Chapter 31
Leo
Two weeks later
If I’m forced to look at these beige four walls for one more day, I’m going to kill someone!
Damn those doctors looking after me. If they weren’t the best in their field, I would’ve told them to take a flying leap to Hell a long time ago now. On the coattails of this, I would’ve swanned out of this private hospital wing that looks like a five-star hotel’s accommodation.
I’ve been here for fourteen days now. The first seven, I don’t recall anything of them. All I remember is the church and taking down Jasir Abrashi, then running to Bianca, fiery pain bursting in my side and chest as I tried to get to her.
It appears I took three bullets that night. Two in my abdominal region, one in a lung that ended up collapsing. It’s a miracle I didn’t die from that itself, let alone the blood loss on top of the internal bleeding in my abdominal cavity.
I didn’t die because I’m a bullheaded asshole who doesn’t know when to quit. I hung on for Bianca, for Enzo, for our family.
I spent hours in surgery, they tell me, and it took quite a few pints of blood to get me back to normal. Since Bianca isn’t legally my wife and my son isn’t eighteen, my twin brothers were roped in as my next of kin. Sergio and Emilio however deferred to Bianca and Nonna Valeria, who agreed with the doctors to put me in an induced coma so my collapsed lung could heal.
I thus spent close to six days under, waking up with a tube in my throat and not able to breathe. In this struggle as I came to, Bianca’s voice remained a constant. She stayed by my side as much as she could, popping in morning and evening to Lenox Hill to see Enzo and spend some time with him. As soon as I found this out, I sent her back home, even though everything in me yearned to have her with me. But our son needed her more, and she came back twice a day for visiting hours.
Still, I want all my hours to be spent with her. Bianca shouldn’t have to split her time between me and our boy. We should all be together, and this, I plan to make happen as soon as possible. Right away, if I could. I also want to see my boy so much, to hold him to me. The last time I held him, it was when I came to Mattia’s house after Bianca was taken. I want my boy laughing with me, telling me about Godzilla, and I’ll introduce him to Pokémon, which I loved when I was younger. Bianca hasn’t brought him to the hospital to not upset him, and I agreed with her. He’s too young to understand—seeing me in a hospital might scar him.
Plus there were men filing in and out all day when I was awake. My work as a Don didn’t stop because I was out of it, and little kids shouldn’t be exposed to such violent business. The Abrashi family, despite having been taken in by their own council, were clamoring for war again. But Daku stood his ground, stating I was fully in my rights to take down their son this time for this unwarranted attack on my family.
So at least that’s over and done with. We don’t have the shadow of another war looming on us anymore. The other Dons are happy, and a few have even visited during my stay here. Needless to say, none of these visitors were Dons Salvatore and Vespucci. They’re lying low now, knowing their power has been all but stripped from them when I outed their secrets.
“Hey, my love,” Bianca sing-songs from the doorway.
I lift my head and smile at her. She’s a ray of sunshine in a sleeveless yellow sundress that brushes her knees.
“Can I finally get out of here?” I growl.
She laughs as she comes over to me, as if she’s floating in her strappy sandals.
“You turn into a grumpy bear when cooped up,” she says, laughing.
I grab her hand and tug her to me, tipping her into my lap.
“I turn into a feral animal when you’re not with me,” I say, then press a long kiss to her mouth.
She moans against my lips and returns the kiss, her body going soft in my arms as she burrows into my chest. I wince at the sudden pain in my side. Those damn stitches may have been removed, but the incision sites still smart like hell.
Bianca breaks away from my kiss and extricates herself from my arms to stand. “Best be careful.”
“Fuck careful,” I mutter. These injuries aren’t gonna make a pussy out of me.
“Leo,” she chides, tone patient as if she’s dealing with a little child.
As I glance up at her, my gaze snags on her exposed shoulder. Just below the rounded curve is an ugly red line. It’s not a stark contrast against her dusky skin, but I can see it, and rage boils over in me.
I tug her hand again, and with my other hand, brush the raised scar gently. A bullet whizzed past her arm back in that church. Thank goodness it only grazed her skin and didn’t hurt her any more, but it shouldn’t have happened in the first place.
“I’m sorry,” I say.
She sighs and comes to sit next to me on the edge of the bed.
“We’ve been over this, Leo,” she says, running her free hand over my hair in a gentle caress.
“It was all my fault. If I’d manned up from the very first day, nothing of this—”
She stops me with her fingers on my lips. “Hush. All that is over now.”
I press a kiss to those fingers before clasping my hand over them and bringing them down onto my lap. “Still, I promise I won’t let anything happen to you.”
