Coming Home For Christmas

A Few Days Later...

Lacey's P.O.V.

"Mommy, I'm fine"

"I know you are, honey"

"Then why do you keep coming into my room and disturbing me?"

Logan Junior asks me sounding annoyed.

"Because I'm your mother Logan David Black Junior and I have every right to come and see you if I want to"

"But mom you've come into my room fifteen times in the past hour and I know it's because you're worried about me and you want to make sure I'm still here with you and nothing has happened to me"

Logan Junior says and I close my eyes while sighing in defeat.

"Ok fine, you got me, I just wanna make sure you're ok, baby, you don't understand the fright your daddy and I had when thought you were taken away from us"

"I know, mom but you really shouldn't worry because like auntie Rachel said if anyone ever successfully kidnapped Dayto Teddy and me then they'd bring us back within half an hour because we'd talk their backsides off with information their brains aren't capable of registering"

He says and I burst out laughing.

That sounds like Rachel.

"I'll leave you alone now, baby and I'm sorry for disturbing you so much"

"It's ok, mommy, it's natural for a parent to be protective of their child, especially after a traumatic event such as kidnapping"

Logan Junior says and I smile at him sadly.

I wish my kids were normal kids who would be like mommy, what's a kidnapping? and then come up with something stupid like is that when kids take a nap but no, I've got insanely smart and autistic children who are very well aware of what happened in Italy and know how bad it is or could've been if that bastard was successful in taking Lo from us.

I give Logan Junior a quick hug and a kiss on his forehead before leaving his room and heading towards my office.

I'm all on my own with my kids today, well, except for our staff and the dozens and dozens of guards who are surrounding our house and property at the behest of my husband and cousin.

I knew they wanted extra security around us to keep us safe and protected, as well as to put their minds at ease when they're not with us but I wasn't expecting Beyonce levels of guards here to protect us.

I swear there are close to one hundred guards on my property right now and I think that's a bit excessive but according to Klayton, that's just a drop in the pan compared to how many guards he wants around us.To access the complete chapters for free, visit Job n l b.com.

I understand why he's acting this way but I still think he's being way too excessive and crazy.

Anyway, I arrived at my office just as my phone started ringing.

I walked over to my desk and looked at the caller I.D. with a smile when I saw my mom's name popping up on it.

"Hi, mom"

"Hey baby, how's everything over at Quantico? have you lost your mind yet?"

She asks me and I chuckle.

"Weirdly, no but I think my son is losing his mind though"

"What makes you say that, honey?"

I sit down in my chair and sigh as I run a hand through my hair.

"I can't leave him alone for five minutes, mom before I go and check on him again and make sure he's ok and he's still wit me, I swear what happened in Italy has made me paranoid"

"Well, it's not surprising, Lacey baby, I mean you and Logan experienced every parent's worst nightmare on that island and even though you were lucky and you got L.J. back, it's still very traumatising for you all and it's enough to make any parent paranoid" "I guess"

I say as I look out of the window.

"I just don't want to be an overly clingy parent who smothers her child because of a traumatic event which is what I feel like I'm starting to become"

"If you want, we can swap places and I can look after your kids and you can look after your father for me"

My mom suggests and I laugh.

"Is he still winding you up?"

"Let's just say this Lacey honey, if he rings that damn bell one more time then I'm gonna shove it so far up his a*s it'll be ringing every time he breaks wind"

She says and I burst out laughing.

I warned my mom not to get that stupid bell for my dad because he'd be ringing it every five minutes with a new request or demand but she didn't listen to me and now she has to suffer the consequences.

I had to stifle a chuckle when I heard the bell ringing on the other end of the phone followed by a groan from my mom.

"Urgh!!, I've gotta go, I'm due for rectal surgery"

My mom says and I chuckle.

"Have some sympathy, mom, he was stabbed after all"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know"

She grumbled like a teenage girl.

"See you soon, mom"

"Bye, baby"

I hang up the call and chuckled as I shook my head.

