As the gates opened to our home I glanced over at dad who was looking over at the guards at their posts on either side of the gates.

There was something different about the air around them. They seemed to stand a little taller as my dad looked over at them, in fact you could've sworn they had stopped breathing all together.

It's not what you think, my dads men didn't fear him. In fact it was the opposite. These men took pride in working with my dad. He looked after them the same way he left them to look after us.

It was like having a very large extended family.

"What time is your brothers football game?"

Dads question was so causal that it had surprised me. He was asking questions like he hadn't just rocked up back home again. My brothers game had completely crossed my mind and Levi had told me about it. Yet here was our dad who knew that Levi had a game tonight and he handed been home in months.

Finally the gates had opened and dad knocked the car into gear to slowly start driving towards our home.

"Nine, it starts late today for some reason."

"Good." Replied dad as he stopped the car at the front of the house. The front door opened and a rush of people came out of the house. Some of them were my fathers men, others were some of of the maids and our main butler. They had been given word about his return and it was last minute guessing from there panicked expressions. "Gives me an hour to get rid of these twats and make it in time."

"You're going?" It wasn't meant to come out so surprised after all dad always went our tournaments or games when he was home. In fact he always made a point of going to them.

He would drop anything for us if we asked him too.

Dad scoffed and looked at me like I was stupid, which made me stick out my tongue at him like the child I always was around him. He let out a deep throaty laugh that I couldn't help but grin at.

"You know you kids always come first, Princess." With that he opened the door and the second his foot touched the ground everyone rushed towards him.

"Mr Kennedy, it's great to have you home once again." Greeted Henry our main butler that was in charge of all the staff within the house.

Dad rested a hand on Henry's shoulder in greeting as he walked past. "How many times do I have to tell you Henry, Riker's fine."

"Of course, Riker."

"Layla." Greeted Henry as my dad got pulled away with the rest of his men. Henry eyed me up and down clearly taking in the state that I was in. He didn't look surprised, after all dad and Reagan have come home in some states. "Are you alright?"

There was concern there in his voice and I couldn't blame him. I probably looked like I had just dragged my ass out of the pits of hell.

It sure felt like I did.

For a second I almost forgot the pain that I was in but at the mention of it, it all came rushing back but I kept a smile on my face, not wanting to worry him. "Nothing a shower can't fix."

Henry though didn't seem to believe me. "I'll send the doctor over to your room once she's done looking over your sister."

Emilia had gotten here before us. Dad had sent Damon back to the house with Emilia after he had given the orders to wipe the rest of the men out. Emilia hadn't seen anything thankfully but I didn't fully know what those men had put her through.

If they had done anything to her there was going to be questions that needed answered.

"Thank you." I responded as I started to make my way to the steps of the house, two of the maids hot on my heels. They had probably been ordered by Henry with just one unspoken look.

From the corner of my eye I spotted my moms car to the side of the house. It had clearly been parked in a rush because mom never parked her cars around the front. She always put them in the garage around the back.

One of the maids must have noticed what had caught my gaze because she was quick to speak up. "Mrs Kennedy, arrived home only a few minutes ago, she rushed up to see your sister."

Remembering back to the conversation I had with Zoe earlier she had said that my dad had been asleep and mom was in a meeting. Mom must have rushed home after she had seen what went down.

Then it came to mind that Zoe knew that my dad was home and never mentioned it.

How long had in been back in the City for?

With a glance over my shoulder I could see a look of indifference on my dads face as he took everything in that everyone was firing at him. It didn't seem to matter if he was home for long because clearly even his men didn't know.

If he had stayed here or at Anarchy, word would have gotten back to me long before the situation down at the port.

To tired to think anymore I walked into the house heading straight for my room. I needed a shower before I could process anymore of this day.

Half an hour later I was showered and Dr Thompson was finishing up looking me over.

"I'm fine." I hissed out as she cleaned the graze that the bullet had left behind. She let out a laugh at my protest but said nothing. "Seriously, you should be looking over Emilia not me."

