Page 203 of Phantom Mine

The words come out in a painful croak, my throat dryer than a desert.

Thiago looks up from his phone, his face expressionless. “Finally. Took your sweet time waking up, didn’t you,Bella Durmiente?”

I shift on the bed, then hiss sharply. The skin pulls at my back when I move, revealing the area is far more injured than I realized. I can’t remember how badly I was hurt the night of the fire.

“Where is she?” I repeat.

Thiago stands and walks up to me, his expression grim.

“Valentina saved your life.” My heart clenches in my chest. The machine beeps louder, once. One staccato beat that reflects my reaction of dread to his stony face. “She inhaled a lot of smoke. More than anyone could take and stay conscious, and yet she carried you to safety.” Even though he stops, I can tell he’s not finished. “She lost consciousness the second she saw you were safe. She coded.”

There’s a loud ringing in my ears.

It’s not a figment of my imagination—it’s really happening. The machines start blaring. The beeping surges, carried upwards by a crazed tempo. A cacophony of alarms announcing the panic in my heart wraps around us.

I push up onto my arms, uncaring of the now obvious pain screaming in my back, and rip out my IV. I’m on my feet instantly, roaring,

“Where the fuck is she, Thiago?”

The blood rushes to my head and I immediately keel over. The machines catch my fall. I grab onto them and try to order my legs to hold up the weight of my body. Unfortunately, they don’t want to seem to listen.

“Fucking Italians.” Thiago shakes his head in distaste. “First you take a month-long nap and now you think you can just go prancing about the place.”

His words flick a switch that reboots my body. I release the machines and turn slowly, my mobility regained.

“A month? I’ve been in a coma for a fuckingmonth?” My heart drops to the ground like a lead weight and shatters. I take a stumbling step towards him, uncaring that I’m a hobbling, weakened, vulnerable and, therefore easy, target. “Where is Valentina, Thiago?”

The machines continue thundering their alarms.

He places a long finger in each ear then glares at me with a black look. It’s strangely reminiscent of the waiting room from my not too distant coma.

“Can you calm your fucking heart rate down first? I can’t hear myself fucking think with all that screeching.”

“Calm it down yourself.” The organ nearly thrashes out of my chest. “Tell me your sister is alive.”

“Alive?” Thiago’s fingers drop from his ears as if to make sure he understood me correctly. “Of course she’s fucking alive.” He scowls. “Do you really think you would still be if she wasn’t?”

A tremulous sigh escapes from my lips. The machines die down instantly. There’s no slow decrescendo. One second they’re blasting, the next the beats are steady and even.

Thiago glances at them, then back at me. “Jesus, that’s pathetic.”

Guilty.

“Speaking of pathetic, you’re the one waiting anxiously by my bedside table for me to wake up,stronzo.” I smirk at the way the smile wipes off his face, but only for a minute. “Tell me where s—”

“Matteo!” A voice calls from the door.

I turn and only have time to see hair flying before Valentina’s body collides with mine. She jumps up and lands into my arms, drawing a happy, throaty groan from deep in my chest before she clasps my face and kisses me.

“Valentina,” I mumble against her mouth between kisses. “Len—” My next words are swallowed up by her lips. I crush her against me. Holding her feels so good. “Are you alright,cara?”

“Yes.”Kiss. “Yes.”Kiss.“YES.”Wet kiss.

I open my eyes and find her cheeks awash with tears.

“You’re awake,” she murmurs, burying her face in my neck and sobbing openly. “I wasn’t sure if you’d ever…”

My forearm tightens on her lower back.

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