Page 63 of Rockstar Untamed
Vittoria hesitated then sighed. “Look, I promised I wouldn’t tell, but Sailor’s not in the city.”
A thrill of fear went through Bodhi. “What? What the hell are you talking about?”
Vittoria cut her eyes at Solly who was now singing “Hell, fuck, hell, fuck.” Bodhi took his daughter back inside and gave her to Tim. “Look after your sister for a minute, would you?”
Going back outside, Bodhi glared at his mother. “What’s going on, and don’t lie, you have a terrible poker face.”
Vittoria sighed. “She’s gone to see Claudio.”
Bodhi paled, and for a moment, he thought he might collapse. “No. God, Mom, no…why?”
“She wants to heal the friendship between you both.”
Bodhi went cold. “Shit, Mom…no, Claudio isn’t in a good head space right now…Jesus, I have to go.”
Vittoria followed him in. “What is it, Bodhi, why are you so scared?”
“Don’t you know Claudio blames Sailor for Soleil’s murder?”
“Yes, I know, but how do you know…?”
“Because I’ve had a private investigator on him for these last years,” Bodhi said, almost panicking now. “And Maceo Bartoli called me after he went to see him. His paintings…he hasn’t shown in years and you know why? Because every single one of his paintings is him killing Sailor.Allof them. Maceo Bartoli sounded sick to his stomach when he called me. I’ve had Claudio watched to protect my fiancée…and now she’s delivered herself straight to him.”
Vittoria looked alarmed. “God, Bodhi…here, take my SUV. Go, go.”
Bodhi nodded. “Keep trying her cell phone,” he said, “and if she answers tell her to get the hell out of there. I hope to god we’re not too late.”
Claudio ripped open Sailor’s dress with every intention of plunging the knife he gripped into her, but then he was brought up cold. Shock. The pattern of jagged silver scars across her belly reminded him. Sailor had been stabbedtoo.She had given herself up for certain death to protect Tim, to make some good come out of a terrible situation. Claudio stared at her scarred belly, rising and falling as she took shallow breaths, obviously anticipating the pain.
You are not a murderer.Claudio dropped the knife with a clang and sank onto the floor, resting his head on Sailor’s knees. “God, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”
He began to weep, reaching behind her to untie her hands. What the hell was he thinking? How did him killing Sailor help anything? He began to sob in earnest, throwing himself away from her, into the corner of the room, his head in his hands.
Solly, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. He’d never gotten over seeing her dead, pale, silent on the mortuary table. He’d ripped off the cloth covering her so he could see what Foy had done to her. Those patterns of wounds he’d never forgotten. Now, seeing Sailor’s scars, he realized he’d been blaming the wrong person all along.
He felt Sailor sit beside him. At first, he wanted to move away, but when she wrapped her arms around his head and pulled it onto her chest to comfort him, his own arms snaked around her waist, and he held her tightly as they both cried.
After a while, they were both silent but carried on holding each other.
“I’m so sorry, Claudio,” Sailor murmured, her lips against his hair. “I’m so, so sorry. I would do anything to bring her back,anything.”
Claudio looked up, wiping the tears from his face, then sweeping a finger on Sailor’s cheek to wiped away the dampness there. “I know; me too. I just get past it, Sailor. I can’t.”
“I wish I could tell you a way of dealing with the grief, but the truth is I’ve never known either. When Tilly died…I thought I would spend the rest of my life screaming, it hurt so bad. Is that what you feel?”
Claudio nodded. “Every waking moment – and I don’t think I’ve slept much in the last five years.” He sighed, closing his eyes, felt Sailor cup his cheek in her palm, leaning into it. “I’m sorry, Sailor.”
“Don’t apologize; there’s no need. There isn’t a day since Soleil’s death when I haven’t felt responsible.”
“But you’re not. I see that now. What he did to you…your own father…was monstrous.”
“He was no more my father than he was a human being, Claudio,” she said fiercely. “I was dying, and yet when I saw Bodhi kill him, all I felt was relief. Relief that even if I died – and I was convinced I was already dead – that Bart Foy couldn’t do this to anyone else. If I’d had the chance, I would have done it myself. But sadly, I didn’t have much time to plan it.”
“Bodhi said you broke your own arm to get to the hospital.”
She nodded, half-smiling. “Not one of my best ideas, but it did the trick. I hid a scalpel and some scissors in the cast, but they found them.”
Claudio smiled and brushed the hair away from her face. “You sacrificed yourself for Tim.”
