17.
The men fought, trying desperately to push Greysen to the ground on his stomach and keep his head up. His eyes caught Sutton’s and she could see something snap inside of him. But her gaze with Greysen was quickly broken as she felt Mark’s body lay on top of hers, and she began fighting again.
In the middle of her struggle to push Mark off her body, she heard a silenced gunshot and her body went cold with a sudden flashback of the night Ethen was murdered. Her head jerked towards the spot Greysen was fighting but all she could see was a huge pile of violently squirming bodies with Greysen’s legs protruding out from the bottom.
Sutton’s heart thudded viciously as she screamed; screamed for Greysen and screamed at the man who was fighting to push himself inside of her. Before she could take a second breath, Mark’s body was pulled from hers and he was flying across the room, smashing into the brick on the windowed wall overlooking the river. Her eyes shot up to see Greysen grab the two massive men holding her down, one with each hand, and lift them as if they were feathers. As quickly as he pulled them from her body, he thrust his arms as if he was throwing a baseball and they were airborne – one smashed into a window, shattering the glass; the other crashed through the wooden kitchen table, turning it into nothing more than firewood.
To her right, where the pile of men had been on top of Greysen, was a bloody, battered heap of bodies – arms, legs, and necks bending at angles they weren’t made for. Her breath caught slightly in her throat as she caught Greysen’s eyes that were red as fire.
As he reached down to pick her up, Mark began to rise from across the living room and pulled a gun from the interior of his jacket. Greysen swiftly turned himself in front of Sutton as the shot rang out in just enough time for it to strike him on the left side of his chest. Sutton’s terrified shriek was ear-piercing, watching her love get shot again, but Greysen didn’t falter; instead he charged Mark.
Mark staggered backwards as he tried to raise the gun that he had lowered after he hit Greysen, but he had no time. Greysen was on him in two seconds, grabbing his head between both of his large hands; and twisting just as ferociously, he snapped Mark’s neck. Greysen turned to face Sutton before Mark’s body limply smacked the ground.
Sutton was frozen – mouth open, panting shallow breaths. He hesitantly walked over to her, terror obvious in his eyes, afraid of what she was thinking of him.
Her eyes searched his body as he slowly walked forward, and she noticed the bullet wound the size of a dime right over his heart. She reached her hand out to touch him as he closed the distance between them, the frightened look in his eyes fading the closer he got to her hand.
“Are you ok?” he asked, searching her disbelieving eyes.
Her fingers lightly touched the hole in his chest as she noticed a gleam of silver behind it. Her eyes shot up to his cautious but anxious face. She swallowed audibly and looked back to where her fingers traced the barely bloody hole.
“How…what…”
He pressed his hand over hers. “Titanium, remember?”
Her mouth dropped and she gasped remembering what he’d told her about his muscles being overlaid. He was indestructible. It just didn’t hit her until now that that’s what he’d meant. He had a clean shot to the heart and it didn’t even faze him.
“Does it hurt?” He’d released her hand but she kept it on his chest staring at the bullet hole in his skin and the small mark on the lustrous metal below it.
“It stings a little…I mean, I still have nerves in my flesh, but it’s not bad.”
Her finger hesitated over the hole.
“It’s ok, you can touch it,” he said with a smile.
Sutton looked up to him, investigating his vigilant face, and back at the hole as she pressed the tip of her index finger into it and touched the warm metal below his skin.
“Uh, oh my God…”
“Are you ok? Did they hurt you?” Greysen asked again.
“Yeah…yeah, no…I mean, yeah, I’m ok. I just…I can’t believe you’re ok.”
“Did he…” Greysen started to ask as he looked back to Mark’s body. Sutton’s eyes shifted that way and then quickly back to Greysen’s. His face was panicked and tortured.
“No, my love, no…he didn’t.”
The relief washing through his face was apparent as the fire in his eyes faded until they were almost fully violet once again.
“We’ve got to get out of here, Sutton. We’ve got to leave.”
“Where are we going to go?” she asked as she dropped her hand and looked back at him still searching her face.
