“You put your seatbelt on,” I reply.
He growls and turns a sharp corner as soon as he’s able to, and while the car with Rosalie goes left, he goes right. All while the cars I’d seen before are heading into the factory compound. Too little too late for what I assume are more of Eivor’s lackeys.
Alessio tugs his seat belt on a second later and then shoots me a sharp glance.
“Alright, alright.” I put my seatbelt on.
It’s a good thing too, because a second later black spots fill my vision.
“About that…whole…not falling asleep thing,” I mumble.
I stumble into unconsciousness like I’ve taken a hammer to the head, and there’s no stopping me.
16
Chapter Seventeen
Alessio
“Damian.” I smack his cheek several times as I stand at the passenger side door. He looks absolutely fucking terrible. His nearly naked body is covered in cuts, burns, blood and god knows what else.
“Come on, wake up,” I say as I shake his shoulders a few times. I don’t want to hurt him even more, but he needs to wake up.
I sigh and look around me for a moment. No one else is here. We’re parked in a grassy spot behind the safe house that’s tucked into the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea, about twenty-five miles from Tessari, near Sorrento. He’s been knocked out the entire time, and I’m starting to get really worried about him.
“Damian…come on,” I say again as I look at him once more and brush my fingers down the side of his face. There are raw circular wounds along his jawline and cheek. “You’re too fucking big, I can’t carry you inside.”
His eyelids flutter and my heart leaps into my throat.
“Damian,” I say quickly and lean down closer to him. “We’re here. I can patch you up, but I need you to stand and walk on your own.”
I pat his face a few times and his eyes fully open.
“Alessio?” he asks, his voice rough and cracking.
“I’m here. Now get up, come on.” I grab his arm and start to pull him out of the car. His blood smears on my hands and I can feel some of the shallow open cuts on his arms squish and leak underneath them.
He huffs for air and then turns his torso, planting his feet on the ground.
“That’s it,” I praise him.
Damian shakes his head and opens his eyes more, seeming to become more aware of his surroundings.
“I got it,” he insists, but I continue to hold his arm as he stands up from the car. I removed his seat belt when I first opened the passenger side door.
“Don’t even try that,” I tell him snappily.
I pull the keys to the safe house out of my pocket and ignore the pain in my own body from tossing and tumbling with a few of those guards. I was lucky in comparison to him and Rosalie…and a few of the guards we left behind. Their bodies most likely being turned into nothingness by the fire. If they are salvageable, Eivor’s men will make sure they’re not by the time we get to them.
I walk with Damian up the few steps of the back porch and then let him lean against the railing while I unlock the door and shove it open.
“Are you hurt?” he asks me, again. Worrying more about me than himself, despite how injured he is.
It makes my heart squeeze in my chest, but it also annoys the living hell out of me.
“Stop worrying about me, just get inside so I can take a look at you,” I demand.
I push him inside with one hand on his bare back, feeling the old scars there underneath my hand. They hadn’t made any new ones on his back at least.
