I’m carried to a van and rushed through the mountains to a place with lots of animals noises. And dogs.
I chuckle at the irony of it, but it hurts.
I see faces I don’t know but Sal is with me so I’m not worried.
I receive an IV and drift off to sleep.
Unbeknownst to me,Dante had men in the van that was their getaway vehicle and as soon as they got in, they were disarmed and tied up. Sofia was rescued.
They escaped before the polizia arrive at the house as the fires of the trucks covered up the noise at the compound.
Dante and Marchello had great pleasure taking Mario and Fausto to meet their drug connections without the drugs. They were turned over to the Albanians in exchange for a future favor.
As Sal told me, they figured they would be able to make their deaths interesting. Even in my haziness I know Dante and Sal didn’t want to be the ones to kill them. Neither wanted it to be an issue that would become us or our families. Sometimes there is honor among ‘thieves.”
Or, as it turns out, our families.
“Sofia?”
“She’s safe, we took her to a hospital where she was treated.” Sal gently lifts a cup of water to my dry lips and it brings back memories of our first coffee in the wine cellar.
“We’ve put Riccardo on her for now. I know you won’t be happy unless she’s with you when you’re on her feet again. She was put in with the girls but never made to do what they did.”
“Thank God.”
“She’s very fortunate, and very lucky to have you as a friend.”
I grimace.
“Something I said?” Sal asks.
“This is painful. Damn,” I clutch my gut with one hand and use the other to feel my wounded shoulder and push the button on the pain drip.
“Yeah, but you’ll do much better in a few days. The good thing is that you’ll regain full use of your shoulder.”
“That’s a relief.”
Sal takes my hand as I lay on a narrow bed with clean linens and an old quilt.
“I want to take you back home to recuperate. We’ve been doing this dance,” he wrings his hands in his lap, but I can tell he’s showered, shaved and his yummy cologne drifts over me.
I don’t know if it’s the painkiller or his cologne that’s making me float.
“If anything happened to you back there…”
“I know,” I whisper.
“No, I don’t think you do. I love you, Francesca. I never thought I’d love anyone but you’re everything to me.”
“And you are everything to me, Sal,” and I reach my hand out laying it over his.
“But you’re a don now, I’m just in the family, the opposing family.”
“Hm. Complicated. Still clinging on to that damn bachelorhood title like’s it’s an Italian girl’s virginity.”
He gives a hearty laugh but wraps his hands around mine.
“I’ve had more time to think about it.”