Salvador

He was my entire world. My soul-mate. My reason for breathing. He was the moon and the stars and everything in-between. He was the man I planned to spend all of eternity with.

And I wanted to strangle him.

I rubbed the bridge of my nose and swallowed the groan trying to break free. "Explain it to me again."

Because I was sure I hadn't heard correctly.

Lancaster Delvecchio, or Lany as most people called him, sighed heavily. "I was talking to my Mom and she was telling me about how the vender where they usually hold their annual Children's Fall Festival for a bunch of kids in foster care canceled on them at the last minute so I offered to let her host it here on the estate."

It wasn't so much that the estate couldn't hold a children's festival, because it could. The place was a fortress set on the outskirts of the city. Ten-feet-high stone walls encircled the entire fifteen-acre estate, right to the edge of the river inlet. It would be a great place for a kid's festival.

My headache came from the security nightmare it would entail.

At least it wasn't our anniversary. That was a good three months away. I held out hope that that meant Lany wouldn't be attacked, kidnapped, threatened, shot at, or drive a car.

I'd have to check if elephants were involved.

"What exactly are we talking here?" I asked. "What does a children's festival entail?"

No need to panic until I knew what the plan was.

Then I could panic.

"They have a bunch of activities for kids like sack races, and face painting, and one of those blow up castle things, and they feed the kids hot dogs or something." Lany shrugged. "I'm not sure what kids eat at those things."

"Have you talked this over with Brant?"

Lany's light brown hair flopped over his forehead as he nodded. "He said he'd have to bring in extra security, but Mom's foundation will pay for it."

Uh huh.

We already lived in a place with more security than Fort Knox so I had no idea what Brant meant when he said he had to bring in more security.

I envisioned tanks.

"Mom's foundation will take care of everything. Carmine will do the catering and they will set up a pavilion down by the water for everyone with a bunch of picnic tables. The activates will be set up on the lawn on the east side of the house. And there will be someone to help park the cars and stuff."

"What about bathrooms and things like that?"

"I thought we could designate the guest bathroom off the pool house for that." Lany winced. "I love the idea of helping Mother host this thing, but I really don't want a bunch of strangers in the house."

Neither did I.

"Does that make me a bad person?" Lany asked.

I smiled as I drew Lany into my arms. His heart was in the right place. "No, caro, it makes you human."

We had been through a lot over the years. Kidnappings, attempted assassinations, bomb threats, hostage situations, gangsters, thugs, retrograde amnesia, insane FBI agents, crooked cops, sex traffickers. You name it, and we'd probably dealt with it.

It was a wonder we weren't both in hug-me jackets.

Not wanting strangers in our safe place made Lany more than human in my eyes. It made him smart. We were still getting used to living in a large mansion instead of the two bedroom penthouse apartment Lany's grandparents had given him when he graduated from college, but it was our home now. We lived here with our twin girls. It was important that we all had a safe place to just be us.

Speaking of which... "Where are the girls?" I asked as I lifted my head and glanced around. It was a little too quiet for a house with twenty-two month old twins.

"Napping." Lany chuckled. "They were both acting a little frazzled after lunch so Jenna put them down a little early.

Bless Jenna.

She had proved her worth more than once in the nearly two years she had been watching over our girls. A former Mossad officer, Jenna was both nanny and bodyguard for the twins. I was just lucky her salary was paid for by Vinnie. Neither Lany nor I could afford to pay the woman, even if we combined our salaries.

Most people thought we were rich because we lived on a lavish estate, but we weren't. We lived on what I made as a SWAT commander and Lany made as assistant to the police chief. Our estate had been an even swap with Vinnie, who had originally owned the place, for our penthouse apartment.

Vincenzo Castellano or Vinnie as we called him. Uncle Vinnie to the twins. Technically, he was the biological father of the twins, but only Lany and I knew that. Everyone else assumed we had adopted the girls through an agency and that Vinnie was just a close family friend.

And he was a close friend, even if he used to be an alleged mobster. He had pretty much gotten out of the business over the last couple of years. I knew he still had his fingers in a few pies, because he told me about them, but they seemed somewhat legitimate so I tried not to look too deeply into his business.

Ignorance was bliss in this instance.

"So, can we?"

I was very proud of myself. I did not groan.