Stella sighed and shook her head, kicking off her boots. 

"Not together. Sure, we spent a lot of time together, but I would say we were more like...friends with an occasional fling. Nothing serious."

In the dim light of the single lamp in the corner, Stella slipped off her shirt, then leaned down and pulled off her pants. Left only in a camisole and panties, she climbed onto the bed beside Gavin and pulled her hair out of its bun. Cross-legged, she sat beside him and looked at him for lingering moments; from his blue eyes and down, having already forgotten anyone but him. Finally, she shrugged and smiled sheepishly. 

"I was afraid I would be gone too long. That you might...you know...lose interest."

​​​​​​

Gavin raised an eyebrow.

"I wonder if he knows you're not together. Still, I think he's gotten the message now."

He watched as Stella began to strip and sit on the bed, letting her hair down. Normally, he wouldn't discuss other women when a nearly naked woman was on the bed in front of him, but he felt compelled to- particularly at the comment of "friends with an occasional fling, nothing serious." Gavin was several years older than Stella. He'd never promised her anything, but he nevertheless felt like he needed to be clear.

"I care about you, Stella. I think you know that. You also know, I think, what kind of life I lead. The only woman I've ever made a commitment to is my sister."

He paused, and the spectres of three other women seem to be standing behind Stella for a moment. He blinked and they disappeared.

"I think you know that... there are others. I'd never lose interest in you. You're a beautiful woman- in more ways than one. And we're close. Even if you wound up running off and marrying Marco I like to think that we'd always be close friends. I could sing your praises for days... but you know I can't promise you anything. I have no idea what will happen with me. With anyone. Sorry if this is random. I just try to be honest with people I care about."

Gavin sighed. He'd probably talked more about feelings in the last year than the previous 29 combined. 

With a soft smile, Stella leaned over and kissed his lips.

"I know that, and I'm ok with that. The truth of it is that I like the way you make me feel. It's exciting and spontaneous."

Stella stretched out beside him and yawned. 

"If I've learned anything living here, it's that every moment we get is a gift, and you have to savor every one because tomorrow isn't a promise. I'm not expecting anything of you, Gavin. I just want to enjoy what we've got while we've got it."

Gavin grinned as he rolled on top of her. 

"Well... let's see how exciting and spontaneous we can be..."

***

The next morning Gavin was up early and patrolling the estate. He instructed the bodyguards to block off any other entrances, leaving only the one main road. There, he had cars and trucks forming a "V" with the wide end at the entrance gate and the narrow end on the front of the building. As the time approached, Gavin wanted to have a couple shooters hidden behind the cars on either side- both right near the gates to ensure they wouldn't hit each other in the crossfire; he also wanted someone to be ready to pull a truck into place at the gate to block any escape.

At the front of the building, he had the windows and doors barred up. However, two of the "barred up" windows on the second floor were largely fake, and could be easily removed by a couple shooters up there. 

He'd also placed metal equipment and two more vehicles near the front door to provide cover there as well. 

Looking around, Gavin crossed his arms. It wasn't perfect... but it should be enough- especially if Carlito just came charging in.

Stella hadn't woken up when Gavin did, and he didn't wake her. She woke up a little after nine a.m. It would be after lunch that Puddu would be put down. That meant there was a little more time to just exist in the safety of the estate. 

After getting dressed, she walked to the stables. The last of the morning dew clung to a few blades of grass, but the fresh smell still hung in the air. Bruno had his head sticking out over the gate of his stall as if he had been waiting for her to arrive. Stella rubbed his nose and scratched the top of his head. She opened the gate and led him out, then grabbed his bit and put it on. A few minutes later, she was cantering bare back through the vineyards. The breeze felt invigorating; liberating. She rode to the edge of the vineyards and trotted along the fence line until the main house was in view. There were many cars parked strategically in the front, and a few men milling around. Craving a strong cup of coffee, Stella encouraged the horse forward, galloping up the hill. 

Gavin was looking over all the preparations as Stella rode up to the driveway and stopped beside him.

"Everything good to go? I feel useless. I have no idea what to do."

