AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I sighed. “I can’t, I’m sorry.” I wished I could, though.
Cesare nodded curtly. “Can you at least tell me if he’s going to be okay?”
It would’ve been cruel not to give an inch. “He should be fine.” Not immediately, but eventually.
The big man’s sigh of relief was almost loud enough to wake the patient. “Thank you. We thought—” He stopped abruptly.
When he didn’t say anything else, I spoke up. “We?”
“My buddy and me. Maybe you saw us when we brought him in?”
There had been two men there, but I didn’t remember what the other one looked like. “I didn’t see you in the waiting room after that.”
He shrugged, the muscles of his massive biceps shifting under his jacket. “Security wouldn’t let us see him, and we had some things to take care of.”
His tone was curt and didn’t invite follow-up questions.
He had some, though. “Can you tell me when—” He broke off as the door opened. Startled, his hand snaked inside his jacket as he turned. I expected to see Dr. Baines there, but another man stepped into the room.
The newcomer ignored me and looked straight at Cesare. “We’ve got company.” This man was a few inches shorter than Cesare, but still pretty tall. And his muscles weren’t as big and bulky, but he moved with an easy confidence, like his bigger friend. His dark hair and eyes showed that he was likely Italian, too. These two looked like they could be related.
Cesare strode to the door as if to take a look down the hall, but his buddy had already shut the door behind him. He spared a brief glance for me and for Leonardo before addressing Cesare.
“He okay?”
“He will be,” Cesare replied. “How many?”
“Two.” The new man said. “There were three.”
They exchanged a look and then Cesare moved over to my side of the bed. “You need to go to the bathroom,” he ordered.
For a moment, I stared at him, utterly confused. “What?”
“It’ll be safer there.”
He gripped my arm, pulling me to my feet.
“What?” I repeated again. Slowly, it dawned on me that he hadn’t meant that he thought I needed tousethe bathroom. He just wanted me to go in it.
Because it was safer.
Fear flooded through me.
The other man flattened himself against the wall behind the door and he had a gun in his hand. My legs started sharking, and I almost fell back into the chair.
A gun. Inside the hospital.
That should’ve scared, and it did but it also infuriated me. “Listen, you can’t just—”
Cesare’s large palm covered my mouth and he hissed at me to be quiet. What little self-defense training I’d had trickled into my mind, but what was one supposed to do against a man of his size? I had to crane my neck just to look him in the eye, which wasn’t easy to do when he had his hand clamped over my mouth.
Besides, though I might’ve been crazy, I wasn’t scared of his anger. It clearly wasn’t directed at me. But I was mad as hell at his friend for bringing a weapon into my workplace.
Cautiously, Cesare removed his hand, watching my face intently, no doubt ready to silence me again if he had to. But his demeanor was getting to me. He and his buddy by the door were clearly worried about whoever was out there.
“Get ready,” his friend whispered in a voice so quiet I could barely hear it. Cesare nodded, not taking his eyes off me. But his hand moved. He reached into his jacket and pulled out a handgun of his own.
Okay, now I was scared. Being around guns always did that to me. I hated them with a passion. But it was more than that this time. I was also frightened because of the tension radiating from these two. It couldn’t have been more obvious that they thought something big was about to go down.
