by Sienna Mynx
"No. No. No. No..."
"We have to go! Now!" Domi shouted at her. “Now!”
***
The nearest hospital to the shooting was in Salerno. It was an hour drive from home. Mirabella sat in the back of the car in shock. Dominic had only a few facts. Giovanni was shot. He had lost a lot of blood. He was in surgery. Carlo saved his life. No one has seen Marietta or Lorenzo. The men were out looking for Lorenzo. She stopped listening. The tears that constantly flowed over the past hours had dried up. She couldn't cry. Her mind and heart couldn't accept the news. She'd never seen her husband sick. He never got a cold.
The moment the car stopped she threw open her car door. The hospital had many men gathered to the front. Some of them she wasn’t sure if they worked for her husband, or had come to bear witness to his death. She hated them all.
"Where is he?" she shouted at the first nurse she saw.
Dominic grabbed her arm and pulled her in the right direction. "The emergency room is this way. This is where they take gunshot victims. Be calm. Remember, where you are."
"How do you know that?" Mirabella asked. She looked around at the weeping family members of other loved ones that were hurt. "How can you tell this is where people who are shot are taken?"
"I've been here many times before," he said. She shook off her confused anger and focused on Giovanni. It was probably a case of mistaken identity. So many excuses surfaced she actually found herself calming down. They passed through doors and again she searched the faces they passed for her husband.
Carlo approached. The side of his face and head was bloody. There was, even more, blood on his clothes and hands. Whose blood was it?
"Where is he?" Mirabella asked.
"I did all I could."
"What? What? What does that mean?" She felt faint. She must have looked it because Dominic held her up.
"Is he dead?" Dominic asked the question that her mind screamed.
"His heart stopped beating when we got here. I saw them. I saw them working to save his life," Carlo’s voice choked with emotion. "I tried all I could to get him here in time."
"Who shot him?" Mirabella shouted.
Carlo shook his head. "I don't know."
"Who shot him, Carlo?" Mirabella shrugged off Dominic and grabbed Carlo by his shirt. "Tell me! You were there! Who did it?"
"Lorenzo. I heard a gunshot when Marietta and I..."
"Marietta? She was there?"
Carlo put a hand to his head. He looked pale. A nurse came over. "Signor, you have to go with me. You shouldn't be up and walking around."
"I'm fine!" Carlo groaned. The nurse stepped back. He closed his good eye and looked to be trying to capture his breath. "She was there. She hit me with something. I was out. When I came to, I saw her and Lorenzo. I think. There were men there. I believe it was Armando. I don't know. She said she called Armando. So it could be him. It's all confusing." Carlo staggered, and Dominic reached to help him instead. Mirabella went to the nurses’ cubicle.
"Sono Donna Mirabella Battaglia. Dov'è? My husband? Can I speak to someone about my husband, Giovanni Battaglia?"
"Signora, I will get the doctors." The nurse said.
"He's fine. He's fine. He's not dead. He's going to be fine." Mirabella said. She put her hands to her face to stop herself from crying. A calm came over her. It grounded her. She faced both men and pulled it together.
“Giovanni is going to be okay. Carlo. You have to let the doctors help you," Mirabella said.
Two male nurses came over to take Carlo who didn't protest this time. He was too weak to do so. They put him in a wheelchair and pushed him away. Mirabella placed her hand to her heart.
The doors swung back open, and a surgeon came out. He too had blood on him. He wore scrubs and a hospital cap on his head.
"Domi," Mirabella said. She grabbed Dominic's hand. Together they braced for news.
"Signora Battaglia, I'm Dr. Bonomo. I've been working on your husband."
"How is he?" she asked.
"Not well I'm afraid. He lost a lot of blood. We have stabilized him, but the damage is severe. He's too weak to continue through the surgery. We will need to go back in."
"Surgery? I don't understand."
"He was shot three times. Twice in the back and once in the shoulder. Lucky for him no major organs were hit. But he has a ruptured spleen. And he's bleeding internally.”
Mirabella wept.
"We are flying in a specialist from Rome. We have the bleeding under control, but the next surgery is far more delicate. If he makes it through the next twenty-four hours, we will..."
"If? If? What do you mean if? You have to save him. Please, I'll pay whatever you want. You have to!"
"Signora, we are. Your husband is a strong man. It's remarkable that he has made it this far. I can't explain it. With the amount blood he lost and the organ failure, it's a miracle. We will need another miracle to bring him through this."
"Can I see him? He has to hear my voice. Please?"
"He's critical now. No one should..."
"I want to see him. If he doesn't make it..." her voice choked with emotion. "I have to see him."
The doctor nodded. "We'll get you scrubs to put on. Nurse, please assist Donna Battaglia."
Mirabella wiped her tears. She smiled politely for the nurse. Inside she felt like she was dying.
Straits of Messina -
Marietta held Lorenzo's hand. Armando had his men tended to his leg by tying a tourniquet around his thigh to stop the bleeding. Lorenzo was sweating and feverish. She knew he was losing too much blood.
