Startled, I didn’t dare hug her back. I pulled away and put the gun in the back of my pants. “For what?”
“For watching over me. Even if it wasn’t for my sake.”
“What do you mean not for your sake? Who else’s?”
She drew back. “Leo, of course. Who else? It’s okay. I know all you’ve been doing for me since the attack has been for him, but I’m still grateful. I mean, look at you, even now, you wake up in the middle of the night, always coming to the rescue.”
I scratched my temple. “Did Leo tell you that?”
“That you only accepted to protect me so he’d be your underboss? Yeah, he did. I hope you don’t mind him telling me. I don’t want you two to fight again because of me.”
“Nobody is fighting, Angelina. Not anymore. When did he tell you?”
She shrugged. “Around four or five months ago.”
“On the day you agreed to marry him?”
“I think so.”
Of course. “I see. Now, go back to your beauty sleep.” It was time I left her be for a bit.
She chuckled. “Thanks.”
I spun and headed for the door, the acid corroding my soul searing harder.
“And Tino?”
I stopped in my tracks, my fist crushing the knob. “Si?”
“Thank you for giving me away tomorrow. It means a lot to me.”
“Anything for you.” My sweet Angel.
Chapter 40
Tino
She looked at me with her big green eyes after she twirled in her wedding dress. “How do I look?”
A vision.
That was meant to be for me.
“Like an angel.” I held her hands in mine and squeezed gently. “Leo is one fucking lucky bastard.”
A natural, more beautiful blush overpowered her face. “Did you see him? Is he…nervous?”
I wished. “He’s waiting for you with the warmest feet ever.”
Her grin lit her face and darkened my heart. I removed my hands from hers so I wouldn’t squeeze too hard.
“Are the Lanzas anywhere in sight?” she asked.
“Didn’t Leo say he took care of them?”
“Yes. He said Claudia wasn’t upset at all, and that she, too, wanted to marry someone else, but you know… What if she was lying to save face?”
“Probably. That’s why I’ve compensated the Lanzas heavily for my son’s indiscretion. They’d be very stupid to back down on the business agreement we’ve made. Besides, I doubled the hotel security inside and out. You have nothing to worry about.”
“Thank you, Tino. I don’t know what we’d do without you.”
I gave her my arm. “Shall we?” My voice came out thick.
With a nod, she linked arms with mine. I swallowed the pain and rage about to burst in everyone’s face and painted the world red, buried it under years and years of expertise.
The security team surrounded us until we reached the ballroom of my hotel designated for the wedding. The second ballroom had a Halloween party. Some of its guests were scattered outside, ridiculous masks on their faces.
When the bodyguards opened our doors, I didn’t pay attention to the five hundred guests and the camera flashes of the peppered press down the aisle.
I had to silence the demons. One word only could shut them up.
Piccolo.
Leo was grinning from ear to ear as I walked on fire, delivering my Angel to him myself.
He was fucking happy, and so was she. Wasn’t that what I wanted? To see them happy? To give them the best?
Why did it hurt so badly? Why did I feel like I was about to explode and destroy everyone in the way?
At the last step, I took my time, looking at her through the veil. Then I lifted it and leaned forward to inhale her smell for the last time, to kiss her goodbye.
“I love you, Angel,” I murmured too low for her to hear as my lips touched her cheek. I confessed it for the first time to her, to myself.
With a heated breath, I drew back and switched my gaze at Leo.
“Grazie, Papà.” He grinned.
I nodded once and squeezed his shoulder. My legs barely carried me so I took my seat.
The ceremony started. With closed eyes, I listened to the priest mumbling the clichés.
“Do you take Angelina Maria Baldi as your wedded wife?”
I do.
“Do you promise to love her, comfort her, honor and keep her for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and health, and forsaking all others, be faithful only to her, for as long as you both shall live?”
I do.
I put a hand over my squeezing heart to silence the persistent ache. A noise outside the ballroom as Leo finished his vows distracted me for a second. I glanced at the entrance doors. They were closed and the bodyguards were at their places. It must have been coming from the other party.
Shifting back in my seat, I listened to Angel saying her vows as she looked into my son’s eyes with everything a groom may ever want to see in his bride’s gaze.
More noise.
The men began to fluster, pressing their ear buds, mumbling to each other.
“I now pronounce you husband and—”
The rapid, successive bangs of a machine gun boomed from outside and into the ballroom. Screams filled the air as dresses and suits tumbled on the floor. I dashed through the panicked crowd, my arms stretched with a gun in each hand, and threw myself at the altar, knocking down anybody in the way.
I swiveled and, along with my bodyguards, I shot at the fuckers with the machine guns. They were in suits, their faces covered with Halloween masks.
When my men sheltered my body with theirs, I saw Leo was on the floor, his shoulder bleeding, Michele covering him with his body.
“I got him, but she’s down! Take her and go!” Michele yelled over the bullets.
I glanced to my right. At my Angel. At the redness smearing the center of her dress in a growing circle. At her silent face. At her screaming sister.
“NOOOOO!”
Chapter 41
Lina
Blackness. An infinite ocean of blackness.
“Wake up, my sweet Angel.”
“Marciano? Are you here? Am I dead?”
“No, Angel. You’re here. With me.”
“But you’re dead. Marciano?”
Dark blue eyes taunted me in the dark. “Tino. My name is Tino.”
“Tino?” A gasp snagged in my chest as I opened my eyes, a pounding headache and queasy stomach hitting me hard. Was I dreaming? No, I was awake. The dull pain resonating through my body told me so. It was still dark, though; I couldn’t see a thing.
For a second, I couldn’t remember what day it was or where I was. Then the fog enveloping my head cleared a bit. I was at…my wedding. My fucking red wedding. The horrible events rushed in. There was a shooting. Leo! Nicky! Oh my God.
What happened to them? What happened to me?
I was lying on something comfortable. As comfortable as my bed at the mansion, but it was different. The air was humid and the smell of the room, sea breeze and lemon, confirmed I wasn’t at the mansion at all. I attempted to get up, but I could barely lift my head, let alone my body. There was so much pain in my lower abdomen. What the fuck?