The Twelve Zenati Pt. 26

"Oh, I'm just dandy, or I will be by this time tomorrow. Is Gideon with you?" Marcella asked.

"Yes, we are at the hospital I had some tests done," Vivienne explained.

"What? Tests for what?" Marcella gasped, her heart jumping in her chest.

"I wasn't feeling great, but it's all good. It is totally normal, apparently. You're going to be an aunty next year," Vivienne couldn't help the smile that covered her face.

"Oh Viv, I'm happy for you, honestly. I know I haven't always been the best friend, but I know that is what you wanted more than anything. I have a lot on, but you can fill me in on all the details in a couple of days, okay? I will call, and we can spend hours talking," Marcella promised knowing she was on the clock, so to speak. "But for right now can I talk to Gideon please?"

"You can't get mad at him for knocking me up," Vivienne warned with a laugh.

"Don't be silly. You two are going to make great parents just don't forget who you are in the process. Make time for what you want as well as the men in your life because I imagine your son will be as big and loud as his Papa," Marcella cajoled. "Now can I talk to Giddeon please, it's important."

"Are you okay?" Vivienne asked guardedly.

"No, I'm in a little bit of a jam, and I really need to talk to Gideon. Please Viv, just put him on," Marcella practically pleaded at this point.

"Gideon, somethings wrong with Marcie, she says she needs to speak to you," Vivienne said making everyone in the room go quiet as Gideon took Vivienne's phone her with a frown.

"Marcie?" Gideon asked.

"Yes, have you got a pen handy I need you to write some stuff down, it's urgent, Gideon, I only have a few minutes here," Marcella let that urgency colour her voice.

"Where's Noah?" Gideon asked with concern.

"He's fine he's probably on his way to you even as we speak," she said. "I don't have time for this twenty questions bullshit. Are you at the hospital with Dominic and Xavier?"

"Yes, and I have a pen," he snapped back at her.

"Put me on the speaker then, this concerns them too," she announced. She waited until she heard the hollow echo and began reading the details of the Suebi leading players who would be at the meeting tonight and the address of the place they had been looking for so long, the house of Olivia's nightmares, Hermione's. Bea listened to her carefully after giving her the notebook with the details written out explicitly for her and nodded in approval.

"I am the collateral they need. I will be free again tomorrow night. Get what we need for Olivia, please Gideon, I'm trusting you to do this for me, please don't let Olivia or me down," She pleaded. "This can't all be for nothing."

"Marcella, tell me where you are. We will come and get you," Gideon demanded.

"No, I need to do this. It was always my plan. They need to prove themselves to me as much as I do to them," she paused and swallowed hard. "Gideon. Tell Noah I am sorry, but he deserves better than a broken bitch like me." With that, she hung up, before he could argue with her and the silence of the hospital room broke with expletives and rapid movement as they called everyone together for a meeting of the tables. Gideon sent a message to Genesis and called Noah not knowing what he would find or even if his brother knew what she had done.

Gideon looked up at his wife and saw the tears in her eyes. Dragging her into his arms while still holding the phone to his ear, he rubbed her back and swore as Noah's phone went to message bank.

"Someone find Noah and bring him in," he shouted above the cacophony. Then he leaned down to Vivienne's ear and whispered. "We will get them back, both of them," he vowed. Then looked at his phone as it began to fill with pictures of the Suebi they would be looking for tonight courtesy of Marcella and whoever held her as collateral.

*****

"If you answer that we will be called in," Zanto warned when Noah's phone began to buzz and Gideon's picture flashed onto the screen.

"If I don't answer it, they will come looking for us," Noah said. "You don't think they are already concerned about where I am what I am doing?"

"Let's just check out this last place she went to then you can call Gideon back, and I will call X," he held up his phone to show missed calls and texts.

Noah grunted but followed Zanto's lead to a post office. Then he stood aside and waited as he asked the woman at the service point if she had seen Marcella showing a picture on his phone. It hadn't occurred to Noah until that moment to wonder why Zanto had a photo of her on his phone, and he frowned. Maybe from when they had been trying to find her when she left the hospital. The kid was a genius with tech, after all.

