Scarless & Sacred (The Chicago War #3)

by Bethany-Kris

  Theo.

  “Will they let me in?” Evelina asked.

  “Yeah, probably. Just say …”

  “What, Adriano?”

  Her brother wouldn’t meet her gaze. “That you’re his fiancée or something.”

  “But I’m not.”

  “They don’t know that, Eve.”

  “The guard will.”

  “The guard knows Theo.”

  That was all Adriano said before he hit the red button on the wall to buzz through to the Intensive Care Unit where Theo had been situated.

  “Wait, you’re not coming in with me?” Evelina asked when her brother turned to leave.

  Adriano smiled. “You don’t need me to do this.”

  “But—”

  “And Dad’s dead, Eve. No babysitters, no rules, no princess, huh? Just … you don’t need me for this.”

  “Thank you.”

  Adriano shrugged. “Give me a call when you want a driver sent over to bring you home.”

  “Okay.”

  “ICU front desk,” came a gravelly voice through the intercom on the wall. “ID number, please.”

  “I’m not a hospital worker,” Evelina said.

  “Visitation?”

  “Yes.”

  “Which room and patient are you here to visit?”

  Evelina cussed silently, not knowing Theo’s room number. “Uh, it’s DeLuca.”

  “Oh.” More crackling followed on the speaker. “Theo DeLuca?”

  “Yes.”

  “Only family has been approved—”

  “I’m his fiancée,” Evelina interrupted without hesitating. “I could call his sister and have her put me on whatever list, if you’d like.”

  “It’s unit six at the very end, across from the ICU station. Please check in before you leave the unit.”

  “Thank you.”

  The door buzzed to unlock and open not five seconds later. Evelina walked into the sterile smelling, quiet ICU and tried not to let the sad atmosphere of the place take hold of her emotions. But the closer she got to the end where she knew Theo’s room was, the better she felt.

  Much better than she had in days, really.

  This was the first time she’d been allowed to the hospital. Adriano made her wait until they’d buried Riley, and the shock of the entire situation had calmed down. Her brother talked very little about Theo, but Evelina got updates from Lily when she could.

  It didn’t help.

  Nothing prepared Evelina.

  Not to see him like that.

  Evelina stood only a few feet away from the ICU room, and couldn’t force her legs to move. Her heart was breaking.

  Breathing tubes attached to Theo’s face kept his sharp features mostly covered while leads stuck to his chest, forehead, and abdomen reflected information on four different screens hanging on the walls. A stark, rough looking hospital blanket was tucked around Theo’s prone form while a rubbery looking oxygen monitor covered his right index finger. Oxygen hissed in the dimly lit room.

  “It’s only a shock at first,” came a quiet voice.

  Evelina nearly jumped out of her damn heels. “Oh, my God, Damian.”

  Damian Rossi glanced up at Evelina from his position on the floor. The man rested in the doorway with his foot propped up to the jamb, and his back pressed to the other side. A coffee rested in his hand while a newspaper had been set down to the floor beside him.

  Evelina hadn’t even noticed Damian when she approached. She wasn’t surprised that he was Theo’s guard. The two men had always been close.

  “I … It is a shock,” Evelina settled on saying.

  “The good news is the bullets missed his spine,” Damian said, looking back at Theo’s still form in the bed. “No spinal cord damage was the best possible outcome considering the three he took to the back like that.”

  “What’s the bad news?”

  “The bad news is that he lost nearly sixty percent of his blood during the first operation to remove the bullet that entered the left side of his heart. It was just luck that the bullets hit his organs at all, but they ricocheted off bones. Twice they lost him on the table and twice they brought him back.” Damian pointed to a monitor on the far wall and said, “That is his brain function.”

  Yellow lines scribbled across the screen.

  Eve’s relief was palpable. “He has brain function.”

  “Perfectly normal brain function, apparently.”

  “But he hasn’t woke up yet,” Evelina whispered.

