He took another step nearer and lowered his voice to a breathless whisper. “You’ve obviously been wasted on the front lines all these years. I’m going to have to seriously think about moving you up the chain command big time. You don’t belong down there with the grunts.”
I couldn’t look at him. This was the worst humiliation yet. What good was a mob enforcer stranded in bed—or worse, a hospital bed.
Leo crushed my shoulder again, and I winced in spite of myself—just in case I needed more confirmation that I was totally unfit to do my job.
“Get better. Get stronger. Let the doctors fix you up… and for God’s sake, don’t try to get up until the doctors tell you that you can.”
“But…”
He held up his hand and shut his eyes. I couldn’t argue with that gesture. That guy never had to say a word to enforce his authority. He was the perfect person to take over for Don Alonzo.
“If I hear anything about you resisting the doctors or causing trouble at the hospital, I’m going to arrange to have you stay there for an extra week for every infraction. Understand?”
I gulped and nodded, but I couldn’t look at him. He squeezed me again and let himself out of the room.
Now I was all alone in my misery. This wasn’t the first time I got hurt in the line of duty, but it was definitely the worst. The doctors said I made it worse by attacking Romeo in Gia’s room.
I kept thinking of ways I could get out of this, but Leo’s word was law. He was basically the don now. If Don Alonzo told me to go to the hospital, I never would have dared to argue with him.
I still struggled to accept that Don Alonzo was gone. He brought me up off the streets and gave me a job when I had nothing. The guy was like the father I never had, and now he was gone.
I couldn’t let him down by winding up in the hospital, especially not with Gia in danger, and Leo needed me to help run the security forces. If I left now, the whole shooting match would go to pieces.
I couldn’t get out of it, though. Just thinking about getting up hurt. My head pounded, and every breath was agony. The tight medical tape strapped around my ribs helped a little, but the constant pain only forced into awareness how fucked up I really was.
The door opened again. I thought it was the doctor coming back. I turned around to make a cutting remark and froze when I saw Gia standing there.
She looked incredible in a pair of tight capri pants and a fresh, white T-shirt. The girl glowed with beauty and vitality. She was by far the most beautiful woman I’d ever laid eyes on, but even that hurt.
I couldn’t see her looking at me with a mixture of pain and pity. I liked her better when she hated me. At least then we both knew where we stood. Now she actually cared about me, and that threatened my whole carefully constructed defense.
I turned back to the balcony. Sunshine streamed through the windows, but the nice day only made me feel worse. I shouldn’t be leaving. I should be staying here and guarding this place. No one else was going to do it.
I wished more than anything that she would leave, but she didn’t. She sat down on the edge of my bed, and just when I thought my world couldn’t get any worse, she slipped her hand into mine. “I just wanted to thank you again, Nicky… for protecting me.”
I yanked my hand away. “You already said that. You don’t have to say it again. Just leave me alone.”
She didn’t move except to stiffen. “Why do you hate me so much? What did I ever do to you?”
“Nothing, okay? Just get out of here. You don’t have to rub my nose in it.”
“Rub your nose in what? You saved me—twice. Do you think I could ever forget that?”
“I don’t care. Just go away. You’ve already done enough. Don’t make it worse.”
She gasped, but I still couldn’t look at her. “What did I ever do to make you hate me so much?”
“Nothing, okay? Go marry Cesare the way you want and leave me alone. It isn’t like you could ever look sideways at me. I’m nobody.”
The words fell out of my mouth before I could stop them. I cringed. I shouldn’t have said those words out loud. I swore I would never tell her. Now they hung in the air with a soul-crushing weight.
She couldn’t even gasp. I kept my head turned so I wouldn’t see her sitting there with her jaw on the floor, but her eyes kept drilling into me. Her hand went cold against my fingers.
Damn it. I shouldn’t have said anything. Of course, she didn’t know how I felt about her. How could she when I never told her? I never told anyone.
She was a princess. I was a scumbag from the gutter. I had no family and no money, except for what I earned working for her father and now for her family.
I never should have told her. I should have taken that secret to my grave.