Page 7 of Ivory Legacy

Because if it didn’t, I was going to lose my goddamn mind.

Chapter Three: Dante

Eyes snapped open—a ceiling, white and unyielding, loomed above. My head pounded like the drumbeat of a funeral march.

The sterile scent of antiseptic invaded my senses. Hospital. Right. The realization struck like a gut punch, memories of gunfire and chaos flooding back. I shifted in the bed, pain lacing through me, an unwelcome reminder of my vulnerability.

My side hurt so fucking much.

And it was too bright in this room to make sense of anything.

But there was one thing I was absolutely certain of: she wasn’t here.

“Jade,” her name burst from my lips, a lifeline to sanity. “Where’s Jade?”

The nurse at my bedside, clipboard in hand, peered down at me with a furrowed brow. “Who?” she asked, her voice flat, detached.

“Jade Bentley,” I pushed through gritted teeth, anger rising fast, hot, and uncontrolled—she was the mother of my child, damn it. “You have to know where she is!”

“Sir, I have no idea who that is,” she replied, unmoved by my distress, scribbling something on her clipboard that I couldn’t give a damn about.

My pulse hammered against the confines of my veins, each throb resonating with a mixture of fury and dread. “You gotta tell me where she is,” I demanded, fingers gripping the edge of the hospital bed until my knuckles turned white.

“Is that your girlfriend?”

“I…yes,” I said. “Look, I just need to see her, alright?”

“She might be waiting for you. I can go and get her if you’d like,” she said.

I closed my eyes. I wanted to thank her, but talking hurt. God, I was so thirsty.

“But Mr. Moretti,” the nurse said, her voice a calm counterpoint to the storm raging inside me, “you need to rest. You’ve been through a significant ordeal.”

I opened my eyes. “What happened?”

“Well, you were shot,” she said. “Got you right here.”

She pointed at a patch on my left side, bandages peeking out from under the flimsy fabric of the hospital gown. I grimaced, remembering the white-hot flare of pain that had dropped me to my knees.

My vision swam with the memory - Luca’s betrayal, the searing pain of bullets cutting through flesh, my desperate thoughts of Jade as darkness closed in. A cold knot twisted in my gut. Luca had been family, a trusted capo. And he had tried to murder me.

But where was Jade?

“The surgeon will explain it all to you in detail,” she said.

“Forget the surgeon. I need to know where Jade is.”

“Well, okay, but first, you need to rest.”

“Rest?” The word came out as a harsh laugh. “You think I can rest not knowing if she’s safe?”

I realized the drugs were going straight to my head. There was no way this woman knew anything about Jade…I didn’t think.

But maybe, on the off chance. I had to make sure.

The nurse placed a gentle hand on my arm, the touch meant to be soothing, but it only served to heighten my agitation. “I understand you’re worried, but—“

“Understand?” I cut her off, my tone edged like a blade. “You don’t understand anything.”

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