Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 84324 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 422(@200wpm)___ 337(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84324 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 422(@200wpm)___ 337(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
It’s all I care about.
“Keep talking to me, mia piccola farfalla.” A harsh breath shudders from him as he gently lays me down on the covers.
When he locks eyes with me, I see how much pain he’s in, and a tear escapes from my eye, rolling down my temple, while I gasp, “I couldn’t lose you.”
His eyes shut briefly before he looks at me again, something raw and furious moving across his face. “Never again, Laurie. It’s my job to protect you, not the other way around.”
Big Ricky appears beside me with an injection, and when I see the long needle, my eyes go squint.
“Laurie!” I hear Adriano roar as everything goes black.
I keep going in and out of consciousness, only able to hear something every now and then.
“I can’t lose her!”
Tori is sobbing uncontrollably. “Will she make it, Big Ricky?”
“Quiet!” Big Ricky shouts. “Let me focus.”
“I won’t survive losing you,” Adriano murmurs against my temple as he brushes his palm over my hair. “Please, amore mio. Open your eyes. I’m fucking begging you.”
Adriano
Taking in all the blood Laurie has lost, my fear becomes a living, breathing monster.
Her neck, collarbone, and clothes are soaked with blood.
I’m fucking soaked in her blood.
Cradling her head with my attention glued to her lashes, I keep seeing her break free from Marco and running toward me.
She used herself as a fucking shield to protect me.
Christ. What the fuck was she thinking?
I close my eyes and take a deep breath of her, but I can only smell the sweet metallic scent of blood. “Please,” I pray to whoever’s listening. “Don’t take her from me.”
“She’s tough, son,” Dad murmurs while patting my shoulder.
Big Ricky presses both hands against the wound, trying to slow the bleeding, then mutters, “Fuck, the bullet nicked an artery.”
Ice tears through my chest. Big Ricky was a medic in the army. He’s had years of experience patching up his own wounds and those of our men when they couldn’t get to the hospital in time.
If he’s worried, it’s fucking bad.
“No,” I groan, my eyes snapping back to my wife’s way too fucking pale face.
“Tiny!” Big Ricky snaps. “Get your O negative ass over here. Move Adriano. Make space for him.”
“Can you save her?” Mom asks, her voice trembling.
“Yeah.” He lets go of Laurie’s arm long enough to rip open a black medical bag and turns it over on the bed while Tiny lies down beside my wife. “But if I don’t close it now, she dies before we reach the hospital.”
Dies.
I stare at the clamps, sutures, gauze, and needles. The sight of the medical supplies turns my stomach because none of this should be happening in our fucking bedroom.
This shouldn’t be happening to my butterfly.
“Get me towels,” Big Ricky barks, while he jabs a needle into Tiny’s wrist with brutal efficiency before setting up another line into Laurie.
He grabs a flashlight and switches it on, then orders, “Son, come hold the light steady for me on the wound.”
Little Ricky moves and does as his father orders while I stand helpless and watch.
The room fills with wet sounds and metal clinking as Big Ricky begins to work on Laurie’s arm. He’s only covered the wound to her neck with a bandage, so I hope that means it’s nothing too serious.
Dad’s arm falls around my shoulders, and Mom begins to wipe Laurie’s blood from my hands and arms with a wet cloth.
I can’t move. I can’t talk.
I can only watch as Big Ricky breathes harder and harder with every passing second.
Then blood suddenly surges over his hands again, the sight making my heart all but stop dead in my chest.
“Fuck! He snaps before shoving the clamp deeper into the wound, then he growls under his breath, “Got you.”
Laurie’s body stays frighteningly still while he works to fix her with the kind of precision that reminds me he’s done this before in places far worse than this room.
Seconds drag by like hours as my soul reaches from my body to get to Laurie’s.
Please, I can’t face a day without you. Stay with me.
Finally, the bleeding slows down until it stops, and when Big Ricky exhales a relieved breath, hope pours into my heart.
Dr. Milazzo suddenly runs into the room. “What are we dealing with?”
“You’re fucking late,” Big Ricky snaps at him. “Check on Tiny. He’s giving a lot of blood. I’ve got Laurie.”
My eyes latch onto Laurie’s pale face, and I don’t stop staring at my wife until she’s loaded onto a gurney so she can be taken to the Cosa Nostra’s hospital.
Chapter 26
Adriano
Gripping Laurie’s hand, I have her fingers pressed to my forehead while I keep whispering to her to wake up.
Dr. Milazzo gave her more blood, and after checking the work Big Ricky did, he said she’s out of the woods.
But she’s not waking up, and until I see those incredible blue eyes of hers, it feels as if the Grim Reaper is hovering over us.