Chapter 52 Carlo
Carlo
Cotton fills my head and mouth when I peel my eyes open.
It’s drier than the desert in this quiet little room.
The blinds are closed so I can’t tell much about my surroundings.
My vitals are being monitored. There’s an IV attached to my arm.
A flash of memory and the dull pain in my back intensifies.
I grimace and take it. Tolerating pain was one of many lessons I learned early.
But when I see Luca beside my bed instead of her, I know this pain is nothing Faro’s lessons prepared me for, no more than an IV drip can cure it. “I freed my songbird from her cage,” I mumble, hating how weak my voice sounds and that pitiful ache in my chest when I see my wedding band.
“Don’t worry about her,” Luca clips as he rises to his feet. “I’m glad you’re awake at last. It’s been three days.”
Fuck me, three days? “Renato?” I ask, worriedly.
“He’ll be fine. Says a new scar will only make him more irresistible to the girls.”
“Sounds like something we would’ve said at his age.” Luca chuckles and nods. “Where am I?”
“Spare room at my apartment.”
Good. Not the hospital. “Take me up to my place.”
“You can’t be alone yet. Our docs were working on you for hours.” I slant my eyes at him, wanting the bottom line. “You’ll heal and be as good as new, but it was too fucking close there for a bit. Don’t do that shit again, Carlo. You’re Don now. You’re not meant to take such risks.”
“It's not like I asked to get shot. If I had died, you’d be Don.”
“I don’t want to be Don, goddammit.” The fury in his tone over my suggestion tells me everything I already know.
“You’ll be my right hand until death, Luca.”
He covers my hand with his, murmuring, “Til death, mio fratello. Father’s home from the hospital. Major shit went down in Chicago while you were out of it, too, but that can wait. The family’s eager to see you. Are you up for it?”
My parents? The girls? No, I’m not yet. There’s only one person I want to see, but she’s not here.
“Did you see my wife before she left? No one is to go after her. I told her she could go.” Luca stares at me, worriedly, sending a sliver of fear knifing through me. I passed out before I could tell them my wishes. “Tell me she’s alright, Luca,” I say, roughly. “Tell me you let her go.”
“She wouldn’t leave your side when I arrived. I had to drag her away so the doc could treat you.”
I’m too overwhelmed to reply. She didn’t leave with her brother. Why not? Can it mean… I’m too afraid to hope. How pathetic. My injuries don’t scare me, but I’m terrified of finding out whether or not my feelings for my wife might be reciprocated.
“Of course, she studies acting at the school of hers, doesn’t she?” Luca adds. “Carlo, her brother and his men attacked us. He had called Francesca before the attack. Don’t pretend that’s a coincidence.”
“Don’t place any blame on Frankie. She wasn’t privy to their plans.
” With every beat of my heart, I believe it.
She told me right before the shooting started about the call.
It was obvious she was as shocked as I was by the gunfire.
She screamed a warning. She didn’t leave.
Ronan was there for her, but she didn’t go.
“They killed two of our soldiers and nearly killed you. They could’ve killed Renato. Are you going to forget that?”
“Of course not. Ronan shot me. They killed our men. I won’t forget or forgive that. If they’d killed our little brother, I’m not sure I could’ve ever forgiven myself. Any alliance we once had with the Irish is dead and done, but she is not our enemy.”
He’s still fucking pissed. “Brian Donnelly was locked in the cage where Faro and I left him for you. A bullet to the head, a merciful death when our men expected justice. What the fuck happened?”
“A traitorous rat finally met his end. That’s justice enough. No member of the Trio under my protection is any worse off because that piece of shit is dead, and no amount of torture would’ve undone the harm he already caused.”
“You did it for her, didn’t you?” I meet my brother’s gaze and nod. “Carlo, the listening device and the FBI agent at the school… all the evidence that she might betray us and still you defend her?”
“Francesca confessed all she knew before I had to ask.”
“Maybe she confessed it because she felt cornered. How can you be so sure she wasn’t involved? Father raised us to be more cautious than this.”
He did. He wouldn’t understand my complete faith in Francesca, no more than my brother does. “Where is my wife, Luca? Answer your Don’s question,” I growl when he hesitates.
“She’s upstairs, being watched. Are you sure you-”
“Bring her to me.”
“I don’t know if-”
“Bring her to me!” I roar. I quickly regret my wrath as pain slices down my side, but I have to make him see. “She didn’t leave me when she had the chance. She didn’t betray me to the FBI when she could have. She’s loyal, and she belongs by my side. You won’t treat her like a prisoner ever again.”
“You're blinded by your fucking feelings,” Luca sneers.
“My eyes are wide open. If you say you’ll follow me, then obey my command. Otherwise, you can challenge me now for control of the Trio. I’m quite sure you’d beat me in my current condition.”
It would be the shortest and most pathetic fight to the death to claim power in the history of the Trio. Luca would have many more battles to fight once it was over, but I trust him implicitly, and I need him to know that I do.
For a few tense seconds, he simply stares at me before slowly bowing his head. “You’re the oldest. You were born to be Capo. Your word is my law. Always.”
“I have to be able to trust you with my wife.”
“She will always be safe with me," he says, swearing on his tattoo. "I will never question you on this matter again.”
***
The instant I lay eyes on Francesca, I’m not certain why I was so afraid earlier. Whatever good thing I did at some point in my sin-filled life, I’m fucking grateful for it as she hurries toward me. “I was so scared for you,” she whispers. “No one would tell me your condition.”
Three fucking days she’s been worried over me and no one told her anything. I scowl at Luca. “That’s not going to happen again.”
She smiles. With every new smile I earn, she slips a little deeper under my skin and into my veins. Even if she had betrayed me, I’d probably thank her for it if only she’d smile at me like this.
Gingerly, she sinks down beside me on the bed. I tug her closer, my heart pounding fiercely once she's nestled against my chest. There is no way I’m dying anytime soon when I have this woman to come home to every night.
I glare at my brother hovering over her shoulder, and he takes the hint. "You stayed when you could've run, Francesca. I shouldn't have refused to let you be here with him."
She blinks at Luca, obviously surprised, before clearing her throat. "It's okay. I know… You love your brother. It was a difficult time for you."
“I’m moving back to my place today," I tell him. "Now, leave us until I call for you.”
I start softly stroking her back once Luca leaves with a nod.
He won’t question me again, but others will.
I have my work cut out for me when it comes to ensuring my wife is fully accepted in New York.
I won’t shy away from the challenges my marriage may present.
If a dozen bloody statements are required, so be it.
She’s mine, and no one will take her from me.
I curl my arm around her waist, not caring about my current discomfort. Looking down at our linked fingers, I notice her wedding rings and then the bit of silver twisted around her pinkie finger. “Where’d you get that?” I murmur.
“From you. You kept it after it broke the day of my audition.”
“I did.”
“Why?”
“Because it was yours.”
“You’re much more sentimental than I ever expected, husband.”
“Only when it comes to you.”
“I love you, Carlo.” Her words were softly spoken, no more than a sigh, but I feel them in every corner of my heart.
“And I love you.” She raises her head, looking deep into my eyes for the truth. As soon as she finds it, she lays her head back down and snuggles a little closer.
Love. It was the last thing I expected to find in my marriage.
So many in our world never do. Many would consider my feelings for her a weakness, something that will make me vulnerable.
They’re right in some ways and wrong in others.
Protecting her will always be my duty. Loving her was my destiny.
And I will rule my city and the Trio with cold cunning and lethal brutality for all my days in order to keep doing both.