"She did some copying and got the copy notarised by a Justice of the Peace before leaving the original with them to be picked up in the morning," Zanto said. "So we know where she will be in the morning if we can't find her before then."

"Why are you so invested in this? Why do you have her picture of your phone? You've barely talked to her before today," Noah asked, pinning his cousin with a suspicious glare.

"It doesn't make any sense to me either but I need to know she's okay. I can't explain it," Zanto unconsciously rubbed at the centre of his chest again making Noah frown.

"Chest pain?" Noah asked, gritting his teeth. "Rock in your belly. Feel like you're going to pass out?" This wasn't fucking happening. Marcella was his. He loved her. He had been killing himself to get her to trust him; fate could not be that cruel as to take her from him like this. He drew his breath as Zanto continued to nod his head to each of his questions.

"Yeah, how'd you know?" Zanto asked.

"We need to see Gianni," he growled and stalked away.

"Seriously," Zanto asked as he caught up to Noah again. "How'd you know that?"

"Because aside of the chest pain that's how I feel when she's out there putting herself in danger," he snapped and shut his mouth before declaring his love for her.

"You don't look like I feel," Zanto said warily.

"Fuck!" It was true he didn't feel the crippling sickness he usually did when she ran away and did something stupid. Had the curse jumped from him to Zanto when she had left him after he told her that he loved her and she didn't reciprocate? There was no way he could just stand back and let that happen. She was his, and he wouldn't be giving her up to anyone without a fight. He began to feel sick at the idea of losing her not to the risks of what she was doing but to another man, and strangely the feeling reassured him. Lost in his thought Noah didn't notice the two men approaching or pay attention to the warning hiss from Zanto as he trudged toward the car.

"Noah," a friendly voice called, and Noah lifted his head as Zanto stepped forward to block him.

"Yeah, who wants to know?" Zanto thundered bristling at the two men. They looked like they were down on their luck or homeless even. Both wore scruffy ill-fitting clothes had longish hair and scraggly beards.

Noah blinked in confusing, turning his head to look at Zanto and then back at the two men. He shouted as soon as he saw the gun. The shining weapon was obviously expensive and looked out of place in the hand of the scruffy man who carried it. The sound was muffled from the silencer, but he heard the shot, only it wasn't aimed at him. He spun again and saw Zanto go down, clutching the bloody wound high in his chest and crying out.

"Fuck! What did you do!" Noah roared hitting the panic button on his phone, hoping that one of the witnesses would call emergency services. Pain tore through his leg but when he looked up, the men were gone, and bystanders were beginning to crowd around him.

"I called an ambulance," one guy said thrusting his phone at Noah, "They need details."

"Shot in the chest, breathing raggedly," Noah grunted waving away the phone. "Fuck, Zan. Hang on, man, hang on for me. You shouldn't have even been here you stupid Fuck! So, you hang on or I will..." Will what? What could he do? Strangers surrounded him, and his cousin was bleeding out on the ground. Surely someone had noticed and caught the whole thing on their phone. Nothing that happened ever stayed private anymore.

The watcher was there, of course, Zanto had watchers Noah thought with relief. He was the baby of the family. They would have seen it and called it in as soon as it happened. Noah lost track of time as the watcher started first aid and spoke to the man who had the ambulance service on his phone relaying information as he went about trying to save Zanto's life. They'd come for him. They meant to kill him. Why would Zanto do that, fuck. He made them think he was Noah. Fuck! Someone wanted him dead and had tried to kill his cousin, Fuck! How the fuck was he going to tell Junie that he almost got her baby killed. Fuck!

"Put this over your wound and press as hard as you can manage," the watcher commanded taking the phone from the bystander and relaying details of two gun shot victims. Noah swung his head around to see a second and in his haze of confusion he looked at the gauze pad in his hand.

