“We’ve identified ourselves, now let’s move on to the next fucking step. Why the fuck are you on the ground?” He looked behind me. “There’s blood on that rock.”
I felt behind my head and hissed out a breath. A swollen knot had blossomed, and it was bleeding.
This all made no fucking sense.
I sat up, and the world swayed before it slapped back together.
“My wife,” I said, using the stall to get to my feet. Mitch didn’t bother helping me. I wouldn’t have taken it.
“I don’t know where she is, man. I just got here. Our new grandchild is on her way, and I came to talk to you. Your parents got held up in Natchitoches.Charlotte’s starting her shit again about the property. Your old man keeps trying to call you. Your mamma too. From the sound of it, they keep trying to call Sistine too.”
I looked at him and he lifted his hands. “I’m guessing either because of the situation I found you in, or…I don’t know. Your mamma said her feelings are all over the place lately. I had asked her if your old man was going to kill me if I had a talk with him. Been thinking about what you said. I miss your parents. Life is short. Everett reminded me of that. Here one second, gone the next.” He snapped his fingers.
He attempted to keep up with me as I tore through the storm, going for my wife. It was a torrential downpour. I could barely see my hand in front of my face. A few feet in front of us, lightning hit a tree.
“Whoa!” Mitch stopped, and he didn’t seem to realize he was trying to take shelter underneath one, a basic magnet.
“Keep moving,” I ordered.
“What the fuck happened, Fausti?”
I had to stop. Take a breath. Blood seemed to sit at the back of nostrils. It almost felt like I was drowning in it.
That was a good fucking question, though.
“I was dealing with the horse.” I pieced it together as we moved the fuck along. “Next thing I know, I’m coming to with you in my face.”
Iggy.
His name flashed across my mind.
“Hold up, Fausti!” Mitch called after me. “You look like a drunk teetering like that, but one on speed. Turbo drunk!”
“My wife,” I roared over the wind. But not to him, to my heart. I kept my head and shoulders against it, fighting the elements to get to mine.
Someone wanted me out. It wasn’t the horse. She was starting to calm the more I spoke to her. Something else had spooked her.
Someone.
Fuck!
“What?” Mitch screamed from behind me.
“Tell me, was there a horse in that stall, Mitch.”
He hustled up, shaking his head. “Nah, man. I think your head took a hard hit.”
The sight of my men trying to get across the swirling tributary made the blood freeze in my chest before my heart raced fast enough to turn it into fucking lava. I stopped short at the bank of the tributary, and Mitch almost ran into my back.
“Dandolo,” I said.
“You talking nonsense, Fausti? What the fuck is a ‘dandolo,’ man? Is that an Italian word for something? You need help?—”
“Benedetto Dandolo.”
It came back to me. He was in the barn with me. He was going on about Dr. Musa and how Nino didn’t deserve her. Nino was a shell of the man he used to be.No one can sing to her like I can!He claimed fate had gotten him and Nino confused somehow.This could happen!I told him his job was done and toget the fuck out. If he ever showed his face again, it was over. I was going to erase him from the sight of humanity.
He had been making Donna, the horse, even more anxious.
