I lifted my eyes from where Allegra lay motionless. Whatever the detective saw in my eyes caused him to back up a step. “My name is Dante De Stefano,” I gritted out. “And I’m not saying shit without my lawyers present. Until then. Stay. The. Fuck. Away. From. Me. Or I will shoot you with your own motherfucking gun.”
“You can’t threaten a cop like that,” one of the uniformed officers had snarled and stepped forward, his cuffs already out.
“No,” the detective stopped him as he turned to walk away from me. “Leave him be. He’s one of Vitucci’s men.”
No one else approached me until the EMTs arrived and loaded Allegra up. I rode in the back of the ambulance with her, and as soon as we got to the nearest emergency room, they were ready to take her into surgery.
I fell into a waiting room chair, the moment I saw my life changing playing on repeat in my head. Allegra jumping in front of me just as Gio’s gun went off. Watching the pain on her face as the bullet hit her in the back—where my heart would have been if she hadn’t sacrificed herself.
I was going to spank her ass when she woke up.
If she woke up…
No, goddamn it. When. When she woke up, I was going to spank her ass for doing something so stupid. I was going to turn her ass pink, and then I was going to kiss every last inch of her body and beg her never to do something that might take her away from me again. Because right then and there, I was slowly dying. I couldn’t fucking breathe. Who knew what kind of damage the bullet had done? There had been no exit wound. The damn thing could have ricocheted around inside of her and tore up any number of vital organs.
I got a text from Anya an hour into Allegra’s surgery assuring me Jenny was safe. I scrubbed my hands over my face. I didn’t know what had happened to Lauren, but I wasn’t about to go looking for answers. Not until I saw Allegra. I needed to see her with my own eyes and assure myself she was alive before I even thought about her mother’s well-being.
A nurse appeared in the waiting room doorway, her gaze scanning over the room until it landed on me. Her eyes widened when she saw me, and I could only imagine what she was seeing and concluding. I had Allegra’s blood all over me and wouldn’t have been surprised if it was smeared on my face.
I stood before she could decide if she wanted to talk to me or not and met her at the door. “Allegra Vitucci? Is there any news on her condition?”
She gulped and nodded. “The doctors sent me out to speak to her next of kin. That would be you?”
“She’s my fiancée.”
“Oh, okay then. Well, the doctors are just finishing up. They found the bullet, but there was some damage that took a little longer to fix than they originally thought. She’s stable right now and will be moved into recovery very soon. The doctor will be out to speak to you as soon as he’s got her closed up.”
Relieved, all I could do was nod as I dropped into the nearest hard plastic chair. For the next twenty minutes, I sat right there, waiting for the doctor to make an appearance. When he did, he was covered in sweat, but at least he wore a satisfied expression.
“My nurse tells me you’re my patient’s fiancé,” he said by way of greeting as he stopped in front of me. The man was dressed in scrubs with no facial hair and a slightly receding hairline. He was fit, at least forty, and pissed off.
I jerked to my feet, wiping my sweating palms on my jeans. “How is she?”
“The most damage was done to her right lung. We removed the upper lobe, but there are three in that particular lung, so she’s not likely to miss the absent portion.” He crossed his arms over his chest, glaring at me. “The bullet also nicked her liver and the small intestine, but I see no reason to think she won’t make a full recovery.”
“Can I see her?” I choked out.
“She’s going to be in recovery for a little longer, but as soon as she’s settled in a room, someone will be out to notify you. You can see her for a few minutes then.” He took a step closer, lowering his voice. “I understand she was shot in the back. The cops will be by to speak to you.”
“I’ve already spoken to the cops,” I growled. “I didn’t shoot her, if that’s what you’re getting at.”
“That’s up to the cops to determine.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” I demanded, taking a threatening step forward.
He shrugged, not seeming the least bit intimidated by me. “I see this kind of thing all the time. Beaten, battered girlfriends and wives end up on my OR table just as often as not these days. This girl had fresh bruises and evidence of years of abuse in all her X-rays and films. If it wasn’t from you, it was from someone else. But that’s for the cops to figure out.”
