I bolted upwards to a standing position, not even caring that my injuries screamed at me when I did. Gabriel and Alessandro seemed to be on the same page I was, and the three of us rushed back toward the mansion.
“I’m sorry,” the lady firefighter called out as we approached. The squad had put up a perimeter as they fought the blaze, and we would need to go right through it. “No one past this point.”
“You don’t understand,” I said at the same time that Gabriel said, “Those are our brothers.” But the woman wouldn’t budge.
“It’s too dangerous to allow anyone but emergency personnel beyond the perimeter.”
“Can you at least tell us if they’re all right?” I asked her.
“The only thing I can tell you right now is that they are both being assessed and will be taken to Jefferson Health.”
Through unspoken consensus Gabriel, Alessandro and I all struck off toward the mammoth Varasso garage, a building thankfully separate from the mansion. I scuttled into the back while Gabriel drove and Alessandro took the passenger seat, every one of us looking like we’d been through some harrowing battle.
I didn’t care how I looked, though. I’d spent the past hour terrified that the father of my child had died a horrific death, so the only thing I could concentrate on now was seeing him again.
38
Luca
My brothers and I had been exposed to our fair share of injuries. All four of us had been shot or at least grazed by a bullet. All four of us had taken a punch, oftentimes by another brother or even our father. So we understood that physical pain was just something you had to suck up and suffer through.
None of us had ever been burned, though. And I was discovering that burns needed to be listed in their own separate category. As the fire had eaten its way through the mansion, more and more of the structure itself kept trying to come down on us. We’d been blocked at every turn, and it was only through sheer luck that Marco made it to the back door.
Then everything had gone to shit.
We heard it before it happened. The house had been si
zzling and creaking like a damn barbecue or firepit, the smoke making us cough and gag. We’d heard a colossal crashing noise but hadn’t had the time to dodge it. The only reason we weren’t crushed like bugs was because two of the pieces had landed in a pyramid formation like a roof, leaving us just enough space to crouch in.
But the blaze had besieged us then. The walls that had fallen were already lit, the flames scooting across them like some living, breathing being. It might have been fascinating to watch had it not been our home the fire was devouring. Had everything about the circumstances not been so deadly.
Marco took the brunt of the cave-in. He’d had me on his back originally, and had he left me there, I’d almost certainly be dead. When we’d reached the back door, he’d thrown me down—none too gently—onto the floor. I think he’d been about to reposition me in his grip when the ceiling fell.
We’d been trapped.
There’d been an oriental rug situated beneath me, one our mother had purchased decades ago, and when it caught fire, my pant legs had gone up, too. My brother had managed to strip them off me, relegating my burns to mostly second degree or less. But he hadn’t been so fortunate. His back had been up against the fallen structure the entire time, and with nowhere to go, the best he could do was lay across me.
I knew his screams would haunt me for a long time to come.
I’d caught a glimpse of his back, and it’d been worse than anything I’d ever seen. If hell was a real place with these types of burns given as punishment, then I could understand why so many people chose to live a moral, upstanding life.
Christ.
Fortunately, we’d been on the stairway when Molly had gone through the front window with Anna. If I hadn’t known they’d gotten out safely this whole time, I’d have likely lost my mind.
Our burns were being treated, but I was worried about Marco. My only consolation was that my brother was as beefy as an ox and just as obstinate. If anyone could pull through something like this, he could.
I hoped.
I didn’t remember much from the ride to the hospital, nor did I feel much pain now. I’d woken up knowing they’d had to do surgery on my leg. It’d hurt like a bitch later, but for now, I was relatively pain free.
And then, she was there. My Molly.
She was coated in soot and her face was swollen as if she’d been sobbing for days, but she was there. So were Gabriel and Alessandro.
“You know we’ve got to stop meeting like this,” Sandro said, inserting his typical warped humor into the situation. “This hospital’s going to have to start giving us discounts for being such frequent flyers.”
I shouldn’t have laughed. I shouldn’t have. But I did.