Chapter 57 Lev
LEV
They’re not here.
They’re not fucking here!
The tracking software reveals she’s not inside the hotel.
“Lev, wait!”
Ignoring my sister, I head straight for the valet, giving him Zeno’s name. He doesn’t hesitate before bringing Zeno’s SUV around, tossing me the keys once he returns.
“We’re here to help,” Anastasia explains. “Not to stop you.”
“The others?”
“Are pretending. Zeno’s still with the Capos. Vanessa and Nero are with him to make it not look obvious.”
Anastasia slides into the passenger seat, and Dimitri climbs into the back as I slam on the gas. I toss my phone to my sister, the tracking software open. “Direct me.”
The software leads us out of the city, and I break every speed limit trying to make up the time they gained by leaving earlier. Given the time of night, there’s not many cars on the road, but still more than I’d prefer.
“They’re moving faster,” she suddenly announces.
“Blyat.”
So, I do too, making it out of the city limits. The streetlights blur, my focus entirely on the road in front of us. My finger taps against the wheel so fast, there is no pattern, no number, just a fucked-up tune to heartache.
I’m coming, Fina.
Dimitri leans forward to watch Serafina’s dot move further away. “What’s the plan when we get there? You can’t outright kill him. It’ll negate everything today was for.”
“Watch me.”
Anastasia sighs, only to let out a small sound of surprise. “They’ve stopped.”
“Blyat,” I repeat, because there truly is no decent response. My head isn’t working to predict every plausible reason they have, so my foot presses the gas harder, zipping between cars, only slowing by the pickup truck parked on the side of the road.
And the pieces of metal strewn all over the road.
And the car flipped over in the ditch. A car in which the dot of Serafina’s tracker pings.
“My God,” my sister breathes, but her voice is lost beneath the haze in my mind. For once, my mind is blank—not for any diagnosable reason, but for her.
She better be alive. She’s not allowed to die.
Not bothering to turn the SUV off, I jerk us onto the rocky roadside and throw myself down the slight slope towards the black car. Its back end is crumpled, flipped upside down, windows shattered, a puff of a white dress seeping from the side window.
I drop, shards of glass biting into my hands and knees while reaching inside to Serafina, who’s strapped in the seat, her head pressed against the car’s roof. Blood drips from her hairline into her mouth.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck.”
Anastasia and Dimitri catch up. My sister, being slimmer than us, practically crawls through the smashed-out window to feel around Serafina’s dress. “She’s not caught on anything.”
The dress could go, for all I care. If I had to cut her out of it to free her, so be it.
Anastasia undoes the seatbelt while I focus on carefully maneuvering Serafina’s head. Dimitri’s behind me to take her after pulling her free, and Anastasia ensures she doesn’t get caught on anything until she’s completely out from the wreckage and cradled in my arms.
After treading away from the shattered glass, I drop to my knees, keeping her close while pushing aside strands of hair sticking to the fresh blood on her face. My finger traces her cheekbones, beneath her eyes, the cuts on her head, cataloguing every injury.
Confusion over my feelings for her has never felt further. Everything I feel for this woman is channeled into my grip. The one who calms my mind. The one with the eyes as bold as the daytime sun. The one who makes me smile, who proved touch isn’t all that bad with the right person.
“Come on, Serafina. You’re okay.” It’s more for me than her, and my fingers go for her neck, seeking the only thing that matters.
The gentle beat of her pulse.
“She’s alive,” I breathe, returning to her face. “Fina. Printessa. Wake up. Please, fuck, come back to me. You’re okay.”
My sister reaches over, doing what I should—checking her injuries. But I’m numb. Logical acts are shoved aside for absolute fear.
“We need to get her to the hospital. She might have a head injury.” That’s Dimitri’s voice, but it sounds so far away.
Without taking my eyes off her, I say with determination, “She has to open her eyes first.”
“Da, but she needs medical attention. Eyes opening will come with help.”
I snarl, lifting my hand off Serafina, only to gesture to the crashed car, knowing anytime now, one of the numerous passing cars will stop and call medical services—which means we need to get out of here before the Bratva is linked to the accident that injured a Cosa Nostra Capo.
“Check him. Tell me if he’s still alive.”
Dimitri disappears from my limited view. Limited, because my focus is entirely on Serafina. Focus and control. Everything Papa drilled into me. It’s been saved up for her, for this very moment.
“Printessa, open your eyes.” I rub through the blood staining her cheek, spreading it to cover the fake pink on her skin. “Fina, I love you. I do. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you earlier.”
There’s a cut above her left eye I brush my thumb over.
A bruise forming on her forehead.
Cuts on her arms and hands and chest.
The pure white dress is now littered with brown and red.
“Wake up. Please.”
Her chest lifts as she sucks in a large gulp of air. Her eyes flutter, and my own heart shudders. “L-Lev?” Her voice is raspy.
“I’m here, Fina. You’re safe.” My arms haul her tight to my chest, her gasp of pain the only thing forcing me to loosen ever so slowly.
She tries to turn her head to the side. “A-Alessio…is he alive?”
He better not be.
“Doesn’t matter. Keep your eyes on me. We’re gonna get you help.”
“I’m tired…” Her eyes shut with her next breath, but I shake her awake.
“No, stay awake.” If my sister’s correct, this might be a concussion, and she can’t sleep.
Anastasia and Dimitri return to my side, see Serafina’s fluttering eyes, and Anastasia bends to whisper in my ear, “He’s alive. Look what I found.” She reveals one of the knives we strapped to Serafina earlier. “His leg shows sign of a major wound. I think she caused the accident.”
