Page 91 of Her Guardian
“Which means the ones we took care of after that happened wasn’t all of them,” I mutter, shaking my head. “Fuck, I’m sick of these assholes.”
“Me too,” Massimo says angrily. “Really fucking sick of them. But we’ve got bigger problems if they’re working with Solitude and have hired a bunch of mercenaries.”
“What do you think?” I ask, looking at Sarah. “I’m sure you’ve done an entire series on the latest developments while I was knocked out.”
“Are you crazy?” Sarah shakes her head. “I couldn’t leave you! I’ve been worried sick!”
“I had to drag her out of the room when the doctor was working on you,” Lea adds. “Kicking and screaming, I might add.”
Sarah sits on the edge of my bed and takes my hand again, squeezing it hard. I can see the worry on her face. The concern in her eyes. She really does care about me.
“We’ll leave you two alone,” Massimo says. “There’s nothing you can do until you recover, and we’re still licking our wounds. We’re hunting the right people now, but they know how to cover their tracks.”
“Just don’t do anything without me,” I say firmly. “I’ll get my ass out of this bed when the time comes, even if I have to roll myself out of here in a wheelchair.”
“You arenotdoing that,” Sarah says, her tone firmer than mine.
Massimo, Dante, and Lea leave the room. I sigh and look at Sarah. She’s on the verge of crying again. She wipes her eyes, trying to fight off the tears. I wince and squeeze her leg, trying to offer a little reassurance.
“I’m not going to die,” I assure her. “Just got hit by a few darts.”
“Yeah, I was worried about bullets. You never mentionedgrenades.” Sarah motions to the wounds on my leg.
“Wasn’t expecting grenades,” I grunt, grimacing with pain as I try to move my leg. “Just like we weren’t expecting there to be an army of those fuckers.”
“Definitely a surprise. The Mafia Prince Killer isn’t some elusive sociopath, hell-bent on taking out the children of crime bossesand sending them to prison. Just a power play by Solitude and the Bratva.” Sarah rubs my hand, and I trace the tips of her fingers.
“You should do your podcast,” I say. “Massimo or Dante can tell you what you can talk about. I’m sure a lot of this will make the news. Get your exclusive before it’s too late.”
“I don’t give a damn about my podcast, Boyd,” she says. “Not when you’re hurt, along with half the Morandi family.”
“How many casualties? Did you hear anything?” I am hesitant to know the answer, but I need to.
“About a dozen,” Sarah replies apprehensively. “Eddie Bellamy and most of his guys died in the fire, along with the guys the Morandi family couldn’t get out.”
“Fuck.” I close my eyes and wince. “We shouldn’t have lost anyone tonight. Hope we took out more of their guys than we lost.”
“Hard to say. The cops are still sorting through everything. I overheard Massimo talking about it. Said he’s keeping most of it quiet, but there are a lot of cops involved that aren’t on his payroll,” she says. “He said it’s a huge fucking mess.”
“Yeah,” I mutter. “It is.”
The adrenaline spike from waking up is wearing off. I’ve still got too much tranquilizer in my system to stay awake for long. I’m hurt, but I’m alive. Better than it could be, although I’m not sure Sarah will believe that. She’s still scared.
“I’m going to be okay,” I say, trying to reassure her. “I promise. Darts and shrapnel aren’t going to keep me down.”
“I know you’re fine now,” she whines, unable to stop the tears that stream down her face. “But this isn’t over, and I know you’re going to be right back in the middle of everything as soon as you’re able. What if it’s bullets next time, instead of darts?”
“We’ll know what we’re getting into next time,” I insist. “We’ll know there’s a bunch of them and prepare accordingly. We thought we were going after one guy tonight. We won’t make that mistake again.”
“And next time, they’ll be ready for you.” Sarah wipes her eyes. “They’ll be expecting you.”
“This is what I do, Sarah.” I shake my head, hating seeing the pain on her face. “You know that.”
“Doesn’t make me feel any better about it.” Sarah leans forward and kisses my cheek. “But you need rest. I’ll be here when you wake up.”
“Then I’ll make damn sure I do,” I sigh, leaning my head against the pillow. Then I mutter something, the words coming out of my mouth before I even realize what I’m saying. “I love you, Sarah.”
“I love you, too,” she whispers, and that’s the last thing I hear before I pass out again.
