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“Okay.” He let out a small chuckle as he relaxed in his seat. “The beach sounds like a good idea. We both have class on Friday, but we can stay for a night or two. We both need a break.”
“I like that idea.” A few days staring at the ocean with a half-naked professor Gallo sounded like heaven to me. I sat up to look at him, then a bright light blinded me.
When I glanced up, a big SUV T-boned our car. People always said that car accidents seemed to happen in slow motion. Now I believed them. It was all too fast, but at the same time, it just kept happening. The impact launched Luca straight into my arms. His body shoved against mine, and it felt like we were falling for a very long time.
When I thought it was over, the car flipped, and we did another merry-go-round. My head rammed into the roof of the vehicle and then I was floating. Maybe this was all a nightmare, and I was still in Luca’s bed, wrapped in his arms. The minute the idea took hold in my brain, all sounds were muffled, and a dream-like glow covered the dark sky and everything around us. I saw Luca’s smiling face talking to me. At least we were here together. At least it didn’t hurt.
I reached for his hand, and he kissed it. “I love you. I will always love you.” He repeated the words, over and over.
Me too.I tried to say it aloud, but the words wouldn’t come out.
“I have to go now, sweet princess.”
“What? No. You can’t go.”
The minute he disappeared, the darkness returned, along with a sharp pain in the back of my head and chest. I glanced down, expecting to see a hole but found blood instead. Whose blood? His or mine? I tried to focus on the scene around me to reorient myself. There was smoke everywhere and a fire burned not too far from me. Where did he go? He was here. Luca was here just a minute ago.
“Where did he go?” I sat up and realized I was in the back of an ambulance.
Several hundred feet from us, Luca’s SUV was on fire. The firemen were already on site, trying to get it all under control. I touched my hand to my temple. What the hell happened? This accident couldn’t have been an accident. That other car came at us out of nowhere.
“Where’s Luca?” I asked when a paramedic moved to close the doors. “We can’t leave him here.”
“Everything is okay.” He pushed slightly on my shoulder.
I fell back on the stiff bed and couldn’t get up again. “You drugged me? We can’t leave.” My eyes fluttered closed, and I couldn’t reopen them. I heard the door slam shut, while the paramedics talked quickly next to me. Seconds later, a siren blared in the distance, and we were moving.
“They couldn’t let us have this,” I mumbled. “They were never going to let us have this.”
CHAPTER29
We Stick to the Plan
Luca
The serenity in Donata’s big blue gaze and her bright smile breathed air into my lungs. I clung to the vision of her. Even in the darkness, I couldn’t let go.
“Luca,” she called out to me.
My eyes flew open. I squinted against the burn of the stark white lights overhead. What the hell? I blinked a few times to find my bearings. Bit by bit, the hospital room came into focus. Along with it, the blurry details of the accident.
“Donata.” I made to sit up, but the tubes in my hand didn’t allow it. “Is she okay?”
I glanced around the room. The man in the corner rose to his feet and ambled toward me. Jesus, Uncle Jimmy was the last person I wanted to see right now. The angry look in his eyes told me he knew what Donata and I tried to do. When I realized my clothes had been taken away, along with the card, a shock of adrenaline rushed through me. That was enough to wake me up. I was still in pain, but fully aware of the kind of deep shit I was in.
“Nurse,” I called out, scanning the room for my clothes.
“Are you looking for this?” He held the memory card between the pads of his index finger and thumb. “I’m not mad. I’ve been trying to get this back for years now. I was quite tired of dealing with that brainless kid. So, really, I should thank you. Because of you, he’s no longer my concern.”
“Everyone knows about your plan to kill Don Valentino.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He tossed the memory card in a pitcher of water. “Kids like to make up stories.”
I let my head fall heavy on the pillow, though all I wanted to do was run out and find Donata. But Uncle Jimmy couldn’t know how much I cared about her. I would not allow him to use my love for her against me.
“Thanks to that video, Donata no longer wants to marry me. She hates me. You can’t make her do anything now. Signoria Vittoria won’t allow it.” I smiled.
The element of surprise and Donata’s love for me were the last aces up his sleeve. Even if we couldn’t prove he meant to kill a don, he was finished. He was truly the outsider now, one on a very short leash. And Donata was no longer his pawn. She was free.