  Her heart clenched and broke all over again. She couldn’t breathe. Her own pain was suffocating. Why wouldn’t Theo wake up?

  “Some people don’t,” Damian said quietly. “Some people enter the coma and they just don’t come back out, Eve. The oxygen deprivation Theo suffered was the cause of his coma, and if he does wake up, we have to be concerned about brain damage.”

  “But he needs to wake up. Okay? He needs to.”

  The rest she could handle if he would just wake up. Theo saved her once again. Evelina needed to thank him, to hold him, and to love him. Because as she watched him stay prone in that bed, she couldn’t help but know how badly she needed that man to wake up.

  And she knew it then.

  Right then …

  Theo was hers. He’d been hers ever since he called her a princess, and dared her to break the rules. He was hers when he couldn’t stay away, and when he admitted he cared. They didn’t have to be something to be one another’s.

  They just fucking were.

  She needed him to wake up.

  “He will wake up, right?” Evelina asked.

  Damian wouldn’t meet Evelina’s eyes as he replied, “It’s been a few days. There’s been no improvement.”

  “But there’s been no steps backwards, either, right?”

  “No.”

  “He’ll wake up,” Evelina said. “He has to.”

  “Mmm.” Damian pushed off the floor, scooping up the newspaper with him as he went. “Are you staying for a while?”

  “I can’t leave.”

  Not now.

  Not until Theo opened his eyes.

  “The nurses are kind of bitchy,” Damian warned.

  “That’s okay.”

  “Lily comes around quite often.”

  “She’ll give me someone to talk to.”

  Damian chuckled.

  “What is so funny?” Evelina asked, annoyed.

  “I was just thinking about the doctors that have been in. A lot of them are convinced that because Theo’s brain function shows normal activity, he can probably hear us if he’s in any kind of mentally aware state. Even if it’s a state between unconsciousness and consciousness, he might not understand, but his brain knows.”

  “So?”

  “So he’ll probably be happy to hear someone else. Or you, I guess.”

  Evelina’s heart warmed momentarily. “Oh.”

  “Lily nags him even like this. Asking him to wake up, and going on to herself when the monitor beeps even a little. I let her because it makes her feel better, but it isn’t doing a damned thing for Theo.”

  “She worries and she loves him.”

  “I know,” Damian murmured. “Be mindful of the breathing tubes. He could do without them, but the bullet he took to the right lung was bad and the respirator helps to keep him on track. It’s the only life support he’s currently on. His kidneys are fine, as is his heart even with the surgery.”

  Evelina nodded. “I will.”

  Taking another look at Theo, she realized most of her shock at the sight of him like he was had worn off. His chest was wrapped in gauze, and his face seemed almost peaceful, like maybe he was just sleeping.

  “He doesn’t like the dark,” Evelina said, mostly to herself. The room was too dark. Theo wouldn’t like that if he woke up to it like it was.

  “You’re right,” Damian replied, “and that’s why I was here.”

  “Hmm, why?”

  Wasn’t Damian
the guard Adriano talked about?

  “I didn’t do a good job of looking out for him when we were teenagers, so I figure I should be here now like I should have been there with him back then.”

  “His uncle,” Evelina said.

  “Yeah. Someone has to keep his monsters away.”

  Three days later, Evelina watched the doctor remove the breathing tube from Theo’s throat. Theo still didn’t wake up. Four days later, Tommas Rossi visited with Damian outside of Theo’s room. Evelina handed the man back his engagement ring without a word. Five days later, a specialist dealing in patients after they wake up from the coma came to speak with Theo’s family.

  He might not be the same. His temperaments may change. Some memories might be lost. Some behaviors might develop over time.

  Evelina tuned the woman out. Time bled together for her. She only left the room long enough to eat, to change into clean clothes that Lily brought for her, or to shower when the ICU nurses had an open bathroom for her to use. She couldn’t go. She needed to be there when Theo woke up.

