Knox and Evan have been gone awhile and I'm starting to get worried.

What if Knox has done something to him?

Lauren touches my arm. "Knox isn't going to hurt Evan. He hasn't done anything to hurt my family. The thing you should know about us is, if our family is in the danger then the rest of us are too. We would do anything to protect our family and it's starting to turn out that you're part of our family as well." She looks at the stairs. "That's probably what Evan is talking to Knox about."

Evan has been protective of me since we got together.

It's feels weird to have someone do that for me. I'm used to taking care of myself and dealing with situations as they arise, but with Evan it's like he's taking more things seriously and trying to protect me from things that I don't even know about.

I don't like being clueless when it comes to my life.

The thing about me is that I like to deal with things head on, it's just the way I am. Lately, I haven't been feeling like myself with all the people I love and trust keeping secrets from me.

If I don't start hearing things from them soon enough I will start my own tracking process of my family and see how they like.

My parents don't seem to keep things from me. It's mostly my brothers and Evan.

Tracking Evan will be easier than my brothers, as I know where he'll be for the upcoming months. Which is either with me or on set with the secret romantic comedy he's the lead in.

Charlie walks over to me. "What do you think of the family? They're great, right?"

A smile spreads across my face. "You chose great, Charlie. Our brothers are going to be harder to convince. They barely like the fact that I'm engaged to my best friend and they've known him since we were kids."

She laughs. "I have to tell Jasper to be careful around our brothers then, but something tells me they already know that I have a boyfriend that I've kept a secret from them."

Looking at her I say. "What happened with the guy you went out with after the beach day?"

She looks in the direction of Jasper and he's pretending to look at the picture on the wall, but I know he's listening to the conversation that I'm having with Charlie.

Her face pales and she looks at the ground. "I was trying to make Jasper jealous."

Jasper takes a step towards her and he puts his arms around her. He looks lovingly into her eyes as he says. "It worked too." He kisses her cheek. "I was afraid that my life wasn't a good place for her. As you can see she doesn't care."

Knox and Evan walk into the room laughing like they're best friends.

Lauren turns towards me and she says. "Told you."

Knox kisses her and he says. "What did you tell her?"

"That you weren't going to hurt, Evan. She was worried about him."

Evan wraps his arms around me. "I'm fine. I just wanted to talk to Knox about a few things. It's all settled now."

A woman with blonde hair walks into the room and she looks at Knox. "Dinner is ready, Sir." She walks out of the room.

Knox shows us to the dining room. He pours us all a glass of wine.

Lauren places her hand over the glass. "I can't have any, Knox."

He freezes as he's about to pour a glass for his brother. "Are you pregnant again?"

She nods. "Yes, I found out today when I went to the doctors. I've been feeling queasy and I did a home pregnancy test and it told me that I wasn't pregnant. So I thought I'd visit our doctor and he did took some blood and it was confirmed."

He kisses her. "I love you."

"I love you, too, Knox." She pulls away from him. "I can't wait to expand our family from three to four."

I didn't know she had a kid. There wasn't a single photo of a baby in the living room.

Lauren looks at Evan and I. "I took down the pictures of son that's usually in the living room. When we have guests we don't know we take them down. It took awhile for me to feel comfortable with Charlie meeting our son."

"So, its going to take you awhile before your comfortable with us meeting him?"

"Yes," she brushes a strand of hair out of her face. "I'm going to protect my son at all costs."

That's what a good mother should do.

Knox pours everyone a salsa of wine and he hands it to us.

Lauren has a water in hers and he lift our glasses in the air.

Knox gives the toast. "To my brother for finding a great woman to be with. You deserve great things for the future. Which is why I'm going to give you a proposition."

Jasper looks at his brother. "I'm not going to leave the Mafia, brother. If something happens to you while I'm not there I won't forgive myself."

He sighs. "I don't want this life for you little brother. You've got a good girl here. She's not ready for this life."

Charlie whispers in his ear and he nods his head.

Jasper holds Charlie's hand. "She's behind my decision of not leaving 100%. So, I was thinking that I won't go out with, but please let me stay here and protect the girls? One way to hurt us is to go after our woman and if the enemy sees them alone that could be trouble for us."

They should be talking about this in private. Not in front of Evan and I.

Lauren looks at Knox and says. "We have guests. This should be discussed in private. You don't want to scare Ariana. She won't think it's safe for Charlie to be with Jasper."

I know it's not safe for my sister to be with him, but I'm not the type that's willing to get in the way of love. We can't help who we fall in love with.

The food is placed on the table and we start to eat.

During the mean Knox apologies for bringing up family business. He was hoping that his brother wouldn't keep putting his life at risk.

Charlie stands up. "Excuse me," she runs out of the room and I hear a door close behind her.

Lauren and I look at each other before we excuse ourselves and check on Charlie.

When we get to the door, I realise it's the bathroom and I hear Charlie throwing up.

Opening the door to the bathroom I see her leaning over the toilet throwing up. I move her hair out of her face. "Is there something you're not telling us?"

She looks at me. "I've been getting sick a lot lately. I thought it was food poisoning."

Lauren looks at her. "Have you told Jasper?"

Charlie shakes her head. "I kept it a secret from him." She looks at me. "Can you take me to the pharmacy after dinner?"

"Sure,"

Lauren walks over to a draw and she opens it. "I have different pregnancy tests in here. You should use one. We'll meet you outside." She gives the test to Charlie.

We walk out of the room and head in the direction of the kitchen where the men are having a private conversation.

Lauren holds her hand out and she puts her finger to her lips. She moves us into the shadow so we can hear the conversation that the men are having.

Jasper seems to be worried about Charlie and his brother is trying to calm him down.

Evan leans across the table and he whispers something to brothers.

A strong musculine voice says. "Lauren, baby. You can come out of hiding."

"You, too, Ari." Evan says. "I can smell your perfume."

Lauren shakes her head. "I hate it when he does that."

We walk into the room laughing.

A couple minutes later, Charlie walks into the dining room with the pregnancy test in her hand and her face is pale. "I'm..." before she can get the words out she collapse and Jasper just makes it to her before her head can hit the floor.

I walk over to her and see...

***