The new clothes Beni had Cesari bring me are easier to sit in than the blood-soaked ones that were left in a clear bag, looking like something straight out of a horror movie. And if I wasn’t determined not to leave this area until I get an update on Saxon, I would have followed Ces out just to see the weird looks he was given on his way to the car.
I swipe at my phone, opening emails that I’m only half reading because I don’t have the mindset to pay attention to anything other than the outcome of this surgery. But when I see one from Mattia, it clicks.
My fingers move across my phone rapidly as I type out an email, telling him I want the location of Viola Mancini as soon as he can possibly get it, when Beni bumps my arm. I quickly look his way, only to see him looking at someone else.
The moment my eyes land on Nico, I see nothing but red. It takes all of three seconds before I’m out of my chair, with my hand wrapped tightly around Nico’s throat while I pin him to the wall.
“What the fuck did you and your psycho of a sister do?” I roar.
He grasps at my wrist, trying to pull my hand away with no luck. “Nothing, I swear.”
His breathing is cut off, but not enough to pass out just yet as I get closer into his face. “Bullshit. You expect me to believe that she went to meet your other half and wound up with two shots in the gut, and you had nothing to do with it?”
“Kage,” he croaks out. “Please.”
As his face starts to turn purple, I release him and he falls to the ground, coughing and gasping for air. I stand over him, looking down at the scum he is and wondering why I let anything stop me from killing him before. There’s no part of this piece of shit—or the bitch he shared a womb with—that deserves to live, and once he gives me what I need, I’m going to rectify that.
There will be no more getting away with undermining my authority, his father’s feelings be damned.
“You have a lot of balls showing up here,” I sneer. “Or did you think they’d have a better chance of saving your life if I kill you at the hospital?”
He looks up at me with fear and panic in his eyes. “Boss, I swear on everything, I had nothing to do with this.”
The name catches me off guard, but it earns him no points. He gets no respect from me. “If that’s true, you’ll find Viola and deliver her to me.”
“Why? So you can kill her?”
I rear back and send a hard kick into his ribcage, thankful that Beni is blocking everyone’s view. He curls into a ball, and I bend down. Gripping his collar, I pull him up until he’s forced to face me.
“You do not ask questions,” I tell him. “If you want to live, you will find the little cunt and bring her to me. Otherwise, I’ll track her down myself and kill you both. The choice is yours.”
He says nothing as I pull him to his feet and pretend for our audience’s sake that he just fell. It isn’t until he goes to walk away that he stops and turns back to me.
“She’s family.”
I scoff. “The Familia doesn’t turn against its own. You have three days.”
All the pain subsides as I find myself in a peaceful meadow. I feel as if I’m nothing, but at the same time everything. Like I’m here, there, everywhere. As if I’ve left the restraints of Earth and can move freely. Brightly colored flowers fill the area, and the grass is a shade of green that reminds me of spring. The sun shines brightly, warming my skin and restoring a sense of calmness.
A familiar face in the distance tugs at my heartstrings.
Grandpa.
He’s sitting on a bench, looking exactly the way I like to remember him, with his jeans and a button-down shirt he leaves open to show the T-shirt underneath. His hair is back to the thick brown it was when I was younger, pushed back and away from his face in a James Dean style.
Upon getting closer, I notice he’s holding something. A baby, wrapped in a blue blanket. He smiles down at him, rocking him slowly and playing with him the same way he used to with Kylie and me. There’s something about him I can’t put my finger on, but it’s wiped from my mind the second my grandfather’s gaze meets mine.
“Saxon,” he breathes.
He puts the baby down into a bed of flowers and stands, wrapping his arms around me. The smell of his cologne brings me back to Christmas mornings on his lap, with cookies and hot chocolate.
“You shouldn’t be here.”
I look around. “I’m not sure I know where here is.”
Instead of answering me, he sighs. “Let’s take a walk, shall we?”
Nodding, I take his hand, and we head on our way. I take everything in. How the sky is so blue, and it feels like nothing can go wrong. It’s intoxicatingly peaceful. But the second I blink, we’re somewhere else. Somewhere horribly familiar.
Fire rips through a house despite all the effort firefighters are putting in to stop it. I watch with wide eyes until it comes back to me. Walking up those porch stairs. Stepping inside and not being able to see in the darkness.
I gasp.
“She shot me.” A tear slips out and slides down my cheek. “Why would she do that to me?”
He gives me a sad smile. “Oh, Wildflower. Love is such a strong and demanding emotion. Some people can’t help but to let it cloud their judgment.”
I close my eyes, and my mind goes to Kage. The way I feel about him is unlike anything I’ve ever known. It’s as if my lungs don’t know how to breathe unless we’re taking in the same air. It’s toxic, and dependent, and unhealthy, but God—it’s everything.
“Yeah,” my grandfather says. “You know it well.”
My eyes open, and we’re standing in the middle of what looks to be a hospital waiting room. Kage is sitting next to Beni, his leg bouncing impatiently. It looks like he’s aged seven years in the course of a couple hours. The lines in his forehead are going to be set into place from being so tense.
“He’s worried about me.”
“As he should be.”
I glance back at my grandfather. “And yet you still don’t approve of me being with him.”
Shaking his head, he grins softly and comes closer. “It’s not him I don’t approve of. Kage is a good man, despite what he believes about himself. It’s just the lifestyle I don’t want for you.”
“It was good enough for you,” I counter.
“I lived in a different time, Wildflower.”
My attention goes back to Kage, and I try to run my fingers through his hair, but he doesn’t feel it. I want to get him to see me. To tell him that I’m okay and to stop worrying, but I can’t. I’m not really here.
“We have to go,” my grandfather tells me, taking my hand once more.
He pulls me away and leads me down a hallway and into an operating room. At first, I’m not sure why we’re here, but then I see it. It’s me. I’m lying on a table while doctors work intensively to save my life.
“Oh my God,” I croak.
Going closer, I see why Kage is so worried, and why my grandfather said that he should be. To say I’m in bad shape would be an understatement. One of the doctors orders for more blood while the other has his hands inside my stomach.
“Am I going to die?”