by Amy Starling
“I wish someone would kidnap me. I'm sick to death of changing bedpans and arguing with senile seniors about taking their freaking medicine.”
I gazed at her tummy. In all of the hoopla, I'd forgotten what she'd told me the last time I saw her.
“You, uh, decide what to do about the baby yet?”
She pouted. “None of the possible fathers want anything to do with it. I'll have to wait until it's born to do a paternity test. Hopefully, it was the doctor who knocked me up and not that unemployed loser I met on Tinder.”
“You were screwing a doctor?”
She giggled. “He was good, too. Unfortunately, he's also a major dick, so I guess there's a trade-off.”
Her phone buzzed, indicating it was time to go back to work. As for me, I had a class halfway across campus, and I'd be late if I didn't hustle.
“Gotta go,” she said, and hugged me. “Oh, Ceci, I'm so glad you're okay.”
“Me too. It was nice, meeting up like this. Made me feel normal again.”
And after being shot at and running around with a mobster, that was something I definitely needed.
Emily took off toward the sliding doors and vanished inside the hospital. She'd been in such a hurry that she left her trash from lunch all over the bench.
I thought of Alec as I scooped up the wrappers. He was so obsessed with hunting down Lucas lately that I hadn't seen him much.
God, I couldn't believe he was going to be my husband. Hadn't told my parents about it yet. My “religious” mother, ever the hypocrite, would be sure to have some enormous problem with it – even if it did get the mob off dad's back.
As I crossed the parking lot, I dreamed about what marriage to Alec would be like. It made me happy, but scared me, too. How would I cope with being hitched to a hitman?
Classes were about to start, so I jogged faster. A strange, white gleam on the rooftop of the building caught my eye, but I thought nothing of it.
Then a loud crack, like thunder almost, split the air. I paused, panicked, because that sound was not normal.
Something collided with my chest so powerfully that it knocked me down the ground. The pain in my shoulder, like being burned alive, was so agonizing I could no longer breathe.
“H-help,” I rasped. Tried to yell, but it only came out as a whisper.
A splotch of wet crimson splattered my shirt. The spot grew and grew at a terrifying speed. I was bleeding. That's when I understood.
I'd been shot.
As my consciousness faded, one thought played over and over again in my mind:
I would never get to marry Alec now...
Chapter 21 - Alec
I whipped into the campus parking lot and raced toward the spot where Lucas had taken the photo. Soon as I turned the next corner, my stomach sank.
The flashing blue and red lights of police cars lit up the faces of dozens of onlookers. They stood huddled around in a semi-circle, pointing and talking excitedly.
“Ceci, damn it, please be okay.”
I left my car in the middle of the road and ran toward them. A cop was yelling into his megaphone, but nobody seemed to be listening.
“Everyone, please get back and go indoors right away! This is a crime scene and we are still looking for the shooter.”
Oh, no. No, no!
I charged through the crowd, shoving students and the rest aside. When I reached the yellow police tape, I could barely force myself to look.
The big puddle of blood, still fresh and wet on the concrete, told me what I needed to know.
But Ceci wasn't there. Where had they taken her? I had to find her!
“Excuse me, sir, but you can't stand that close,” an officer shouted at me.
I grabbed him by the arm. “Hey, what happened here? Where is she?”
He yanked away. “We got a sniper in the area, so you best get inside where it's safe.”
“I don't give a shit about that! I need to know what happened to Ceci.”
“I believe they took her to the operating room. She was in critical condition. Didn't look too good for her.” He looked me over. “If she's a friend of yours, I'm sorry.”
I ignored him and sprinted into the hospital fast as I could go. If I could be grateful for small blessings, at least this happened where she could get care fast. Maybe, then, she might have a chance.
The ER waiting room was a flurry of activity. Doctors were running this way and that, barking orders and prepping for surgery, while the nurse on the phone called for backup right away.
That nurse, I recognized her. She was the girl Ceci was hanging with at Wanton! Maybe she knew something.
There was a guy standing at the desk filling out paperwork. I pushed him aside, ignored his complaints, and leaned over the desk.
“Where is Ceci? You've got to tell me!”
She looked up at me with red, teary eyes. “She's – oh, it's you,” she cried. “She was shot, but they seem to have missed any internal organs. Still, there's a lot of blood loss, and they're trying to stabilize her and remove the bullet quickly.”
I relaxed, but only a little. “Is she going to live?”
“Our doctors are the best, so as long as nothing goes wrong during the op, she's got a good chance.” Emily sank into her chair, shell-shocked. “Who would do something like this? Ceci's such a sweet woman. Why target her?”
I knew exactly why, but I couldn't bear to admit it.
She'd been shot because of me. Because I didn't stop Lucas when I had the chance. Because I let him slip away.
I hadn't been here. I failed to protect her.
I'd never felt so utterly worthless in my life.
“Let me in there.” I gestured to the operating room doors. “I have to see her.”
“You can't go in until they're done and she's doing better.”
“But –”
She patted my hand. “I know you care about her, but the doctors have to concentrate. Besides, you don't want to see her like she is now. Trust me.”
