<b>109 </b>
GIANNI
It’s the ultimate torture, sitting helplessly against the wall while blood runs out of you and everything goes quiet<b>. </b><b>The </b>acrid odor of gunpowder <b>fills </b>my nostrils–that, and the coppery smell of blood. Gunshots ring out <b>on </b>the other end of the basement<b>, </b><b>and </b>someone, somewhere, moans in pain. The sounds ovep until <b>I’m </b>sure my skull will crack.
“Caterina,” I whisper<b>, </b>but my voice is lost in the chaos echoing through the halls between rows of rooms like the one I just pulled her from. Seconds stretch out until they feel like hours, and every pump of my heart means more blood loss, but all I care
about is her.
What did she do? Where did she go?
I lean over, wincing as I stretch, and finally close my fingers around my Glock, pulling it closer. Fuck this. I’m not waiting for him to kill her. She needs me, and I’d rather die protecting her than against this fucking wall. I’m halfway to my feet when all at once, my little bird appears in front of me. She’s wide–eyed, her entire body trembling. Relief takes the strength out of my legs for a heartbeat<b>, </b>making me lean against the cinder block wall for support.
“What-‘
She shakes her head, wrapping an arm around mine. “Donovan’s down<b>, </b>but he’s not dead. Just wounded. We need to move quickly.”
She’s right. We should move, get out of here, and never look back. have what I came here for, and she’s in one piece. That needs to be enough, but somehow, it’s not. Maybe it’s because I read some of the messages he sent one of my crew detailing what he and his father nned to do with Caterina that makes me thirsty for revenge. How they were going to use her to milk me dry and convince me to sign over most of my businesses before either killing her or waiting for the baby’s birth before selling them both on the ck market.
Those messages are burned into my brain; now they’re all I can see. “He needs to die.”
“No. We need to go. There will be another time for revenge.” She tries to pull me toward the back door I told her about earlier, but I round the corner she disappears behind to confront the man who joked about selling her.
He’s holding the knife that still juts out from his stomach. She sank it up to the hilt.Good girl. My little bird is bing a phoenix rising from the ashes of her suffering. I find the bastard panting, his skin a grisly white.
“You pathetic piece of shit.” I raise the gun, smiling down at him.
“Wait. Wait!” He holds up one blood–coated hand, pleading for the mercy he would never have extended to Caterina. Oh, how I want to savor this moment. I’d love nothing more than to drag this out, to keep him alive the way I did Christopher, To torture him until he begs for the sweet release of death, only for me to keep him alive anyway, lingering on the invisible line between misery and oblivion until his heart can’t take the strain anymore.
This isn’t about anything as low–level as money. I wouldn’t bother holding him for ransom. No amount of money, property, or power would be enough to save him from me. This is revenge.
“Donovan!” Gunshots ricochet ahead, and I shove Caterina behind me to protect her. There’s only one man that voice could belong to. Jack.
“Dad!” Donovan whines. It’s a pitiful sound. “Hurry! She fucking stabbed me, and he’s going to shoot me.”
I should blow his brains out for the hell of it, and would if it wasn’t for the bullet that whines past my ear. It brings me back to my senses in a hurry. There will be another time to end his pitiful existence, where I can draw it out and make it worthwhile. Right now Caterina is all that matters<b>, </b>her and the baby. Even my blood loss and how the world starts to go fuzzy and blurry around the edges don’t matter half as much as getting her to safety
“You got lucky, you son of a bitch,” I hiss an instant before another bullet passes me. This time, lodging in the cinder block above my head. I’ve already pressed my luck as far as it’ll go.
<b>109 </b>
+15 <b>BONUS </b>
“Let’s go.” As always, my little bird cares more about me than herself. “You’ve already lost so much blood.”
“I’ve had worse,<b>” </b>I whisper, leading her to the door which opens the rear of the building. I can’t remember when, exactly, but this is not the time to split hairs. I hear Jack behind us, shouting at his son. And, for one blood–chilling moment, I imagine himing after us rather than sticking to his son’s side.
It’s enough to make me cast a look over my shoulder, expecting to find Jack ring at me in the fluorescent light flickering faintly overhead. It wouldn’t surprise me to find him there, his gun aimed at my head.
“You fucking bitch!” he screams, his words bouncing off the unforgiving surfaces of the basement. “I should’ve ripped your fucking heart out, you cunt!”
