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“You need imaging, too,” the nurse chimed in. “I’m going to get some more of the trauma team to do your assessment, Mr. Guerra.”
She left no room for debate as she walked out, though Dante didn’t acknowledge her in the slightest. I glanced down at Bria. “Have you been checked out yet?” I asked, looking between her and Dante.
“It’s what took us so long,” he said. “She doesn’t have a bruise on her.”
“Thank God,” I whispered, taking a deep breath and gesturing her over to me. Bria didn’t hesitate before prancing toward me and climbing onto the end of the bed.
“I told you they didn’t hurt me,” she chided.
“You did,” I said with a small smile. “I’m happy the doctors confirmed it.”
The room filled with people after a few more seconds, and Dante made their job far more complicated than necessary, claiming that he only needed a quick patch job before he could see his personal doctor back home. They asked a lot of questions about the wounds, but he gave no information.
It wasn’t until most of the team left and the ultrasound was wheeled into the room that Dante wheeled himself to my side and leaned over the bed. “If I admit to a gunshot wound, they’ll have to call the police. I don’t do the police.”
I’d been too out of it to put the pieces together. It was a rule that I knew well—one that had gotten a lot of mob members killed over the years.
The woman behind the ultrasound machine stayed silent as she scanned my stomach surrounding the wound, then much, much lower. She nodded at the images she saw there, printing a few of them and handing them to me.
If I hadn’t been certain before, there was no denying the pregnancy now. A tiny, unformed sack of cells sat on the image, and I could hardly believe what I was seeing. I glanced at Dante and found his eyes just as wide as mine as he stared at the picture.
“Is she okay?” Dante asked the woman. “Is the baby okay?”
“I’m not trained to read the ultrasounds; I just get the images,” she said apologetically, pressing a tender part of my stomach. “These images are being directly sent to the high-risk pregnancy doctor and surgeon on-call. They should be in momentarily to discuss the results. But the imaging is mostly to checkyourbody. It’s too early for a heartbeat to be detected or for any fetal trauma to be obvious, though they will be looking for any early signs.”
I envied the evenness of her tone despite Dante’s scowl as she finished up and left the room.
“We have a lot to talk about,” I said after a moment of silence.
“After we make sure you’re going to be okay.”
“We have things to talk about beyond that,” I reminded him. “And you were shot more times than me. I’d like to know ifyou’reokay, too.”
“I’m fine.”
I knew it was a lie, though. I saw the shadows under his eyes from both blood loss and pain. He was trying to be here for everyone else, but he needed just as much medical attention as the rest of us.
“Dante,” I pushed.
“I’m fine,” he repeated.
“We made it through this,” I told him. “We’re done with all of this shit, and we can finally move on together.”
I scanned his expression. I needed a few words of affirmation. I needed to hear him say the words because I’d done enough to betray him for a lifetime, and he didn’t have to forgive me. Not when I’d put all of our lives in danger because of a misguided loyalty to the wrong person.
“We can.”
“So.” I paused, biting my bottom lip. “That’s something you’d want to do? Move forward with me?”
He looked at me with a blank expression that I couldn’t quite read. One that gave away nothing of his thoughts or motivations.
“I came for you,” he said.
“And your niece.”
He reached into a pocket and pulled out a little velvet box that had my breath catching in my throat. “I planned on giving you this before everything happened.”
I couldn’t breathe as he opened it, revealing a stone that wasn’t as exuberant as I would have expected from him. The dainty band held one large diamond and a half-dozen small ones surrounding it. Much more massive than something I would have chosen for myself, but still delicate and classy in an inexplicable way.
