Dangerous Desires (Minnelli Mafia Series Book 1)

This I Promise You

Pearl River, Florida
April

Wednesday Perriloux stepped off the private plane with Zolan in her arms. A car awaited their arrival. She gave a half smile to Cairo before turning her attention to the scenery outside. He touched her arm and though they still had sparks, they had a long way to go.

Her lip trembled slightly, remembering her struggles. Though her pregnancy was as smooth as possible and the delivery was a piece of cake. Her mind was not here. It could never be here...right now. But somewhere in the past. A not so distant past.

Sunday stood outside of her new mansion wildly waving with Phoenix and Apollo flanking her sides. Nana Wednesday coming out of the house with cookies and lemonade.

"You're here! Ya here!" Sunday didn't wait for her sister stand up properly before hugging her. The pair of sisters hugged each other tightly. "I've missed you so much." Sunday mumbled in her ear.

"I've missed you too." Wynnie wiped a tear away.

"Look at my nephew." Sunday takes the baby from Cairo almost immediately. Nana Wednesday felt the discord between the couple and she didn't like it.

So she waited for the family to get settled before going directly to the source. "Wynnie, what really brings you to Pearl River?"

"What you mean Nana?" Wynnie looks back at her cautiously. Cairo, Alex, the twins and Zolan were outside in the open field.

"He can't hear you. Why are you here?" her grandmother pressed again. She knew exactly why she was here, but Nana wanted Wynnie to say it out of her own mouth.

Like a broken dam, Wynnie started bawling. "Mhm, let it out." Her grandmother cooed.

"I don't know how to...I just don't know how to." She can't get the words out. "I don't know how to accept this. Move on...accept him back."

"Why?" her grandmother handed her a cup of mint tea. Sunday looks on in anticipation.

"I went through so much while he was gone. So much longing, emptiness. And now it's like I can't get out of that mode. And he's not the same person. I mean, I know he wouldn't be. He died and came back. Things are not the same."

"You're right. It's not the same but Cairo is a better person. He came back for you and Zolan. That was his only focus. That's always been his focus."

"But how much of this is truth and lies? Our whole relationship was built on lies and I don't know where to start to dismantle it." Wynnie starts to have a panic attack. Breaths up and down. Hands shaking, palms sweating. "Make it stop Nana." She pleads. "Please make it stop."

Nana Wednesday holds the young mother as tightly as she could. "They need each other."

"I know, I know." Sunday hangs her head.

During the time of Cairo being gone, Sunday spent about two weeks with her sister before having to see about her own family. Her symptoms were much like now; panic attacks, denial, stress. And then somewhere between all of that, she became obsessive, vengeful. All while pregnant. Sunday didn't know where to start, but she knew Cairo and Wynnie had to get back to where they were...and fast.

Sunday slips out of the room when her grandmother's back was turned. She makes her way across the field. "Cairo, I need to speak with you." She doesn't waste time. Alex doesn't take his eyes off the three little boys.

"Okay, I'm listening." He eyes his sister in law in nervousness.

"You and my sister need to get away from here before she loses her mind." Again, doesn't waste time.

"I know." He doesn't look her way at first. "The cabin?"

"Yes. You need to go and heal. This..." Sunday gestures between him and the house. "Is not healthy. So go. Right now."

The next day, after Wynnie woke up, Sunday convinced her sister to go to the cabin with Cairo.

"But I'm scared." She admits.

"Too late for that. You need to go." Sunday pushes her sister out of the door and toward the waiting car. "And don't come back until you've started to properly heal. I mean that shit."

Wednesday sighs for a moment and then gets in the passenger seat of the Jeep. Her mouth is closed the entire ride to Key West.

"How you been?" Cairo tries to break the silence.

"Lonely." She is raw. Then she bites her lip. "I mean, fine."

"I missed you too, Wynnie." He admits. They are much closer to the private beach now. "I still love you."

Her lip trembles again. It does that a lot these days. "Don't cry."

"How can I not?" with just them on the beach, Wynnie unleashed her pain. "You missed everything because you were selfish. Did you not care?" she wipes her face. "I waited for many nights. Some kind of sign that you were alive. Somewhere near." Wynnie stomps her foot.

"You have every right to be hurt. And I'm trying." He opens his hand to her. "I thought about you all the time. Every hour of every day for as long as I was gone. I know what I did. I know how fucked up it was. And I don't expect you to just forget what you went through because I was gone."

"Cairo, you lied to me during our relationship. You lied by omission. You didn't give me a chance. The gun range, parachuting. You did that shit for real! And I was naïve enough not to see the signs!" the pair are on the porch now.

"Don't blame yourself for not knowing. That is why I was glad you eventually chose me. I could be myself without scrutiny and you enjoyed the same things I did. I fell so hard and so fast for you, Wednesday. From the bottom of my heart, I'm sorry."

She stares in the same colored grey eyes same as her son with one question. "Will you leave me again?"

"Fuck no." he pulls the small woman into his chest. "We just need time."

"Okay." She wraps her arms around him. The Bond tightens.