“Don’t!” she urges, pulling me by the arm. I didn’t even realize unl she did it that I faltered. As if my subconscious was about to turn me around and send me down the hall to paint the walls with the brains of both men the way Jack painted that crate with Amalia’s brains and blood.
We burst outside together, the light from the rising sun paints the sky an array of pinks and oranges. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more beautiful sunrise. Strange How that’s the first thought thates to mind. I might have lost more blood than I realized- my head feels heavy, and the ck car waiting for us with its headlights on and doors open seems to be a million miles away.
“Boss!” I don’t know who it is that calls out to me. I only know that one of my men catches me before my knees hit the ground.
“Get her… to the car…” I’m so fucking weak. She doesn’t need to see me like this. It’ll only make things worse. “Jack and Donovan are still in there. Donovan’s wounded.” A second guard takes off at a run, his gun drawn. I doubt he’ll catch up to them, but I hope that if he does, he shoots to maim rather than to kill. I want the pleasure of ending their pathetic lives myself.
“Gianni?” Caterina’s at my other side, clinging to me despite my blood staining her clothes and snow–white skin. “Don’t you dare die on me. I didn’t go through all of that just for you to die. Stay with me, please!!”
“Yes, ma’am.” A weak smile stirs my lips upward, and before I know it, I’m in the car. A groan of pain passes my lips, and I hate that I’m so weak I can’t hold myself together.
Caterina tumbles in after me and presses her face to my shoulder. Gianni… oh, my God…” Anything else she tries to say is lost to her broken sobs, each so powerful they make her body heave against mine. I hate that she’s crying and that I’m partially the cause of her pain.
“You’re safe now. Everything is going to be okay.” Wrapping my left arm around her leaves my right hand free to press against the bullet wound on my side. The bleeding seems to have slowed but hasn’t yet stopped.
“No, it’s not. You’re bleeding out.” There’s dried blood on my hand though I touch her cheek anyway, marveling at how she’s here. I have her back. I can touch her, hear her sweet voice<b>, </b>feel the warmth of her body against mine. That’s a good thing, too, since I’m suddenly shivering.
Fuck. I’m going into shock.
“My phone’s in my pocket.” I lean over, grimacing, breathing deeply to stave off the darkness threatening to ovee me. She pulls it out. “Call Roger. Put it on speaker.”
She does as she’s told, and a momentter, his voice fills the car’s interior. “Is it done?”
“We have her. She’s here.”
A question quickly follows his sigh of relief. “You sound bad. What’s the situation?”
“He was shot,” Caterina blurts out, her voice trembling. “He lost a lot of blood.”
“Shot… <b>in </b>my right side,” I exin through clenched teeth when the car hits another bump. “I think it went through clean, but I lost a lot. I need you to alert the staff. I’m going to need help when we arrive.”
“Five minutes,” I hear from the front of the car.
“What about you<b>, </b>Caterina?” Roger asks.
109
+15 <b>BONUS </b>
<b>“</b>I’m fine. <b>They </b>didn’t hurt me.”
She’ll need a bed,<b>” </b>I insist, ignoring her shaking head. “And I want an ultrasound done ASAP. Whatever it takes. We need to make sure the baby’s okay.”
“<b>I’ll </b>have it arranged by the time you get here. I already got a call from Isaac–he went back in, but they were gone. He said there was a trail of blood leading out to the front lot that ended next to a empty parking space. They got away.”
I knew it, of course, but hearing it chills what blood I have left. “It was impossible. Jack was firing on us, I had to get her out of there-”
“Nobody’s ming you,” he insists, cutting me off. “You did what needed to be done. But rest assured, we’ll find them. The more they run, the more I want them.”
Somewhere along the line, this became personal for him. “I know we will.” My head touches the back of the seat, and I sigh. Now that the emergency is over and Caterina’s here, there’s less adrenaline to keep me alert. My eyes drift closed, and my limbs be heavy.
“Gianni?” I blink my eyes open to find Caterina leaning over me, her face filling my awareness. Her sweet<b>, </b>beautiful face. Like an angel hovering over me.“Stay with me, okay? We’re almost there. Stay awake. Don’t leave me.”
“I will… never… leave you…” Even if it feels that way. My eyelids have never been so heavy, and holding them open takes every ounce of strength I possess. They begin to close on their own in spite of my struggle to keep them open. “It’s going to be okay. We’ll all be okay.”
“We’re almost there!” the driver shouts. “Stay with us, boss.”
