“Twenty minutes. Giovanni can look at it,” I tell him, pulling outmy phone and shooting a message to Marcella that we are on our way, then calling Mani. “Status report,” I say when he answers.
“Five,” he responds.
“Go home and get some rest. We’ll be there later.”
“Yes, Boss”
The call disconnects, and my heart sinks. I lost five guys, five guys that probably have families, and I need to find out who so I can pay for everything and help the families. Not as if that matters to them, but I never know what else to do.
“Leo?” I say softly when I look up at him. He’s sitting beside Gage, just staring at the gun in his lap. His eyes lift to mine. “Are you okay?”
“I don’t know,” he answers honestly. “I killed more people tonight.”
This is what I was afraid of. “Bad people,” I remind him. Anyone who protected Viktor Orlov is a piece of shit in my book.
He shakes his head. “That’s not what I mean.”
“Baby, you aren’t making any sense,” Gage says, removing the gun from his lap and laying it gently on the floorboard.
“I don’t care,” Leo says and looks up at me. “Shouldn’t I care? I just killed in cold blood, and I can’t find it in me to care.”
Gage squeezes his shoulder. “You’re just in shock.”
“You took out the one that did this to my face,” I joke, pointing to the face in question.
“He fucking touched you.” Leo frowns.
Mateo slaps him on the back from Leo’s other side. “Dude. I didn’t think you had it in you.”
“This isn’t funny,” Leo grouches, jerking his arm away from Mateo. “I killed people,” Leo enunciates it slowly like we don’t understand.
“We all have,” Gage says. “Not a person in this van hasn’t taken a life. And I want to tell you it gets easier, but that won’t fucking help. All you can do now is either accept it and move on or don’t accept it and let it eat at you. But Baby, that last option is not what we want for you.”
“He’s right,” I say softly. “You know I never wanted you to takethis path, Leo, not because I don’t want you there but because I want better for you.”
“Not one of us will judge you for bowing out,” Gage adds. “Just because you don’t come in the field with us doesn’t mean you still don’t have a place in our lives.”
Leo squeezes Gage's thigh with a nod and then falls back into silence, which we all need after what happened. Every so often, I check Nina to make sure she’s still breathing, relieved when I see the soft rise and fall of her chest. I have questions I need answers to, and none of that can be done over the phone. I need to call Alexey and Dmitri and see what they know. Like, where the hell was Viktor? Why did that room explode? Why were his guards there with no protection and shitty weapons? Sure, we had the element of surprise, and my team is damn good, but I lost five men, and he lost all of his that didn’t run.
Ryder finally takes the last turn into Marcella’s driveway, and I’m more than ready to get the hell out of this van. Ryder pulls to a stop, and I hear the front doors open and close before Ryder and Dex open the back doors up. Marcella, Giovanni, and Vincenzo are all waiting outside the doors. Ryder helps Evander get Micah out before everyone piles out behind them. Ryder steps into the van, gently lifting Nina from my lap before handing her off to Vincenzo outside the door. He turns back, sticking out his hand for me to grab, then hauls me to my feet. His lips are on mine before I can blink. I fall into the kiss, ignoring my throbbing face, and feel grateful that none of my guys got hurt.
He places both hands on my face before pulling back from the kiss and gently kissing my nose. “I love you,Il mio sole.”
“I love you too,” I whisper back.
He leads me to the back of the van before hopping out and grabbing my hand to help me down. Marcella comes rushing over, her shaking hands bracketing my face. “What happened?”
“Some guy got a lucky hit. I’m fine,” I answer with a smile. How bad is my face? “I need Giovanni to look at Micah.”
Marcella waves her hand around. “He’s already taking care of it.Let me take care of you.” She grabs my hand and starts dragging me toward the house, muttering in Italian.
“You do remember I speak fluent Italian, right?” I say with a laugh when I catch her saying something about dumbass kids.
She huffs. “Trying to give an old woman a heart attack. You said you would be here at one a.m. It’s three! You show up with a bruised face. Micah can barely breathe.” She opens the door, still pulling me behind her, still muttering, and I just let her go.
She pulls me into a little room just off the living room, sitting me in a chair in front of a vanity mirror. I grimace after getting the first look at my face. I’m going to have one hell of a black eye and some bruising over the bridge of my nose. Luckily the mask took most of the damage; I can only imagine if I wasn’t wearing it. Marcella comes bustling back into the room with an ice pack wrapped in a towel, shoving it against my face. She starts looking me over and sees the hole ripped through my hoodie. I completely forgot I got grazed outside the house. She huffs again, motioning for me to take my hoodie off. I lay the ice pack down and pull it over my head. “And a bullet wound!”
“It’s a graze, Marcella.”
