Page 55 of Married to the Mafia

“He loves you,” Dad says, smiling up at me, his face turning pale. I asked him if he did and he said he didn’t know but he does."

“How do you know that?”

“The way he treats you. The fact he came for me. That wasn’t for my benefit. It was for yours. I’m glad you two got married, Rose. I just wish I could stay around to meet my grandkids.”

The car door swings open, and then it’s all a blur. Doctors are surrounding us. Dad is taken in on a stretcher and we’re left behind in the entrance.

“I better move the car,” Dino says. “I’ll meet you inside.”

I walk into the emergency room, and Dad’s already gone from sight. A receptionist hands me a form to fill in and I notice my hands are covered in blood. I can’t hold a pen, I’m shaking too much.

Dino appears a moment later and takes the form fromme, filling it and then handing it back to the receptionist. “It’ll be awhile,” he says. “Might as well get comfortable.”

“You sound like you’ve done this before,” I say as I sink onto the nearest chair.

He sits next to me and puts an arm around my shoulder. “Been a few gunshot wounds in my time.” He pulls off his jacket to reveal his own bloody mess on the shoulder of his shirt. “Lucky this place knows to keep its mouth shut about the family.”

He waves over a doctor, and they vanish into a side room. I walk over and look through the door a minute later. Dino’s sitting on a stretcher with his shirt off and the doctor’s sewing up the graze from the bullet. I look at Dino’s chest.

He’s ripped with muscles, but I see what he meant about the scars. He’s covered in them. Tattoos hide a few, but there’s a lifetime of pain visible, stories that all look like they ended in agony.

I feel sorry for him. He’s caught in a world he can’t escape, same as me. Is Dad right, is death the only way out? No, that’s not what he said. He said going undercover. Is that the same thing?

Maybe there’s another solution. Don Belucci is dead. Ricardo is the only loose end. Get rid of him and no one will know that Dino has become the new Capo dei Capi. He could hide out, issue his orders in secret like Dad did. Could that work?

I realize I’m thinking like Dino. Thinking about the loose ends that need tying up. I want Ricardo dead more than anything. Revenge for what happened to me, revenge for my dad getting shot.

Wherever he is, I know Dino will deal with him for me.I have someone who will go to any lengths to protect me, and that’s a good feeling.

Dino looks up, and I wave through the door. He beckons me in and I walk through to find the doctor’s pretty much done. “I’ll leave you two together,” he says. “Go see how your dad’s doing, Rose.”

“How does he know my name?” I ask when the doctor’s gone.

“I told him,” Dino replies. “How you holding up?”

“You said you’ve seen gunshot wounds before. Do they usually die?”

“Shot to the stomach like that is fifty-fifty. Only one hit and we got here fast. He’s as good a chance as anyone.”

I collapse into his arms, and he holds me tight. “Tell me he’ll live,” I say. “Promise me he’ll be all right.”

I want him to lie to me, tell me everything’s going to be okay. For once, I want a good lie rather than the awful truth.

“I can’t promise that,” he replies, kissing the top of my head. “But whatever happens, he’s in the best possible place.”

The next few hours are hell. I get a headache that won’t leave, all the tension sitting there no matter what I do. I pace up and down the corridors. I get fresh air outside. I go to the bathroom and sit there and cry. I come back out and still no news.

I just want to know he’ll be all right. I already lost my mom. I can’t lose my dad, too.

Dino stays nearby the whole time. He makes quiet phone calls and I can imagine what they’re about. Business doesn’t stop just because he’s here.

I want to hate him. I try really hard to hate him. If it wasn’t for him, my dad would be fine.

I can’t do it.

I can’t hate him. I realize I love him. It’s fucked up as he kidnapped me and forced me to marry him, but I can’t help it. I love him. Stockholm syndrome or not, it’s real, and it’s not going away. He’s protecting me. He got my dad here fast. He blew up the Belucci mansion and his own car to make sure we got out of there alive.

When the doctor reappears, I fear the worst, but he smiles at us both. “He’s awake,” he says. “You want to see him?”

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