“Gianni, please.” Thest thing I sense is the touch of her lips against mine.
Even if I die here and now, I couldn’t think of a better way to go.
<b>109 </b>
CATERINA
Ihate how hospitals smell, though it’s heavenlypared to what spent the past few days smelling. It’s so… clean. We didn’t even stop at the ER–I’m already in my own room<b>, </b>just as Gianni is A room I wish I was in right now.
“Where is Gianni? Is he alright?” I pepper the nurse with questions as soon as she walks in.
“Miss Cole, I already told you that he’ll be just fine.” I’m sure the nurse is tired of me asking that by now, even as she hides it pretty well while hooking a bag of saline up to the port in my arm. He’s being stitched up as we speak.”
“But he’s okay? Are you sure?”
She offers a warm smile and pats my hand. “I’m fairly sure, and 1 check on him once we’re finished here with you.”
“I’m fine.” Now that I had an ultrasound to ensure the baby was okay, I only care about Gianni. I might as well be talking to a wall for all the good it’s doing. Nobody understands how important it is for me to know he’s safe. Either that, or they’re cating me because the news is terrible, and nobody wants me to know yet. Maybe if I start screaming, somebody will drop the act and be honest with me.
“You’re dehydrated and need to eat something. We have to be sure you’re taken care of as well.” While she chides me, she takes my blood pressure. “The most important thing right now is making sure you stay calm. Your blood pressure is a little higher than I’d like.”
Easy for her to say. “I’m trying.”
“We’ll give the saline some time, and someone from down in the cafeteria will bring up the meal you requested. All you have to do right now is rest.”
“What about Tatiana? My friend.” I really wish Gianni was here with me. I’m entirely in the dark, and I hate it. “Where is she? I have to see her.”
A male voice answers that question. “She’s in a suite upstairs.”
I crane my neck and look around the nurse- I never thought the sight of Roger would bring happy tears to my eyes.
“Hi,” I whisper.
He offers a faint grin. <b>“</b>Good to see you alive and well.” He and the nurse exchange a look, and suddenly she’s in a big hurry to leave the room. I can understand why–he’s pretty intimidating, even to me. I can’t imagine how much worse it would be for a stranger to face his dark, intense energy for the first time.
“How is she?” I ask.
Once he reaches the side of the bed, it hits me that he’s the one I should be more concerned about. I wonder if he’s slept at all in the days since we were kidnapped. “She’s doing better, just not talking much. She stares out the window most of the time. She did perk up when I told her you were here, and that you were safe.‘
Thank you, God. I’ll never forget what it felt like, her weight suddenlynding on me. I was so sure she was dead. “I have to see
her.<b>” </b>
“You’ll get to see her. But first, you’ve got to take <b>care </b>of yourself. Meaning you should eat something before I take you up.”
Did everybody decide to treat me like a child once I was rescued? It’s like they’re all working from the same script. “Truthfully, they weren’t that awful to me. I’m not in bad shape. Dehydrated and exhausted, yes, but it could’ve been much worse.”
It’s rare to see him smile–not that there’s any lightness or humor in it. It’s more like he’s trying not to snicker at me. “They weren’tthat badto you?”
“You know what I mean. They didn’t, like, beat me or anything.”
<b>109 </b>
<b>+15 </b><b>BONUS </b>
<b>“</b>Tell that to the bruises on your face.”
<b>“</b>Thaven’t looked at myself in the mirror.”
He touches <b>his </b>fingers to his own cheek. “It’s not thatbad. Just alle bit here and there.” He switches to the other side. “Looks like you got pped.”
<b>“</b><b>That’s </b>because I did.”
“Other than that, you look like you could use, a shower, but that’s No offense.”
“You look like you could use one, too,” I retort. No, he wasn’t being critical, but I’m tired, frustrated, and sick of the condescension I’ve received from almost everybody since arriving at the hospital
“I’m sure you’re right,” he admits while rubbing a hand over his scruffy cheek. “Since Tatiana is awake and you’re back, <b>I </b>might be able to grab one.”
“Has my dad been here?” I whisper.
“He’s on his way. I called him to let him know you’re here, and safe.”
“Thank you, for everything. I’m sure this hasn’t been easy, and you look like you’ve been through the wringer?
“I’ve endured worse, believe me. I’ll check in with Gianni and then tell Tatiana you’lle up after eating something.” He heads for the door but doesn’t make it out before it flies open. My father rushes into the room<b>, </b>barely ncing at Roger after bumping into him and heading straight from me with his arms outstretched.
