Page 38 of A Vendetta That Ruins

“I tried to call Nicolo but he’s up to his eyes in a ton of shit on the dock. And Saint, I know you trust your men, but I need you to watch them like a fucking hawk, you make damn sure one of them hasn’t been turned and gets close to Anna. Once we’re up in the helicopter, you let us go, and you come back here and guard my sister and mother. I’m trusting you with my entire life right here.”

Vincenzo lifts me from the bed, covers and all. “Hang onto me, princessa. We’re going to have you to the hospital in record time.”

Saint leads the way out the door, through the tunnel where we came, and guards us as he and others swarm around us and Vincenzo makes his way with me in his arms through the penthouse, and up the elevator another floor to the roof. We’re surrounded by men with automatics as we walk onto the roof to the awaiting helicopter. Vincenzo yells to Saint, who’s already jumped in. Vincenzo hands me to him and jumps into the helicopter and takes me back. “Get a headset for her from up front,” Vincenzo yells to one of the crew over the whirring of the chopper blades. Saint jumps out. “Get this bird in the air,” Vincenzo yells.

He turns back to me and strokes my cheek. “How’s the pain, princessa?”

“Bearable. I snuggle into his chest, embarrassed to be this much bother after all that I’ve put this family through already. “I’m so sorry. I tried to tell your mom, but she just wouldn’t listen.”

Vincenzo quiets me with a kiss but his eyes go dark as I wince through another intense wave of pain. “Faster!” he yells to the pilot as we make our way over the boardwalk and the ocean to the other side of the bridge. I close my eyes, unable to really concentrate on anything except my breathing and the sound of Vincenzo’s voice, telling me it’s going to be okay, rubbing his thumb against the pulse on my neck.

His phone rings. “About fucking time,” he growls. “I’m on the way to the hospital with my wife. You better tell me you’re already there.”

He takes a pause. “We’re about three minutes away. The minute we land you have a gurney to put her on with the security team surrounding her, you got me?”

The minute we start to descend he’s barking orders at the pilot. “The minute we get on the ground. There’s going to be a medical team. You see anything suspicious, someone looks like they’re taking aim at Anna or me, you better shoot the fuckers dead, capisce?”

The pilot doesn’t turn to look at us. “Yes boss.”

Vincenzo’s arms wrap tightly around me. “We’re almost there, princessa. You hang on.”

I swallow through the emotion. “The pain is better now. My periods are so messed up, I tried to explain to your mother but she wants to believe what she wants to believe,” I say as tears well in my eyes.

He strokes a tear before it has a chance to fall down my cheeks. “They’re going to fix this. I’m never going to see you in this kind of pain again.”

I give him a gentle smile, my lower back finally relaxing until a spasm hits me so hard I can barely breathe. “Vincenzo.”

His eyes close. “Get us there now!”

The pilot lands in less than a minute after that and total chaos erupts as men with machine guns surround us and a doctor in a white coat walks with the gurney they’ve placed me on as they wheel me through the doors of the sanctuary and hospital Vincenzo had built.

The physician fires question after question at me as we make the trip inside, but once in the procedure room, he steps out to let the nurse help me into a gown. When he returns he begins palpating my skin, pushing and prodding, asking me more personal questions.

Vincenzo is livid. “She’s answered all these fucking questions before. Anna can’t get pregnant; it’s got something to do with her abnormal period. You make sure her fucking appendix isn’t about to burst or something worse, you got me?” Vincenzo shouts.

The good doctor takes it in stride. He takes two tubes from a lab tray. “I’m going to get a little blood to rule out a few things. He turns to his nurse. “Get the ultrasound machine in here stat.”

37

Vincenzo

My mind swirls with everything that I know about Anna’s periods. It’s not uncommon for her cycle to be a little off, but she’s never had cramps like this, not ever. At least that I know of. I don’t know what else ultrasounds rule out, but I do know they’re used for pregnancy.

Everyone but Anna seems to be concerned about that. The nurse walks in and starts asking Anna questions as she sets up the ultrasound machine and then places a large white blanket over Anna’s lower body. “Any differences in how you feel? Nausea, increase or decrease in your appetite?”

She shakes her head.

The tightness in my chest gets worse. What if she is pregnant and all the stress of the day is causing her to lose the baby? “Anna’s been eating more than normal.”

Anna’s eyes go to mine, she looks pitying, likes she pities me for thinking she may be pregnant, when she knows she can’t possibly be, but Ma’s had five of us kids. She wouldn’t say it if she didn’t think it was a very real possibility and the doctor sure as shit wouldn’t be wasting our time looking for something he didn’t believe may be there.

The nurse puts a clear gel on a wand and hands it to the good doctor before turning back to Anna. “Any soreness, vaginally, in your breasts, any changes to size or shape?”

Anna shakes her head, looking more tired than in pain now.

Now my heart is racing with the very real possibility that Anna may have just lost a pregnancy that she never thought she could have. My voice cuts through the emotion. “Her breasts are getting larger. I thought it was the result of her eating more.”

The doctor pulls out a fucking set of stirrups on the bed and guides my wife’s feet to each of them. “You’re going to feel my hand at your thigh, and then coolness as I insert the wand. It will show us what we need to see.”