Matteo Every inch of my body ached and my head felt like it was full of cotton. Groaning, I tried to open my damn eyes, which seemed glued shut. Resisting the temptation to open them with my fingernails, I slowly opened them a little, then finally fully. Luca was sitting in a chair next to my bed. A bloody hospital bed. “Don’t tell me you took me to a damn hospital?” I gasped, then coughed. Fuck. I felt like death warmed over.
Luca leaned forward, a wry smile on his face. Did he have to look so damn worried? I was no longer a little boy who needed his protection. “Now that you’re swearing again, I’ll consider moving you into my penthouse. Romero is looking forward to playing the nurse.”
I was reaching for the needle on the back of my hand to pull it out, but stopped when his words penetrated. “Your attic?”
“You’ll need to rest a few days. And I know you, so there must be someone keeping an eye on you.
He was watching me closely. As if he was trying to gauge whether I could accept the bad news. “Did something happen to Gianna?”
“NO. She’s fine.” He paused.
“Spit it out. Damn!”
“I made a deal with her.”
“Quit fucking around. Tell me the damn truth. I can take it.”
“When she called me, you weren’t breathing. I was afraid he would use the opportunity to escape.”
“My life versus her freedom,” I said with a dark laugh.
“She agreed. She’s at home with Aria now, packing her bags.”
“We have to protect her from the Outfit. Her father won’t accept it.
“You want to protect her?” asked Luca incredulously.
“She is still my wife. And I will protect her as long as she will let me.”
“She’ll leave as soon as I get everything settled. You’d better forget about her sooner or later.”
I frowned. “Would you forget Aria because someone told you to?”
“Aria wouldn’t need to be bribed to save my fucking life.”
I snatched the needle from my hand and sucked away the gushing blood before lifting my legs off the bed, despite my throbbing headache. My eyes scanned the table beside the bed for the knives and gun holster. They were not there. Damn. I felt fucking naked without them.
“Fuck,” muttered Luca. The bastard grabbed me by the shoulders to keep me from getting up. “I didn’t want to upset you. You should stay in bed.”
“I don’t give a damn. I’m not a fucking child. Stop patronizing me. I’ve dealt with worse things than a headache.
I lifted his hands and slid off the edge of the bed. Big mistake. The moment my bare feet touched the floor, I faltered.
Luca gave me stability. With a groan, I fell back on the bed. “What have they given me? I feel like someone put Roofies in my drink.” Luca turned his most condescending expression on me. ” I told you to stay in bed.”
“Shut up.” I blinked a few times. He did nothing to banish the stitches from my vision. “I want to get out of here. I’m fine.” “You’re fine when I tell you. I’m your Chief.”
I opened the nightstand drawer, but there weren’t even my weapons in there. “Where are my knives?”
“In the car. I could hardly take you to the hospital armed to the teeth.
I clenched my jaw, then stood up again. This time I hardly faltered at all.
Luca looked at me grimly. “Damn it, Matteo. Why can’t you listen for once?”
“Don’t give me that crap. If our situations were reversed, you’d already be out of that damn hospital. He didn’t bother to deny it. I knew him. “Let’s go.”
Luca tossed me a bag. “Sandro got some clothes for you. The ones you were wearing during the accident must be burned.”
I took off my embarrassing hospital gown and slipped on clean jeans. “What about underwear? Maybe Sandro likes his stuff moving around in his pants, but I prefer another barrier between my balls and the zipper.
Luca huffed. “I wonder what it will take to close your big mouth. Being almost killed and having your wife leave your sorry ass obviously isn’t enough.
I stopped buttoning my shirt. I knew he was joking.
And he was right. Nothing ever got me down. Not when our mother died, not when Dad beat the shit out of me, not when I was bleeding like a pig. So why the fuck was mentioning Gianna like a fucking punch in the stomach?
Damn. I was turning into a pussy. I gave Luca a forced smile, but he was already scrutinizing me with a frown.
“Don’t tell me you’re so anxious to leave the hospital because you’re hoping to meet Gianna and convince her to stay with you. She won’t. The selfish bitch wants freedom.”
I walked up to him, getting right in his face. “Don’t call her a bitch.” Then I staggered and had to grab Luca’s shoulder to stop myself from getting a face plant. So much for being threatening. Yikes.
Luca merely stared at him.
“I swear if you don’t stop giving me that pitiful fucking look I’ll beat you to a pulp,” I muttered .
“I don’t pity you. Pity is for people who have been in a bad situation through no fault of their own, but you chose Gianna.
