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I close it and throw the bags into the trunk and we drive into the city, going to a nearby parking garage that Dante owns and switching cars again. Aurora looks like she’s barely keeping conscious as we switch cars, and I’m worried, biting the insides of my cheeks until I can taste iron.
I should have been there. I should have never left, or should have taken her with me. I got sloppy. Got complacent. And then Marco’s man showed up.
I don’t know who he was, but after I killed him, I kicked him, twice, breaking a couple of ribs. I wanted to do worse but I needed to take care of Aurora first, get her stabilized and get her out of there.
I look over at her, at the bandage on her cheekbone. At the time I was pretty sure she’d need a couple of stitches, along with a sling for her dislocated shoulder. I’m still almost sure she does need all that. I curse myself inwardly.
“I’m okay,” Aurora says as I speed out of the parking garage. “It’s okay, Nico.”
“It’snot,” I growl. “It’s not okay because we were supposed to besafe.”
“It’s no one’s fault. They just...they found us,” Aurora says, leaning her head back against the seat.
I notice she looks exhausted, and I curse myself again. With as much anger as I have rolling through me, it’s hard to not let it out, but I need to focus on getting Aurora safe and get the doctor there.
I call Dante on the way to the next safehouse, one further upstate.
“Ricci,” he answers.
“I’m heading to the safehouse on Willow, upstate,” I bark. “Marco found us.”
“Shit,” Dante curses. “What happened?”
“It was one of his men. The guy dislocated her shoulder. Fucking grazed her with a bullet. He won’t be hurting anyone else ever again. I fucking made sure of that.”
“I’ll send a cleaner,” he says.
“Forget that. Send a doctor to Willow,” I command. I don’t usually talk to thecapolike this, but Dante doesn’t seem to be offended. I guess he knows that I’m upset.
“Got it,” he says. “Are you sure you don’t want to bring her here?”
I glance over at Aurora. “We’ll talk about it tomorrow. Just send the doctor.” I pause, closing my eyes for the briefest moment before opening them again. “Please.”
“He’s on the way. He’ll meet you there.”
I hang up and Aurora doesn’t react, her eyes closed, leaning back against the seat and cradling her injured arm.
I wish I could kill him all over again. Slowly. Maybe I should have kept him alive, questioned him about where Marco is, but I just couldn’t help myself. He hurt Aurora, almost killed her.
She could have died. That’s what keeps swirling through my head. She could have died while I was out getting supplies. I can’t think about it for too long or I’ll go crazy, it makes me want to throw my fist into a wall or someone’s face.
Aurora rests until we arrive at the safehouse and I take our things inside before coming back out to wake her. I won’t let her walk herself, this time, scooping her up into my arms and taking her into the house, placing her gently on the couch.
A few moments later, there’s a light knocking on the door. Holding my gun in hand, I go to the door and let Jimmy Sawbones in after seeing him through the peephole. I’m still holding my gun in my left hand when he walks in.
He raises an eyebrow, but doesn’t say anything. He’s probably had many guns stuck in his face before.
“This the patient?” he asks, gesturing toward Aurora, and I nod.
Aurora looks up at him. “It’s my shoulder,” she says.
“And your cheek,” he comments. “Let’s get that shoulder stabilized and then we’ll see if you need stitches, yeah?”
He takes her left hand in his and she winces, almost imperceptibly, and I have to look away.
“I popped it back in,” I say gruffly, and Jimmy looks up at me.
“Did a good job, Nico. Did you go to med school?”
