Sickness swirls through me as I stagger back to my car, far away from that warehouse.
I need to get out of here now before anyone else turns up. The cops or more gang members.
Actually, I’m pretty sure I need medical attention, but I can’t go to a hospital. Henry had managed to put in a few blows, ripping open my gun wound. The metallic tang of blood hang heavy in the air.
Without even really thinking about what I’m doing, I find myself traveling down a familiar path.
I walked away from Isabella, without really planning to see her again.
Her father won’t want me with her.
I don’t want to die, or for her to get hurt either.
But I don’t know anyone else who can look after me now.
If nother, then someone at the clinic, right?
That’s a place for people like me. People who need to be treated without anyone finding out who I am. Homeless people, mob guys, those who have gone under the radar their whole lives…
This clinic is a lifesaver for them, and I need it to save my life right now.
I needsomeoneto help me.
I pull up the car outside the clinic, remembering the days I was a homeless man, William Bonell, recalling when I panicked and kidnapped Isabella.
Who would have thought that all of that would lead me here?
Strange.
I’m getting too dizzy now as I climb out the car. I can hardly see straight.
If I can just make it to that door, then I will be okay, right?
But I don’t know if I can make it all the way.
I’m too weak.
My knees hurt.
It feels like the ground is speeding up to my face and there’s nothing that I can do to stop it…
ISABELLA
Nothing feels the same.
I think that’s the hardest part of all of this.
Everything is weird and I can’t stand it. Even Lily has been looking at me all day like I’ve lost my mind. I don’t think anyone is buying the sickness lie I’m trying to spin.
I’ve been out of action for way too long for that to be believable, but what else am I supposed to say? I can’t let anyone know the truth of who I really am.
I don’t want to be here really. Not like I used to.
I don’t have the same love in my heart.
That’s not to say that I don’t like helping people because of course I do. All I want to do is help, but my life isn’t my own at the moment.
Now I have three freaking bodyguards, but I still don’t know if that will be enough.
Things between the Lucchese’s and my family aren’t good, and I can’t see them getting better any time soon.
It doesn’t matter how much I want to escape my family and the criminal life that surrounds them, it doesn’t look like I’ll be able to. Speaking to my dad didnotgo well, and I’m pretty sure he’s going to be able to control me forever from here on out.
“You good?” Lily asks me, but she keeps her distance from me. I want to scream at her that I don’t have anything contagious, but what’s the point?
“Yeah, I think,” I sigh.
“You sure? Because I know you were throwing up earlier on.”
I can almost feel the blood drain out of my body when she says this.
I didn’t think anyone had heard me.
Will Lily pick up on the secret I don’t want anyone to know?
“Oh, I… I wasn’t sick. Just gagging. I think my body still thinks I’m ill.”
I try to laugh, but I’m definitely not pulling it off well.
Lily frowns at me. “So, you really just got away from the guy with the gun? Then you were sick?”
“Yeah. Crazy, I know. I think the cops got him, though, so we don’t need to worry about him coming back. He’s in jail now.”
Shit, Dominic really has made all of this so hard for me.
Did he know that he was leaving me behind in a massive shit show?
“Well, my night shift is over,” Lily tells me with a shrug. I can feel the iciness coming from her. She’s definitely going to be keeping her distance from me. “So I guess good luck.”
She turns her back on me and stalks out, leaving me on my own in the clinic. I’m hoping that today will be easier than the overnight shift, which is why I’ve come today.
I just want to ease myself back into things. Slowly but surely.
With a deep sigh, I settle into my chair and slide my eyes closed, trying to calm down the intense thumping that’s in my head already.
I know that I have a lot to do here-I am fully aware of that-but first I need to stop feeling so overwhelmed. It’s killing me.
I’m a strong woman, a kick ass nurse, I candothis.
Still, it takes me a little bit to gather up the strength.
The first thing I decide to do is take out the trash. Mostly because I need some fresh air.
I’m surprised by how dark it is outside. It’s still not time for the sun to rise yet. I guess my perception of time got a little skewed because of how long I’ve been out of the picture.
Being kidnapped will really do that to a person.
But I don’t think a person should miss being kidnapped.
Truth be told, my time with Dominic is the most alive I have ever felt.
It’s the most likemeI have ever felt.
And now I have a permanent reminder of that time.
I cradle my stomach, wondering what will happen with my baby and me. I just have no idea right now. No one knows, and that is terrifying.
People will find out eventually, I just don’t know what to say and how to make it alright. I don’t know how to make it not messy.
I don’t know how to make any of my life not messy.
“Oh my God!”
I got so lost in my thoughts then. It’s a shock when I almost trip over something splayed out on the floor by the trash cans of the clinic.
It takes me even longer to realize that it’s a body.
“Holy shit.”
I drop everything in my hands and bend down to try and help the person who either got hurt just outside the clinic, or just about managed to make it here for help.
Either way, I need to get this man inside.
“John,” I cry out, hoping that at least one of the guards can hear me. “John, help!”
As he comes to assist me, I’m grateful for the bodyguards for the very first time.
“Oh, what happened here?”
“I don’t know, but I can’t help him out here. We need to get him inside.”
It’s only when John carefully turns the man over to help get him inside quicker that the world crumbles underneath me. The floor that I’m balanced on seems to tilt and fall. I feel like I’m falling because of the dizziness for a little while.
I know that face.
It’s a face I didn’t ever expect to see again.
For a moment, I don’t know if I’m imagining him just because I want to see him so badly.
But nope, it’s definitely him.
Dominic.
What the hell happened to Dominic?
“No, actually, this isn’t going to work,” I insist. “We can’t take him into the clinic.”
“Why not?”
John’s wide eyes need an answer that I just can’t give him.
“He’s… he’s someone who has helped Dad in the past. Someone the cops can’t find.”
Please, don’t ask too many questions, I silently plead.
Thankfully, John is too well trained for that. “Okay, so where do we take him?”
“My apartment.”
The race is on.
I have to close up the clinic for the next person, which I hate doing, but this is an emergency. The police cannot find Dominic… that’s paramount.
Nor can whoever did this to him.
I’m sure John will have to tell my dad but I can’t worry about that at the moment.
I need to keep Dominic alive.
What the hell happened to him? Why did he leave me for this?