“Well, I’ve got to get this,” Greysen looked around at the mess of bodies and sighed, “covered…and I don’t heal the same way anymore so I’ll eventually have to get with Vincent, but now we’ve just got to leave town. People had to have heard the gunshot; we’ve got to get you out of here.”
“What about you?”
Greysen let out a small laugh. “You think you’re going anywhere without me?”
“But what about all the bodies, won’t the police find out…”
“Don’t worry about that. I’ll take care of it.”
Sutton threw a few things in a suitcase and quickly got dressed as Greysen went into the bathroom and covered his wound. When she exited the bedroom he was standing over the bodies, dressed and ready to go.
He took her suitcase and let out a heavy breath. “I’m so sorry about all this.”
“This is not your fault. I’m the one who brought that lunatic into our lives…”
“Shh, baby, no…let’s just get out of here. I think we should go pay a visit to Paul, let him know what we found out about our son and see if we can’t speed up the process a little. I’ve got everything taken care of on our side as soon as they find him.”
Sutton looked at him questioningly but she knew he didn’t have time to explain right then and there, so she didn’t ask. Greysen took her hand and they rushed from the condo, leaving that part of their life behind them and never looking back.
They hopped into Greysen’s Navigator and Sutton pulled out her cell as they jumped on I-10 west and headed to Ponchatoula. She called Paul and explained what she’d found out about the baby being placed in foster care a few years ago.
“I’m on it,” Paul said before he hung up.
“Ok, so where to?” Sutton asked after setting the phone in the cup holder.
“Give me my phone please. I’ve got to make a call.”
Greysen hit the speed dial on his cell and placed it to his ear. Sutton sat and watched as Greysen began to speak Italian fluently to the person on the other end of the receiver. Her mouth dropped in admiration and bewilderment.
He hung up and set the phone down while looking at her, staring at him. “What?” he asked innocently.
“Since when do you speak Italian?”
“Since about eight years ago.”
Her mouth closed and she looked forward.
“What?” Greysen squeezed her hand that was in his.
“Nothing, it’s just…it’s hard to imagine that so much has changed for you in the time we were apart. I did nothing but sit at home and wallow in self misery and you became the fucking terminator.”
He tried not to, but he couldn’t help but laugh.
She smiled back at him and lifted his hand, kissing his palm. He pressed his palm to her cheek and smiled.
“A lot may have changed but I’ve never stopped loving you. I’ll never stop loving you.”
She leaned over and kissed his plush lips. “So what did Mr. Italiano say?”
“He’s sending someone to take care of the mess at the condo.”
Her mouth dropped again. “Really? What…never mind…I don’t want to know. You can…he can do that?”
“Working for the branch of the government that I work for does have its advantages.”
“Is that all?”
“No.” His voice dropped and he stared blankly ahead.
“What?”
He took a deep breath and tightened his grip on her hand that rested on his thigh.
“Greysen, please…you’re scaring me.”
He looked to her, eyes heartbroken. “I have an assignment.”
“So what does that mean?”
“It means…I have to leave.”
Her heart stuttered and her breath caught in her throat. She tried a couple of times to swallow but couldn’t seem to force the lump in her throat down. The burning sting began in the back of her eyes, filling them until the tears washed in warm rivulets down her cheeks.
Greysen let go of her hand, wrapping his arm around her and pulling her into him.
“Are you leaving me?” she whispered.
“The assignment is in Rome and I have to lay low for a while until everything is under wraps from today. No one can find out about me, about who I am. I have no identity, Sutton, Greysen does not exist. He cannot be pulled up by the DMV or with a social security number, he…I do not exist. If the wrong people find out about me…It’s just bad business. It can’t happen.”
“Then I’ll go with you.”
“You can’t. They can’t know you know about me. They’ll kill you, Sutton. They won’t think twice about it. Keeping me a secret is their only concern and you’re too well known to just take off with me.”
“But we’re supposed to get married. We’re supposed to be together forever.”
Greysen looked down to her tear-streaked face. “I’m sorry.”
Her body began to shake as the tears flooded her eyes. She curled herself into Greysen’s chest under the warm circle of his arm and cried in deep, sobbing, breathless gasps.
“I’ll find you again, my baby,” he reassured, but even he didn’t sound convinced.