My family are an insane group of motherfuckers.

Knock!!, knock!!, knock!!.

"Mrs Black"

"Poppy, how many times have I told you to call me Lacey?"

I ask my nanny and she smiles.

"Sorry Mrs...I mean Lacey, this has just arrived for you"

Poppy says as she places a bouquet of flowers on my desk.

I narrowed my eyes at the beautiful floral set but I was confused as to why whoever sent them, sent me this type of flower. "They're so beautiful"

"Yeah, they are"

"I wonder what kind they are?"

"They're Black Dahlias and as beautiful as they are, their meaning isn't so beautiful"

I tell Poppy as I grab hold of the card that came with the flowers and open it up.

'Be careful who you trust, Mrs Black even the devil was once an angel, love T.L.

Hmm, I guess that explains why this bastard chose Black Dahlias.

"What's the meaning behind these flowers, Lacey? I struggle to believe such a beautiful flower would have an ugly meaning"

"Why not? beautiful people are capable of having ugly hearts and souls, so why not flowers?"

I ask her and she looks at me with an adorable/naive thinking face.

"That's true, so what's the meaning behind these flowers?"

"Black Dahlias are a symbol of betrayal but folklore states that they can also be a symbol of loyalty as well, it just depend on how you look at them"

In my case, I'm gonna go with the first though considering the weird note it came with.

This note has got me thinking and wondering what Trevor's goal is here, is he trying to warn me about a traitor that we already know we've got? or is he trying to cause distrust in our family so that we'll start to fight and fall apart which will leave us weak for him to attack us.

Either way, I won't be taking this note lightly and I won't be jumping to conclusions either like I did last time. Klayton's P.O.V.

"For the last time Klayton, fix your face before I fix it for you"

"And why should I, Cass? you know I don't like that Lay has moved on so fast"

I grumbled in annoyance.

"It's been four years, Klay"

"Exactly gattino, Tommy's body is barely cold in his grave"

I said earning a scoff from my wife.

"Baby, I understand where you're coming from, trust me I do but we can't be negative and stop Layla from moving on and finding happiness again, especially since Tommy wanted her to find someone new and live a happy and fulfilling life without him" "But it doesn't feel right, babe"

I say whilst briefly looking at my wife before narrowing my eyes back at the road.

"I've only ever known Layla and Tommy, not Layla and...what's the fuckers name again?"

I ask Cassidy who glares at me.

"His name is Karl and he's a really sweet guy, he's got four sisters and they were all raised by his mom and step-father, hi: biological dad died when he was just a kid like T.J. and Ana, he graduated from university twice with a degree in busines: and accounting and he owns his own construction company in which he's heavily involved in from both the business and the building side but he prefers the latter because he loves to get his hands dirty" "How do you know all of that?"

I ask with confusion and anger deep in my tone as Cassidy looks at me with an are you being for real right now, babe? expression.

"You're a mafia Don who did a deep dive into his best friend's new boyfriend and found out everything about him includin what his childhood invisible best friend was called and also what his occupation was...like, how the f**k do you even finc this kind of information, babe?"

Cassidy asks sounding shocked and I laugh.

"Anyway, you weren't smart enough to hide it from me, so I looked through it and found out everything I needed to know about him"

Of course, she did.

I thought to myself whilst shaking my head.

Cassidy's a bigger snoop than an overbearing mother-in-law, so it's not surprising or shocking that she'd go snooping around an important file.

"Besides, honey, from what I've seen and heard, Karl idolises Layla and the kids and he's also incredibly sensitive to the fact that she's a widow and that they're all still mourning an important man in their lives which is the most important thin! right? don't you think Karl having compassion for your best friend, niece and nephew is a good thing?"

"Hmm, I guess"

I groaned under my breath as Lacey chuckled.

She leaned over and cupped my face before kissing my cheek repeatedly.

"I love how protective you are of our friends, baby and I also love how much you care for our loved ones and are willing t do anything and everything for us"

Cassidy says as she cups my face and gently caresses my cheek as I smile brightly.

