Chapter 17
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Felicity
The most terrifying thing you can see is someone getting shot.
Watching Levi go down in front of me is something I never want to see again.
I drop to the ground beside him as I call his name.
I see the guys taking down all five of the others.
After Marcia shot Levi, one of the polar bears rushed over and pinned her to the ground by sitting on her.
It’s amazing how fast they move and whoever it is, they look pretty happy doing it.
The one I’m worried about is the one that got shot. He still hasn’t moved.
“Levi, open your eyes and look at me. Please.” I sob.
“The ambulance is coming,” Jared Taylor, one of the Wintervale police officers, says to me.
“Please hurry.” I sob harder as I put pressure on his side.
I feel someone kneeling down next to me and look up to see Valentino.
“I can’t lose him,” I cry.
“You won’t,” Valentino says as he hugs me.
We finally hear the ambulance sirens.
“Valentino, you and Felicity ride with Levi. The rest of us will be behind you. We need to clean up here.”
Valentino nods at Enea and helps me up as the paramedics run over. When I look over at where the bears were, they’re gone. I see Adonis holding Marcia against the car and Eros is watching the other woman. They both look like they want to kill them. But I don’t see Zeus and that worries me.
I get into the ambulance with Levi and Valentino.
I watch Valentino make the phone call to Leighton and Lynton.
The pain that I see is horrible. Not only does he have to tell his wife her baby brother’s been shot.
But he has to tell her who did it. He holds back telling her who did it, I think that’s a smart choice.
We can tell her together. Then he tells Leighton to put Armando on the phone and tells him where we’re going.
“Your brothers are headed to the hospital,” Valentino says to me.
“I’ll help you tell Leighton and Lynton what happened,” I say to him.
“Thanks, I don’t know how they’re going to react. This was their fear when they lived at home.” He sighs.
“This is always my fear. Losing someone I love again. I don’t think I can do it.”
“We’re not losing Levi. Don’t worry about that. Just worry about making sure he knows you’re here for him.”
I nod. Valentino’s right. No more thinking about loss. Finally, we see everyone coming into the ER waiting room. My brothers come straight to me and hug me.
“Thank god you’re okay,” Paxton says as he looks at me.
“Did they hurt you?” Rhett asks.
I shake my head no. “They didn’t hurt me…but Levi.”
“He’s going to be okay,” Lukas says as he hugs me tighter.
“Emma, Emiko and Piper wanted to be here, but we thought it would be better for them to stay with the kids. We didn’t want them to have to see what’s going on here. But they said to make sure you know that they love you,” Paxton says.
“Have they told you anything? Where are those fucking shitbags that shot him?” Leighton frowns as she comes over.
Valentino holds her and kisses her.
“They haven’t come out to give us any updates. They took Levi straight into surgery,” I say to her.
“And we’re waiting on Enea to call. There was a lot going on when we left,” Valentino tells her.
“Family of Levi?” a nurse comes out.
We all stand up.
“The doctor wants me to bring you up to the surgical waiting area.”
“Can you tell us how he’s doing?” I ask.
“I haven’t been in the operating room. I was just told to move all of you to the waiting room. I’m sorry. But I’ll try and see if I can find any information for you.”
“Thank you.”
“Okay, so who shot my brother?” Leighton asks as she looks at me and Valentino.
“You need to sit down, baby,” Valentino says as he steers her to a chair.
“You’re fucking scaring me. Why won’t you tell me?”
Lynton comes over and holds Leighton’s hand.
“Tell us.” Lynton frowns at Valentino.
“It was your parents. Well, your mother is the one who shot Levi,” Leonardo says as he walks into the waiting room.
“What? No, what are you talking about? We haven’t seen or heard from them in years.” Lynton gasps.
“We haven’t talked to them yet. We’re trying to decide where to take them so that we can talk to them.”
“We need to be there. I want to talk to them. That bitch! I can’t believe she shot him.” Leighton frowns.
“After we know Levi’s okay, we’ll take you to where they are.”
“Thank you. But I need to say this now, we can’t turn them over to the cops or whatever you all plan to do until Levi can talk to them. He deserves to be able to confront them, especially after what that bitch did to him,” Lynton says.
“I’ll tell the others, I’m sure they’ll be okay with that. But you’ll all have to go back to Lake Renegade for that. I know for a fact that my brother won’t deal with them here in Wintervale. He’ll want to take them back home.”
“That’s fine. I don’t care where we talk to them. I just need to be able to, you don’t realize the shit they put us through when we were younger. I want to look them in the eyes when I close out that part of my life for good,” Leighton adds.
Leonardo nods at the twins and reassures them that they’ll be able to do all of that.
“Is Zeus okay?” I ask Leonardo.
“He will be. Athena’s on her way here now with Ares, Apollo and Artemis,” Leonardo tells me.
“That doesn’t sound like he’s okay…”
“Athena said she’ll be able to tell us more when she sees him.”
“And I’m heading to him now. We all know they’re better healers than we are. I’ll keep you all up to date,” Giovanna says.
“Noah, I want you to go with Gia, Declan and Grady. We’re pretty sure we have everyone that was involved in this, but your papà would kill me if anything happened to you,” Leonardo says to her.
“Okay, Zio. Please keep me updated on Levi.”
They hug everyone and head out. I hate that we’re all in this situation. I still don’t understand why Levi’s parents did this. But at least we’ll get answers once Levi is okay.
After two hours, a doctor finally comes out.
“Family of Levi Anderson?” the doctor asks.
We all stand up.
“Levi’s doing well. The bullet entered under his arm, luckily missing his lungs.
We got the bullet out and cleaned the wound.
I read that he was in a plane crash recently, so we’ll keep him a day or two, I want to make sure his other injuries don’t flare up.
You’ll be able to see him in an hour or so. But I can take one of you back now.”
“You go, Felicity. We’ll wait here,” Leighton says to me.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. You’re the one he’ll want to see when he wakes up. Tell him we love him and to hurry up and get his ass in a room so we can come see him.” She smiles at me.
I hug both of them and follow the doctor to Levi. I hate seeing him in that hospital bed again. I sit in the chair next to his bed.
“No more hospitals,” I say to him as I hold his hand.
“Okay,” he whispers to me.
I stand up and kiss him.
“At least you didn’t make me wait too long this time,” I tease him.
“Are you okay?” he asks me.
“I’m fine. Everyone’s in the waiting room, they have to wait until you get a room to come see you.”
“What about the polar bear that went down? Is he okay?”
“Leonardo said that Zeus will be okay. But the rest of his family is on their way now.”
“And my parents?”
“I don’t know where they are right now. But I know nothing will happen until you’re out of here.”
Levi nods and closes his eyes. I sit with him and watch him.
“I love you,” I whisper.