"Who is that?" I asked.
Matteo replied briskly. "Adrian's second in command. We took him alive."
Another man's cold, deadly quiet voice came over the phone as the screams died down. "Did anybody touch her? Was she raped or touched in any way when she was unconscious?" he asked, presumably to the man he tortured. I paled, and the doctor patted the back of my head to get my attention. Shining a light in my eyes, he sought to distract me while he checked for a concussion.
"No! We dropped her in the bedroom and left her to sleep it off! I swear! Normally, I'd have thought for sure Adrian would rape her, but he was different about this chick. Obsessed, man."
"You believe him?" Matteo asked the phone.
"Yeah, I do. He's singing like a canary, and so far everything checks out." I sighed in relief, and the doctor sat down next to me, patting my hand.
"You've got a nasty concussion, not surprising. I want you to take it easy for a few days, no cooking, nothing that strains your concentration like reading or long hours of television. Tylenol for the pain."
"Okay," I whispered.
As soon as he stepped away to deal with some other minor injuries, I turned back to Scar. Gripping his hand in mine, I finally allowed myself to break.
Everything hit me. My resounding relief over not being raped. My hope that Scar would wake up soon. The terror I'd felt when I first heard those gunshots. "Why isn't he in the hospital? Shouldn't he have a breathing tube or something?" I whispered when Matteo wrapped his arms around me. Tears fell steadily as I sobbed, leaning over Scar.
"Draws too much attention. Besides, it's not the first time he's been shot, Angel. He'll pull through just fine. Doc didn't even have to put him under."
He quieted, continuing to hold me through my breakdown.
Just held me.
Like he didn't have a million other things he needed to be doing, his hands slid under my shirt and caressed my stomach with nothing but relief in his touch.
We sat there for hours, despite Matteo trying to draw me away to bed. "I can't leave him. Not again," I said every time.
After the room emptied, everyone else finding their way to their beds, that was the moment when Scar's groan echoed in the silence. "Scar?" I whispered, hoping to God he'd open his eyes.
"Hey, man," Matteo smiled into my neck.
"Ivory," Scar groaned, jolting where he laid like he might sit up.
I touched his shoulder, applying just enough pressure to keep him lying down. "I'm here," I whispered. "I'm fine. Thanks to you." The sniffle I made sounded particularly pathetic in the quiet room.
"I'm going to go grab some guys to help him into a guest room, Angel," Matteo murmured, ducking out and leaving me to stare at Scar.
"Don't cry," Scar mumbled. "Hate it when you cry."
"I thought you were dead. Adrian dragged me through the house, and you were just there. And there was so much blood."
"He got to you?" Scar's voice went taut.
"I'm fine, Matteo came quickly because of the tracker." I nodded, watching as his eyes went to the bruise on my face.
"Not quick enough. He make him suffer?"
"Ivory killed him," Matteo said, pride infused into his voice. "Bloodthirsty thing." I chuckled, completely appreciating the fact that Matteo seemed determined to turn my killer status into a joke. It somehow made it feel less real. Less like I'd stabbed a man four times like a vicious monster. "Come on. Let's get you to bed so the guys can help Scar to his bed. He needs to sleep."
I nodded, pressing a kiss to Scar's cheek as Matteo guided me away. "You're lucky I trust him. Otherwise I'd kill him for the way you're fawning over him," Matteo grunted, and I laughed all the way to bed where Matteo rolled me underneath him and held me for the whole two seconds it took for me to pass the fuck out.
Epilogue
Ivory
Not being able to drink at your own wedding was shit.
Like seriously.
I guess I should have just been glad that I wasn't sporting a huge baby bump, still in my first trimester. Matteo had been kind about it, agreeing not to drink with me.
Damn right I'd taken his offer. If momma couldn't get drunk than neither could he.
I smiled at the thought, staring up at my husband as he twirled me around on the rented stage on the estate property, the rose garden to our backs.
There had never been a discussion about where we would get married, we never even talked about whether the wedding was still on after everything that happened with Adrian Ricci.
I never once considered leaving Matteo. After all, I was a killer now too, regardless of the circumstances. I could have let Matteo kill him for me, I'd known that even at the moment. But something dark within me knew that I needed to do it myself.
Matteo had never once looked at me as anything but his equal since that day, and even though I often suffered from horrifying nightmares, I wouldn't have changed a thing.
Lino twirled Samara around the dance floor beside us, laughing despite the shadows under Samara's blue-grey eyes. I knew that her ex-husband was giving her trouble with the divorce, but Lino refused to talk about it much.
To be honest, I got the impression Samara didn't tell him much. He'd never done well with hearing the specifics of her relationships. I suspected he kept her as solely a friend for similar reasons to why Matteo had pushed me away.
I hoped he'd change that when her divorce completed. They'd always been perfect for each other, for as long as I'd known them both.
“Do you think they’ll ever pull their heads out of their asses?” I asked Matteo, making him vibrate with laughter.
“I think,” he whispered, “that if she dances with one more man who isn’t him tonight, he might just do it tonight.”
Sadie caught my eye and grinned, tormenting Duke by making him dance with her. “I agree,” she chuckled with emphasis. “If you don’t want them to dirty up all your surfaces, you might need to get your shank hand ready.”
“Sadie!” I hissed, throwing my head back on a laugh. Dad’s eyes found mine, shining as he watched me. I looked away as my own tears threatened. He’d already turned me into a blubbering mess during our father daughter dance. There was no way I could let him do it again. Even Uncle Adam had given Matteo a pat on the back, the two of them reaching an easy friendship despite the differences in the way they approached the law. With me knowing the truth, Adam was the first to relent that I was a big girl, and only I could decide about what crossed boundaries for me. Sadie twirled Duke away, drawing eyes from our other guests. I didn’t have the heart to tease Duke that he should be leading.
It would take a very strong man to lead Sadie anywhere.
I loved the girl to death, but she was terrifying.
And stubborn.
And both things had saved my life, all the relentless lessons she’d given me for self-defense, drilling me with the most dramatic and outlandish scenarios she could come up with. Without her, I could easily have died.
Without her, I wouldn’t have a husband and a baby on the way.
We owed her everything.
"Has it been everything you wanted?" Matteo whispered, smiling down at me. The stars twinkled in the night sky, the lights hanging from the house and worked into the rose garden echoing the romantic feel.