Coming Home For Christmas

"Did you just say I've got more than one traitor?" "It seems so, Klay" I'stand up along with Logan as Klayton runs a hand roughly through his hair ngee gaye Klayton growled as he left the room I don't know what I expected Klayton's reaction to be but it certainly wasn't for him to storm out of here like a bat out of hell mumbling something about killing Eddie Oh no

"KLAYTON!!" I'shouted as I ran after my cousin I chased him downstairs and reached him in time to grab his bicep just as he was about to open my front door “Wait, Klayton, where are you going?” “I'm going to kill Eddie and Vanessa, that's where I'm going, Lace" Oh sweet child of mine

God, couldn't you have rained some brains down on my cousin as well as beauty? Klayton pulled his arm out of my grip and went to open the front door but I stopped him by standing in front of it and placing my hand on his chest “Klayton, you can't kill them" Chapter 48 - Help From The De. —J “Oh really? and why not?" Klayton asked while looking and sounding annoyed

“Because killing Eddie and Vanessa would be like the Lakers not playing LeBron James during a championship game" I'say and Klayton narrows his eyes at me in confusion “Was that a basketball reference?” “Yeah, a bad one but do you understand what I mean, Klay?...i you kill Eddie and Vanessa now then you'd be an i***t because you'd be giving up a golden opportunity to use Trevor's own moles against him" “Tknow"

Klayton sighs as he rubs his forehead in frustration I'step closer to him and rest my hands on his arms as I gently caress his biceps with my thumbs

“Look, I understand how frustrating this is and right now, all you wanna do is go into beast mode and create a bloodbath but you can't, you can't kill them, at least not yet anyway, not until we can find a way to end Trevor and all of this madness for good” “You're right, it's just..how did this happen? how did not one but two traitors get into my mafia without me knowing?..I must be slipping in my old age” “Thirty-three isn't old" I'say and he scoffs "Says the twenty-nine-year-old, I swear, as soon as you hit

thirty you'll think you're old too" He says and I chuckle “Anyway, to answer your question, I don't know why they're doing this but what I do know is that money, power, status, popularity and even fame Chapter 48 - Help From The De. _ and notoriety are great motivators to turn someone to the dark side, not to mention Trevor could easily be threatening or blackmailing them with something, he seems like that kind of cat after all” Isay as I let out an annoyed huff

Ithen looked up at my cousin who looked like he was lost in thought "Are you ok, Klayton?" “Yeah, I was just thinking about something Vanessa told me" “What did she tell you?" Task him and he lets out a breath as he runs a hand through his hair “She told me that Trevor was threatening and blackmailing her but I don't believe her" "Why not?”

"Because she said that Trevor had kidnapped her family and he'd threatened to hurt and kill them if she didn't do as he requested of her" “And you think she’s lying?" Task him and he nods his head "Yeah, I do" "Why? it's her family, Klay..! mean don't get me wrong, I'm not agreeing with what she's done but if Trevor's really got her family and that's why she's doing this so that she could save them then what's so wrong with that?..we'd do the same for our own family" "What's wrong with it, Lace, is that instead of coming to me and telling me about Trevor's threats, Vanessa decided to

betray me, she decided to destroy our friendship and she put you and the rest of our

Chapter 48 - Help From The De. ~s family in danger, not to mention she framed her own damn wife as well..no matter what, Lacey, there's no excuse in the world that's good enough to excuse what she's done to us" He's right It doesn't excuse her actions and the choices she made but at the same time, I can't help but feel bad that maybe she got flustered and made a wrong choice “Besides, her family are homophobic assholes, not exactly people worth saving, the only one I feel sorry for really is her brother” Klayton says and I narrow my eyes at him

"Yeah, Vinny, he's fifteen years old and according to Vanessa, Trevor is grooming him to be his heir if he doesn't succeed with you" Oh my god A young teenager called Vinny “Just out of curiosity, Klay, what's Vinny’s full name?" lask nervously "Vincenzo, why?" Oh no I narrowed my eyes to the flowers on the side table near the door and I started to think about the interaction I had