Rosaleen received a call from her father.   He told her that @GavinAndTaraByrne and Lia must be in a remote area because he couldn’t reach them by telephone.  His calls just would not go through.  He told me his concerns for them. 

Padre this is what you need to do and immediately.   Send Rolo to give the heads up to Gavin and Lia,  he knows exactly where the Viacelli estate is.  Let Gavin and Lia know I sent him to let him know they need to make sure there’s no one in his operation that might be a mole.  That Vincent is hiring manpower.  That I said it might be a coincidence but I don’t feel good about it. Stress to jim that I have an awful feeling about Vincent hiring guns at this time.   We have been so careful.  My gut is that information is going out from inside his organization. .  

Several hours later Rosaleen received a call from Rolo.  He said after some very challenging moments he was able to deliver the message to Gavin and Lia.  They completely understood your concerns and was grateful I took the chance to come and tell them what we had learned.  They apologized for all the hassle I had to go through but I let them know it was understandable under the circumstance.  They know that there’s the trouble with the phones but they will get word to me how things go once they interrogate a few people. They look prepared for the worse so don't think you have to worry Rosaleen. 

I thanked Rolo and told him to get back with me if he heard anything. I just sat back hoping everything was going to go as they had planned.

It was Paul who read the message first. The look in his eyes was like lighting across a dark sky. Stella was still on horseback when the messenger appeared, but the look on Paul's face as he read it made her get down quickly. She spoke to him in Italian. 

"What is it, Paul?" 

Silently, he handed her the note. As she read it, her blood ran cold. 

"Jesus Christ. How can that be?" 

She handed the note to Gavin. After giving him a moment to read it, Stella ran her fingers through her hair and sighed. 

"How do we handle this? I mean  at this point we have to assume Tony Puddu is dead and Vincent is on his way. If someone is leaking information, are they going to try to sabatoge us from inside? Attack early?" 

Her mind was flooding with questions. She thought she had been handling things fairly well up to this point, but the waters were rising quickly around her. 

Gavin glanced at the note for a few seconds before handing it back.

"Okay. Let me here your thoughts on this."

"We need to get everyone together inside. We can't let on that we know there's a mole. But we've got to figure out who it is."

She thought that there must be some clever way to figure out who it was, but she had no idea what that would be. She sighed and looked out across the arrangement of cars and beyond to the dusty road.

"I just want this over. I want to go home. I love it here, but I miss my life."

Stella walked over to Bruno and mounted. 

"I'm going to put him up, I'll meet you in the house."

-----

Inside, Paul had gathered his men with Papa Marco's hired men, Marco, Donny, and Gavin. Paul and Gavin stood in the center, chatting as Stella came in through the back door from the kitchen. Papa Marco looked both ways around the foyer full of armed men. He furrowed his brow and called to one of the men.

"Hey, where is Giorgio?" 

Before anyone could answer, the air was split with the sound gunfire and shattering glass from all sides but the front. Stella hit the floor and crawled under the stairs, yelling to Gavin. 

"They're already on the property!" 

The hired men were already firing in different directions, taking cover behind the marble pillars and wooden furniture. Stella scrambled to the stairs and grabbed her pistols.

Gavin reached for his gun and closed his eyes. For once, he actually had a plan... and it all went to shit. Well, he was always better at improvising. Glancing out the window, he saw three carloads of men outside. Seeing that Stella was safe under the stairs, Gavin dashed up them to the second floor. Crawling to one of the windows, he waited until an opportune moment and pushed the fake "barred up" window out. He shot two of them before he had to leap backwards and take cover. Hopefully the distraction would lead to another couple going down. Well, he'd wait for the men downstairs to draw more attention. Then he'd use the other fake window.

With pistols in hand, Stella ran along the back wall, flattened as much as she could to avoid the hail of bullets. This wasn't at all like she'd imagined it would be. This was chaos. 