“Not that it’s any of your business,” I bit out. “But it wasn’t me who hurt her like that. It was her father.”
His eyes widened for a moment before darkening. “And yet another too-often case that lands on my table. Five minutes, that’s all I ask. Five minutes with some of these SOBs.”
“No need to worry about this one, Doc. He’s dead,” I assured him.
The doctor was quiet for a small pause then nodded. “Good. You can see her in about thirty minutes. Stay as long as you want, but if she becomes agitated by your presence, I’m kicking your ass out.”
Knowing Allegra was going to be okay made it easier to breathe, and I realized I needed to check in with everyone. Using the phone Anya had given me earlier, I called the house back in Chicago. No one answered. Cursing, I called Jarvis’s cell.
“Hello?” Eloise answered in a tight, pain-filled voice after the phone rang nearly a dozen times.
“Are you safe?” I asked, holding my breath.
“Dante,” she whispered emotionally. “I’m so glad to hear your voice, boy. Yes, I’m safe. I’m at the hospital with Jarvis, though. Things have been so crazy, and I didn’t know how to get in contact with you.”
“Tell me what happened.”
She sucked in a shuddery breath. “Jarvis was ambushed on his way home from picking up Jenny from school. He said there were two cars. They ran him off the road, and the car flipped. They… They took Jenny.”
“Will he live?”
“Nothing is life-threatening,” she assured me. “A few busted ribs, concussion, and a fractured leg, which he’s in surgery having fixed right now.”
“I’m glad he’s going to be all right,” I told her with a tired sigh.
“Do you know anything about Jenny? Is she safe?”
“Don’t worry about Jenny, Eloise. She’s safe and with a friend. I’m at the hospital myself right now. Allegra…” I gritted my teeth. “Gio shot Allegra in the back when she jumped in front of a bullet to save me.”
“Oh dear God,” she cried. “Is she going to be okay?”
“Surgeon said she’s going to be fine. I need to go, though. I’ll call you back soon to check in,” I told her.
“You better, boy. I want to know how our girl is doing.”
After getting off the phone with Eloise, I called Cristiano. More than enough time had passed for them to have gotten Scarlett and Vito away from Fontana. The phone didn’t even finish ringing once before his voice hit my ear.
“Where are you?”
“Hospital. You?”
There was a long pause on his end. “Who’s in the hospital? Anya?”
“No. I’m not sure where she is, but she’s safe. Allegra caught a bullet…”
“What?” he exploded.
“By Gio,” I finished. “Damn woman stepped in front of a bullet meant for me, fearlessly.”
“Is she going to be okay? Tell me all you know,” he demanded.
“She’s out of surgery and in recovery now. Bullet caused some internal damage, but Doc said she’ll be okay.” I didn’t want to talk about it again. I could tell him all the details later. “What about on your end?”
“Scarlett is pissed but safe. Pop has a headache where they knocked him out, but he?
??ll live. Can’t kill that old goat.” He exhaled harshly. “Fucking Fontana got away.”
“Shit.”
“He’s been playing ping-pong from one coast to the other. Bothering us and the MC guys. Even if we had caught the motherfucker, Ciro said we couldn’t kill him. MC prez has a price on Enzo’s head. Wants him very much alive.”
“I’m not worried about Enzo. Let the West Coast have at him.” I scrubbed my hands over my face then grimaced when I smelled the metallic scent of blood under my nose. “Look, can you do me a favor since you’re done with your shit?”
“Name it.”
“I need some fresh clothes. I’ve got Allegra’s blood all over me. And she’s going to need a few things too.”
“You got it, fratello. Be prepared, though. Victoria will descend on you now that she knows the truth. May God have pity on your soul, my friend,” he chuckled.
I bit back a curse. “Yeah, I figured as much.”
“See you soon,” he promised and hung up.
