“Are you okay? Are you injured?” His eyes still frantically scanned me, even though he was the one bleeding from a cut on his forehead.
“No,” I cried. “I’m fine. I was just worried about you!” Only then did I realise the tears were rolling down my cheeks. He closed his eyes and pressed my head back into his chest, holding me there as he breathed heavily.
“What happened? Where’s mypapi?”
He wrapped his arms around me and moved us to a less crowded area. I looked up into his pained eyes, and my lower lip quivered.No.
“There was an explosion,” he whispered, wiping the tears away with his thumbs as I shook my head, already knowing what was coming. “It went off on the stage during yourpapi’sspeech.”
“Is he…”
“I don’t know,” he said, pressing his lips to my forehead. “I saw him under the podium rubble, and the paramedics were working on him. I just needed to find you. I’m sorry, Aria.”
A sob escaped my throat as I collapsed into his arms, unable to believe there had just been an assassination attempt on my father’s life. He didn’t deserve this. He was a good man.
“I can’t leave until I know. I need to see him, Sani.”
“I know, let’s find out what we can,” he sighed. “The emergency services are bringing down the injured, but look.” He pointed up to the sky as a helicopter ambulance approached. “That could be for him.”
Sani grabbed my hand and pushed through the crowd towards the paramedics, who were the first to arrive at the scene. “Excuse me, my name’s Santino Buccini and the mayor is my father-in-law. This is his daughter, Aria. We just want to know if he’s okay.”
Her eyes softened, and her lips dipped a little as she reached for my arm, giving it a gentle pat. “He’s alive but in bad shape. He’s being airlifted to the hospital now. You can make your way there.”
“Grazie,”Sani said, squeezing my hand as I slammed my other one on my chest in relief. He was alive. That’s all I had to cling to. “Come on, let’s go.”
“Signor Buccini,”a deep voice behind us boomed, causing us both to halt on our way to the SUV. We turned to find the police commissioner and a line of armed police officers staring at us. My stomach dropped, and fingers trembled in Sani’s grip despite the steel in my spine keeping me upright. “You need to come with us.”
Sani straightened, lifting his chin with a calmness that deserved a medal. I was a wreck of emotions beside him in comparison.
“Officer, could we do this another time? I’m more than willing to answer any questions you have, but right now, my wife needs me. Her father has—”
“We know,” the commissioner interrupted, and I wrapped my arm around Sani’s bicep, holding on to him as my heart pounded. “Santino Buccini. You are under arrest on suspicion of orchestrating the explosive device detonated in tonight’s event at Altezza.”
The words sounded hollow as my jaw nearly hit the floor. They thought Sani was responsible for this?
“No!” I shouted as Sani stood stoic, unmoving, and eerily calm. He raised a hand when two officers stepped forward to handcuff him.
“At least allow me to give my wife my jacket before you arrest me. It’s a cold night.” He slowly shrugged off his jacket and placed it over my shoulders, kissing my forehead. The two police officers grabbed him by the arms and forced them behind his back, removing his gun from his belt and slamming handcuffs on his wrists.
I ignored the flashes of cameras and murmurs from the crowd as I threw myself in front of him, shouting at the commissioner. “He didn’t do it. He was up there! You’ve got the wrong man!”
“Signora.Please step back.”
“No! I won’t let you take him! He didn’t do this! He wouldn’t!” I turned to Sani and gripped the front of his shirt. “Tell them! Tell them you didn’t do it!”
The chaos around us blurred as he pressed his forehead to mine and I whimpered.
“Look at me,” he whispered, forcing my puffy eyes to stare into his. “I didn’t do this. You’re the only person I care that believes that.”
“I know you didn’t.” I nodded and grabbed the back of his neck, kissing him hard until they dragged him away from me. I raced after them as he was shoved towards a police car, but Max’s arms wrapped around my body, holding me to him. Reporters were shouting questions at Sani from behind the police tape.
‘Buccini, did you plan the attack?’
‘Is this because of the mayor’s investigation?’
‘Was this retaliation?’
Sani ignored them all.
