Page 136 of Brutal Legacy

If they needed help identifying my body, this locket would suffice.

This body belonged to her… and it always had.

It was my last thought before the mission went to shit.

“Elio! Get down!” Giada shouted.

I was still pressing the place where the locket sat when the world exploded.

I wokewith a start and nearly tumbled off the gurney bed I was lying on. I grabbed onto it just in time to stop myself from falling off. Everything was white. An alarm was beeping wildly beside me, and I realized that there were electrodes attached to me.

Hospital.

I was in the hospital.

Slowly, I sat up again and looked around. There was a window into the hallway, and a doctor talked to two men in blazers. Cops.

The beeping was driving me mad. I pulled the drip out of my arm, and the sensors went too. The machine made a long, flatlining beep until I yanked the power cable from the wall.

“Sir!” A nurse appeared, speaking in a rapid flood of Italian.

“You can’t take that off! You’ve been hurt. You were in an explosion.”

“Where are the men I was with at the house?” I demanded.

“They are here, too. They are more hurt. One is in surgery,” the nurse said, plugging the machine back in.

Fuck.None of this was going to plan.

I found my hand drifting to my neck and patting for the locket. It was gone.

“Where’s my stuff? The clothes I was wearing…” I trailed off.

The nurse paled. Of course, I’d had half an armory strapped to me when I’d been brought in. I’m sure the police outside had questions about that.

“The clothes are in the locker there. The other items… they are being held by the police.”

Shit.Still, they probably only took the weapons I had on me. My sniper rifle was in the house. Hopefully it was still there.

First, I needed to get out of here without trouble from the cops. I sat back as the nurse bustled around me.

“I have to tell the doctor that you’re awake.” She glanced toward the window.

The doctor who was standing with the cops. Perfect.

“Can you wait? I’m really dizzy. I think I need to sleep some more,” I asked her and summoned the best exhausted look I had. I didn’t need to try that hard.

She hesitated and then nodded. “Okay, next time you wake up… we have to tell them.”

I nodded. She meant the cops. Sure, she could tell him whatever she wanted…

When I was gone.

I watched her leave the room and then pushed myself out of bed. The locker beside the bed opened easily, and I got dressed. Tucked into a pocket that rested just above my heart, I found the locket. I had no guns or weapons, and my Kevlar vest was gone… but I had this.

Mia ragione.

My reason to live.

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