“But how long will you be gone?”
“I don’t know. I don’t have any details right now.” His voice was somber.
“How long do they usually last?” She sucked up her tears enough to speak coherently.
“They vary. Sometimes a few days…but I’ve gone on one that was two years.”
The sobs broke through again. “Two years? Greysen, I can’t live without you for two days much less two years.
“I know…me neither. I will come up with something.”
Sutton stayed tucked in Greysen’s arm and cried silently. She couldn’t bear the thought of losing him again, not after everything they’d been through to be together again. She’d lost him and found him, even after death. She’d lost and found him again in his new life and each time was unexpected. She fully believed it was a sign, it was fate – they were destined to be together forever. They continually fell back in each other’s lives for a reason and she wasn’t just going to give up now.
They arrived at the Ponchatoula Police Station about thirty-minutes later and went straight to Paul’s office where he was waiting for them.
“I have good news,” Paul greeted them as they entered. “What’s wrong?” he asked when he noticed Sutton’s saddened face.
“Nothing…what have you found out.” She answered in a voice thick from crying.
Paul stood silently before them, looking from one to the other. “You sure you ok?”
“Yes, please, Paul, what have you found out?”
“Well, we created an age progressed picture of what we believe Ethen would look like now from the baby picture you’d given us and ran it through the foster care system and got a match.”
Sutton and Greysen’s faces both perked up. They looked to each other in wonderment. Greysen was the first to speak. “Really? Where is he?”
“Actually,” Paul said with pride, “Officer Anderson is picking him up now.”
“Oh my God!” Sutton squeaked. “Really? Seriously? Really, now, she’s getting him
now? Oh my God, Paul, oh my God, I can’t believe this, this is…Oh my God! Thank you!”
She threw her arms around him and would’ve knocked him to the ground if his desk wasn’t there to break his fall.
“Whoa! You’re welcome,” he laughed, “you’re welcome!”
She released him quickly and jumped on Greysen. He lifted her in his arms and she wrapped her legs around his waist as they embraced.
“I can’t believe this happening!” Her voice came through in an excited squeak then faltered quickly in to a sad whisper. “And you’re leaving.”
Greysen tightened his hold around her before setting her to her feet. As soon as her toes touched the ground, someone stuck their head in the door and said, “Officer Anderson just pulled up.”
Sutton and Greysen looked at each other as their hearts began to flutter in sync. They took a deep breath together and turned around to follow Paul from his office. They stood just outside his door as they watched Officer Anderson walk in holding the hand of the most gorgeous little boy they’d ever laid eyes on. Sutton knew without a doubt in her mind that little boy was her and Greysen’s son. He looked exactly like Greysen used to look.
They stared at him from across the room. He was tall for his age with Greysen’s head full of black wavy locks. He had Sutton’s perfect olive complexion and her ears under those soft curls. The thing that stood out the most were his eyes, they were his father’s eyes – bright sky-blue and trimmed in long, thick black lashes like lace around his eyes. His jaw was cut like Greysen’s, square and predominant, but still with a childish roundness to his face. She saw her little button nose over Greysen’s full, perfectly shaped lips. He was breathtaking.
Greysen’s hand tightened on Sutton’s as the tears flooded his eyes staring at himself, who he once was, in his son.
Paul leaned in and whispered to them both, “His name is Gabriel.”
Officer Anderson took the boy by the hand and walked him to the back of the room and just a few feet from Sutton and Greysen. She bent down to her knees beside him and whispered while looking at them.
“Remember what I told you in the car, Gabriel?”
He nodded his head making his shiny black waves bounce back and forth.
When he spoke, the tears filled Sutton’s eyes and spilled simultaneously with Greysen’s as they looked upon their son.
“You said my real Mommy and Daddy were here to take me home forever.”
Sutton gasped a shaky cry listening to him say those words because she it is what she’s wanted more than ever; and it wasn’t going to happen. She knew that instant that she would be with her son, forever; and she knew she had to let Greysen go because their son needed her more than anyone ever needed her in her life, just as she needed him.
She knelt down before him as the tears streamed down her cheeks. Gabriel looked at her behind shy eyes.
“Are you my mommy?”