I almost charged in there anyway, but the look on Emily's face pleaded with me to listen, just this once. With a sigh of defeat, I slumped into one of the hard plastic chairs and waited.
The longer I sat, the more helpless I felt. For once, I couldn't do a damn thing for her.
My sadness for her suffering festered until it became fury at what Lucas had done. He'd been here, right here under our noses, and if only I'd gotten here a bit quicker, I could have caught him.
The next time I saw him, I'd show him no mercy.
I wasn't sure how much time had passed. When a nurse emerged from the double doors and called to me, it felt like I was waking up from a coma.
“Sir, nurse Emily said you wanted to see the patient.”
I jumped out of the chair. “Is Ceci okay?”
“She's going to make a full recovery, but it will take a while. Since the bullet lodged in her shoulder and shattered pieces of the bone, she'll be in a cast for some time.”
But she was alive, and nothing mattered more than that.
“You may go visit her now, but keep it brief. She's quite exhausted.”
I hurried down the hall to her room and went inside, almost afraid of what I'd see on the other side of that curtain.
“Ceci?”
Her voice came to me. Hearing her speak was the loveliest sound in the world.
“Alec.”
She lay in bed with needles and some kind of medication flowing into her arm. Her left shoulder and below was all bandaged up, but other than that, she looked like her usual gorgeous self.
“Thank you for coming. I hoped you would.”
“Are you kidding? I would never leave you in here alone.” I stooped by her bed and kissed her cheek. “I came as fast as I could. But... I guess it just wasn't quick enough.”
“Don't blame yourself.”
“I promised I'd keep you safe. I screwed up.”
“You had no way to know –”
�
�I should have tried harder! Don't you understand? This is Lucas's doing, his revenge, and that's my fault. I should have stopped him. You can't deny that.”
She gestured for me to come back to her. I felt like punching the wall instead, but forced myself to remain calm for her sake and sat down.
“I'm going to be fine.”
“Yeah, you're just lucky Lucas is such a horrible shot. If he had a sniper of my skill up there, you'd have been...”
I stopped when I realized that was not helping.
“There's something I have to tell you, Alec.”
Those were the words no man wanted to hear. Usually, when someone said them to me, it was never anything good.
“I... I'm pregnant.”
This was the second time in one day my world came to an absolute standstill.
“What? How?” I clutched her hands tightly. “You told me you were taking care of it. I mean, wait a minute, is the kid even mine?”
“I had an IUD in, but they're guessing it got knocked out of place and stopped working. They do blood tests before operating, and the pregnancy showed up there. Trust me, I was more shocked than you when I woke up and they told me that.”
I didn't know what to think. I'd promised to marry her, but that was before this happened. I hadn't planned on having a baby for a very long time yet.
“And of course it's yours. You had me locked in that house when you knocked me up, remember?” She laughed weakly. “It's still so early on, the baby probably can't be detected with a urine test. If it hadn't been for this, I wouldn't have known for who knows how long.”
I didn't ask the question she was probably expecting me to next.
Are you going to keep it?
Did I want her to? I didn't know. The prospect of mating and passing on my genes to another human sort of freaked me out. Besides, I'd be responsible for a tiny, helpless little creature that didn't deserve the kind of life I led.
“So it looks like we've got some stuff to talk about,” she murmured. “If you want to call off the marriage, I'd understand.”
I couldn't take my eyes off her stomach. Somewhere in there was the itty-bitty person I had helped make.
It was terrifying and amazing at the same time.
“Since you're wondering, yes, I'd like to keep it.”
“Why?” I blurted. “You really wanna procreate with a guy like me?”
“I've wanted a child for years and never had the chance. Was always too busy with school, work, life.” She gingerly touched her shoulder. “Figured I'd get around to it eventually. But this, being so close to death, made me realize we don't have all the time in the world.”
“But I'm a hitman. A criminal. Your job is to save lives; mine's to take them. Is that really the best parenting environment for a kid to grow up in?”
She said nothing. I'd made her think. But why? Why couldn't I stop running my mouth and giving her reasons to doubt me? Maybe because I was scared as hell and had no clue what to do anymore.
“I, uh, talked to my dad,” I said, opting to change the subject. “He wasn't too keen on my plan to marry you.”
“But you said –”
“I know. At this point, though, I have no clue whether he'll stick to the family law or change it because of me.”
She started to cry quietly. I would have hugged her tight if not for all these annoying tubes and machines in our way.
“Ceci, let me ask you something. Even if marrying me wouldn't get your dad out of trouble... Would you do it anyway?”
She thought a moment. I held my breath, hoping for the answer that scared me and yet I wanted so badly to hear.
“I know we've only just met, and we're obviously going to have our tribulations to work through, but...” She looked up at me. “I want a life with you, anyway. I want to at least try.”
I was overwhelmed by emotion, this big, wonderful wave of feelings, so powerful that I did something I hadn't in many years.
I cried.
She soon grew tired from the drugs and surgery, and her eyes began to flutter closed. When she had fallen asleep, I watched her and rested my hand on her belly.
She was so beautiful. So was the baby. I knew it'd be, though I hadn't laid eyes on it yet.
