17. Elio
ELIO
I was so fucking mad.
Fucking bastards.
I broke nearly every traffic law trying to get us back to my house. Isa hadn’t stopped shaking since I got her in the car. I looked over at her.
She was so quiet, and I didn’t know what to do.
Fuck, but what did I do?
Had what she witnessed traumatized her?
I shook my head. Of course it fucking did.
I told myself I would do whatever it took to protect that innocence of hers, to never let her see any of the darkness in this world, and I fucking failed that tonight.
My fists tightened around the steering wheel. Thankfully, there weren't a lot of cars out, so I was able to get her back to my house quickly. I pulled into the driveway and got out. She flinched when I opened the car door for her, as if she hadn’t been aware of her surroundings just now.
“Baby, let’s get you back inside.”
She blinked up at me. “You’re hurt. I need to check that out. But I… I don’t know what to do about a wound that big.” Her lips trembled. “Maybe we should drive to the hospital.”
I bent down until we were at eye level. “I don’t need a hospital. And you don’t have to worry about it.”
I barely felt anything during the drive home. I was sure it would be a different story later on, but right now, I was still too hopped-up on adrenaline.
A gust of wind pulled through. It wasn’t cold now, but still, she shivered. I quickly undid her belt and pulled her up from her seat.
“Come on. Let’s get you inside.”
She fell quiet as we made our way into the house.
I looked back at her every once in a while, but she had her head down.
Worry gnawed at me.
We reached the master bath, and I moved over to the shower, turned it on, and stepped in. She barely reacted when I started pulling off her clothes, until she stood in front of me with nothing on. I undressed in record time and moved us into the shower.
I let the warm water rain down on her skin, hoping that would get her out of her reverie.
She moved in close to me as the water around us changed from clear to brown and red, then pink, and finally, clear again.
I wrapped my arms tightly around her.
She pushed in even closer to me, as if she wanted to kill every little space that could possibly exist between us.
The shakes started first.
Then her tears.
And finally, her sobs that just about broke my heart. Every sound was like a lash to my skin.
I wanted to take it all away.
I wanted to erase all her pain and the memories associated with those fucking Devil’s Wings bastards.
Killing them had been too easy.
Had I been thinking, I would have kept them alive and worked out all my frustration on them slowly… meticulously.
I tightened my arms around her and shook away the violent thoughts running rampant in my mind.
“D-Don’t e-ev-ver let-let me go.”
“I won’t ever let you go,” I vowed.
The only way that would ever happen was if I stopped breathing, and I didn’t plan for that to be the case anytime soon. No, I would continue to live a long life, for nothing more than to protect her from all those fuckers out there.
She buried her face in my chest and cried.
I pressed my lips on the top of her head, holding her close to me, and did the only thing I could do at that moment.
I never let her go.
I stood at the edge of the bed and looked over at her sleeping form.
Even when she was deep in slumber, there was a frown on her face, showing her to be anything but peaceful.
My phone chimed with a text, and I quickly silenced it, afraid she might wake up.
I didn’t have to worry. She didn’t even stir.
I looked down at the screen and found a text from Romeo, telling me he was here to check my wound.
I bent down and kissed her forehead, lingering a bit before making my way downstairs.
All my brothers were sitting in my living room, and Matteo had already helped himself to my scotch.
“Not too loud,” I said, entering the room. “Isa is sleeping.”
“How is she?” Romeo asked.
“Traumatized,” I answered him, my fist clenching.
“That would explain why you didn’t leave any of the fuckers alive for questioning,” Massimo said.
“I wasn’t thinking,” I responded, grabbing the glass of scotch Matteo held out for me before taking a seat on the sofa next to Romeo. I took off my shirt. The first aid kit was already laid out on the coffee table.
I let him prod and poke at me. “Did you get everything cleaned up?” I asked Massimo. He nodded. “They knew my car.”
“What?” This came from Matteo. “How is that fucking possible?”
“My guess? Someone has been feeding our information to the bastards.”
We all shared a look. There were some traditionalists in our group who would do anything to preserve the orthodox values and practices from the old days.
I didn’t fucking know why they were so against the things Massimo was doing, even though he had been able to expand our control over the West in the last decade alone—something our father hadn’t been able to do in his lifetime.
But did that really include betraying the organization?
My number one choice was Joseph Gambino, and I knew my brothers were thinking the same thing.
I grunted when I felt the needle pierce my skin as Romeo stitched me up.
“This reopened,” he muttered. I didn’t care, as long as it didn’t get infected.
“Do what you gotta do,” I said to him. I turned and looked at Massimo and Matteo. “I’m going to get in contact with our sources at the police station. I want surveillance on the car I saw at Gambino’s house.”
Massimo looked thoughtful. “You want to follow it straight into the viper’s den?”
I nodded.
“I agree with this direction,” Matteo said. “It’s time we go on the offense. We didn’t just expand our territory by standing idly by and letting those fuckers come at us.”
Massimo looked at Romeo. “Did you find out more about Nova Inc?”
“Not so much as the corporation, but I did run into an interesting fact. Waylen’s brother, Walter Thompson, has a daughter. Her name is Nova.”