She nodded. “Yes, Eth…Gabriel, yes, baby. I’m your mommy.”
He let go of Officer Anderson’s hand and walked straight into her arms. She wrapped him up into her arms and lifted him, squeezing so desperately. He put his little arms around her neck and hugged it.
Greysen stood silently beside them as the tears ran uncontrollably from his eyes.
Gabriel lifted his face from Sutton’s neck and looked Greysen in the eyes.
“Your eyes are purple.” Greysen choked out a laugh. “You’re my…daddy?”
Greysen nodded. “Yes, my son. I am your daddy.”
Gabriel released his grip from Sutton’s neck and leaned towards Greysen with his arms wide open. Without a seconds hesitation Greysen took him from Sutton and wrapped him up tightly as Gabriel buried his little face in Greysen’s neck. Sutton looked at them and gasped hard for breath as she cried. She lived so long thinking they were both dead, and now she had them both – her love, her son, her family.
After so many years of pain and heart ache, they were in her life again.
Greysen cried silently as he held his son tight to his chest. Gabriel pulled back and poked Greysen’s neck with a little finger. “You’re hard.”
Greysen and Sutton laughed together and Gabriel joined in. It was the sweetest sound in the world and brought goose bumps over her skin.
He instantly relaxed and touched Greysen’s hair. “We have the same hair.”
“Yes, we do. Though I do have to say, it looks better on you.”
Gabriel threw his arms around Greysen’s neck once more then looked at him and then looked at Sutton.
“I’ve always wanted a mommy and a daddy. Did you always want a Gabriel?”
Sutton wrapped her arms around the two men whom she’d follow to the end of the world and they all laughed.
“Why are you crying?” Gabriel asked, looking back and forth to them.
“Because, baby, we’ve wanted a Gabriel for so long and we’re just happy that you’re finally here and that you’re finally ours.”
Paul came to stand beside them. “Now we still have to handle all the legalities of the situation, blood tests, proof of…”
Greysen interrupted. “Excuse me, Paul. I understand there are certain things that you have to get documented and for specific reasons. And, I’m sure you can compare the blood samples you’ve already taken from Sutton, but I cannot submit to one. You understand?” Paul nodded. “But seriously, do you even need a blood test? I mean, look at the kid…”
Paul laughed. “Yeah, spitting image doesn’t even cover it!”
Greysen and Sutton smiled to each other.
“The rest,” Greysen put Gabriel on his left hip and dug into his right pocket to grab his cell, “you got a piece of paper and pen?”
Paul grabbed a pencil and a post-it from the desk they were standing next to. “K, whatcha got?”
“Call this number,” he scrolled through his phone and repeated the number, “and talk to Vincent Notariano. He’ll handle the ‘paperwork’ for us.”
Paul wrote the name and number then turned and looked to them both cautiously. “What kinda work do you do now, Eth…Greysen?”
“Let’s just say that we’ll always be taken care of, ok?”
Paul nodded and took a deep breath. “That sounds good to me…So, Sutton, where y’all living now? Uhm, I assume y’all live together…I don’t mean…”
Greysen chuckled. “It’s ok, yes, we live together.”
Sutton’s eyes turned to Greysen, curious with where he was heading with that
statement.
Paul looked down at Sutton’s left hand on Gabriel’s back. “Wow! I say…that sure is some rock you’re sporting there!”
Sutton flicked her hand, looked at her ring and sighed deeply. “It is,” she smiled at Greysen, “my love has impeccable taste.”
Greysen smiled back to her. “I’ve got you. That says it all.”
Sutton tightened her grip around the two loves in her life.
“So, where was it you said you were living?” Paul asked.
Greysen stepped up again before Sutton could even look his way. “We have a condo in the city but I am about to go out of town on a job, so Sutton,” he looked to the child resting his head on his shoulder, “and Gabriel, are going to go stay in
Sutton’s parents’ house. I’d rather them not stay in the city alone and since her parents’ house isn’t being used right now…”
“I think that’s a great idea,” Paul said enthusiastically.
Sutton watched Greysen with guarded eyes.
“So, when do you leave, Greysen?” Paul asked.
“Tomorrow.”
