3. Sly
My nap is cut short when another nurse enters my room with a tray of food. Her smile is friendly, and as she places it down in front of me, she asks how I am feeling. At this point, I am irritable. No one has answered me as to whether Rosie and Cain are okay, and I am beginning to wonder if I am getting the runaround.
“Do you happen to know if there is a Rosie Adler or a Cain Michaels admitted here?” I ask, picking up the Jell-O cup from my tray. It looks disgusting, but I rip the foiled top from the container and pick up a spoon, regardless.
“I know Miss Adler is no longer a patient, sir. But aside from that, I don’t have any information for you.”
Relief rushes through me. “Please, I need to reach her.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” she assures me as she turns to leave the room.
She barely passes through the threshold when footsteps sound in the hallway, and my assigned nurse glides through the open door and over to me, checking my machines. But it’s who’s behind her that stops me in my tracks.
“Mia preferita,” I breathe. My relief is mirrored on her face as she hurries toward me. I reach my hand out for her to grab, and she takes it without hesitation. “I’m so relieved to see you in front of me. I was worried when I woke—it took two nurses before I learned you’d been discharged. Are you feeling okay?”
“I’m okay,” she reassures. “Minor injuries compared to yours. Are you okay, Sly? How are you feeling?
“I feel stiff, but other than that, I am still here and cannot complain, bella. I’m just so happy to see you and Cain.”
At the mention of his name, Cain steps closer, and Rosie moves my hand to his. I squeeze it reassuringly and smile at him.
“Good to see you, brother,” Cain says, his voice thick with emotion. It makes me realize exactly how terrifying this situation was for all of us.
Setting my hand down, he walks back to Rosie and rubs his hands along her shoulders. “You saved my girl, Sly. I’ll never be able to repay you for that.”
Rosie and Cain look at each other, speaking loudly through unspoken words. Their love has bloomed so much in these last few months, and I am so happy Rosie was able to let her walls down and allow him to show her the man he is today.
“I would give my life for either one of you if it meant you two continued to have each other. But I didn’t save her, mio amico. If anything, I caused her injury.” My brows come together as fractured memories of the shooting play in my mind. “Rosie, I watched your head slam into the pavement with unwavering force. I am so sorry, bella. I never wanted you to get hurt.”
Rosie opens her mouth to say something, but Cain cuts her off, shaking his head animatedly.
“Had you not pushed her, the bullet you took would have hit her. You saved her. There is no point in trying to change the narrative because whichever way you try to spin it, it will always end the same: you saved Rose’s life. Don’t bother arguing.”
I’ve learned over my months in Ridgewood that arguing with Cain, the president of The Sinners Warlord, is a waste of time. Instead, I nod and look back at Rosie.
“I’m just grateful we are both still here,” I tell her as I swallow the lump that’s formed in my throat. I can feel tears prick the back of my eyes, an overwhelming sense of gratitude weighing upon me.
“It’s more than some can say,” she murmurs. My eyes instantly snap to Cain.
“Who?” I demand, knowing immediately we weren’t all so lucky during this attack.
“Preston,” Cain tells me soberly, and my heart instantly aches for my friend Nixon.
Nixon is the one who found me in a tattoo parlor back when I first arrived, drowning my sorrows in ink. Had I not met Nixon, I wouldn’t have been initiated into the Sinners and found this family.
Preston, the man we lost, was Nixon’s cousin. He was young. Too young.
“And the rest of the Sinners?” I ask. Cain dives into updating me on the conditions of the rest of the members, all of whom are fine or sustained very minor injuries.
It appears Preston and I took the worst hits, followed by Rosie’s injuries.
“What is the plan, mio amico? Will we retaliate?”
The Reapers Wings, a neighboring town”s motorcycle gang, were the ones who did this. Unlike us, their club wasn’t formed to help its city’s citizens. The Reapers were bad news and held a grudge against Cain for ending the life of one of their members.
The words hardly leave my lips before Rosie is yelling, her head turning from me to Cain. “NO, you guys will not. That’s reckless and dangerous. They already pulled their ‘eye for an eye’ bullshit, and if you clap back, they’ll come at you again harder.”
Cain wraps his arms around her, pulling her in close. She presses her face against his chest as he attempts to calm her, running his hand down the back of her head repetitively. She’s so upset, she’s shaking.
“Please, Cain,” she murmurs. “No one else needs to get hurt.”
“I know, baby, I know,” he assures her. “King and I are meeting tomorrow to discuss our next steps. Until then, everyone is lying low.”
From above her head, my eyes meet Cain’s, and it’s as though I can read his thoughts.
He wants to call church to discuss this without Rosie’s presence. And I can’t say I disagree.
Later, after we’ve all eaten a real dinner—one that Cain went to pick up for us—a nurse comes to let Rosie and Cain know that visiting hours are over, but Rosie refuses to leave.
Chuckling, I watch the nurse and Rosie go toe-to-toe as both Cain and I keep our mouths closed.
“Visiting hours are long past over. You guys are welcome to come back tomorrow, but Mr. Lucchetti needs some rest, and frankly, Ms. Adler, you look like you could use some, too.”
“Then bring me a cot because we’re not leaving.”
“Ms. Adler?—”
“No,” she says with finality. “Look, either I’m sleeping on this chair, or I’m sleeping on a cot you provide, but I’m not leaving. And honestly, I’d prefer a cot. Sharing a chair with that giant man over there doesn’t seem like the most comfortable option when I’m still dealing with a concussion.” She points her thumb toward Cain, and the nurse rolls her eyes, letting out a frustrated sigh.
“If I get in trouble for this, I’m sending my bosses to you,” she promises when she comes back with a small, folded cot on wheels and linens over her arm.
She shoves the linens into Cain’s arms. Laughing, he takes the offerings, sets them down, and begins to help her make it up. “Sounds fair.”
As she leaves the room with a huff, she shuts the lights off and tells us all to get some rest. I can’t help but chuckle to myself, shaking my head with my eyes closed.
Now more than ever, I appreciate the fire that lives inside Rosie and am grateful to the two people in this room who care enough to not leave me alone.
The room is dark, only a faint glow from where the fluorescents in the hallway shine through the small square window on my hospital door.
Noise from the hallway wakes me, and from the shine of the eyes across the room, I can see they woke Rosie too.
My room is close to the nurse”s station, perhaps one or two doors down, and the sound of whatever altercation happening in the hallway carries.
“Where is he?” a familiar, feminine voice shouts.
For a moment, I think my mind is playing tricks on me.
Cain grunts as he’s jostled awake, presumably by the sound of the woman’s voice outside.
Situating myself as upright as I can in my bed, I turn my full attention to the door, listening closely. For a brief moment, my eyes meet Rosie’s, and she smiles, but I find myself unable to return it.
Inside, my heart is hammering. Recognition kicks my senses into high gear.
I know that voice.
But it can’t be.
The nurse clears her throat. “Miss, it’s past midnight. Visiting hours are between eleven and eight tomorrow if you’d like to come back then, but it”s too?—”
“I don’t care what time it is! I need to see him.”
“Vincenza?” I mutter, my brows creasing together as I use the remote to fully right myself, staring at the door and wishing I wasn’t hooked up to all these machines so I could go see for myself.
She’s not here. Vinnie is in New York, tucked safely at home, in bed, probably next to her fiancè.
“Miss, please, if you just come back tomorr?—”
“I’ve been on a plane for six hours. Please. Just for a few minutes, at the very least. Just to know he’s okay.”
It is her. I would recognize her voice anywhere.