"What's wrong, principessa?” Klayton asks me as he rests his hand on my shoulder “Did you send me those flowers today?" Klayton looks at the flowers and scoffs before shaking his head “No but if I did then I wouldn't send you carnations, Lace...if anything I would've sent you roses because they're your favourite flower and have

been ever since you fell in love with our nonna's rose bushes back in Italy when you were a little girl" “Are you sure you didn't send them as a peace offering?” lask him and he looks at me confused “I'm positive, Lacey, why? where did they come from?" “Eddie came here with them, he told me you'd sent him here to give them to me as a peace offering” I'say and his eyes widen “And you didn't question it?" He asks sounding angry and annoyed and I glared at him

"Jesus Lacey, he's on Trevor's side and you didn't think it was a little suspicious he'd show up out of nowhere with a bunch of flowers" Klayton growled as he pointed to the flowers pissing me off even further “Are you done?” Task annoyed as he continues to glare at me "First of all Klayton, I didn’t know for sure that he was betraying you because a bouquet of carnations doesn't exactly say that and even though it confused me that you allegedly sent me flowers I don't like, I wasn't about to look too deep into it, secondly, I was exhausted after I'd spent days at Carmella’s hospital bedside, so I wasn't exactly hawk-eyed or eared when I was talking to them and thirdly, Tonly found out he was the traitor after I talked with my

kids" “Them? who's them?" Klayton asks confused and that's when I remembered Vincenzo “The other guy he was with, he said he was a new recruit of yours and he was eighteen but he didn't look it" Chapter 48 - Help From The De. of “What was his name?" Klayton asks through gritted teeth “v.Vincenzo"

Klayton's eyes widened in either anger or horror and for a few seconds, he just stood there breathing heavily before he pulled his phone out of his pocket and called Benjamin “Benjamin, I need you to look into Eddie, find out everything you can on him and get it to me ASAP, do you understand me?" Klayton said on the phone as he roughly ran a hand through his hair He was already angry but whatever Benjamin said on the phone took him from angry to irate "WHEN I SAY EVERYTHING, BENJAMIN, I MEAN f*****g EVERYTHING!" Klayton shouted startling me as Cassie and Logan rushed

downstairs

"What's going on? and why are you shouting at my brother?" Cassie asks annoyed “Because he's an i***t, I mean, what's so hard to understand about the word everything, Cass?" He says and she rolls her eyes “Well, what's made you this angry?" “This, this bullshit over here is what's made me angry” “Flowers made you angry? don't worry baby, I'l buy you some tomorrow"

Cassie says amused pissing Klayton off even further which I didn't think was possible considering he's already pretty angry Chapter 48 - Help From The De. w, Klayton explained everything to Cassie while I looked at the flowers which are really beautiful, they're just not my cup of tea My eyes narrowed in confusion however when I saw a gold envelope tucked away in them which I didn't notice before How could I have missed this? Ithought to myself as I pulled the envelope out of the

bouquet T opened the letter and I was confused when I saw it was an invitation to a club opening What the hell? “But why would he send her flowers? and why carnations?" "Well, they are the flower of Spain, isn't that where Trevor's from?” “Yeah...they also symbolise love, so maybe this is his way of showing his alleged love for Lacey" Klayton says causing Logan to groan

"Or maybe they were just extra insurance to make sure his little love not got here in time" I say confusing everyone except Logan whose eyes had narrowed on the gold envelope in my hand “Is that...” “A golden envelope from Trevor? yeah" "What is it?" Cassie asks me and I let out a sigh "It's an invitation to a club opening..Mrs Lacey Black, you are cordially invited to the opening of El club s***1 de sumision dominante whatever the hell that means"

“It means The Dominant Submission s*x Club in Spanish" Chapter 48 - Help From The De. e/ Klayton says angrily and I narrow my eyes at him in shock “Trevor's invited me to a s* club? why?" “I don't know but you're not going anyway, so why do you care?" "Oh, aren't I?" I ask shocking Klayton, Logan and Cassidy Klayton was so angry with my little question that he even

assumed his usual angry Don pose with his hands on his hips and a scowl that could make anyone who wasn't used to it piss in their pants “What did you just say, Lacey?" He asks me and I let out a breath “Just listen to me, ok, I know this is gonna sound insane but." "You're not going, Lacey” “Klayton..."