"Give it to me," a second watcher who had just arrived said and pressed the pad to the back of Noah's leg.

"Fuck!" he groaned and flinched away. He'd been shot too? When had that happened?" His eyes went back to Zanto, his face was pale and his eyes squeezed shut but he made no sound as the two men worked to help them and a siren could be heard in the distance. Imelda had warned him that the price he paid for staying at the market would be too high and still he hadn't left when he should have. It was all his fault. Everything, Marcella, Zanto fuck, even the fact that Olivia was still a suspect despite his best efforts, it was all his fault. He fell back as soon as the watchman had released his hold on him.

"It's a graze, you'll live," he said and turned his attention to his partners struggles to help Zanto. The crowd had moved back Noah realised in his state of numb confusion. The ambulance, good, it was here and Zanto would be okay. He had to be okay.

*****

Olivia trailed behind Genesis as he entered the home of his uncles, and was immediately engulfed in the warm hug of Junie. The older woman clucked and clicked her tongue at Genesis shooing him away to the athenaeum where the men of the tables gathered and guided Olivia through to a cosy sitting room where many other women gathered.

"Oh Good, you're finally here," Emma came to greet Olivia with a firm embrace and a kiss on the cheek. "Come in we're celebrating Vivienne's good news."

"Good news?" Olivia asked, still stunned by the speed at which Genesis had hustled her out of the house.

"We aren't celebrating anything," Vivienne admonished. "Emma is trying to take everyone's mind off what is happening tonight."

"I could use some good news," Olivia said, feeling sick that Marcella was now a hostage of the people who had held and tormented Olivia for so many months.

"You're going to be an Aunty next year," Vivienne smiled and placed a hand over her belly.

"Congratulations," Olivia smiled genuinely at her friend and tried to still her nervousness for her sister. "That's great news." She tried to put some emotion into her voice, but instead of sounding happy for her friend, she sounded sad and hated that she couldn't pull herself together now. She had done so well at keeping up a brave front with Genesis who, like Gideon was desperately trying to find Noah but now that he had gone to talk with the other men of his family, she could feel her bravado shattering around her.

"She's going to be okay, Olivia. We have to believe that. She is brave and dauntless. If anyone can find a way out of this situation, she can. She is a survivor, think of everything she has survived, and this will be just a walk in the park for her," Vivienne encouraged.

"I know," Olivia nodded. "Did Gideon find Noah?" she asked hopefully even though she was sure that Genesis would have told her if he had.

"I don't think..." Vivienne cut off her words as shouting and noise sounded from somewhere in the house.

"Junie, come with me," Gianni said, appearing at the door. "Nobody else leaves this room until your husbands, or I clear you," he warned the other women. They had been gone only two minutes when a panicked shriek from the front of the house met their ears, making the women all tense and look toward the doors.

"This is nothing new. We've been through a lockdown before. This house is the safest place for us and our children, so we sit tight and trust that everyone will be okay," she said. "We will find out what we can when we can, until then, lest talk about the gathering. It's coming up fast now, and we all have our jobs to do plus we have two new helpers to lighten the load," she smiled at Vivienne and Olivia.

"I have a project I am keen to get started on but if anyone needs help just let me know. Be warned I'm a hazard in the kitchen, but I can clean up or look after the children if you need," Vivienne offered.

"I'm going to be working on the project with Vivienne," Olivia supplied. "I'm not sure I will be able to go to the gathering with the AFP still investigating me and the time I spent with the Suebi." She admitted not shying away from what she had done before coming to Genesis and the family.

"I thought you wanted to talk to Marcella first?" Vivienne frowned at Olivia's polite decline of the offer extended to her.

"I spoke to her this morning, she said the stories were mine to do with what I wanted, but she would help if I were serious about writing the books," Olivia said quietly. "I have some sketches of the characters, most of them were lost on my boat though so these are just... well they're not as good." Emma cleared her throat, making the two women look up from their quiet conversation. "I'm sorry, a conversation for another day," Olivia hastily apologised.

