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“Help him, okay? Please?” Olivia hovers behind him, wringing her hands.
“He will.” Luca places a hand on her shoulder. “I have to get you home. It’s for the best.”
“I’m not leaving him!”
“Yes. You are.” I wait until she meets my gaze. “Olivia, go. I’m going to be fine. Once I’m stitched up, I’ll be right behind you.”
“I rode over with Mr. Bruno,” the doctor explains while pulling tools from his bag. “I could drive your car.”
“See?” I force a smile while fighting to stay conscious for her sake. “Get going. I’ll meet you at the house.”
“We have to get moving,” Luca murmurs.
She nods, but before following him to the door leans over me and whispers in my ear. “I love you. I’m sorry if it’s wrong or you don’t want to hear it, but I do. Come home. I’ll be waiting.” And then she’s gone, with Luca checking outside before escorting her from the room.
She loves me. I must’ve done something right in my life.
“Okay, Doc,” I grunt, no longer having to hide the pain for her sake. “Let’s get this slug out of me.”
Chapter Thirteen – Olivia
It’s not until I’ve been home an hour that Dad gets a phone call. “They’re crossing the bridge now and will be here any minute.”
We’re sitting in Dad’s study, just me and my parents. I think Dad would like to speak with me privately, but Mom’s not about to let me out of her sight. Talia is planning a party to welcome me home while my brothers are… doing whatever they do. I know they’re glad to have me back, but there’s not that warm sort of relationship I wish we could have.
“What do you need, sweetheart? You must be hungry. We can have anything you want fixed, you know that. Just say the word.”
I pat my mom’s hands before giving her a hug. “I’m a little more concerned about Beckett right now. He really put it all on the line to get me back here.”
“He did his job, you mean.”
I turn to my father and shake my head. “Dad. please. I just got home, and I don’t want to get into a fight. I’m sorry for every bit of grief I put you through—I mean it. But I’m telling you, Beckett worked hard to keep me safe. I was there, I know. And I don’t want to see you getting on his case for not knowing we were being tailed. Your own guys didn’t know somebody hacked their comm system until last night, right?”
He scowls, but it doesn’t last long. “He did take a bullet for you today.”
“He did.”
I guess it’s the memory of those sickening moments after I saw the blood pouring out of the wound that makes me turn toward my mom. I don’t think she’s stopped sniffling since we hugged outside, when I got out of Luca’s car. “Mom. I have to tell you something.”
“Anything, sweetheart.” She strokes my hair, frowning a little when she notices once again that I bleached it.
“I’m in love with Beckett.”
“You’re what?” Dad barks behind me. But I don’t look at him. I’m still staring at my mother.
“I’ve been in love with him since I was fifteen. He never did or said anything to encourage me—it was just a teenage crush at first. But I’ve never stopped feeling that way, and I feel that way still. I almost lost him today. What am I supposed to do? Now that I know for sure how I feel, I can’t go back to pretending otherwise.”
Dad lets out a roar. “This is unacceptable. He’s dead, he’s fucking dead.”
It’s like I’m dreaming. For the first time in my entire life—at least in my presence—Mom shoots him a sharp look. “Your daughter just came home after a year and said she’s in love. And that’s all you have to say in response?”
“But—but—he’s nobody! He’s not—”
“Dad, he was good enough to find me and protect me. You always trusted him, you know that.”
“But not this way.”
“I know. But I’m telling you now, as much as it hurts me to say this: I would rather go back to living in a crummy little dump and waiting tables every day if it meant I wouldn’t have to marry somebody I don’t even know just for the sake of the family. You know I love this family. But I can’t sacrifice my whole life for it. I will leave again if you force me to be with anybody but him.”