  Evelina propped her elbow on the side of Theo’s bed and watched his eyes flicker behind his closed lids. It was supposed to be a good sign according to the doctors. It was a similar state to someone being in the midst of a vivid dream, and their body reacted. She hoped for Theo, whatever he was seeing wasn’t a nightmare.

  Reaching over, Evelina traced the sharp line of Theo’s cheekbone with the tip of her finger. Warmth followed the path she made and she continued across his jaw and over his lips. Then, she simply rested her hand over his chest.

  His heart beat.

  That was all that mattered.

  His heart was still beating.

  “Hey.”

  Evelina turned at Lily’s quiet greeting. “Hey.”

  “Nothing today?” Lily asked.

  “Not yet.”

  Lily smiled. “Yet. I like that.”

  Being hopeful was better than being resigned.

  “Theo is stubborn. I think he’s just being selfish.”

  “Oh, why’s that?”

  “Taking some time for him, you know. And that’s okay. He needs it.”

  Lily raised a brow like she was considering Evelina’s statement. “Probably. That sounds like something my brother would do. How’re you doing, Eve?”

  “That’s the first time you asked me that since I came to the hospital six days ago.”

  “I kept wondering if you were going to leave.”

  Evelina didn’t let that offend her. “I won’t, Lily.”

  “Good. Because he needs that. He’ll need it more when he wakes up.”

  “I lo—”

  “Don’t,” Lily said quickly, laughing. “I know what you’re going to say and please don’t. Him first and then the world, Eve. But him first. He’s never had that, I don’t think. Someone should give him that, and I’m happy it’s someone like you.”

  “Okay. Him first.”

  “You hungry?”

  “A little,” Evelina admitted. “Where’s Damian?”

  She hadn’t even noticed the man leave earlier.

  “Around. Stretching his legs.”

  Evelina’s brow furrowed. “All he does is pace.”

  Lily wouldn’t look Evelina in the eye. “Yeah, well, he’s restless and worried …”

  “What is it?”

  “He just thought maybe you wanted some time alone with Theo. Damian is always here, too. That’s all.”

  Oh.

  “I’ll go grab a bite to eat,” Evelina said.

  A hesitance wavered her voice. An even bigger one held her back from leaving Theo’s side. Lily didn’t miss it for a second.

  Lily waved a cell phone. “I’ll call the very second something changes.”

  “Thanks.”

  “You know, you could have told me months ago,” Lily said softly. “Back whenever it was that you two first started messing around and not so late in the game like you did.”

  “I already told you, there was nothing to tell.”

  Lily shrugged. “Anything is something. I probably would have cheered you on. I kept bothering Theo about finding someone.”

  “He didn’t really find me. He was just always there.”

  “I told him he wouldn’t expect it. I hoped it knocked his cocky ass down a peg or two.”

  Evelina grinned, but it quickly faded. “I don’t really know if it’s the same for him. You know what I mean? It won’t change anything about what I feel if it is different for him.”

  Lily scoffed. “Hey, he took three bullets for you. It’s the same, Eve. Trust me.”

  “I’ll try.”

  With a quiet goodbye to the still man in the hospital bed, Evelina left in search of the hospital cafeteria. She checked out at the ICU front desk before leaving the unit. A few doors down, familiar voices chatted and laughed. The closer Evelina came to the room, the more confused she got.

  Standing just in the doorway, the people inside didn’t notice her. Tommas, Adriano, Alessa, and at least a dozen more people that Evelina recognized, and some she didn’t, had set themselves up in the family waiting room. Guessing by the laptops that were set up, the overnight bags, and the garbage cans full of takeout containers, they’d been there a while.

  How out of it had she been since coming to stay with Theo at the hospital? She hadn’t known these people were here at all. No one mentioned it.

  Those thoughts quickly drifted away as a warmth spread through Evelina’s body. These people cared. They wouldn’t be here otherwise. Not everything was about the show when it came to the Outfit and the families. Sometimes, like now, they simply came together for support and common need.

