Matthias said nothing for a few moments. “You selfish bastard. All I’m asking you to do is think about the people waiting for us.”
Was Matthias thinking about Lara? Because right now, all Marco could picture was Lila, waiting for news, for him to return to their apartment. Despite the spat they had that morning, he knew she was there, worried.
He closed his eyes for a moment. Marco had one moment of weakness. He’d let emotion get the better of him. “This won’t happen again,” he said, opening his eyes.
“Do me a favor, brother. Fix whatever you broke with her,” Matthias said, finally starting the engine. “And she’ll fix you.”
Marco looked at his bloody knuckles and felt like the shittiest man alive. Of course, his brother understood him better than anyone else. Taking lives became easy once one got used to it but the silence and numbness after was unavoidable.
Marco began to feel the aches all over his body. Once the shooting started, he let his body do the rest of the work. He lost his gun, he remembered that, then engaged in a fistfight before retrieving his gun again.
Giovanni was going to give him a hell of a beating once he found out what he’d done—or he’d try at least. Marco was probably going to take it because he knew he’d fucked up and deserved some pain for what he’d done.
“We’re here,” Matthias said.
Marco wasn’t even aware of where they were at first, then realized they were in front of his apartment building. Matthias got out with him. He wanted to tell his brother he could handle it from here, but he had a feeling Matthias would stubbornly stick with him until he got inside. The doorman didn’t give them another glance as they entered the elevator.
“Lara’s going to be pissed off at me, too, I’m guessing?” he asked Matthias warily.
“She won’t talk to you at the next family dinner. Probably,” Matthias said to him with a shrug.
“Apologize to her on my behalf.”
“And I don’t get a sorry?” Matthias asked.
Marco laughed. Their family had never been the sort to discuss their problems in the open or hug shit out. A man of the Severin Familia took care of business and didn’t complain about it, but Marco was beginning to understand one thing. If certain wounds were exposed and left to fester, it would only get worse. They would leave scars, not the physical kind, but ones that lingered on the soul forever.
“Are you joking?” he asked his brother.
“I thought not,” Matthias grumbled.
The elevator pinged. Marco decided he should say something nice and brotherly for a change before Matthias closed up. He grasped Matthias’s shoulder. “Thanks for always having my back, for sticking with me even when I’m being an asshole.”
Now Matthias looked embarrassed. Matthias shoved him out the door. “Stop it. You’re embarrassing, you fucker.”
Marco grinned and Matthias returned it. Just like that, they were brothers again. Now Marco only had one person to apologize to tonight. His woman.
****
“John, I’m telling you for your own sake. Don’t ever contact me again,” Lila was saying on the phone when the front door opened.
“Come on, Lila. Don’t be like that—”
Lila ended the call and gasped, seeing Marco and Matthias. Both men looked like they’d gone through the wringer. She rushed to Marco and halted a few steps away from him. Tears welled in her eyes although she couldn’t explain why. Lila only cried two times her entire life, when she heard her mother had died and when Gino told her the news that her father died protecting Marco.
“Hey,” Marco said, closing the distance between them. He touched her cheek, leaving a bloody smear there. Was that his blood? She gripped his hand and shut her eyes as he leaned in close to kiss her, softly and gently.
“I’m so mad at you,” she furiously whispered, opening her eyes. “This morning and for making me wait the entire night for you, and you show up like this, like you had a close brush with death. Did you?”
She directed that last question to Matthias.
“I’ll leave the two of you to talk,” Matthias said, leaving the apartment.
“Wise man,” she muttered.
Marco lifted his hand from her cheek. “Why didn’t you tell me you were texting John?”
Her mouth fell open for a few seconds, then she closed it. Of course, he knew everything. That infuriated her still, but seeing him alive was all that mattered right now. Didn’t he know how worried she was? She’d tried calling everyone she knew, and Gino only told her Marco and the others were going to a meeting with the Bratva. No other details.