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I tighten my hold on his collar, and Massimo touches my shoulder. "Not going to help if you kill him, brother. He’s treating her; he’s on your side."
I glare at the doctor, then release him. He steps back, his features impassive.
"I’m sorry," he murmurs, "but we couldn’t save the child."
The child. My child. Our baby.A hot sensation stabs at my chest. The pressure behind my eyes builds. I swallow down the ball of emotion that clogs my throat. "I don’t need your sympathy," I growl. "If she dies, you die; remember that."
Seb shuffles his feet next to me.
"Do you understand,doctor?" My eyes bore into his before I turn away, stalk toward the door at the end of the corridor.
"Don’t you want to see her?" the doctor calls after me. "It would help her if you sat with her for a little while, maybe spoke to her."
I set my jaw. It's because of my negligence that she is in this situation. How can I stand in front of her, when I have failed her? I failed to protect my own wife. She deserves so much better than this. Since I first saw her, all I have done is screw up her life. She's better without me.
I slow my steps, then glare at him over my shoulder. "No," I snap, "I don't want to see her." I turn to Massimo, "You stay here with Antonio. Make sure you protect her."
"With my life,fratellone," Massimo replies.
I wince, then set my jaw, "Seb, with me."
I stalk out of the hospital, Seb on my heels. He doesn’t say anything as I head for my Maserati, which one of my clan must have parked in the hospital parking lot. As I approach it, Seb hands over the key fob. I beep the car to unlock it, open the door and slide inside. I glance around the car, a twin to the one that she had been in.
One in which her blood had been spilled. Xander is dead, my child is no more, she is injured and I... I am responsible for all of it. I tighten my fingers around the steering wheel, press the ignition button, shift into gear, and the car jumps forward. I slam on the brake and the car stops millimeters from crashing into the wall in front.
"You okay, brother?" Seb turns to me, "Maybe I should drive."
"No," I throw the car in reverse, peel out of the parking lot.
We drive in silence for a few minutes, then he glances sideways at me, "Why didn’t you want to see her, brother?"
"None of your business."
"You can’t blame yourself for what happened to her."
I step on the accelerator and the car leaps forward.
"It was because you had a protective plate installed around the driver's seat and it worked like an ejection seat, that she survived."
"I should have known that it was too risky to gift her the car. I shouldn’t have tempted fate by giving it to her. I should have, at least, test driven it first before allowing her to climb into it."
"Your actions saved her, Michael," he insists.
"It’s my actions that put her in danger, in the first place… If she had not survived…I…"
"But she did."
"Whoever rigged that car got past me," I growl. "I’ll never forgive myself for that."
"The bomb was rigged wrong. Only the ignition blew; she survived, Michael."
"We lost our brother, Seb," I take the next corner without decreasing speed and the tires screech in protest. "Xander’s no longer with us and it’s my fault." I slam my fist into the steering wheel and the car fishtails. The back of the vehicle rises off the road as the Maserati circles in a wide arc, once, twice, before I slam on the brakes and come to rest on the side of the road.
A truck blows it horn as it whizzes past, then silence descends.
I grip the steering wheel, staring ahead as my chest heaves.
Seb sits silently as more vehicles pass us at a more sedate speed.