Brave fucking girl. “Here.” I shuffle her into Dimitri’s arms. “Keep her awake. I’ll take care of him.”
Once she’s safely in Dimitri’s hold and Anastasia continues blocking Serafina’s every attempt to sleep, I head for the driver’s side of the car. In the distance, sirens ring as I drop to my knees and bend to peer through the smashed-out window.
Alessio hangs there, his body crumpled against the car’s roof. Maybe it’s my feet on the ground beside him, maybe it’s something else, but his eye cracks open. Just one, beneath a quickly swelling bruise on his right side.
“H-help.”
There’s no helping him. His soul is destined for one place and one place only, and by a happy twist of fate, I get to be the one to officially end his life.
I reach in and cover his face with my hand, nose pinched between my thumb and forefinger while my palm covers his mouth.
He reacts instantly, jerking. His strength wanes from the accident, his instinctual fight for breath meagre at best. His eyes widen before the light fades entirely and his body officially stops fighting.
I stand, spitting on the ground, and turn towards the only person who matters. I ignore the truck’s driver, who stands by the edge of the road, watching the scene. With help, I get in the backseat before Dimitri hands Serafina over and hops in the driver’s side, Anastasia claiming the passenger.
“Thanks,” I manage, pushing the other unknown feeling to the forefront. Gratitude. “Both of you, for coming.”
Dimitri twists around. “We’re family, Lev. In life and death, you know we’ll do anything for you.”
Right before pulling away, I yank the wedding band and engagement ring from her left hand and toss them out the window. Some lucky fucker can make it their payday. As long as they’re anywhere but on her.
Serafina goes in and out of consciousness throughout the drive back to Rome. Anastasia phones Vanessa to tell them to meet us at the hospital, and they beat us by a matter of minutes.
It’s a flurry of emotion as nurses rush to get the bloodied woman in my arms into a room. They start yelling things as they wheel her away.
I’m on their heels until the doors swing shut, separating me from her, and a nurse jams herself in my way. “Signore, sorry. No one’s allowed back there. We’ll come get you when we have news. You family?”
Anastasia appears at my elbow and drags me to where Nero and Vanessa are waiting, knowing I won’t have the ability to leave Serafina myself. Zeno is fighting to get back with her but isn’t being allowed yet either.
My insides are frozen, and the person with the ability to melt them is being taken away. I stare at those doors, waiting for them to re-open and deliver the news I need more than life itself.
That she’s alright.
When the doors finally swing open, only Zeno’s allowed inside. The doctor reports a mild concussion, quite a few cuts, and bruised muscles, but that after twenty-four to forty-eight hours of observation and pain medications, she should be cleared to leave.
Zeno’s influence ensured they didn’t ask about the weapons they found on her or the drugs in her bodice—or even the fact that a bride was just carted in, bloodied and passed out, by a man who isn’t her husband.
Ten minutes later, Zeno appears again, his exhale the sound of a man who just gained a decade back on his lifespan.
“She’s asleep but doing well. They’re really adamant about limiting visitors to one at a time, no matter what I threatened.
She does need her rest, so it’s probably for the best.” He scans the line of us sitting in the uncomfortable hospital waiting room chairs, stopping on me. “Lev, come.”
My count of the floor tiles that’s occupied me from going insane cuts off at the sound of my name. I’m by his side instantly, barely stopping to ask why me.
By the swinging doors, he comments, “Seems right you visit first, since you found her.” But once we’re through the doors and alone in the stretch of a white, fluorescent hallway, he shoves his hands into his pockets and hovers by the first door to our right.
“Originally, I had a much different conversation planned, but then I saw you today.”
“What?” Maybe it’s because my head hasn’t been right since the minute Vitale put a ring on her finger; maybe it’s because I’m so fucking tired, but the meaning behind his words is lost within a cloud.
“I know what a man in love looks like, Lev. I’ve suspected, but then I saw you today. The ceremony, the reception. God, it was clear as fucking day.” He smirks, shaking his head. “The look on your face when you carried her in here…”
The cloud still hasn’t cleared. “What?”
He huffs. “You’re in love with my sister.”
There’s no point in denying the truth—and my future, if she’ll have me. “You mad?”
“At first, sì. You were asked to guard her, protect her, and instead, you…well, I won’t finish the thought.
But today, you put aside your feelings to witness her marry another man, and you still never gave her up.
Serafina is strong-willed. She wouldn’t be with you if she didn’t truly mean it.
” His body thumps against the door as his energy decompresses.
“Look, I spent my entire life keeping her away from the Cosa Nostra. I never envisioned her as someone’s wife for alliances, never intended to use in political schemes.
How I see it, she managed a to live normal life for eighteen years, a life with choices, and if her choice is you, who am I to fight that? ”
After all his determination to keep her away from crime, her tension, and my fear of betraying him, this is how it ends?
“You’re fuckin’ with me.”
He smirks, shoving off the door. “No. She’s always been free to make her own decisions, and while I may not have wanted this path for her, I can’t stop it.
Not after the past few months. In the end, I’d rather someone from our world who can defend her over a civilian who wouldn’t know the difference between a bullet and a mag.
As long as she willingly chooses you, I’m not mad, and I will not get in your way.
Now, Vanessa, on the other hand…” He grimaces.
“Good luck with that.” He steps aside and slaps my shoulder.
“Let me know when she wakes, will you? I’ll take Vanessa and the others home.
Anytime now, the Commission will learn about Vitale, so I anticipate a meeting. ”
And then, he goes. Just like that.
Once he’s past the swinging doors, I turn for the closed one behind me. After a deep inhale of antiseptic and nothing of the peach and vanilla I miss so much, I push the handle down.