Dangerous Desires (Minnelli Mafia Series Book 1)

I Don't Believe You

Golden Oak, Michigan

Bethany landed in Michigan two days later after asking the whole Minnelli Family to come together. Her heart was extremely heavy, especially not having any news from TaMika's on Cairo's condition. For all Bethany knew, TaMika can't resurrect him.

Oh my God...Bethany thinks as she sees all of the different vehicles in the driveway of Grandpop Aries and Nana Diane's home.

The maid opened the door with a smile on her face. Oh my God. The house was lively with boisterous laughter and baby laughs. Alex and Sunday were in town with their twins, and Eve had just given birth herself.

"Can we all meet in the media room?" Bethany requested. The whole family looked at her in curiosity but obliged her.

"What's going on cuz? Where's Cairo?" Aries asks. Adonis couldn't hold his head up. His face turning paler by the second.

"That's why I'm here. Our last mission wasn't um, successful."

"What you mean not successful?"

"Cairo...Cairo is..." she can't get the words out. "Cairo is dead."

Missy screamed. Adonis is shaking, pale as ever. The whole family is shaken to their core.

"What happened?" Antonio isn't even sure if he wants to know.

"There was a bomb on the boat. I was supposed to go to the underbelly and set my own traps. When I get down there, my foot denotates a pre-planned bomb. I tried to convince him to retreat but he wouldn't do it until it was far too late." Bethany started to cry for the first time. "I tried...I swear I tried."

Missy lets out a wail. She knew what her son was. An assassin. Everybody knew.

Suddenly, a pregnant Wynnie walks in the room.

"What's wrong with everybody?" her jovial voice is a stark contrast to the news that awaited her. "Where's Cairo?" she smiled. "He promised me that we were going for ice cream when he got back."

Sunday's stomach dropped.

"Cairo's gone." Alex blurts. Maybe if he said it, it'll feel real.

"Well, yeah. He's not here. So where is he?" she didn't get it. Sunday took her sister's hand and just outside the room...

"Cairo died in a boating accident."

"Wha-what?" Wynnie gripped her belly. "What?"

Missy could hear her in denial. She races out of the room to the pregnant girl. "My baby is gone." She croaks.

"NOOOO...NO! He's not dead." Wynnie takes out her phone to call Cairo's phone. Straight to voicemail...over and over again.

"Please, Wynnie. Cairo is gone." Missy pulls the scared expectant mother in her arms.

The three men were stunned. It was one thing to know but Cairo had always come back. He always came back.

Adonis without his brother, his twin. His other half. He had no choice but to grow up. Adonis wanted one person other than his deceased brother; Nia. Cairo had always told me to get this shit right with her, he thought. His mind goes to his just born sons. Adonis was on the right track but now he was even more determined to be a better man. For Nia, his twins, and his brother. They deserve that.

Meanwhile, TaMika waited for another full moon to try again. Cairo's soul was trying to break through. For almost a month now...

"I feel you, I feel you." She chanted in the black dark room with candles burning. TaMika waits. And waits. Nothing.

Pissed off, TaMika leaves the body to find the one woman that could help her.

"Debutante! Bring yo ass out here!" TaMika yelled. It's three am but she doesn't care. The tall, wide eyed woman comes out of her small cottage. "Come resurrect this body with me."

"I don't do that anymore."

"Bitch! I didn't ask you. I said come help me with this body!" TaMika snatches her. The odd pair make it back to TaMika's house.

"Oh I can't help him..." Marie steps back in fear, for the first time. "I...I cursed his family."

"What the fuck!" then TaMika places her hand on the woman. "You thirsty bitch. Aries was never interested in you and you knew it. But you got mad when he told you what it was and you curse him and his whole line! Seriously!"

"Okay, but now I can't reverse the curse. It's been too long. It has to run its course."

"I can figure this out." TaMika inhales as her own baby kicks. "By the strength of the Curse, I bind the Minnelli Family in the final hilt of the Curse, now known as a Bond. The strength of the reversal, now known as the Spirit Bond." Thunder crackles in the distance.

"Okay, I can help him now." The generational enemies joined hands and chanted at the same time.

"In the night, we rise. We rise again. We rise. Come to me Cairo...Come to stay." The pair wait. TaMika's baby kicks.

Suddenly, as the lightning strikes a tree in the far distance, Cairo Minnelli opens his eyes.