You saw how unstable and damn annoying she was and you still wanted her. You were turned on by her bitchiness. You got yourself into this mess. Now you have to deal with it.”
“Cold-hearted bastard,” I said, glad he wasn’t trying to comfort me.
Luca smiled. “Always.”
I tucked my T-shirt into my jeans and slipped on my shoes. “Sandro is a fucking asshole. Not even socks? Is he a nudist or what?”
“He probably thinks you are.”
I headed for the door, trying to walk as tall as I could despite my wobbly legs. Luca got too close. He probably thought he would have to catch me if I fainted. “Stop lingering. People will think you’re my daddy.”
Luca ignored my comment. “What do you remember before you woke up?”
Back to work, thank God. “A group of Russian blowjobs chased Gianna and me. I got rid of the first car pretty quickly. A bullet through the eyebrows got rid of the driver and the subsequent crash of the other assholes. The second car was more problematic. I don’t remember what happened to them.”
“They burned their car. Charred them all.”
“What about my car?”
“Charcoal.”
“Great.”
“It could have been worse. You didn’t look good when I first saw you.
I reached the tender spot at the top of my head. Some nurses looked at us as we walked past them, but they didn’t stop us. Probably Luca had already decided everything in advance.
“You’re lucky they didn’t shave your whole head.
Knowing how vain you are, you wouldn’t have stopped complaining about it.
“You know how to cheer me up,” I said.
Luca was busy texting someone. He barely looked up .
“You’re warning Aria that we’re coming, aren’t you?” I couldn’t help but wonder if Gianna was still with Aria, if they were making plans for Gianna’s future without me. Luca had offered Gianna freedom on a golden platter. She would be stupid not to go through with it. A life away from the mob was something she had always wanted. Away from me. She would finally get her wish.
Luca gave me the barest look. “It’s better this way, believe me.”
Annoyance pervaded me. Luca had always tried to dictate my life-take care of me as he called it-and it had only gotten worse since he was also my Boss. “I can handle Gianna. I’m not a pussy, Luca. I won’t break down and cry because my wife wants to get as far away from me as possible.
“I know.” He put the phone back in his jacket. Of course I knew he had already told Aria everything she needed to know.
We arrived at Luca’s car. He opened the door for me.
“Don’t think I’m going to move you just because you’re being a gentleman,” I told him as I half-fell back in my chair. I hoped Luca would think I had done it on purpose and not because my legs were on strike.
“Don’t worry. Your backdoor is safe.” Luca closed the door in my face before turning around the car and slipping behind the wheel. He started the car and slid out of the parking lot. “Do you want me to arrange someone who can distract you? Maybe not today because of your head.
But in the next few days.”
I huffed out a laugh. “You mean a prostitute?”
Luca shrugged, not taking his eyes off the road. He had his poker face and it annoyed me to no end, because I wasn’t sure if it was a test or if he was serious. A few years ago I would have said he was very serious. Luca had never had a problem going from one woman to another, but this had happened before Aria.
“First of all, I might have a concussion but I’m not dead, and that means I don’t need a pity. If I want a woman, I can find her myself and I don’t need to pay anyone.
“You haven’t seen yourself in the mirror yet.”
I checked my reflection in the rearview mirror. “All right.
Maybe I would have more trouble than usual.” I had two black eyes, both swollen and bloodshot, and there was a bluish bulge under my hairline. Not to mention that my hair was a mess.
“You’ll scare to death every woman you approach .”
“So what? It always worked with you.”
Luca chuckled. “So that’s a no?”
“A big, fat one. I don’t want to fuck anyone, but…”
Realizing the damn trap I had just fallen into, I shut my mouth tightly. Damn.
“You’re not going to let her go, are you?” said Luca in a resigned tone.
“NO.”
“I swore on my honor to grant her freedom, but I can break my promise if that’s what you want. It’s not like I haven’t done worse before.”
“NO. I don’t want you to break your oath. And that would only make me hate you more. You can’t force Gianna to do anything. She needs to come back to me freely. This is the ‘only way.”
Luca shook his head. “Matteo, even you must realize how vain it is to hope for this. He will run away and never return. Are you willing to risk it?”
“YES.”
“Then you are a better man than I am. I would never let Aria go.”
I looked out the window. It seemed easy: letting her go, giving her a chance to find her way back to me, but I wasn’t sure I could do it. I was no better than Luca. But I was a hunter, and sometimes the hunt was futile, sometimes you had to wait for the prey to come to you. I was not a patient hunter, but this time I was going to try.