“I don’t believe in coincidence,” I said.
Romeo nodded. “Me neither.”
“Do you think the girl is involved?” Matteo asked.
Romeo frowned. “Nothing indicates it. I don’t think so, but I’ll look into it.”
“Okay, do that,” Massimo said. He turned to me. “So this thing with Isa. It’s serious?”
I scowled. “It’s not just a thing with her. I’m going to marry her.”
For a moment, none of my brothers said anything. Then Matteo smiled. “Well, I’ll be damned. Elio finally fell for a girl.”
I didn’t say anything to that, just pondered his words.
Had I fallen for her? Was I even capable of loving? But especially loving someone as sweet and as innocent as Isa?
And falling for someone meant I was weak. It would make me weak. She made me weak. My father’s words pounded inside my head like an insidious headache that wouldn’t go the fuck away.
Make sure you have no weaknesses. I have none. Not even for my children.
Those were the exact words he had said when I asked how he could just leave Massimo in the Bratva’s hands and not care.
“You’re going to need to tell Valentino about this soon. He deserves to hear it from you,” Massimo said.
I nodded. It wasn’t something I didn’t already know.
Romeo worked quickly to treat my wound before all three of my brothers left, leaving me sitting there alone in the room, thinking.
I didn’t sleep a wink.
Instead, I opted to watch Isa sleep.
I watched for the nightmare, which thankfully didn’t happen. I watched just in case she woke up in the middle of the night and needed me.
Sunlight crept across her face, and I reached over, moving a strand of dark hair back.
The dried blood caked under my fingernails drew my attention.
It didn’t fucking matter how much I had scrubbed or how hard, it remained there, like a reminder that my dirty hand was undeserving of touching an angel.
I pulled my hand away just as her eyes fluttered open. Those light-blue eyes of hers that had always fascinated me moved over to my face, the peace from her sleep still very much present. Then confusion took its place, before finally, the horror, as her memories came crashing down on her.
“Elio,” she breathed out, moving in closer to me.
I didn’t move. I wondered if she was touching me like this because she didn’t fully remember what I had done in front of her, didn’t remember the three men I killed, or if she just needed comfort and was ignoring that fact altogether.
There was a slight hitch to her breathing that told me nothing.
“Won’t you hold me?” she asked, sounding so small, so vulnerable. I wanted to burn down the fucking world just to make her smile again.
“I didn’t think you would want my arms around you so soon after what happened.”
She pulled back, a small frown on her face. “What happened?”
“Baby, don’t you remember what happened last night?”
She nodded. “Yeah. You protected me. Like you said you would.” Her hand moved over my shoulder, gently touching the wound back there. “And you got hurt in the process.”
“This is nothing. I would take a thousand of these to ensure your safety.”
And it wasn’t a figure of speech.
I meant it.
I would do anything for this girl.
Perhaps Matteo was right.
I had fallen.
And I didn’t fucking care.
If I was going to fall, if I was going to make myself weak for anyone, it would be her.
She smiled a little at that. “Why wouldn’t I want your arms around me?”
I shook my head. “I didn’t want you to be afraid of me, but I didn’t see how that wouldn’t be the case, considering what you saw.”
She was quiet for a moment, her eyes straying down to my bare chest. I didn’t bother with a shirt last night. “You were a little scary.”
I nodded, already accepting it as that.
“But I always knew you could be. Just like Valentino can be sometimes. It doesn’t make you a bad man.”
I shook my head. “Baby, I am the bad man here.”
“No,” she said, looking up at me fiercely. “Sometimes, good men do bad things. I’m not trying to justify what you’ve done. I know the morality argument for it. I know, okay? But you’re not a bad man. At least, not to me, and that should be good enough.”
I cupped her cheek and pulled her face in close to mine, until there were only a few inches of space between us.
“It is.”
She smiled a little. “Good.”
God, what I wouldn’t do for her smile.
Her fingers traced across the edge of my bandage, her touch gentle, reverent. “Does it hurt?”
I shook my head. “I barely feel it.”
She shot me a look. “I’m sure that’s not true.”
I shrugged. She moved in close to me until I felt her lips on my chest. I could feel my heart reacting to that one simple kiss.
“I was so scared,” she whispered against my skin. “Not of dying… I mean, I was a little scared about that.” I smiled a bit over her confession. “But I was mostly afraid of losing you. Of watching them hurt you. I have never felt so helpless before. I didn’t… I can’t lose you, Elio.”
I wrapped my arms around her, and she buried her face in my chest. “You won’t.”
She looked up, her eyes wet with tears. “Promise me.”
“I promise,” I said without hesitation. I didn’t know if I would be able to keep that promise in our lifetime. The life expectancy for men like me was much shorter than it was for others. I knew that and hadn’t cared about it that much. But seeing the heartbreak in her eyes…
“I promise to always try my damndest to get back to you.”
Her lips trembled. “That’s all I ask.”
I nodded before leaning forward and kissing her.
She wrapped her arms around my neck, kissing me back with equal fervor.
I would always come back to her.
No matter what.