"Your sister is fine, they didn't touch her in any shape or form." Tia looked me in the eyes telling me that she was telling the truth and she wanted to make sure I knew that.

Relaxing slightly I let her continue with her torture.

"She shouldn't have been in the middle of that." My voice was that low I wasn't even sure myself if I was talking to Tia at all.

"Your sister knows what time of life we live in, trust me she isn't bothered by it. She's stronger in the mind that you lot give her credit for." Tia started to put her stuff away letting me know that she was done. "I've cleaned you up as quickly as possible I will need to look at that graze again but I know you probably want to watch your brothers game."

Watching Levi's game was probably the only sense of normality that I will have seen all day.

Well not really, not that dad was back home.

Mom was also floating about the house somewhere but I was yet to see her. It was weird to have them both home again but in a good way.

Tia left the room leaving me the chance to get changed properly. With my a shower and fresh clothes I already felt a thousand times better than I had when I first got home.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door just as I was about to leave. As I opened it, on the other side stood my mom.

Mom looked like she had just came from a business meeting. With everything she was wearing sitting perfectly, her makeup sitting flawless.

Most teenagers where jealous of the people that they seen on Instagram, with there photoshopped looks for their flawless skin that we all knew wasn't really them.

No.

My jealousy was for the very woman who gave birth to me.

"Thank fuck you're ok." For a moment I stood shocked as my moms words. She always showed concern for us all but the tone in her voice was something else.

Mom pulled me in for a quick hug as she glanced me over before stepping into my room. She started to pull off her blazer revealing a sleeveless black top underneath. Tattoos were shown proudly on her arms and her hands reached up to pull out the high pony tail that was on her hair. She used the brush on my desk to brush it out.

"Are you going to Levi's game too?" It wasn't until the words had left my lips that the words had registered in my own brain.

Mom nodded with a glint in her eyes that I couldn't quiet place. "There's a game of chess happening right now and we are going to show them who rules the board."

"We're all going to be there?"

"Every one of us. Luca Giudice is watching us and I want to make sure he gets a message."

"A message?" Confusion must have been written on my face because the corner of moms lips turned upwards in amusement.

"You'll understand soon enough." Mom stretched her arms above her head, almost like she was just having a normal conversation.

Maybe this was normal for her. After all she has been playing these games since she herself was a teenager.

"Now." She continued after a few seconds of silence. "Make sure you look ready for war."

With a kiss on the side of my head she left the room, leaving me with my own thoughts.

Turning to look in the mirror I could see how battered and bruised I looked. I looked tired but mums words stuck in my mind.

Sitting down at my make up table I took the eyeshadow brush and tapped it against the table as I stared into my own eyes. The cold greyness of them were staring back at me and slowly my lips started to turn upwards making my eyes brighten.

After tonight I knew this is what I was born to do and I was going to make sure this was what I was in the heart off.

I just needed to think smarter.

After a few more seconds I leaned forward and started to do my eye makeup with a smokey look. Leaving my face bare other than my eyes. If we were going to be watched I wanted to show them what I could go through and survive.

There was a faint outline of a bruise along my jaw, my lip was busted and I had a cut on my forehead.

Each one of them I wore proudly now that my mind could see the meaning behind them. In this world you weren't always going to look pretty and frankly by letting the world see my scars it was showing them what not to mess with.

Tying my hair up in a high ponytail I let a few strands frame my face but mostly made sure my appearance was on full display.

Then I made my way out of my room and down the stairs.

Dad was waiting at the door leading to the garage talking on his phone. I quickly realised he was talking to Reagan.

"Just make sure you keep pushing them, don't give them anything, I'll talk to you later." With that dad hung up and turned around to me, his tattooed hand running through his air.

It didn't take me long to realise the real reason that dad was home after all the clues had been everywhere.

"That man Luca is here isn't he?"

Dad give me a grin as he turned around to open the door. "Of course, and he's fallen right into your moms trap."

