Page 71 of A Sinner's Truth

“Aria.”

I turn my head towards the voice, a voice of someone I don’t want to see or hear. Oliver. Except as I do, Drew jumps in front of me, and then there’s a loud bang before my body is shoved onto the ground.

“Stay down,” Santo tells me. He has a gun in his hand. He jumps up to his feet as he scans the room. “Fuck!” he curses before offering me a hand. “Get up. We need to get out of here.”

I don’t take it. I’m staring at the body lying next to me. Blood pooling around it. Drew. He’s on his stomach. His eyes are on me, but they’re blank. “No!” I crawl over and roll him onto his back. There’s so much blood. My hands tug his shirt up and I cover the hole in his chest, trying to stop the bleeding. “No, no, no!” I yell.

“Aria, we need to go.” Santo’s arms wrap around my waist and he starts to pull me away.

“No, he needs an ambulance. Santo, get help!” I scream at him.

“We need to leave. I need to get you out of here,” he repeats.

“I’m not leaving without him! Someone, please, call an ambulance!”

“Fucking hell.” Santo drops to his knees, moving my hands aside and covering the hole with his much bigger palms. “An ambulance is on its way. Get my phone and ring Gio, Aria. We need to call this in.”

I pull his phone from the pocket of his pants. It slips out of my grip and clanks onto the floor. I wipe the blood from myhands and pick up the phone again. “How do I unlock it?” I ask Santo.

“Two, seven, four, two,” he says. “A-R-I-A.”

I don’t have time to take in that his code is my name as I scroll through the contacts and hit Gio’s number. I hold the phone to Santo’s ear. I can’t talk. I don’t know what to say…

My hand shakes as Santo speaks in rapid Italian. “Hang up,” he tells me. And I press the red button before sliding his phone back into his pocket.

“He’s going to be okay, right?” I look at Drew. His face is pale. He’s not moving.

“He still has a pulse,” Santo says. “Aria, look at me.”

I pry my eyes from Drew and force myself to look to Santo.

“I need you to focus on me, not him. It’s going to be okay,” he says.

Tears fall from my eyes. “I can’t lose him. He’s all I have.”

“You have me. You have our whole fucking family, Aria,” Santo grits out between clenched teeth. “Whatever happens, you will always have me.”

“I didn’t mean it like that,” I attempt to clarify. I know my words hurt him. “I just… I need him to be okay.”

“I know.”

The paramedics run in. Santo tells them that Drew was shot, and that there’s no exit wound. How does he even know that?

Then he’s pulling me into his arms as I watch the paramedics treat Drew, who’s still unconscious. “This is my fault,” I say.

“This is not your fault.” Santo pulls me into his chest tighter. “We’re okay. It’s going to be okay.”

Within minutes, the café is taken over by Santo’s family and the men I assume work for them. His brothers surround us—surroundme. “Come on, we need to get you home,” Gabe says to me.

When the paramedics wheel Drew out on a stretcher, I go to follow them. “I need to go to the hospital.”

“I’ll take you.” Santo grips my hand.

“Gabe and I will come,” Gio says before turning to the two figures standing at his back. “Marcel and Vin, find out where that fucker went. I want him found.”

“Why is it taking so long?” I ask Santo. We’ve been sitting in the hospital waiting area. Drew has been taken in for surgery. His parents are here. I had to call them, which was not something I ever want to have to do again.

“I’ll go see if I can find out anything.” Gio stands and walks towards the nurses’ station.

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