My energy was gone.
I felt weak.
Unable to stand on my own two feet anymore, I clutched his shirt, sagging against him. “She knew. She was right. She said they would come and they did. I couldn’t stop them. They took her. They took my woman.”
“Doc, help me get him back on the bed.”
My head hit a soft pillow and I rolled onto my side. I didn’t need to see their faces to know I fucked up. I should have listened to her. She was right. She was always right. I just didn’t want to believe her. Part of me knew she was telling me the truth but I refused to allow myself to believe it. Because if I did, it meant nothing I did would be good enough, thus making me everything my brother thought I was.
I wanted to be better. To show them that I could take care of her. Be what she needed me to be. To be worthy of the name Valentinetti. In the end, she was right and so was my brother Giovanni. I was nothing but a fuck-up.
Too selfish to care about anyone else but myself.
“I’m going to give you something to help you sleep Lorenzo.”
“I don’t care.”
I felt the pinch of the needle as darkness slowly consumed me.
Sometime later I woke to the sound of metal tapping against metal. Turning over, I saw Bullseye sitting in a chair staring at me as he tapped a brass bullet against the arm of the chair that he was in.
His eyes never wavered. I could clearly see the cold steel in them when he dared me to speak. What could I say? Nothing.
It was my fault.
She was gone and I was to blame.
“You know something Lorenzo, I never took you for a pussy.”
“Shows what you know,” I huffed, rolling back over. I didn’t care what he was doing in here. I didn’t care about anything anymore.
“You know she’s still alive right?”
I knew what he was doing and it wasn’t going to work.
He could go try that psychobabble bullshit crap on someone else.
That shit never worked on me.
“The last day I saw her, I had a feeling.”
What the fuck was he talking about now? Confused, I rolled back over and said, “What?”
“I knew it would be the last time I saw her. Told Reaper as much. He didn’t believe me of course but I made him promise me that if anything happened, he was to let me die and save her.”
“Bullseye, she was already dead when she arrived at the hospital. You have to know that.”
“I do but I was dead too. Yet, you saved me.”
“What are you saying?” I asked, slowly sitting up in the bed. My whole body still ached but none of that mattered right now because with the way he was looking at me and the ripple of fear cascading down my spine, I knew this wasn’t a social visit. I had heard the rumors. I knew what Bullseye was capable of. I just never thought he would focus his attention on me. I was a nobody. A useless overgrown frat boy who spent his days partying.
“This bullet,” he said, raising it to show me. “It has a name engraved on it. You see, I always keep my promises. And one day, when I’m ready and he least expects it, I will put this bullet in his head.”
“That still won’t bring her back.”
“That’s true but I don’t expect to live much longer after I kill him but you can. Your woman is still alive. She is out there somewhere, waiting for you to find her. You can have the life that was denied to me. You can save her.”
“I wouldn’t even know where to look.”