Page 58 of Bullet for My Good Girl

My heart beats again, and I drop to my knees.

It's Stella. My Stella is alive.

Thirty-One

Vitto

"Stella?" I hear myself whisper before walking over in her direction. Everything hurts, but getting to her is much more important than what I'm feeling right now. I need to touch her. Need to make sure what I'm hearing and seeing is real.

"I thought... I fucking thought you were dead." I whisper as I pull her into my arms and hold her close.

"I'm here, Vitto. I'm here." She whispers back before she pulls her hands up and cradles my face. She kisses me softly, and I melt into her. Everything is right with the world now.

I hear a soft grunt from behind me and realize it's Diego wiping the blood from his mouth. "Shit." I curse before turning in his direction. His eyes go up as he watches me limping in his direction. I don't talk, instead just pull him into my arms, tears still trailing down my cheeks, and I hold him like I never have before. Our family isn't one to show affection for each other.

"Uh, this is weird." He says standing stock-still while I hold him.

"I'm sorry. I was crazy. I'm sorry. You saved me." I tell him before I pull back and kiss him on both cheeks.

"I've had worse. You're not necessarily at your best. I wasn't too worried." He laughs and takes a step away from me. "I still would've killed you."

"No, you wouldn't have." He tilts his head slightly before raising his hand and slightly pressing my midsection. The pain is so intense I fall to my knees and vomit right there all over his shoes. Now that the adrenaline is receding from my body, all I can think about is how badly I'm hurting. "Stella. Where's Chance... where?" I ask before I fall back and watch as the world begins to spin out of control around me.

"Shhh, he's fine. Everything is fine now." She quickly gets down and kneels down next to me, cradling my head in her lap. She softly combs her fingers through my hair, and for the first time since I've woken up in the hospital, I feel like everything just might be okay.

* * *

I wake up in a bed I don't recognize, but instead of being worried, I can do nothing but smile. Chance is lying right next to me, his precious face relaxed and in deep slumber.

"My boy. I was worried about you." I try to turn over, but there are wires connected to my opposite arm. At some point, Diego must have called in a doctor because I'm being pumped with medicine and fluids it looks like.

"You straight, or are you going to go on another rampage?"

My eyes shoot forward, and I see Diego sitting in a chair on the other side of the room. His face littered with bruises and cuts. I did that to my brother. The remorse is great.

"Diego, I'm fucking sorry." I tell him again.

"Yeah, I heard." He chuckles. "You really think I'd let something happen to them?" He squints at me.

"I don't know what I thought, all I know is I went on the forum and saw that... " How the hell did they pull that off anyway? "how did you make it seem like you'd killed her? I mean, I've seen fake murder before but that all looked so real."

"Ah, big brother, when are you going to realize that I'm the master of drama. Most of my business thrives on people being hurt and getting them to a level of fear they don't think they'd be comfortable with. It was all just another scene for me. I was in complete control of the situation." He shrugs before he walks over to me with a black rope in his hands. It's the same rope I watched someone wrap around Stella's neck.

I pull on the rope and realize that even though it looks solid and is made out of the proper materials, there's a bit of give to it. Somehow it's more elastic.

"That's a good trick." I hand the rope back to him.

"Thank you very much. I thought it was rather convincing."

"Now what's your plan?" I ask, waiting for him to tell me what he intends to do to get Stella out of here. Pretending to kill her is one thing, but now that she's supposed to be dead, it doesn't mean that she can just walk around freely. If someone else sees her, they can reactivate the contract.

"She wanted to wait for you on that. I've got someone who can do some work on her face to change her appearance, but it's going to be invasive."

"Plastic surgery?" I say and nod my head. We'd have to change her into a completely different person, at least physically.

I'm surprised by how much that doesn't bother me. She's perfect just the way she is, but a nose job and maybe a different hairstyle wouldn't be the end of the world. She'd still be my Stella.

"You're awake." Stella's sweet voice floats through the room, and my eyes trace over to where she is.

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