“Oh, my baby. My girl.” If I didn’t know better, I would think he is trying to crush me with how tight his hug is.
“It’s okay, Dad. I’m okay. Everything is fine,” I assure him.
“You’re alright?” Finally, he releases me and I can breathe. He takes my face into his hands and examines me himself. “You were held hostage for days. How can you say you’re fine?”
“Well, every test they ran said I’m in good shape, and I won’t argue with test results. Dehydration is the worst of it.”
“Have you eaten? Damnit, I should’ve brought you something.”
“Dad, please, rx. It’s okay, you didn’t have to bring me anything. I asked to have some food from the cafeteria brought up.”
He nods, studying my face. “Are you sure you’re okay? What did they do to you? Did they hurt you?”
My head aches at the idea of exining any of this to him. “Dad, I’m exhausted. And I don’t think I have it in me to rehash the whole story.” His face falls, and that expression stirs up guilt<b>, </b>so I add, “They didn’t really hurt me. For the most part, they left me alone. I was in a tiny little room by myself.”
“So no one… tried to take advantage of you?”
My skin crawls, and I can almost feel Donovan’s hands on my ankles when he forces my legs apart after I kick him. I don’t want Dad to see what his question does to me, so I shake my head with as much of a smile as <b>I </b>can muster. “Honestly, it was scary, but it wasn’t as bad as <b>it </b>could have been. Gianni got there before things took a dark turn.”
“Yeah, he’s a real hero,” he says sarcastically. It’s not that I didn’t expect the anger, the way he slides right into his typical attitude toward Gianni. It still hurts to see it, though. Is this how it’s always going to be? Torn between the two of them, wanting them both to be happy no matter how miserable it is for me?
“He is,” I insist. “He ran right into the chaos to save me and ended up getting shot and risking his own life to get me out.”
He shakes his head just when I think he’s about toe around. “There wouldn’t have been any need for that if it wasn’t for the way he lives his life. Don’t argue with me,” he grunts when I open my mouth, prepared to do just that.
“He almost died for me. I don’t know what else you want from him”
<b>100 </b>
<b>“</b><b>Not </b>only for <b>you</b><b>.</b><b>” </b>
There goes my heart<b>, </b>stuttering at his words. “What do you mean
“He did it for the baby, too, didn’t he?”
<b>+15 </b><b>BONUS </b>
“Oh.” Suddenly, I’m too tired to sit upright, so I lean against the raised bed with a sigh. “Surprise?” I offer in a whisper. This wasn’t how I envisioned him finding out, but there’s no keeping it secret anymore.
<b>“</b>I’m d you can joke about it.”
“You’re my father. Of course, I was going to tell you. Although it’s still so carly.“.
“<b>I </b>didn’t want you to find out this way.” I pick at my thin nket, suddenly nervous
“I’m surprised you wanted me to find out at all.”
look
at
him.
“Don’t give me that bullshit,” he scolds.
“Even now, you’re going to be this way?” I p a hand against the bed, releasing some frustration<b>. </b>“Youe running in here and almost squeeze the life out of me after I was missing for days, then give me this attitude.”
Silence falls between us while he sits with his gaze downcast. “What do you want me to say?” I finally whisper. “I didn’t n it. Sometimes, these things happen.”
“Now there won’t be any escaping him. Whatever future you had nned, it’s now tied directly to his.”
“How can I make you understand? I don’t want to get away from him. I want to be with him.‘
“I know.” I can think of only a few times in my life when I saw the look that’s on his face right now. A look of disappointment and sadness. He will never understand what not having his approval does to me. It looks like this is the way life will always be. Carrying the weight of his disappointment on my shoulders even when I know Gianni is the only man I will ever want.
It’s a relief when a knock on the door interrupts us. “Come in,” I say, and the door squeaks open as a staff member brings in a tray of food. The aroma of bacon and sausage leaves me practically choking on the saliva that floods my mouth. The second the tray is set on the wheeled table near the bed, I pull it closer<b>, </b>then manage a mumbled apology before practically shoving my face into the te. The first taste of salty bacon is enough to bring tears to my eyes. Nothing has ever tasted this good.
Shuffling footsteps at the open door grab my attention from my feast in time to find Gianni slowly walking through the door. Now the bacon might as well be sawdust, because nothing else matters. He’s here. He’s alive, and he’s walking–even if it’s slow going.