Once she’s safely in Dimitri’s hold and Anastasia continues blocking Serafina’s every attempt to sleep, I head for the driver’s side of the car. In the distance, sirens ring as I drop to my knees and bend to peer through the smashed-out window.
Alessio hangs there, his body crumpled against the car’s roof. Maybe it’s my feet on the ground beside him, maybe it’s something else, but his eye cracks open. Just one, beneath a quickly swelling bruise on his right side.
“H-help.”
There’s no helping him. His soul is destined for one place and one place only, and by a happy twist of fate, I get to be the one to officially end his life.
I reach in and cover his face with my hand, nose pinched between my thumb and forefinger while my palm covers his mouth.
He reacts instantly, jerking. His strength wanes from the accident, his instinctual fight for breath meagre at best. His eyes widen before the light fades entirely and his body officially stops fighting.
I stand, spitting on the ground, and turn towards the only person who matters. I ignore the truck’s driver, who stands by the edge of the road, watching the scene. With help, I get in the backseat before Dimitri hands Serafina over and hops in the driver’s side, Anastasia claiming the passenger.
“Thanks,” I manage, pushing the other unknown feeling to the forefront.Gratitude.“Both of you, for coming.”
Dimitri twists around. “We’re family, Lev. In life and death, you know we’ll do anything for you.”
Right before pulling away, I yank the wedding band and engagement ring from her left hand and toss them out the window. Some lucky fucker can make it their payday. As long as they’re anywhere but on her.
Serafina goes in and out of consciousness throughout the drive back to Rome. Anastasia phones Vanessa to tell them to meet us at the hospital, and they beat us by a matter of minutes.
It’s a flurry of emotion as nurses rush to get the bloodied woman in my arms into a room. They start yelling things as they wheel her away.
I’m on their heels until the doors swing shut, separating me from her, and a nurse jams herself in my way. “Signore, sorry. No one’s allowed back there. We’ll come get you when we have news. You family?”
Anastasia appears at my elbow and drags me to where Nero and Vanessa are waiting, knowing I won’t have the ability to leave Serafina myself. Zeno is fighting to get back with her but isn’t being allowed yet either.
My insides are frozen, and the person with the ability to melt them is being taken away. I stare at those doors, waiting for them to re-open and deliver the news I need more than life itself.
That she’s alright.
When the doors finally swing open, only Zeno’s allowed inside. The doctor reports a mild concussion, quite a few cuts, and bruised muscles, but that after twenty-four to forty-eight hours of observation and pain medications, she should be cleared to leave.
Zeno’s influence ensured they didn’t ask about the weapons they found on her or the drugs in her bodice—or even the fact that a bride was just carted in, bloodied and passed out, by a man who isn’t her husband.
Ten minutes later, Zeno appears again, his exhale the sound of a man who just gained a decade back on his lifespan. “She’s asleep but doing well. They’re really adamant about limiting visitors to one at a time, no matter what I threatened. She does need her rest, so it’s probably for the best.” He scans the line of us sitting in the uncomfortable hospital waiting room chairs, stopping on me. “Lev, come.”
My count of the floor tiles that’s occupied me from going insane cuts off at the sound of my name. I’m by his side instantly, barely stopping to ask why me.
By the swinging doors, he comments, “Seems right you visit first, since you found her.” But once we’re through the doors and alone in the stretch of a white, fluorescent hallway, he shoves his hands into his pockets and hovers by the first door to our right. “Originally, I had a much different conversation planned, but then I saw you today.”
“What?” Maybe it’s because my head hasn’t been right since the minute Vitale put a ring on her finger; maybe it’s because I’m so fucking tired, but the meaning behind his words is lost within a cloud.
“I know what a man in love looks like, Lev. I’ve suspected, but then I saw you today. The ceremony, the reception. God, it was clear as fucking day.” He smirks, shaking his head. “The look on your face when you carried her in here…”
The cloud still hasn’t cleared. “What?”
He huffs. “You’re in love with my sister.”
There’s no point in denying the truth—and my future, if she’ll have me. “You mad?”
“At first,sì. You were asked to guard her, protect her, and instead, you…well, I won’t finish the thought. But today, you put aside your feelings to witness her marry another man, and you still never gave her up. Serafina is strong-willed. She wouldn’t be with you if she didn’t truly mean it.” His body thumps against the door as his energy decompresses. “Look, I spent my entire life keeping her away from the Cosa Nostra. I never envisioned her as someone’s wife for alliances, never intended to use in political schemes. How I see it, she managed a to live normal life for eighteen years, a life with choices, and if her choice is you, who am I to fight that?”
After all his determination to keep her away from crime, her tension, and my fear of betraying him, this is how it ends?
“You’re fuckin’ with me.”
He smirks, shoving off the door. “No. She’s always been free to make her own decisions, and while I may not have wanted this path for her, I can’t stop it. Not after the past few months. In the end, I’d rather someone from our world who can defend her over a civilian who wouldn’t know the difference between a bullet and a mag. As long as she willingly chooses you, I’m not mad, and I will not get in your way. Now, Vanessa, on the other hand…” He grimaces. “Good luck with that.” He steps aside and slaps my shoulder. “Let me know when she wakes, will you? I’ll take Vanessa and the others home. Anytime now, the Commission will learn about Vitale, so I anticipate a meeting.”