Only a few minutes had passed from the first call to now, and I needed to find out how Lauren was. Standing, I walked out of the waiting room and to the first nurses station I came to. An older woman with wise eyes lifted a brow in inquiry when she spotted me.
“Can I help you, sir?”
“I’m looking for information on another patient who was brought in not long after my fiancée,” I told her. “Lauren Vitucci.”
Her lashes flickered at the last name, but she made no other outward reaction. She typed a few things into her computer before lifting her gaze back to me. The EMT who’d brought Allegra in told me they would be bringing Lauren to this hospital. I’d given them her name and some information about her, but that was the extent I was able to go to while worry for Allegra had clouded my mind.
“No one came to notify you of Mrs. Vitucci’s condition?” she asked hesitantly.
“I’ve been in the OR waiting room, ma’am. My fiancée, Mrs. Vitucci’s daughter, was brought in with a gunshot wound to the back,” I told her honestly.
Sympathy filled her distrustful eyes. “Sir,” she murmured as she came around the station. “I’m sorry to inform you that Mrs. Vitucci passed away not long after her arrival by ambulance.”
“Passed away?” I repeated.
“I can have the ER doctor who tended to her come speak to you if you’d like, sir. He can take you to see Mrs. Vitucci’s body so you can sign the release forms to send her to the funeral home of your choice.”
“My fiancée is coming out of recovery soon. I don’t…I don’t want to miss my chance to see her.”
She patted me on the arm. “I realize that Mr.…?”
“De Stefano.”
“I realize that, Mr. De Stefano. But I think it would be better for you to tend to this than to distress your fiancée with it later, don’t you think?”
I didn’t want Allegra to have to deal with anything, let alone this shit with her mother. With a nod, I let her call the ER. Five minutes later, the doctor who had taken care of Lauren stepped off the elevator and offered me his hand. He was in his fifties, skinny, and at least half a foot shorter than I was.
“Mr. De Stefano?” I nodded. “I’m sorry to be meeting you under these circumstances. My deepest condolences.”
“The nurse said you needed me to sign some forms,” I told him. “I’d like to do that now so I can be here for when my fiancée is able to receive visitors.”
The doctor took me downstairs to the morgue, where I had to identify the body. He lifted the sheet showing me the condition in which she had been brought in. She was in nothing more than her bra and panties, her body one mass of blue, black, and yellow bruises. “She seems to have been beaten extensively over the last several days.”
“Is that what killed her?” I asked in a hoarse voice.
“No, sir. It seems she had an aneurysm that had been growing for quite some time. It ruptured. Even if we had gotten to her in time, the chances of her surviving something that massive were very slim.”
“What does that mean exactly? This aneurysm caused her pain?” Had she been hurting for years, and I hadn’t realized it? “Could we have gotten her help before this happened?”
The doctor squeezed my shoulder. “Don’t do that to yourself, Mr. De Stefano. An aneurysm is a tricky thing. She quite possibly had this thing for years and didn’t show a single sign of it.”
“What kind of signs?”
“Most never present themselves at all until it’s too late. Headaches and changes in personality have been presented as possible warning signs…” He droned on for several minutes about this being no one’s fault, but I was only half listening to the man. There was someone at fault. Gio. And I wanted to bring him back from the dead just so I could kill him all over again.
That man had caused this. All those blows to the head had caused her aneurysm, and his beatings the last few days had made it rupture. I hoped to God he was getting special treatment in hell, but once I joined him there, I would dole out some of my own.
By the time I signed all the paperwork for Lauren’s transfer and walked back to the OR waiting room, a nurse was just walking into the room to get me. She showed me to Allegra’s private room and told me the doctor said I could stay as long as I wanted as long as her patient didn’t get upset in any way.
A chair was positioned beside the bed. I sat and took her hand. She looked so tiny lying there, oxygen tubes in her nose and an IV dripping fluids and blood back into her. She shouldn’t have been here. It was supposed to be me, not her, damn it.
