"I know."
I close my eyes and let myself drift slightly while I wait, and I can feel her hand in mine and I hold on because letting go feels wrong.
I have things I need to do.
I need to tell Matteo.
I need to make sure Isabella doesn't marry Vittorio tomorrow.
I need to?—
The doctor arrives and there's movement and voices and someone asking me questions I answer automatically, and through all of it Isabella's hand stays in mine.
I don't let go.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
"I'm telling you, the three of us need to unionize," Bianca says, leaning back on the couch with her wine glass. "Form a proper girls' alliance. These men think they run everything but we all know who actually keeps things functioning."
Alessia laughs and tops up her own glass. "What would we even call ourselves?"
"The Wives' Council? The Mafia Wives Coalition?" Bianca grins. "I'm open to suggestions."
I'm curled up in the armchair with my wine, finally feeling something close to relaxed for the first time in days. My wedding is so near but I'm not thinking about that right now. Right now I'm just sitting with my sister-in-law and Bianca, pretending life is normal, that I'm a normal woman having a normal evening with friends.
"We should do this more often," Alessia says, looking between us. "Actually get together. Talk about things that aren't business or security or—" She waves her hand vaguely. "All the constant crisis management."
"Yes," I agree immediately. "Please. I need more of this and less of everything else."
Bianca raises her glass. "To the girls' alliance. May we actually remember to schedule the next meeting before six months passes."
We all raise our glasses, clink them and drink. There’s a big smile on my face when I hear the car. It zooms in so fast, dust follows it from a mile away, the engine loud and urgent in a way that makes my stomach drop before my brain can catch up.
What the hell?
The front door slams open.
"Get the doctor!" Rafael's voice, is booming and deafening. "Now!"
I'm on my feet before I decide to move, the glass falling from my hand and shattering on the floor, but I don't hear it break because I'm already moving toward the front hall.
Bianca and Alessia are right behind me.
We round the corner and I see them.
Dante and Rafael supporting someone between them, half-carrying, half-dragging, and it takes my brain a full second to understand what I'm looking at because it doesn't make sense, it can't be?—
Enzo.
Covered in blood.
So much blood.
His shirt is soaked through, dark and wet, the fabric clinging to his torso, and there's blood on Rafael's hands, on Dante's arms, on the marble floor where they're tracking it, Enzo's head is down, his feet are barely keeping up and he's not supporting his own weight andoh god oh god oh god?—
"What happened?" Matteo's voice, appearing from somewhere, moving fast toward them.
"Ambush at the factory," Rafael says, breathing hard. "Knife wound. He's lost a lot of blood."