"You wanted him to come here? To our home? I thought you wanted to keep him out of here."

Dad looked over his shoulder his grin never leaving his face. "When did I ever say that? Sometimes to win a war you have to invite them right into the heart of the den."

He reached over for my helmet and threw it around in his hands acting like he was inspecting it. Then he looked up at me once more and there was something there in his eyes that I'd never seen before.

"By going to Italy I shown Luca how easily I can rip away his power. He has nothing left over there and your brother is going to make sure it stays that way until we have done what needs to be done here."

Dad threw the helmet at me and I easily caught it, looking down at it before looking back at him.

"You're not out to kill him are you?" It didn't take me long to put the pieces together. "You're trying to make him suffer."

"Of course." Agreed dad without a second of thought. It was clear that this was more personal than any of them had first let on. "He made me and your mom suffer once before, so we're just repaying a debt ten fold."

"Why?"

Dad stopped and looked over at me, he seemed to hesitate for a moment before finally replying. There was an anger in the tone of his voice that I had never heard in anyone before. This anger was personal and it would never leave.

"He had taken Reagan from us when he was just a few months old. Luca had taken your brother for two months, leaving me and your mom fearing the worst. There was a point when we thought he was dead. All that suffering was Luca's doing, all because he didn't get what he wanted."

My mind was spinning and the world seemed to stop as I took in the words that dad had just spoken.

They had taken my brother.

Someone I could never imagine my life without. My mom and dad hadn't gotten Reagan back how different would our lives have been? Would there be more pressure on me or Levi? Would we have been even more at all after our parents first born being taken.

"Let me guess he wanted power?" It was the obvious answer but what dad was about to say was not what I expected at all.

"Yes and no." Dad looked at me carefully, seeming to take me fully in for a moment. He was studying my reaction in a way that mom often did. "He wanted your mom."

Frowning for a moment I couldn't imagine why and then I remembered the conversation I had with my mom not that long ago.

Who my mom's real mom is.

The real reason this whole word always seemed so interested in my mom.

Nisha Brooks.

"Because of who she's related too? Nisha Brooks."

I didn't want to call her my moms real mom out loud. There was no way she deserved that title and something told me that mom would agree with my answer.

Just because someone had a part in making someone didn't make them a parent. It was the person that was there to raise them that made them the parent and that was my granny Rachael.

Dad looked surprised for a moment before he leaned over the roof of his car. "So she finally told you?"

"Yea, she told me that my 'granny' is basically a stone cold bitch."

Dad let out a deep chuckle as he played with his rings, twisting them around his finger as he seemed in thought. "I wouldn't say she was all bad."

Raising my eyebrow at him I looked at him like he was joking. "So she didn't try and kill you all more than once?"

"Oh no she was definitely a 'stone cold bitch' but if it wasn't for her, me and your mom probably wouldn't be were we are today. Sometimes the people that bringing the biggest challenges are the ones that change you into the person you need to be."

He has a point I had to give him that.

"You and mom just love teaching me a lesson don't you." I remarked lightly, knowing that really everything they taught me would come in handy in reality. It was about time I payed attention.

Dad pushed himself off the car shrugging his shoulders. "Me and the others basically had to work this world out on our own, so if I can make my kids become better than me from the lessons I learnt then I'm going to do it. What's the point in family if they don't come together to help you succeed in life."

"I'll let you have it." I remarked in amusement as I put my helmet on.

"Let go, Princess." Dad said hitting the side of my helmet gently with his knuckles, pushing me towards my bike. "The others are already gone and we're already late."

Dad opened his car door as I swung my leg over my bike.

"I'll race you there!" I shouted out to my dad as I started up the engine. Dad grinned and rolled his eyes as he jumped into his car.

The roaring of the engines in the inclosed space was almost deafening but I didn't care. This was what ran through the blood in my veins and that would never change.

We watched carefully as the doors to the garage opened slowly both of us reeving out engines. The sound being released into the word that awaited us.