Gentle For Her

Chapter 31

*Grayson*

Am I dead? I'm on the floor and my eyes are shut. The last thing I remember is being pulled to the ground just before the gun goes off.

Someone is hovering over me. "Please don't be dead. I can't lose you", it's Athena.

I opened my eyes. Athena is crying. "Mama", the voice of my three year old son.

She whips her head around, I hold up. My three year old son is tending over a dead body with a gun in his hand.

What the fuck?

"Zane, no", she gets up and runs to him. "A-Athena", I groan. "Come on boss, let's get you help", Mariano helps me off the floor and helps me outside.

I'm in the car and they're stitching me up and I see Athena walking out of the building with our son.

"Light it on fire", Giovanni says. Athena makes it to the car and the entire building is bursting in flames.

"I'm so glad you're alright", she hugs me. "What happened", my voice is soar.

"Your son shot him", my eyes widened. What?

I fall asleep and when I wake up, we're back at the house.

"What happened", I groaned as I twist and turned in the bed. Athena was sitting on the chair scrolling on her phone. "You slept for quite some time", she looked up at me.

"Why didn't you wake me", I asked. "You were tired Grayson and you needed to sleep", she said.

"The sleep was pointless, I'm still tried", I fall back into the bed. "Are you okay", she came over and sat next to me.

Was I okay? I'm not even exactly sure what the hell happened.

"I think I am", I said. "Do you remember what happened", she questioned. "I was at the club, we were checking up on shit and instead of listening to my gut and taking Mariano and Giovanni with me, I took two of the new guys to show them around. I guess it was a set up because I was drugged and I woke up and found myself in the warehouse with Enzo's brother that I didn't know he had. He hit the shit out of me, it was nothing at first but he got mad that I wasn't feeling any pain, at least showing it and he started using weapons and I still did nothing so he brought out the bigger ones that did more harm and then that's when he called you. It's kinda foggy from there on", I say truthfully.

"I came in but it was a trap and while he had a gun to my head and you tied to a chair. Our three year old son shot him", Athena said. My eyes shot opened in disbelief.

"W-What", I couldn't believe my ears. "Mariano said Cynthia brought him because she couldn't stand the fact that I was willing to give myself up and that he would have to grow up without a mother, she brought him so that he could see me even if it was the last time he ever did. But things didn't go as planned, Zane grabbed a gun and unlocked the door, he's really smart for just a three year old, anyways, he ran inside and at the same time he shot him and the gun fell from his hands. Maybe it was luck", she said.

"This is ridiculous, she put our baby at risk. He's only three, he could've gotten hurt or worse and who the fuck thought him to shoot a gun", I argued.

"Hey calm down Grayson. It's not Cynthia's fault, I get her. She didn't want Zane to grow up without his mother like you had to, she didn't want him to feel the pain or go through what you had to", she hugged me.

"No this is all my fault. I constantly put you guys at risk, I can't keep doing this. Athena you need to take Zane and leave", I hold my head down.

"No Grayson, no we're not doing this again. I'm not leaving, anywhere I go, you're going with me. Zane is both of our child and he needs us both, don't blame Cynthia and don't blame yourself, it was a miracle he was able to kill that man and I'm not letting anything  happen to my baby, I'd go to jail for him. I promise you Grayson we'll get through this together, it's gonna be okay. We're all gonna be okay", Athena cups my face. I look up at her.