Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 75107 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75107 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
“I don’t have anyone else to make Christmas,” I said, my belly twisting.
“What are you talking about? You’ve got Venezio.”
My heart swooped at that. And I didn’t realize until that moment how much I wanted that to be true. That he wouldn’t just disappear once this was all over.
“Sweetheart,” Salvatore said, waiting until I glanced down at him. “You have Venezio.”
He said it with so much certainty that I started to believe him.
“Maybe I can rent a wheelchair or scooter to stay off my feet,” I said.
“That’s a woman for you.”
“What?” I asked, brows scrunched.
“Listen, I tell a man he needs to stay off his feet, he plants himself on his ass and lets himself be taken care of. I tell a woman to stay off her feet and she finds a way to still do all the things while not being on her feet.”
“That’s not inaccurate,” I agreed, giving him a little smile. “How bad is it?”
“About as bad as I was expecting. The skin is still attached, sort of. And it’s really important you don’t try to remove that. If it comes off, it comes off. But don’t help it along. It works as a sort of natural bandage for now. That’s good. I am going to be checking on these feet every few days, though.”
“I could go to my doctor if—”
“I will be checking on your feet every few days,” he cut me off with a warm look in his eyes. “And Venezio will be in charge of changing the bandages once or twice a day.”
“I don’t know if Venezio will—”
“Don’t know if I will do what?” Venezio asked, coming back into the room.
His face looked a little cleaned up, but the bruises were getting worse as time settled them in.
“This pretty girl here isn’t sure you’re up for the job of changing her bandages.”
“That’s not what—”
“And she’s also worried she won’t be able to stay off her feet with all the things she has to do for Christmas.”
“I got no problem changing the bandages,” Venezio said, walking toward my feet to check out the damage. His face gave nothing away.
“And Christmas?” Salvatore prompted. “She seems to think she will just get herself a scooter and continue to do it all herself.”
“No, you’re not.”
“I have things to do.”
“Like lay your ass in bed and recover, yeah,” Venezio said, sighing.
“If it makes you feel better,” Salvatore said, “Venezio is an awful patient too.”
“How often am I changing bandages?” Venezio asked, neither agreeing with nor denying the allegations.
“Probably twice a day at first. I’ll write down a whole list, step by step. And give you all the supplies.”
“Pain meds included?”
“I don’t need—”
“Of course.”
“Is this a thing with you guys?” I asked, looking between them. At their blank looks, I added, “Talking over someone like they haven’t said anything?”
“Only when what they’re saying is stupid,” Venezio supplied, making a surprised laugh escape me.
“Fine. I’ll take the pain meds.”
“Good girl,” Salvatore said. “I’m just wrapping up. You wanna make sure you got a way to get her home?”
“Yeah. I’ll be right back, babe.” He gave my wrist a squeeze. “Then we’ll go home.”
We.
My heart squeezed.
And this time, I went ahead and let the hope swell.
Maybe I did have someone after all.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Venezio
By the time I came out of the exam room, leaving Steph with Sal for care, Brio had already joined Lorenzo, Emilio, Cosimo, and Miko.
“What the fuck, Venezio?” Lorenzo asked.
I walked over to the seating area and dropped into a chair, exhaling hard.
Something about that had the men exchanging glances.
“That bad?” Miko asked.
“You got no fucking idea. It’s been like some fucking action movie the past day.”
“Well, let’s rewind it back to the beginning,” Lorenzo said. “That’s the charity woman.”
“Stephanie, yeah.”
“I’m assuming she now knows all about us.”
“Some, yeah. I didn’t have much of a choice when she’d nearly been killed several times.”
“It is what it is,” he said, shrugging. “Who the fuck is trying to kill her?”
“Well, he was trying to kill me. She was just with me. Remember that shit with the truck getting jacked?”
“By ‘that shit’ you mean killing that guy,” Brio corrected, “then yeah.”
Leave it to Brio to be the blunt one.
“Yeah, well, his friend or brother or… whatever came for revenge. He followed us to a charity event we were at last night. When we were busy, he slipped a tracker into Steph’s bag. Then, well, then he was chasing us through the city.”
“Christ,” Lorenzo said.
“Yeah. And it gets… complicated.”
“Let me guess,” Cosimo said. “You fucked her. So then when she found out you were doing shit behind her back, she decided to say fuck you and took off.”
“Uh, yeah, exactly that.”
“Then the fuck went after her because she was an easier target,” Cosimo went on.
“Yep. She got away and went into Central Park. Nearly fucking died of hypothermia. I got her in a cab. We went to the safe house in Brooklyn.”