She sighs again, then dips her head to press her forehead to mine.
“You know you can’t promise this. Not in your line of business. Danger is the name of the world you live in.”
Something in the way she says this triggers me. It’s a deep- seated fear lodged in the pits of my being, one I can’t shake no matter how much I try. Does she think she doesn’t belong with me? I can’t be in this world and live this life without her. Is she denying me this chance? I won’t be able to do this without her. Being a Don, a Mafia man, it means nothing if she’s not here with me. She’s my life, my world, my family as my children will come from her and only her.
She has a place in my existence—the prime spot, even.
Doesn’t she know this?
Maybe she doesn’t , a little voice whispers in my mind.
Damn!
As she detaches her forehead from mine, I can feel the distance between us growing as she moves away, and it’s not just physical but also visceral. I can’t let this happen. Bianca needs to know what she means to me. I’d planned the perfect way to impart this notion to her, but time is of the essence now. Plans mean nothing if you stand to lose the person you love by being a stickler to the timeline.
I reach into the back pocket of my jeans, feeling for the little pouch there. It’s a good thing I’m a little paranoid and decided to keep this close to me. It’s not in a small square velvet box as I wanted it to be, but that’s not what counts. The contents, they’re going to speak for me before I even utter any word.
I clutch Bianca’s hand tight, urging her to stay put. Reaching for the pouch in my back pocket, I slide down the bed and land on the floor on one knee, extricating the ring in the process.
Bianca gasps when she sees what I’m holding. It’s a simple pale gold band with soft filigree work on two sides surging upward to hold a round-cut diamond taking center-stage on the piece. It belonged to my great-grandmother, who bestowed it to my nonna when she married into the family, and it was given to my mother when she became a Pellegrini. When she divorced my dad, he made her return the ring. It had been waiting for me in the family safe, for the day I’d propose to my future wife.
I’d had my grandmother bring it to me yesterday when she visited. My plan was to propose to Bianca at home tonight during dinner, but we’re jumping the gun here. She needs to know what she means to me— who she is to me.
“One thing I can promise you, Bianca Bonucci, is that I don’t want to spend one more minute of my life without you by my side. That’s your place, with me. Or actually, that’s my place, with you . Because otherwise, I don’t want to be alive. I don’t even exist without you.” When I pause, she gasps, one hand clamped over her mouth. “I’ve been the biggest idiot in the world, Bianca, because I should’ve come to Paris four and a half years ago for the new year when I would’ve had the chance to make you mine without any hurdle or repercussions. I wish I could turn back time, but I can’t, and this here is the next best thing. The future, my future, I want it to be with you.” I stop to take in a deep breath. “Bianca Bonucci, will you please put me out of my self-induced misery and accept to become my wife?”
She laughs against her hand. At least, I think it’s a laugh because it sounded like a snort.
“Bianca?” I ask, a note of worry creeping into my voice.
She drop the hand and looks at me with so much tenderness on her face, I want to fall down and weep at her feet. I don’t deserve all this love she has for me, not after everything I let happen to her. But one thing I vow is that I’ll make every day of the rest of her life the best day she’s ever woken up to.
“Leo,” she murmurs. “Yes. Of course it’s yes. A million times yes!”
I take her left hand and slide the ring on. It fits her slender finger perfectly. Her gaze is still on the diamond catching the light when I get up and tip her chin toward me, stealing a kiss just after.
“Now can we please blow this joint?” I ask her. “I want to take you home.”
Bianca laughs. “Isn’t it the other way round? I’m bringing you to your home?”
“Can we fucking leave?” I hiss, exasperated.
“Yes, we can. I was coming to tell you all your discharge papers have been signed.”
“Thank God.”
As we get up and reach the door, an orderly stops outside in the hallway with an empty wheelchair. It’s hospital protocol for patients getting discharged to be taken out to their car in a wheelchair, but I’m never getting into one of those things. The withering glare I send the man is enough to send him packing.
Bianca and I make our way out of the wing hand in hand. I don’t stop to speak to anyone. I’ll be back in a couple of days to thank them all personally, bringing gifts and something extra couched on a check for those who went above and beyond in caring for me. But right this instant, there’s nothing more I want than to be out of this place.
The elevator takes us directly to the parking garage. Pano spots us the second the doors open, and he’s bringing the car around.
“Good to have you back, Don Pellegrini,” he says with a nod as I enter.
“Good to be back, Pano. Now let’s go home.”
He tips his cap to me, then we’re on our way.
