Page 66 of Forced Arrangement

She tilts her head to the side like a predator. “It won’t matter in hell,” she says matter-of-factly. “Sit on the railing, you piece of shit.”

“Or what?” he demands. “Will you tell me about howbadI’ve been? Moralize to me a little bit about being a true Sicilian? Tell me how much it means to you that you, a woman, are forcing me to my knees?”

She sighs and shoots him in the foot. He screams and stumbles back against the railing again, looking down at his foot in shock. “Do it, or I will keep shooting you until I get my way,” she says in that same perfectly controlled voice.

He starts to struggle to do as she has ordered, fear finally clear on his face.

“You know,” she says to him thoughtfully. “In a way, I do feel bad for you. You were treated very poorly by both of our fathers. You deserved better.”

He finally makes it into a seated position on the railing, his eyes trained on her as she speaks.

“The problem is, Guiseppe,” she says, moving over a few steps to line up her shot. “Is that you are as mad as a rabid dog. There’s nothing anyone can do to fix you. So I will just have to put you down.”

She prepares to take her shot, when suddenly, I see Guiseppe’s hand move.

“Sophia!” I shout at the same time as I hear the gunshot.

The knife that Guiseppe had been in the act of pulling out of his pocket clatters to the deck as his body tumbles backward and vanishes. I just have time to register his sightless eyes and the bloody hole in the center of his forehead before he disappears. There’s a small delay and then a distant splash as his body falls into the water.

“Good riddance,” Sophia says, then her eyes roll back, and she faints dead away.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Sophia

What is that beeping?I think with irritation.

I try to open my eyes, but they feel like they are glued shut.

“I think she’s waking up.”

Angelo? Is that his voice? I try to turn my head in his direction, but I can’t seem to move it.

“She did well in surgery,” another voice says. “However, she has suffered so many injuries she will need to stay here for a few days so we can be sure that she’s stable.”

“I understand.”

That is definitely Angelo’s voice. I swim harder toward the surface of my consciousness. I need to see him. I want to know what is going on.

When I’m finally able to crack my eyes open, the light in the room blinds me, and I wince, closing my eyes again.

“Hello,Tesoro mio,” he says to me, leaning forward to press a kiss to my forehead.

My tongue feels too thick to speak and I suddenly remember my mouth being filled with Guiseppe’s blood. I gag a little, pushing away the memories. I’m not ready to deal with them yet.

I open my eyes again and Angelo’s handsome face swims into view. He’s smiling gently at me as he reaches out to push my hair back from my face.

“The…baby…” I manage to say, my voice little more than a hoarse whisper.

He grins. “Fine as can be. You did a good job of keeping that baby safe, my love.”

“I’m sorry…I…” I start to try to explain about the baby but start coughing. Pain flares to life everywhere in my body and I gasp and writhe.

“Shh,” he says to me, reaching behind him for a cup of water with a straw in it. “It’s fine. There wasn’t time to tell me. Guiseppe told me, as it turns out, while he was threatening me. It doesn’t make me any less happy about it.”

I look up at him as I sip at my water. He has a couple of bruises on his face, but otherwise he looks no worse for wear. I take stock of all of the various aches and pains that are affecting me. I realize I heard someone talking with Angelo about a surgery and I look around the room to see if the doctor or nurse is still present.

“Good to see you back with us,” a male voice says, and I look to my right and see Alessio Ricci looking down at me with a smile on his face. “I scrubbed in on the surgery to remove the bullet from your shoulder,” he tells me, giving my fingers a squeeze.

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