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Chapter 17
Zariah
I thought once Papa and the others found Ciana and Nova, that the nightmare would be over. But that had only dragged us deeper into the newfound hell that was my family’s reality.
The horror that had been on my father’s face as he’d reluctantly told my brothers and me about how they had found Nova had turned my stomach. Ciro Donati didn’t do fear, and he sure as fuck didn’t do horror. He was the monster our enemies feared showing up in their own nightmares to take their lives.
To have both emotions in his blue eyes had scared the living hell out of me.
Then I’d seen the aftermath of what Sheena had done to my sister, heard her explaining to Mom how she’d withstood the torture of having her flesh repeatedly burned by keeping her eyes focused on Nova’s broken, lifeless body. I’d had to rush to the bathroom, where I’d thrown up over and over again until Zayne had come to check on me.
The entire time, I hadn’t allowed myself to think much of Nolan, but in the back of my head, I kept hoping he would suddenly turn up and just hold me. I didn’t tell him about what was going on because I was scared he wouldn’t pick me over his baseball games, but that wasn’t the only reason.
I didn’t want to pull him into this craziness. Things had spiraled out of my family’s control, something that had never happened before in my entire life. All the fears I’d ever had now seemed like things only a toddler would be afraid of, compared to what was going on. And I loved Nolan too much to drag him into that terror with me.
Even as I’d run into his arms when he’d shown up in Vito’s hospital room, a part of me had screamed to send Nolan back to Boston. I needed to get him as far away from the danger that was my constant reality. It was selfish of me to hold on to him when it could mean putting his life at risk.
After having spent years wanting him to pick me, to put me first, he finally had. And there I was, thinking about pushing him away. The irony wasn’t lost on me, but I loved him too damn much to want one of my family’s enemies to hurt him for no other reason than he cared about me.
Nolan had his entire life ahead of him, a career that had already made him a legend in the baseball world. He needed to go back to thinking only of the next game and forget about me.
That was what I should have told him, pushed him into his rental, and sent him on his way. Instead, I clung to him tighter and let my selfish side win out.
He’d chosen me, damn it. He’d finally proven to me that he loved me more than baseball—that I was what mattered most.
I wasn’t about to let that slip through my fingers when it was the one thing I’d wanted since the day I’d met him.
He was still holding me when they came to take Vito to surgery to fix his arm. He was still there when the doctor came to tell us that Bennie was going to be okay. My baby brother had lost a lot of blood, and they had explained earlier that it was very likely we might lose him before they even had a chance to save his life.
I thought hearing that her youngest child was going to be okay would help calm Mom down. But it only sent her back into hysterics. Vito and Bennie might be fine, but we still had no clue what was going on with Ciana. She’d been tortured by the Irish for hours. What would they do to her this time?
What would they do to the babies my sister carried within her belly?
No one had even suspected she was pregnant, let alone that she was going to have triplets. Had she gotten so good at keeping things from us, or had we all been so lost in our own bullshit that we’d missed all the signs? I was ashamed to admit that I didn’t know, but either way, it made me a bad big sister. Ciana had been going through one of the biggest life changes a woman could experience, and she’d been doing it all alone.
I made a mental promise to both of us, that if—
No! I couldn’t think that way.
Once.
Once we got her back, I would be a better sister. I’d help her with the babies and spoil my nieces like crazy.
Silently, I prayed that she was safe. That she and the babies were healthy.
Then my prayers started to turn darker as I wished for Ryan to send Sheena straight to hell, where she would rot in one of the pits until the rest of my family could join her and spend the rest of eternity torturing her evil ass.
I didn’t want to be the first to join her, but I wanted my turn. For what she’d done to Ciana, but, more than anything, for taking Nova from us.
By the time Vito was taken into surgery, my mother’s twin had arrived at the hospital. With the chaos of Ciana being taken and my brothers shot, it had taken me a while to even think about security. The only one of our guards who had stayed behind with us who hadn’t been killed was Tony, and that was only because he’d been with me up at my house. Even the men my uncle Adrian had sent over to help protect us had been slain by Bain’s army.
ZiaVictoria arrived and took over, putting the entire hospital on lockdown. My brothers were put in the same private room, and half a dozen men were stationed outside the door. Another bed was brought into the spacious room that was quickly shrinking with all the beds and people coming and going.
The third bed was for my mother. BetweenZiaand I, we determined Mom needed something to help calm her down because she had already cried to the point of dehydration. She’d long since lost her voice and couldn’t even talk. Once the bed was situated,Ziapulled her twin into her arms for a loving hug, rocking her gently while a nurse administered the sedative.
Ziawasn’t prepared for Mom’s sudden dead weight, however, and if Nolan hadn’t been so close, both women would have fallen. He eased my mother from my aunt’s arms and lifted her into his arms before placing her carefully in the middle of the spare hospital bed.
He tucked the covers up over her, and I heard her moan my sister’s name. Seeing how tender he was with her, I couldn’t help falling a little harder for him.