I haven’t been sitting idle in the hospital all this time. Whenever those damn pain meds—no matter how helpful they proved at times—didn’t have me out for the count, I was colluding with my enforcer and also with Mattia to run my business. My brothers have stepped up a bit, but I’m not laying more responsibility on their shoulders yet. Let them be young and enjoy their lives. When the time comes for them to fully step up, there’ll be no going back then. My lot was forced onto me by circumstances; I will protect them from such a fate with all I have, as I will one day do for Enzo and my future children.
Something else I was doing is a surprise for Bianca. I can’t wait to get her to my place so I can show her what’s been happening behind the scenes.
We’re soon entering Yorkville, where the family townhouse is located along 87 th Street. Pano parks in front of the house. I’m out of the car and going to Bianca’s side, but I’m not fast enough. She’s already opened her door and is stepping out on the curb. Damn injuries—I need to get my speed and stamina back to full potential asap.
I take her hand, and we ascend the steps to the front door. I throw a quick glance to the basement level at the side. Tristan is living here until he gets a job or decides to go back to college for a masters’ degree. He’s been told to piss off for the night as I need the house empty for just me and Bianca. My grandmother has gone back to her duplex on Park Avenue.
A check of the security panel in the entrance shows me the basement level is locked. Good, my brother’s not here. Even the staff has been given the night off. We’re alone.
I’m on her as soon as I turn back. She giggles as I push her against the wall in the entrance foyer itself.
“What are you doing?” she gasps out as I dip my head to the curve of her neck and nip the skin there.
“Hungry,” I mutter.
I’ve been wanting her ever since I woke up in that hospital and found her there next to me. A stolen kiss here and there hasn’t been enough—it will never be enough. I want her, and I’m going to have her.
My mouth trails along her throat to her chin then reach her lips, where I sip and take and plunder. My tongue is in her mouth, and she’s responding to my passion, her hands in my hair, her body pressing into mine, her glorious breasts pushing into my torso. My hands are going to them, my palms closing on their heavy weight, kneading and caressing, my thumbs flicking the tight nipples begging for my mouth to come lick them. God, she feels so good!
However, I have another nub in mind, and I tear my mouth from her lips and kiss my way down her body until my lips are on the apex of her thighs over her dress and panty.
“Leo,” she chides. “The doctor said you have to take it easy.”
I glance up at her. “No, he said not too much standing. Look, I’m on my knees,” I say, shrugging.
Without breaking eye contact with her, I run my hands up the inside her calves, her knees, then her thighs, pushing the skirt of her dress up as I go. I can hear as much as see her sharp inhale of breath as I tug her panty down with one hand, the other bunching her skirt up in my grip.
“Said I need to work on my breathing stamina, too,” I tell her.
Then, still looking up at her, I draw close to her sex and press my lips to her mound. My tongue then darts out, finding the path where her folds part to give me access to this secret spot of hers. A soft moan keens out of her mouth when I flick the tip of my tongue against her clit.
Without giving her any respite, I press my opened mouth onto her pussy and start to suckle and lick. Her engorged nub is in my mouth, where I tease it with my lips, my teeth, releasing it to slide my tongue along her wet folds and poking it inside of her, licking her cream as I go.
God, I’ve been denied this for so long. I let time stop as I revel in this moment, eating her gorgeous pussy out, bringing her to the brink of an orgasm only to release her clit just then and hungrily lick her from back to front a few times.
On my third pass of doing just that, Bianca grabs a fistful of my hair and lifts my head up none too gently.
“I swear, Leo, if you keep this up, I’ll kill you myself,” she mutters through gritted teeth, voice raspy and hoarse from passion and the need to spend under my ministrations.
I chuckle softly. “As you wish.”
This time when I plunge in, I go directly onto her clit and suck it in, roll it around, and nibble on it with my lips. When I feel she is on the verge of coming, her body going so taut and coiled over me, I gently pull it between my teeth and give it a little bite.
Her orgasm rolls out of her as she gasps out my name, her thighs shaking against my shoulders, her body letting go of the tightness I wound up inside her.
I get back onto my feet so I can hold her with my arms braced on either side of her lest she falls to the floor in a puddle of pleasure so much she has released violently under my mouth.
Bianca surprises me when she brings her hand into my hair again and tugs it back hard. Her mouth then crashes onto mine, devouring me. I didn’t want to kiss her because I have her juices all over my lips and chin, but it seems she doesn’t mind tasting herself on my tongue as she gives me what is possibly the hottest kiss of my life.
We’re both panting for breath when we break free. Little lances of fire are burning in my chest, but I ignore them. The look of dazed pleasure on her face is so well worth the pain.
“Stay,” I tell her.