She was still sleeping because of the pain medication and lingering effects of the anesthesia. Entwining our fingers, I kissed the back of her hand and pressed my forehead to our linked hands. “What were you thinking?” I groaned. “Do you know how destroyed I was when I saw you step in front of that fucking bullet?”
“Do you know how destroyed I would have been if he’d killed you?” she sassed back.
My head shot up, my gaze soaking up the sight of her eyes fluttering open. Her face was pale, her eyes bloodshot and barely open, but fuck, they were open. “Hi,” I breathed.
“Hi,” she laughed, only to groan. “Sweet holy, that hurts.”
I moved so I could kiss her forehead, afraid to hurt her by kissing her lips with the ferocity I so desperately needed to. Tears, something I had never allowed myself to shed in my entire adult life, stung my eyes. Clenching them closed, I touched my forehead to hers. “You ever do that again, and I’m gonna bend you over my knee. I’m gonna tan that beautiful ass of yours.”
“I’ve read a few books where the heroine enjoyed that,” she murmured huskily. “Am I going to enjoy it?”
“Every fucking second of it,” I vowed.
“Then I’m definitely going to be doing things like that over and over again.” Then she seemed to jerk. “Jenny!”
I scrubbed a hand over my eyes so she wouldn’t see my tears before leaning back. “She’s safe. Anya got her out.”
“Lauren?”
I clenched my jaw, preparing myself to tell her. In the span of just a few hours, she’d lost both of her parents. But she must have read the truth in my face. “She’s…gone?”
“It was a brain aneurysm, baby.”
She covered her mouth with her hand that had an IV hooked into it. “Oh God, Dante. She was talking gibberish. Poor little Jenny was so scared and begged me to help her. But… But I was so scared of Papa, and I just froze up.”
“There was nothing you could have done, sweetheart. The doctor said it was massive.” I kissed away her tears as they spilled over her lashes. “Don’t think about that anymore. I want you to rest. Cristiano will be here soon. If he sees you crying, he’s going to beat my ass.”
She attempted to give me a weak smile, but it was pained. “And Jarvis and Eloise? I know how protective he is of Jenny. If Papa was able to get her, something must have happened to them.”
/> “Jarvis is in the hospital back in Chicago, but he’s going to be fine. A few broken bones and a concussion. Eloise is taking care of him, so I’m not worried about him.” I stroked my thumb under her left eye, wiping away a few more tears.
“What about Scarlett?” she persisted. “And Zio Vito?”
“Everyone who should be fine, is. Now, please relax my love, before the nurse comes in here and kicks me out because your heart rate is jacked up.” That had her pressing her lips closed, her lashes lowering.
“I’m just worried about everyone,” she muttered grumpily.
“And I’m just worried about you. No one else matters but you.” I touched my lips to hers, making the kiss soft and swift before dropping back down into my chair. Keeping our fingers linked, I met her gaze. “Instead of concerning yourself with them, how about thinking about more important things?”
“Such as?” she said with a pout, making me groan because all I wanted was to kiss that damn pout away.
“Like our wedding.” She lifted her lashes, making her eyes look huge in her pale face. “Where do you want to get married?”
“Anywhere,” she whispered, her lashes lowering again as she gave up the fight against the pain medication and gave herself over to sleep.
I sat there for hours, just watching her sleep, thankful she was still with me. That we still had a future and I got to keep her for a little longer.
Epilogue
Allegra
Deep male laughter mixing with sweet little giggles filled the air, and I looked out my open bedroom window that overlooked our huge backyard. A barefoot toddler raced through the sprinklers, wearing only a diaper and a grin as she ran from her father.
From the veranda, Jenny watched with her phone recording the entire thing so she could play it back and show Dante just how stupid he looked, which she teased him about relentlessly. The grin on her face warmed my heart just as much as hearing my daughter and husband laughing did. Jenny deserved to smile like that every day, but it hadn’t been until after Adley was born that Jenny was able to finally find a reason to smile again.