AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m sorry, Sofia,” he said, the first words my brother had said to me in more than a decade. “I…”
My breath caught in my throat, but at the same time, Dom’s chest rose and then fell, and my breath came out in a strangled whoosh.
He’s still alive.
“Stop,” I said as Leo moved to pull out a thick piece of glass that had lodged in Dom’s arm.
As a nurse in training, I’d learned about triage and emergency care, but for the first time, it wasn’t techniques and skills drawn from a textbook. It was a certainty that powered my muscles and flowed through my veins as I grabbed a torn strip of Leo’s shirt and bound up Dom’s arm. I glanced over him in a quick assessment, watching for the reassuring rise and fall of his chest as I went.
He was covered in a lot of blood, but it didn’t seem like all of it was his. Like Nico and Leo, he was covered in a lot of other people’s blood.
I shuddered, thinking how that had happened.
There were no other major bleeds that I could see. I checked his pulse, counting out the strong and steady beats against my fingertips. My own heart seemed to flutter in my chest. He was alive. He was going to be all right.
I lifted his eyelids, checking his pupils, which contracted with the light just like they should. I checked his head for contusions, and right away, I found one at the back of his skull that probably accounted for his unconsciousness. The swollen lump was sticky with blood, but it wasn’t bleeding profusely.
His eyelids fluttered open, but the gray that stared back at me wasn’t muted. It wasn’t part of the strange gray world that made no sense.
Dom’s eyes, open and alive.
I sagged with relief and dropped my head on his chest, but instead of lying still like a good patient, he groaned, patted my head with his less-injured arm, and struggled to sit up.
“Don’t move, Dom,” I said.
He sat back against the wall and flashed me a pathetically weak grin.
“Stubborn fool,” I muttered under my breath as he pulled me against him in a one-armed hug.
“That’s kind of the pot calling the kettle black, is it not?” he whispered against my brow.
I laughed, grabbing hold of Leo’s hand and tugging him close.
“It’s been a while,sorellina,” Leo said with a grin, then planted a kiss on my forehead. But there was something in the tone of his voice that made my throat tighten painfully.
“Where’s Dante?” I asked in a strangled whisper.
If Dom and Leo were here, then Dante would have been too. And yet, there was a prickle of apprehension at the back of my neck as I sat up and looked around, searching for my missing brother. My brother, whom I’d yet to see. I’d wasted so much time with my stupid anger.
I found Greta and Vito easily—though I couldn’t imagine how Vito had gotten from California to New York so quickly. There were plenty of faces I didn’t recognize too.
But no Dante.
Leo grabbed my hand, but he kept his gaze averted like he couldn’t quite meet my eyes. “I’m so sorry, Sofia.”
“Damn right, you’re sorry,” a raspy voice called as two figures came around the burning corner of the building. Two smoking figures, both of them rather singed around the edges and leaning on one another for support.
A sob escaped my throat, and I could feel the collective sigh around me as the two men ambled forward. I recognized the man with Dante—he was a Costa man.
Lucas and Costas, they’d come together.
They were working together because of me and Gabe.
When Dante reached us, he pulled me up and drew me against him. He’d either never had a jacket on, or he’d removed it at some point, and the shirt beneath was charred in various places.
He smelled like a fireplace, but I could only find two concerning injuries on him—second-degree burns on his calf and his upper arm that, while nasty-looking, would be all right with proper medical attention.
I’d only just finished making my up-close assessment when a pair of smaller hands grabbed me from behind and yanked me into an enormous hug.