"I think it's a good time for the conversation. Why don't you tell the ladies about Ella, the Imperfect Princess?" Vivienne encouraged.

"Ooh does it include the frog called Apollo?" Emma asked enthusiastically. "I always wondered about that."

"Yes, but not at the beginning where the project will focus," Olivia said quietly. "It's not really a story for grown-ups. It's more stories to help children understand and deal with some of the harder things they might come across."

"You don't have to share if you don't want to," Shari said equally as quietly. "We are just interested in getting to know you and your sister better because we are sure you will be part of our family for this gathering and many beyond that."

"I, for one, could use a story. My daughter Helena will never leave the hospital when she is told to seek safety," Mikayla sighed. "But I guess that can be a good thing because I tend to find out what's going on before my husband deigns to fill me in," she rolled her eyes.

"I know Helena," Olivia said then. "She's very nice. Is Hector your son too?"

"No, he is Junie's son. But you are right. Hector is a very nice boy," she laughed.

"It's a big family, even I have a little trouble keeping everyone straight now and then," Bronwyn piped up joining the laughter. "Especially with the twins," she sighed, "But I think they try to confuse us on purpose. I could use a story too."

"Think of us as a sounding board to work out any kinks in your story," Emma suggested.

"It's not actually my story. It's Marcella's story, but she gave it to me," Olivia said. "Vivienne thinks it could be used to help other kids who feel a little scared sometimes. I don't think it's a story for adults."

"I'm a little scared right now, especially after the last attack on the tables being so recent," Mikayla said. Luckily most of the women in the family are already down at the station getting ready for the gathering. So, we know they are safe."

"No one will judge you, Olivia. I promise," Vivienne said with gentle encouragement. "I'll start for you because I know the first bit by heart."

"Once upon a time in a land far away, there lived three sisters. They were brought up in a beautiful castle with a handsome king and a pretty queen. From outside the walls of the castle people saw only what they wanted to see, a happy family who had everything they could ever want, but it wasn't always like that for the three princesses inside the castle walls," Vivienne began, then looked to Olivia to continue.

*****

"I don't understand why he did it?" Noah said as Gideon ran towards him along the hospital corridor. "He's in surgery and it's my fault. Everything is my fault," he tugged his hands through his hair. "The Suebi have Marcella," he grimaced, and slid down the wall he had been leaning against as if the arrival of his brother had sapped the last of his strength and all he could do was crumble.

"You need to let Helena look at your leg now. Hector is with Zanto. You did everything you could, now you have to look after you," Gideon said helping his brother to his feet and keeping an arm around him as he all but dragged him into the emergency room and a curtained off area to have his own wound cleaned and dressed and probably stitched if the amount of blood was anything to go by.

"Decided to stop being a stubborn arse I see," Helena said as she entered through the curtain. Noah didn't respond only closing his eyes and reliving the past twelve nightmarish hours.

"Gideon?" Pietro called through the curtain.

"What?" Gideon said tersely as he stepped back through the curtail to see one of his younger cousins standing there.

"Papa is questioning the men who did this and Orlando is on his way to the airport with watchers to pick up a Severino Gambaro who we believe hired the two men to kill you," Pietro said quietly. "We don't think this was related to the raid tonight or the Suebi. We think Severino was trying to make sure Marcella would return to Perth by threatening the people giving her sanctuary here. For whatever reason they want her back, or so it seems."

"Good. I'll let him know," Gideon nodded. "Anthony and Gianni are with Junie in the waiting room, go fill them in." Gideon twitched the curtain aside and saw Helena stitching the open wound on Noah's leg as he lay there stoically silent while she worked. He quickly typed out a text to Xavier.

Gideon: "Someone better let Oscar and Izzy in on what happened before this becomes an issue between the thirteen."

Xavier: "Already on it. Noah? Zanto?"

Gideon: "Noah stitches and shock, probably. He's conscious but not himself. Zanto still in surgery."

Xavier: "Keep us posted."

*****