She kicked over a coffee table and knelt behind it, concentrating her fire out the widow in the drawing room that had been shattered. Three men were heading for it. With a deep breath, Stella fired several shots consecutively. One fell, a second stumbled back, but managed to move forward again, limping. Stella squeezed the trigger again, two final bullets lodged into the third attackers chest. That left one. Stella dropped the empty weapon and started firing the second. Two bullets missed, another hit him just below the hip. Immediately, she turned to check on everyone else. Gavin was upstairs, Paul and Donny were heading outside to take them head on. Marco and Papa Marco were reloading weapons as fast as the men could throw them at them.

Just outside, Stella thought she saw a shadow move across the front steps. She crawled on her belly to the window beside the door, then carefully peeked up. The figure heading for the door was familiar. It was Gio. Stella cursed and aimed her weapon for the window. 

"Ughh!" 

The sound came from Donny. Stella drew back her gun and whirled around to see him go down. 

"No!" 

She yelled and flew to her feet to run to him. She didn't even see the bullet that came from Gio's gun behind her. Hot lead pierced through her, right at the waist line and just right of her spine. 

It wasn't the pain of the bullet that hit her first. It was the sudden inability to move or feel her body below her waist. She just saw the floor rapidly approaching. Had she tripped? She felt the cool marble under her, and tried to use her arms to push up, but nothing happened. She looked behind her as she tried to kick her legs up, but they didn't listen. That's when the searing pain from the bullet finally hit her. Realizing what had happened, Stella went pale. 

Gavin was running down the stairs when he saw the ground floor's defenses collapse. Donny and one of the hired guards both dropped- but they were covered, how could they?

Gavin was already turning when he saw Gio shoot down Stella.

His eyes widened for a moment- he was stunned into inaction, but only for a single heartbeat. In the next 5 seconds, he sent three bullets ripping through the traitor.

Gavin reloaded as he ran to Stella, but he was cut off by the front door being smashed down. He threw himself to the side, firing wildly as he retreated back up the stairs.

Two more thugs went down, but so did two more of their hired guards- and the younger Marco, as he threw himself in front of the older one, who was away from the fight. Gavin moved quickly, lifting the window and dropping onto the roof like a cat. He knew he'd only have one shot at this... there couldn't be many of them left... bodies littered the ground in front of the house...

He dangled from the roof, before dropping down to the ground in a crouch, silently entering the front door that Costello and his two remaining men had just entered. When he walked in, Costello had just finished off Donny with a shot to the head. Now he walked over to Stella.

"Do you see what happens when you fuck with my family, you-"

Gavin never let him finish- or even get a step closer to Stella. He aimed and emptied his clip into the three remaining adversaries, saving the last one to ensure that Costello was dead. Without saying a word, he reloaded and slid next to Stella, resting his hand on her cheek.

"Stella. Say something."

Through the thick haze that clouded her mind, Stella thought she heard a strange quietness. There was no more gunfire or screaming. Her brain seemed to be on the fritz, like a radio that kept losing signal for a few moments then getting it back again. 

Gavin's voice brought the signal back, along with the warmth on her cheek. She forced her eyes open, having not even realized they had been closed. In her mind, she formed a complete question, but her tongue felt twisted.

"Vincent...?"

That was all she managed to get out. A pool of blood was staining the floor from the wound in her back. 

Paul and Papa Marco appeared beside Gavin. The elder Marco started calling out orders in Italian to what was left of the hired men. He then put a hand on Gavin's shoulder. 

"Help will come here. There is a doctor from Roma who vacations in Catania. He will come."

Stella, laying on her stomach with her head to one side facing Gavin, shivered. All she could feel was cold - a chill running through her entire body over and over. She kept trying to speak, to ask questions, but the rhythmic pounding of her heart beat loudly in her ears and made it hard to concentrate. 

Gavin had paced around Stella's bedside for the rest of the day and most of the evening. He was like a caged wolf, with nowhere to go and no outlet for his wrath.

The damage had been cleaned up, the bodies had been buried, and the process of discreetly sweeping this under the rug was nearly complete- except for the three people lying in sick beds: Stella, Marco, and one of the hired men. Paul came by to check on them. The family returned and, with the exception of Sienna, visited Stella the next day. Gavin did not leave her side, although he barely noticed the doctors as the talked to the elder Marco.

