Enzo jerks back as the first bullet hits him square in the chest, his body slamming into the terrace door behind him hard enough to rattle the glass. The second takes him through the throat before he can even fall, the force snapping his head back as he crumples to the floor, lifeless before he hits it.
Toselli screams. I put him down before he takes a single step over the balcony’s edge. His body topples over the side of it. The sickening sound of it landing seconds later on the ground outside echoes through the room.
I cross the room in seconds and drop hard to my knees beside them. Luca looks up at me, his eyes wild with terror and bloodshot. For a heartbeat he just stares, not quite believing that I’m real. It takes a few tries of him blinking at me for recognition to finally hit.
“Mama. She’s—she… She—” His voice breaks completely.
I scoop him up with one arm and crush him against me, hauling him tight to my chest like I can shield him from what’s already happened. My hand cradles the back of his head, fingers pressing into his curls as I press a firm kiss to the top of his head.
“It’s okay, I’ve got it.”
He heaves in a heavy breath, clinging desperately to me.
When I turn fully to Elena, she sways forward like the strength holding her upright has finally given up. She slumps, and I barely catch her before she collapses completely. I ease Luca back just enough to free my other arm and gently lower Elena onto the floor, guiding her onto her back.
Blood immediately blooms dark beneath her, warm and slick against my palms. I press my hand hard against her side,applying pressure the way I’ve done a hundred times before with my own men in the aftermath of a shootout.
But unlike all those times before, this time, my hands shake uncontrollably.
“Stay with me. You hear me? Don’t you dare leave me now,” I command softly, desperately, leaning over her.
Luca crawls closer, his small body trembling violently as he presses into my side.
“Mama…” he whimpers.
I tilt my head sharply toward my shoulder, grinding it down just enough to activate the comms tucked in my ear. My voice comes out hoarse, stripped of any pretense of authority.
“Elena’s down, I need medical here now!” I bark into it. “East wing. Lounge room.Now.”
The comm crackles with overlapping voices, confirmations, orders to send a team my way, but I can’t make sense of any of it over the thunder of blood roaring in my ears.
Elena coughs hard. It’s wet and when she does, blood bubbles at the corner of her mouth. She tries to speak, lips trembling while she tries to form the words, her breath coming in and out of her in shallow and uneven pulls.
I shake my head even as my hand presses harder into her wound. “Don’t talk. Don’t, just… breathe. That’s all I need from you. Just breathe and stay with me.”
Her eyes drift away from me, unfocused now, staring past me up at the ceiling like she’s already slipping somewhere I can’t follow.
Panic claws up my spine. “Elena,” I demand, my voice breaking as I swallow around the knot tightening in my throat. “Elena, look at me.”
She mouths something at me, and then her eyes flutter shut.
22
ELENA
The first thing I feel when I claw my way back into consciousness is pressure wrapped around my hand.
For one terrifying second, I don’t know where I am or if this is some strange afterlife trick that I’ve somehow wound up in. My mind floats between memories of the bullet hitting me and the pain in Dante’s voice as he begged me not to leave, forcing my chest to tighten reflexively.
I don’t know if I’ll ever forget that look in his eyes or unhear the shakiness in his voice. Never in my life did I ever think I’d witness Dante Cosenza falling apart, especially over someone like me.
When I finally open my eyes, a sterile ceiling swims above me, harshly lit by fluorescent lights that hum softly overhead. The sound is joined by others next to me from the low mechanical murmurs of machines keeping track of my body.
A hospital?
Pain blooms along my side the moment I try to shift and sit up. It’s a deep and aching pressure that is painful enough to steal my breath for a second. I hiss quietly, instinctively tightening my fingers around the hand holding mine.
The hand tightens back.