"No, youre not going and that's final” Urghl! “And why not, Klay? this is a golden opportunity for us to trap Trevor like a rat and end him" “By sending you in as bait to a s* club with that psycho inside, no way" “Klayton, it's the perfect opportunity just please listen..." Itry to explain my idea to him but he once again cuts me off “No, Lacey, it's not happening and that's that, I don't care how perfect you think your idea is”Còntens bel0ngs to Nô(v)elDr/a/ma.Org

“Just hear her out, babe" Cassie says as she rubs my cousin's arm Klayton huffed like an angry dragon as he clenched and forced out the

Chapter 48 - Help From The De. =) word fine between his gritted teeth “It's simple, Klay, men only think with one brain when they're horny and it isn't the one in their heads, so all I have to do is find Trevor and make him think that I'm into him or I've given myself up to protect my family, flirt with him a little bit and make him think I wanna be alone with him and when we're alone, you guys can ambush him” “No, no f****g way, Lacey, you're not flirting with any man other than me" Logan growled and I groaned as I rolled my eyes

"It wouldn't be real flirting, Logan, just enough flirting to convince his dumbass so that we can trap him" And how do you suggest we get in there, Lace? this man isn't your everyday average Joe, he's a mafia Don and a very sneaky one at that" “Klayton's right, Lace, Trevor will be expecting an attack which is most likely why he sent you that invitation in the first place” Cassie said and I nodded my head "Well, then we have to be smarter than him, we should get Marcus to hack into the security cameras as well as his computer systems and get him to install something on them so that we've got complete control of them, not Trevor, we could also get invitations sent out to you guys as well so that you can get into the club as well and mingle

with guests so that you can keep an eye out for me" “Yeah and we can send some of our men in to act like they're looking for employment as bar staff or security” Cassidy chimes in and I smile at her “I could also use what happened with Carmella the other day to act like I hate you and I blame you for what happened to her and make Trevor Chapter 48 - Help From The De think that I don't want anything to do with you anymore and that's why I'm ‘rebelling’ against you by going to this opening”

"It's not a bad idea, Klay" Logan says hesitantly “Besides, this may be our only shot to get this asshole for good" Logan says and Klayton groans as he rubs his hand over his face “Why do you have to be so f***g smart, Lace?" "It's a curse”

Tsay with a chuckle and he glares at me which doesn't last long before he's smiling and shaking his head “Look...even if I do agree to this insanity, Lace, where are we gonna find the equipment or app or whatever software we may need to take control of Trevor's entire system?..I highly doubt something like that exists even with today’s modern technology” “Don't be so sure of yourself, Klayton” Cassie says with a smirk confusing all of us “What are you saying, babe?"

Klayton asks his wife who stood there like a proud peacock with her arms crossed over her chest and a smirk plastered on her beautiful face “What I'm saying is that I know someone who has got the exact software we need and Trevor won't see it coming since nobody knows about it" Cassie says confusing Klayton until the lightbulb goes off in his head “Wait, you don't mean..." “Yes, Klayton...somewhere in the Logan residence back in North Chapter 48 - Help From The De. —7 Carolina is the exact software we need to do this, it was Tommy's last project

before...you know..." Cassie says drifting off sadly at the end as Klayton wrapped his arm around her shoulders and kissed her temple “Anyway, we just need to call Layla and convince her to give us it which won't take much considering she wants this asshole dead just as much as we do” “Yeah, she does" Klayton says and I smile sadly at them “It seems even in death nothing can stop dear old Tommy from helping you guys”

"You've no idea how true that statement is, principessa"