CHAPTER EIGHT: WINTER
“Winter.”Someonegentlyshakes my shoulder.
I let out a groan, my head throbbing before forcing myself to open my eyes.
And there goes that fucking light again. I close my eyes.
“Sorry,” A feminine voice says. “Here, let me ease the lights a bit.” I’m aware of the light against my eyelids easing. “Okay, now you can open them.”
I open my eyes and this time there isn’t the sting of light. I swallow and it takes me a moment to realize I’m in my bedroom. The overhead light has been turned off and a lamp switched on.
The family doctor is standing just to the side of my bed, a concerned smile on her lips as she looks down at me. I don’t miss the unease in her eyes though. “We’re going to have to stop meeting like this. If you want to see me, I’m sure we could get dinner.” Her joke falls so flat that I feel bad for not laughing for a millisecond.
“I’m sorry,” she apologizes quickly. “I suppose that wasn’t a good joke.” She shakes her head slightly, pressing her lips together. “Tell me, how are you feeling? I gave you a little pain medicine.” She points to my right arm and I look down to see a large bandaid on my wrist. “But considering all that you went through…”
I take a moment to assess how I feel before I answer. My head is still hurting, but a lot less than earlier. There’s little throbbing in my nose, and the spot where the bandaid is is throbbing but I guess that has something to do with it being the injection sight of the needle. My foot isn’t hurting and neither is my shoulder, so I mostly feel okay.
Someone changed me into a soft blue nightgown and it’s comfortable, making my skin feel nice and soft..
“Just a little pain here and there, but I’ll live.”
“Good.” The doctor nods her approval.
I finally allow myself to take in the rest of the room and my gaze pauses on Vito and Giovanni. They’ve both taken up posts on either side of my closed bedroom door. Giovanni’s arms are folded over his chest, his leg propped up on the wall behind him. Vito’s hovering just off the wall, his hands shoved into his pockets and a frown on his face.
“Where’s Maximo and Enzo?” the question is out of my mouth before I can think too much of it. But I can’t help myself. They were the last two I saw before I passed out.
And Maximo hugged me.
Giovanni’s whole body tenses up, while Vito’s lips press further into a frown. I don’t think I’m meant to see the subtle reactions from Vito and Giovanni, but I do.
“They’re occupied right now,” Giovanni says, and his words feel a bit heavy. “But that’s not something for you to be worried about.”
I’m not worried.
I just want to know where they are.
Maximo’s soft face moves through my head and I realise that the expression had nearly changed his whole fucking face. Suddenly, the devil looked like the most gorgeous angel to walk this earth.
The thought is unsettling.
“What you need to be focusing on is the fact that you were dumb, once again,” Giovanni says, his tone deepening. His eyes are hard as he walks closer to my bed.
I sit up on instinct, not liking the idea of lying on my back while an angry Giovanni hovers over me.
His eyes narrow slightly and his gaze moves over me. One of his hands balls into a fist before he releases each finger slowly from the ball. “You’re going to pay for that,” he says and despite the threat of the words, his tone is cool as the ocean. “But I’m going to take reprieve on you and let you heal first.”
Again, his words aren’t hard and harsh the way I’m used to.
They border on concern, and shit, but it feels as if the world has tilted on its axis.
First, Maximo hugged me, and then he’d looked at me as if I was made of glass.
Now, Giovanni is being calm and careful with me instead of choking me out for going out on my own.
A part of me likes it, but there’s another part that hates it.
None of this is right.