everyone.”

“Yes ma’am.” He talked into his wrist watch and followed me down through the office corridors.

The camera room had hundreds of monitors and intercoms located throughout every area and angle of the house. It had ten men manning the screens at all times.

I stood, my arms crossed as I studied the interactive blueprint map of the entire house and grounds. Red lights illuminated certain areas, the areas where the alarm had been triggered.

“Talk to me Davis.” I asked our main security guy.

“Alarm nine was triggered out in the gardens.” He pointed to a screen. “Then ten, then eleven, then twelve, then thirteen, basically every alarm conservatively until you reach the front entrance door.”

“So the dumbass just strolled right on through the gardens?”

“Yes ma’am.”

I put my hands on my hips, staring at a vacant garden on camera monitor number three. “Then what?” I asked.

“He knocked on the front door ma’am.” I turned to face him slowly.

“He just knocked on the door?” Davis typed some things into a keyboard and the camera suddenly turned to a black and white, night vision version of Aces face. I swallowed down a huge gulp.

Ace knocked on the intercom door again.

“Talk to him, use protocol.” I ordered.

Davis glanced at me unsure but then picked up his head set and hit a button.

“Valentino residence, what is your business here?” Davis spoke professionally.

“I want to speak to your leader.” I rolled my fingers at Davis urging him to reply.

“Is she expecting you?” He asked.

“Cut the shit Red, I know you’re listening. Open the fucking door or I’ll blow it to fucking pieces.”

I nodded to Davis. “Put him in the hold, have men on standby.”

The door automatically opened, allowing ace to step inside. The walls around him however enclosed, leaving him trapped inside a 4meter, airtight, bulletproof room made entirely from steel.

“Give me the headset.” Davis handed it over and I slipped it on over my head. “I want to hear him in my ears only.” Davis hit more buttons and gave his chair up to me.

“Push this button to talk.” He instructed, standing back. I hit my index finger down on the button and smiled.

“Ace, to what do we owe this pleasure?”