The tenderness I felt for them both was quickly replaced by anger. Lucas almost took her from me today. Her and my unborn child.
If anybody ever put their hands on her again, there wouldn't be anything left of them for the cops to identify.
When the nurses finally kicked me out, I kissed her forehead and left her to sleep.
Time to go home. The Ciarellos had a war to prepare for – and I had a bullet with Lucas's name on it.
Chapter 22 - Ceci
“How are you feeling, Ceci? Need another painkiller?”
Dad looked in my room and rattled the bottle at me. I stopped typing and stretched my shoulder. It still throbbed a little, but the doctors had done a good job fixing me up.
“I'll manage.”
He lingered in the doorway and stared at his shoes. I went back to writing my report on stem cells. There was this awkwardness between us, full of things left unsaid and problems neither of us really wanted to talk about.
“This is my fault.”
I paused in mid-sentence. I wanted to tell him that wasn't true, but it would be a lie and he knew it.
“If it weren't for me, that man wouldn't have tried to shoot you.” He teared up. “I could have lost you. All because I was greedy and stupid.”
“You made mistakes. Lucas took advantage of you. The Giseppis owned that track and lied to you about the rigged race, solely so you'd help Tommy get his drug.”
“I... I had no idea they were manipulating me so much.” He sniffled. “I knew it was stupid, risking my neck to get that drug. But once I'd gambled away so much of their money, I had no choice. It was either that, or worse.”
He fumbled with the wedding band he still wore. I'd found mom's ring in the kitchen earlier, as if she'd decided that she was done and had washed her hands of all this. Fearing for dad's sanity as things stood now, I slipped the band into her jewelry box so he wouldn't have to find it.
“I don't think your mother is coming back,” he said. “And I wouldn't blame her. She's probably staying with that gangster. Well, I at least hope he can treat her better than I.”
I still hadn't told him what Alec and I planned to do, nor that I was pregnant with his kid. I wasn't looking forward to his reaction, but maybe now was the time.
“Alec thinks he knows a way out of this.”
Dad glared. “He's the son of the man who's holding this debt over my head. Why on earth would he help us?”
“Because,” I said, my heart hammering. “We're in love. That's why.”
I expected him to scream, like mom would have were she here. Instead, he slumped against the wall in shock.
“Love?”
“He's a good man, dad. I know he does bad things, but he would never harm me.”
He had nothing to say to that.
“We might be able to erase the debt, to get the mob off our backs, if the two of us marry.”
He dropped the pill bottle and silently watched it roll down the stairs.
“It's part of their family tradition,” I explained. “And I want to do this. Wouldn't it be nice to get rid of this nightmare forever? Maybe you could get your old job back, and mom would forgive you.”
“I – I can't approve of this. He's a criminal!”
“Dad, I'm having Alec's baby.”
I spat the words out fast, as if that would lessen the blow of it somehow. His jaw dropped. Then he turned on his heel and stormed out of the room without a word.
He was mad, but he'd understand someday. At least, I hoped so.
When the phone rang, I was relieved to see it was Alec.
“Harry's funeral starts at three,” he muttered. “Damn it. I can't believe those Giseppi assholes killed him. He was just a kid.”
“You want me to go with you? Sounds like you could use some support.”
He started to say no, then sighed. “That's real sweet of you. I'd tell you it's not safe, but who am I kidding? You'd probably show up on your own anyway.”
So I dressed in my only black skirt, and he picked me up at half past two. When he arrived, I thought he looked so handsome in his suit that I wanted to get him out of it.
He noticed me staring and placed his hand on my thigh. “You're thinking what I'm thinking, right?”
“I'm not so sure it's okay to have sex right before a funeral.”
“Maybe you're right, but...” He sighed. “We've all got a lot on our minds. It'd just be nice to forget for a little while, you know?”
We arrived at Lincoln Funeral Home, on the outskirts of the city. There was already a large crowd gathered in the lobby. Some were crying, mostly the women.
Alec went up to one of the older ladies who was staring blankly at Harry's casket. She dabbed her eyes with tissues every now and then, but was otherwise quiet.
“Hey, Mrs. Heath,” he said softly, resting a hand on her back. “I'm really sorry about your son. He was a good boy.”
Her weathered face turned angry, and fire filled her watery blue eyes.
“I want you to find the person who did this, Alec,” she spat. “You find them and make them pay.”
“I will. You have my word.”
I patted my stomach, suddenly seeing eerie parallels between Mrs. Heath and myself. Would my child grow up to be a gangster like Harry or Alec one day?
What if someone killed him, too?
Across the room stood Leo, talking in hushed tones with four other men. When he spotted me, he cocked his head as if confused, but quickly returned to his conversation.
The funeral director arrived to make some kind comments about Harry's life, then invited everyone to come up and look at him one last time.
“Come with me,” Alec whispered when it was his turn. So I did.
He'd been right; Harry was still just a kid, probably no older than nineteen. He looked peaceful laying there, with all evidence of his murder wiped away.
“Is it worth it?” I asked him quietly. “So much fighting.”