Gavin supposed he could make conversation with the younger Marco, but neither felt like talking. Not when a doctor was talking about spinal damage. 

Doctor Cortaggio was an older man, with many years of experience in trauma. He also spoke nearly perfect English, and was courteous enough to speak in English so Gavin could understand.

"I was able to remove the bullet, and from what I could see, the spinal cord was only nicked, but several nerve clusters were completely severed. She had no muscle reaction in the lower extremities, no response to physical stimulation, which indicates paralysis."

Nona Carlotta, usually rather stoic, reached out and took her brother's hand, blinking back tears. Dr. Cortaggio quickly added more.

"Though sedated, she responded well when we tested from the waist up. Her eyes dilate appropriately, which tells me there is little damage otherwise. We won't know much more till she wakes. That being said, I will keep her on morphine, but take her off the sedation drugs. She will probably wake up in a few hours. I'll return in the morning to check on her, but please call if anything comes up."

Papa Marco, Carlotta, and Paul walked the doctor out. The younger Marco remained in the room with Gavin, both men staring silently. Eventually, Marco broke the awkward silence. 

​​​​​​​​​​​​"She spoke of you very highly. I see why. You are a skilled fighter. You are a very important man to your famiglia, no?" 

Gavin crossed his arms as he heard the diagnosis. He ignored Marco's question for a long time before looking and Stella as he answered.

"Yes. I am. Though not too much."

"To her, you are very important."

Marco gave Gavin a half-hearted smile, despite a rash of cuts on his face and neck, along with a treated bullet wound in his shoulder. Without another word, he left the room and started downstairs to help with clean-up. 

-----

Evening darkened the sky over the vineyards. In the room where Stella lay, there was a plate of untouched food, and a carafe of coffee. Gavin still remained, having only ever left the room to relieve himself and call Tara. 

Stella awoke slowly, becoming aware of herself before she opened her eyes. It was quiet, and she could feel warm blankets beneath her. Her head felt like she'd spent the entire night drinking. In the air, she smelled coffee. When she managed to open her eyes, she recognized the large guest bedroom in the main house. Slowly, she turned her head to one side where she found Gavin standing in front of a window, looking into the distance. 

"Nice ass." 

Her voice was quiet and slow, but she managed a smile he turned around. 

​​​​​​"What happened? Did we get Vincent? Is everyone OK?" 

Gavin turned to match her smile, but his eyes were still troubled.

"We won. We got Vincent... although there were casualties. Most of the hired men. Donny. Almost you."

He paused, eyes narrowing. Better to be up front.

"A bullet hit your spine. The doctor said you might be paralyzed. He didn't sound too sure, though."

He came and sat on Stella's bed, taking her hand.

"A long road ahead. But the journey isn't over yet."

As he took her hand, her eyes saddened. She had so hoped that it wouldn't be a blood bath. And to lose Donny like that. He was young and smart, had a lot of life ahead of him. On the other hand, there was a sense of relief that his list hadn't included anyone else. She squeezed Gavin's hand softly, looking at those eyes that seemed exhausted. 

"I'm just glad you're ok. You've done...too much of having to save me. I don't know if I could have even gotten this far without you."

She took a slow, deep breath. Nothing seemed to hurt; but everything felt funny, kind of loopy. It was a feeling like that one time Nicky had gotten her to try a hit from a joint. She saw a needle taped to her hand, with a tube that led to a glass bottle hanging above. Stella closed her eyes for a few moments. Her mind was already trying to process so much information, but she was too tired to keep up. 

"You're...going to have to go home soon, aren't you?" 

​​​​​​

Gavin shook his head. Then he realized her eyes were closed.

"No. Not soon. Eventually, yes. But I'll stay until you're set up here. More comfortable."

He paused.

"It's up to you- what you want to do. But it might be worth it for you to stay here, rather than come back to the states. It's less dangerous here, now that Carlito is dead. You'll have family. And business to keep you occupied without the risk of people pulling guns on you. You could stay here, focus on your wine, your family, and walking again. I'd miss you. But it's something to think about. I'm sure Uncle Joe and Rosaleen would understand."