  “Hey,” Adriano said, smiling up at his sister from the recliner he sat in.

  All heads turned in Evelina’s direction. No judgment stared back at her. She had worried that her relationship with Theo and the fake engagement with Tommas would be the focus for people instead of Theo’s medical situation. After all, look how people treated her brother and Alessa for their choices.

  “Hey,” Evelina greeted.

  “Lily was just here,” Alessa said, holding up a to-go cup. “She brought them coffee and hot chocolate for me.”

  Adriano pushed up from his chair and came to stand next to his sister. “You okay?”

  “Yeah, Adriano.”

  “No change?”

  “Not yet.”

  A man Evelina didn’t recognize held a bag of takeout containers up for Evelina to see.

  “You hungry, girl?” the man asked.

  The guy looked vaguely familiar, but Evelina couldn’t place him.

  Adriano seemed to pick up on Evelina’s unspoken question. “One of Theo’s guys. His son worked under Theo at the club. Artino. Cole. Ring any bells?”

  Barely.

  “Cole was the one killed the night Theo left for New York,” Adriano added.

  “The one Chloe’s brother mistook for Theo.”

  “The same one.”

  “Food?” the man asked again.

  Evelina nodded and took another step into the room. “Sure.”

  For once, she didn’t feel like she had to put the mask on for the crowd. These people knew her distress, they had to know her worries and pain. It wasn’t about being perfect, or the emotionless little doll her father liked to take off the shelf whenever it was convenient.

  She wasn’t that doll anymore.

  It felt like coming home.

  Just like freedom.

  Now, she only needed Theo to wake up, too.

  “Eve?”

  Evelina jerked awake in the uncomfortable hospital chair. Panic seized her throat, squeezing tight and threatening to silence her. Damian watched her from up above with a curious expression and a cocked brow.

  “Bad dream?” the man asked.

  “No,” Evelina croaked, still half-asleep. “Those stopped the day Theo was shot.”

  “You dreamt of Theo being shot?”

&nbs
p; “Me, not him. It didn’t make the actual event any better, Damian.”

  “I guess it wouldn’t.”

  She supposed her worst nightmare had finally come true. Unfortunately, it wasn’t her who took the bullets, but someone she still adored and loved made the nightmare a reality. She’d even felt the blood in her hands like she would in her dreams.

  Warm.

  Wet.

  Red.

  Slipping right through her fingers with no end in sight.

  Evelina shuddered. “Can we stop talking about it?”

  “Sure.” Damian jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “I woke you up because you have a visitor.”

  “Oh?”

  “She’s waiting in the café downstairs.”

  Evelina raised a brow. “She?”

  “You ask a lot of questions.”

  “You could answer them.”

  Damian shrugged. “She asked for her visit to be kept quiet.”

  Still groggy, Evelina gave Theo’s hand a squeeze before she passed Damian by and left the unit. After a quick elevator trip down to the second floor where the cafeteria and café was located, Evelina found her visitor.

  Abriella sat at a corner table with a coffee between her hands and her head down. Large-framed sunglasses had been pushed high on Abriella’s head where her hair was messily piled into a bun. Her hoodie and jeans were not the usual classed up style of Abriella Trentini. The girl looked worn.

  Evelina was shocked to even see her former friend sitting there. Abriella hadn’t said a single word to Evelina since the night of the fake engagement. Any attempts at contact were ignored. As far as Evelina knew, Abriella had ignored all of Tommas’ attempts, too.

  “Hey,” Evelina said as she slid into the seat across from Abriella.

  Abriella tried to smile, but it fell just as fast. “Hey.”

  “You could have come up to the family waiting room.”

  “There’s a lot of people there. I heard that it’s like a revolving door with guests for Theo coming in and out.”

  “People like Tommas?” Evelina asked.

  Abriella straightened in her chair. “I know it was all for show. The engagement, I mean. I know he never meant to follow it through.”

  “Yeah, it was for show.”

  “He could have told me, Eve, not let me find out like he did.”