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No. No, no, no, no—
I drop to my knees beside her, shaking as I reach for her. She took the fucking bullet. She shouldn't have done that. I'm livid, terrified—I can't get air into my lungs.
"Drop it, fucker!" I hear my father snarling.
I'm vaguely aware that Dante has been wrestled to the ground by my father and Frank Russo, and his gun is being kicked away as he continues to shout. The rest of the noise in the room has died down, but my ears are still ringing from the gunshot, and I still can't fucking breathe as I carefully turn Giulia over.
The bullet is in her right shoulder. It's bleeding heavily. It might've hit something important, and I choke back a sob at the red staining her dress and quickly spreading on the floor beneath her.
"Bellissima?" I manage, gritting my teeth.
She needs to be awake. I need to see her pretty green eyes and know she's awake—that she's here with me.
"God, please just be here with me."
"There, there. Here—let me see her."
The other mafioso's voice is entreating, but I still knock the man's hand away when he moves to take her from me. Then I realize everyone else in the room is gathered around, just…watching with strained faces. Except for Giulia's mother, who is speaking frantically on the phone in a hushed voice as her glistening eyes linger on her daughter.
Both my father and Giulia's are on either side of me, Frank Russo's jaw clenched tightly. Other mafiosos stand beside a slumped-over Dante Parisi. I don’t know when that happened, but I don’t care.
All I care about is that the woman I love is breathing so raggedly it hurts to hear. And she's pregnant, and our baby is in danger. I swallow and shrug off my tux jacket to press it against Giulia's gunshot wound, brushing her hair out of her face and gently patting her cheek.
"Giulia?"
I sound hoarse and fragile in front of my father and the Don of the Russos, but I couldn't give a rat's ass right now. Someone else is gripping my shoulder comfortingly—probably Bruno—but I don’t look at anything else in this quiet room.
Giulia Russo is mine, and I'm not about to lose her. She can't leave me. I won't let her.
I can't.
Finally, my heart can beat again when her lashes flutter. Giulia grimaces, blinking at me with a pained expression in her emerald eyes. I let out a breath and wipe the moisture I realize is trying to drip off my cheeks.
"You scared the shit out of me," I whisper.
She coughs and winces. "You're complaining? I saved your life,simpatico piantagrane.”
Cute troublemaker.I bark a somewhat hysterical laugh at her nickname for me and shake my head at her. Her voice is too weak. "You're so fucking stubborn. Just keep breathing."
Giulia's mother also crouches down beside us, worry clear on her face as she grips Giulia's hand. I hold her other one, squeezing it reassuringly as the Russo Don's wife says, "The ambulance will be here any second, darling."
"He didn't force himself on me," Giulia mutters softly, closing her eyes again. "I'm in love with Roberto, and I don’t fucking care if it disappoints you or Father."
She's in love with me. Giulia Russo loves me. I could choke on the emotions warring inside me, and I didn’t even care that her mother was shell-shocked at her declaration. Her father merely looks between us again.
"I love you too, cutie," I murmur, patting her cheek again. "But you need to keep your eyes open. Stay conscious."
"How many times do I have to tell you?" Giulia slurs. "You can't tell me what to do, Giovanni."
Then she slips into unconsciousness in my arms.
Chapter 27
Giulia
I'mawareofthreethings when I first begin to wake. First, I've obviously had some heavy painkillers in my system recently. I recognize the feeling from the last time I got injured on the job, and I don’t love how groggy it makes me. The second thing I notice is that I'm not alone because I can sense someone holding my hand.
Lastly, I'm immediately aware that I professed my love for Roberto fucking Giovanni before passing out from blood loss. To my entire family, and his, and the other Five Families.