"That's my job, right? not just as the Don but also as a man, it's my job to protect the ones I love and make sure you're all happy"

"Yes it is, my love"

Cassie kisses my lips before sitting back in her chair.

Our car ride was silent after our little conversation, well, except for some groaning noises coming from Cassius who was either getting annoyed with the game he's playing on his phone, his baby sister and her random, cute, adorable chatter or both. We're currently on our way to pick up Layla so that we can go and see Tommy's new gravestone which I ordered to be replaced the day I heard it had been defaced.

When my dad told me about this, my heart broke and my blood boiled with anger.

I wanted nothing more than to hunt the little vandals down and kick their asses but then my dad told me he'd found a clue at Tommy's gravesite which proves Trevor was behind it.

I know I probably should've assumed it was my asshat cousin who had done this because it's very on brand with him, you know tacky and tasteless but I hoped he'd have enough decency and respect in him to leave the dead alone and leave them out of our feud. "Hey, Layla just texted me, she said we should meet her at the cemetery"

"But I thought she needed a ride"

"She did but Karl's got the day off so he offered to give her a ride"

Cassie said and I groaned.

"Oh cheer up, lover"

An amused Cassie says as she pinches my cheek.

"Get off, woman"

"I will later"

She mutters under her breath in a seductive tone and I felt my c**k harden against my pants.

s**t.

This woman needs to learn the meaning of time and place.

We arrive at the cemetery not long later and I once again groaned when I saw Layla standing outside of her car hand in hand with her new boo.

"You need to let this go, babe, Tommy wanted her to be happy again and he wanted T.J. and Ana to have a father figure it their lives....we need to respect both of their decisions even if we don't like it"

"I thought Karl was a really sweet guy"

I said while mimicking my wife's voice.

"And he is...but he's no Tommy"

"No, he's not"

I say sadly as I kiss the back of my wife's hand.

"Come on, let's go"

We get out of our car and I helped Cassius out as my wife grabbed our beautiful angel who is every inch her mom except she's got my eyes and lips.

I walked around our car and grabbed hold of Cassidy's hand, we then walked over to Layla who happily introduced us to Karl.

I smiled and shook hands with the guy but there was something about it which felt wrong to me, am I being silly?.

I mean, my wife is right, this is what Tommy wanted and Layla does seem very happy with him.

I guess I'm just finding it hard to accept because not only is his murderer still running loose and causing havoc but also because this is just another nail in the coffin which means Tommy's gone forever.

I know I should've accepted my best friend's death a long time ago yet I can't and I'm struggling every single day to accept that he's no longer with us but I'm working on it and hopefully, one day soon I'll be able to accept it as well as all of the new changes his death has brought us and move on.

After greeting each other, we headed over to Tommy's gravesite where his brand new black marble tombstone with white engraving on it.

Tommy only wanted a simplistic gravestone and nothing fancy which I've kind of gone against with the marble but I kept the engraving simplistic with just his full name, birth and death date on it along with loving husband, father, son, brother, best friend and troublemaker, the latter was requested by my wife and Tommy's parents.

"It's beautiful, Klay, thank you so much for doing this"

Layla said whilst hugging me.

"There's no need to thank me, Lay, he was my brother after all"

I said as I kissed the top of her head.

"Those flowers are an...odd choice, I wonder who sent them"

Karl says and I narrowed my eyes to the grave where a bouquet of Black Dahlias are sitting perfectly in front of the new tombstone.

"Maybe they sent a note with them"

Layla broke away from me and walked over to the flowers to look for a note which was sitting in the back of the bouquet.

"What does it say, Lay?"

"It says"

Layla dragged out as she opened up the envelope but her eyes narrowed in confusion when she read it. "Layla"

"It says betrayal starts with trust, so be careful who you hand your trust out to cousin because even family can't be truste these days, Trevor"

What the f**k?.

Is this a f*****g joke?.