“Let me explain the best I can,” Antonio said. “Kizzy told us they had been taken hostage. Apparently, she and Noah had something the kidnappers wanted.”
“Although they didn’t really kidnap the boys.” Gabriella took a deep breath and sighed. “They were in their own home. Someone broke in and threatened them. Noah had just given the item, whatever it was, to Kizzy. And Kizzy had taken it home.
“He was forced to call Kizzy, but he didn’t really want her to bring the item they wanted back. When she was negotiating for their safety, Noah yelled, ‘Don’t do it. My brother and I know how to get out of this.’ Then she heard a loud explosion.”
“Okay,” Jayce interrupted. “Itdoessound like the explosion was done purposely, as a way of dealing with the problem. Whatever Kizzy had must’ve been important for them to resort to that, or they didn’t think they’d make it out alive any other way.”
“Does anyone know what happened to the kidnappers, for lack of a better term?” Misty asked.
Antonio frowned. “Why don’t we call them what they were? Criminals.”
“Were?” Misty asked. “Are you sure they’re…”
“Dead?” Gabe had put his hands over little Tony’s ears as he finished Misty’s sentence for her. She looked up at him gratefully.
“I would imagine so,” Antonio said. “I visited the spot where their house used to be. It’s a foundation and charred rubble now.”
“Shit,” Jayce muttered. “Did anyone else get hurt?”
Gabriella smiled sadly. “No, thank goodness. They had downstairs neighbors up until about a month ago, but they moved out.”
“So what excuse did you give the chief this time?” Miguel asked his father.
Antonio groaned. “We used up most of the usual ones. Ryan supposedly died, and because it was on the job, we had to go through a big public funeral. There was no way around it. That could have caused all kinds of problems if anyone had discovered the casket was empty. Ryan still can’t show his face in the city. Not for a century or so. And Jayce, you supposedly were in a coma. We were just lucky you were visiting your girlfriend at the time and Kristine lived in New York. That kept your buddies from trying to drop in to visit you.”
Gabriella looked sheepish. “We decided to give the chief a happy explanation this time.”
“You decided,” Antonio corrected.
“Well, people are beginning to feel sorry for us and wondering if, with so many accidents, having several sons in the fire service is a good idea.”
“That’s one fatality out of seven,” Gabe said. “I didn’t die. I was burned over fifty percent of my body. We told everyone I had to go away to Rio for their experts in plastic surgery. And Miguel has never been hurt in a fire at all.”
Gabriella sighed. “It’s only the bad things people remember. But they will forgive and forget a couple of brothers who won a trip around the world.”
“What?” at least three people exclaimed at the same time.
Antonio laughed. “It was the best your mother could come up with at the moment. She was cornered at the grocery store. Apparently, Noah’s captain was just stopping on his way home for bread and milk and wondered why Noah didn’t show up for work. And he didn’t receive so much as a phone call. That’s not like him.”
“Not at all,” Jayce said.
“Of course, Dante’s captain knew it was their house that was blown to smithereens. It was his firehouse that had to respond.”
“Didn’t he wonder what had happened?”
“Fortunately, that captain is a friend of the chief. When the chief arrived, he said he’d call me. I had to give him the same cockamamie story, of course.”
Kristine, also a BFD captain, said, “So, I guess we all have to get on the same page in case anyone asks about them.”
“You said they went on a world tour?” Sandra asked. “How did you explain their sudden departure?”
“I just said it was a now or never thing. They won and had to go right away—or forfeit the trip.”
“That’s bizarre, Mom,” Luca said. “But I guess it could happen.”
“It could, and with luck, people will believe it did.”
“Now we need to ask one of our daughters-in-law if she can use her muse powers and figure out a way to go back in time and make this contest a reality,” Antonio said.
