"I'm not passing out," I say, and my voice sounds far away even to me. "I'm fine."
"You're bleeding everywhere."
"It's fine."
"This is not what fine looks like."
I close my eyes and focus on breathing, on staying present, on the fact that I promised Isabella I'd come back and I can't break that promise on the same night I made it.
The compound gates appear ahead and Rafael doesn't slow down, just blows through them with the guards scrambling to open them fast enough, and we pull up to the front of the house and there are people already coming out, already moving toward the car.
Matteo.
Alessia.
Isabella.
She sees me through the window and her face goes white.
The door opens and Dante helps me out and Isabella is right there, her hands going immediately to my face.
"What happened?"
"I'm fine."
"You're covered in blood."
"Most of it's mine. Some of it isn't." I try to smile. "It's fine."
"Stop saying you're fine." Her voice cracks and she looks at Matteo. "Get the doctor. Now."
He's already pulling out his phone.
They help me inside and I'm leaving a trail of blood on the marble floors that someone's going to have to clean and my vision is starting to blur at the edges but I keep walking because stopping feels like giving up.
We make it to the sitting room and they lower me onto the couch and Dante pulls the jacket away from the wound and Isabella makes a sound I've never heard from her before.
"It's deep," Dante says to Matteo. "Knife to the side. He's lost a lot of blood."
"The doctor is five minutes out." Matteo crouches beside me. "What the hell happened?"
"Ambush. At the factory. They were waiting for us." I look at him. "This wasn't random. They wanted us there specifically."
His jaw tightens and he looks at Rafael. "How many?"
"Eight. Maybe ten. All dead now."
"Good."
Isabella's hands are on my face and she's saying something I can't quite hear over the ringing in my ears and I reach up and catch her wrist.
"I'm okay," I say. "I promised I'd come back. I came back."
"You're bleeding everywhere."
"Flesh wound."
"That's not a flesh wound, that's a—" She stops and takes a breath. "The doctor is coming. You're going to be fine."
