Page 82 of Savior

“Is he alright?” I ask.

Ardesia motions toward the hanging plastic sheet covering a doorway to my left. “He’s with the surgeon now. We should know soon, I think.”

Sloane continues rocking. “He saved me. Even after he was struck, he saved me.”

I look at her, grabbing her hands and clenching them.

“You saved him,” Ardesia tells her, crouching beside me to look at her. “Look at me, Sloane,” he adds gruffly.

It seems to be what she needs, and she snaps to attention, eyes clearing of fog as she meets Ardesia’s eyes.

“You saved him. You were selfless and brave, and he wouldn’t have had a chance without you,” he says softly, touching her knee.

She nods; the knowledge seems to break something in her, and she cries.

“He was so scared,” she tells me through the tears, and I move to sit beside her, tugging her into my lap and letting her burrow into me.

The scent of Lorenzo’s blood is overwhelming, but I endure.

“What happened?” I ask Ardesia.

“Barone made a move on some of Brynne’s men she had stationed surrounding Sloane’s apartment. She wanted a perimeter around her, and lucky we had one, or the move would’ve been them coming straight through the front door unannounced. The perimeter gave Lorenzo a window to get her out.”

“But left him with a bullet lodged in him, I assume?” I ask, guilt settling into me that this is all my fault. If I had kept my wits and hands to myself, Lorenzo wouldn’t have been at Sloane’s place. Fuck, Sloane wouldn’t have been at her place. She’d have been safely tucked away in bed in the rectory.

“Don’t do that,” Ardesia says. “There’s no blame here. This is our life.”

“This isn’t my life,” I grind out, feeling bad for having said it in Sloane’s presence.

I hold her tighter, scenting her perfume through the fog of blood.

“It is now,” he replies.

“What’s our next move?” I ask him.

“We’re moving you both to an undisclosed safe house. She said she won’t go without you, and I knew you’d agree with her, so once Lorenzo is secure, I’m taking you myself.”

“Well, we can’t… I can’t… I have the church and…”

“Figure it out. Get on the phone with whomever you need to, step down, and do what you must. I don’t care what argument you’re still having with yourself, Luca. I know how you feel about the girl, and I know you want her safe.”

I swallow down a lump of pride and nasty words that won’t help my situation, holding Sloane tighter against me.

“Please,” she whispers, and I nearly buckle from the shake in her voice.

“I’ll handle it.”

Two hours later, Sloane is getting cleaned up with Brynne in the back, and I’m on the phone with fellow clergy members. I find replacements for a sabbatical. The bishop agrees to grant it, and the clergy puts a schedule for fellow priests to take up duties at St. Andrews while I’m away.

Even though I don’t need to give the reason for my sabbatical, I know that when I return from this leave of absence, I might be a man so forever changed in his DNA that my next step is leaving the Catholic church altogether.

When I get back inside, Sloane is listening to Ardesia whisper something to her and Brynne, her hands wringing in front of her. I take up at her side, splaying a hand on the small of her back. She shifts into me as if it’s where she belongs. Under my touch. Next to me.

“Can I see him?” Sloane asks.

Ardesia nods. “He’s weak. But yes, he’s been asking for you.” The smile that spreads on the Grim Reaper’s face makes even my stomach turn in knots as he leads Sloane behind the plastic sheet. I follow, holding the sheet back for Brynne to go ahead of me.

Lorenzo is laid out on a metal table that looks like it’s meant for butchering, not surgery on a bloodied mafioso.

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