"Why did you call him?" Lorenzo stammered. His teeth chattered, and his lips were purple.
"Because I knew how this would end. I couldn't, Lo. I couldn't let Giovanni kill you."
"Listen to me, Marie. Listen. No matter what happens, you are never to say you shot Gio. Do you understand?" Lorenzo winced. She dabbed at his face with the rag. "Answer me!" he shouted.
She nodded. "I understand."
"I shot him. I did it. To the grave, Marietta. Never tell anyone differently."
"I'm sorry. I didn't want to hurt him. I just wanted to stop him. I'm sorry."
"It's okay, calm down. Think of the baby," he groaned.
"Are you in pain?"
"I'll live."
"We have to get you to the doctor. They have to go faster." She tried to stand. He forced her to stay with him. His grip was so firm. She fought back her tears and went to her knees.
"I love you, Marie," Lorenzo said.
She pressed her lips together. She nodded. "I love you, too."
The door to the cabin opened. Armando walked in. He looked at Lorenzo and then Marietta. "We are taking him to Napoli," he announced.
"What? You can't, you have to take him to Sicily!"
"It's ten hours on the sea tonight. He won't make it. I have a doctor in Napoli. Trust me they won't be looking for him there. Then we will set sail for Sicily. This is the best way."
Marietta wasn't sure if she could trust him. It could all be a trap. She looked to Lorenzo, and he nodded that he agreed.
"Is Giovanni dead?" Marietta asked.
Armando smiled. "He looked dead to me."
She glanced back to Lorenzo who closed his eyes either in pain or regret. She knew her husband was fighting to be strong. But his entire pants leg was soaked in blood. She turned on her brother. "You will save his life. Do you hear me? Save him, Armando. Please?"
"Isn't it funny how I’m always the savior for you and Mirabella, but you treat me like the devil?" Armando kissed her brow like a brother would. "Trust me, sister. I will protect him and you."
She nodded. He gave Lorenzo a wink and walked out.
"We can't trust him," Lorenzo winced and scooted back against the pillow.
"For now, we have to."
"No. If Giovanni is dead, then you have to get out of Italy, Sicily. You have to go back to America. Without me."
"No! Are you cr
azy.?"
"Shae. You will call Shae and arrange it. I have money in accounts... Switzerland. Enough for you and the baby to disappear. You don't understand what's coming," Lorenzo said between gasps of breath. His eyes teared. He shook his head. “This is my fault. They will kill us all if he's dead…”
"And if he lives."
Lorenzo looked at her sadly. "Then they will just kill me."
"I don't care. Live or die; we do it together." She went to him and hugged him. He wept. Marietta held him; certain his tears were for Giovanni. And to her surprise, she shed them as well. By pulling the trigger, she changed their lives forever.
“He wasn’t my cousin. He was my brother. My brother,” Lorenzo wept.
“I’m so sorry. I’m sorry baby.” She said and clung to him.
***
Mirabella was walked into a room that had so much equipment she thought it was the operating room. The machines blinked and beeped with dials and lights. Giovanni was in the bed. A tube was connected to his mouth and nose. His eyelids were taped shut. He was so swollen in the face and neck he didn't look like her husband. Mirabella felt weak. She could barely take the necessary steps toward him. She had to steady herself. She reached the side of his bed and looked at him in disbelief. The only comfort she could take was his heart monitor. It was beating somewhere in his battered chest.
She ran her hand over his and sucked down a deep breath of sadness. "I'm here, sweetie. I'm here. Be healthy for the kids and me. Okay?"
He didn’t respond. His hand didn’t move.
"Be strong for me and I swear I'll be strong for you."
She leaned in and brushed her lips lightly over his jaw.
"I love you."
Battaglia Mafia Series by Sienna Mynx
Be sure to get your copy of the entire series from beginning to end!
Book One: Destino
Book Two: Ti Amo
Book Three: La Sposa
Book Four: La Famiglia
Book Five: Rallenti
Book Six: Capu
Book Seven: La Dolce Vita
Book Eight: Bella Mafia
About the Author
Sienna Mynx was born in the beautiful city of Miami, Florida in 1971. She began writing at the early age of eight. The oldest of two children with a schoolteacher for a mother, she was taught the power of words and found countless adventures between the pages of a book. While other children her age shared an interest in music, sports, or even Girl Scouts, Sienna’s interests never varied. Reading was her passion.
By the age of 13, she created a private collection of drawings and short stories based on heroines she could identify with, but who lived in imaginative worlds far removed from her suburban upbringing. She’d share them with anyone who cared to read.
As a woman she adapted to the changes in her life by journaling and continue to explore her writing. Also an avid reader of romantic fiction and lover of television soap operas, Sienna adapted two distinct writing persona’s. T.A. Ford who is now a published author of sensual romance, and Sienna Mynx who explores the darker side of romance across genres. Currently Sienna has published over thirty multicultural romances total.
Sienna lives in southern Georgia and is the proud aunt of three. She is employed as a technologist, and enjoys traveling, writing, and blogging.
