Page 255 of La Dolce Vita

"I swear it."

Lorenzo nodded. "Okay. Okay."

Giovanni aimed the gun at his face. It was then Lorenzo saw Marietta. She had a gun. At first, he thought it was a dream. A premonition of some kind. Some last vision before he died. But his beautiful wife pulled the trigger, and he knew the nightmare was real. Giovanni was shot in the back and shoulder. The gun Giovanni had misfired. His cousin fell on him and knocked him back. He turned him over. Not believing what he just saw. Not believing that Giovanni was shot. Marietta stood there with the smoking gun still in her hand.

"You shot him?" Lorenzo said.

"He was going to kill you!" Marietta wept.

She dropped the gun. Lorenzo checked Giovanni’s neck for the pulse. He couldn’t find one. "We’ve got to get him out of here."

"He's dead? Is he dead? Is he dead!" she asked. "Oh my God! Did I kill him?"

"How did you get here?" Lorenzo struggled to lift Giovanni, but his leg gave out. He was wounded and weak. And Giovanni was losing blood rapidly. He was dying.

"Lo, we have to go! Now! Before Carlo wakes up."

Lorenzo glanced up this wife in shock. Carlo brought her? How did Carlo find them? He couldn’t focus on that. Giovanni was nonresponsive. He could feel his life slipping from him. He summoned as much strength as he could. He picked up his cousin and half dragged him out to the door. Marietta tried to help. It was too late. Armando and his men were outside with guns loaded.

Marietta ran to Armando and hugged him. He cupped her face and whispered something. The scene was beyond Lorenzo’s understanding. The tension caused a loud ringing in his ears as if he’d explode. And he looked down at Giovanni. There was more blood. Blood was everywhere. He staggered and collapsed again. He dropped Giovanni next to Carlo.

***

Carlo’s blurred consciousness cleared. He heard shouting. He tried to move, but the crushing blow to his head crippled him with pain. He tried to focus, but his vision swam and clouded over as if he were dragged under water. Lorenzo yelled at someone to let his wife go. Men grabbed Lorenzo, and he struggled with them. They pulled a shouting, cursing Lorenzo away. Carlo squinted. He could see headlights and he could hear Marietta crying and pleading with someone. And then he heard feet approaching. Someone stood over him. He played dead.

"They’re dead, Boss," a man said.

"Let's go," another man replied.

Car engines sounded, and car doors closed. Carlo could hear the people all speed off into the night. He opened his eyes and sat up. It was then he saw who lay next to him. Giovanni.

He reached over and shook Giovanni. He didn’t move. He dragged himself to Giovanni and put his finger under his nose. He felt his breath.

"Hang on, Boss. Hang on!"

epilogue

"He'sbeen shot," Dominic said.

Mirabella was shaken awake. "What? Who's been shot? Lorenzo?"

"No. Gio. He's been shot. I got the call from Carlo. Get dressed. We have to go."

"No. No. No. No..."

"We have to go! Now!" Domi shouted at her. “Now!”

***

The nearest hospital to the shooting was in Salerno. It was an hour drive from home. Mirabella sat in the back of the car in shock. Dominic had only a few facts. Giovanni was shot. He had lost a lot of blood. He was in surgery. Carlo saved his life. No one has seen Marietta or Lorenzo. The men were out looking for Lorenzo. She stopped listening. The tears that constantly flowed over the past hours had dried up. She couldn't cry. Her mind and heart couldn't accept the news. She'd never seen her husband sick. He never got a cold.

The moment the car stopped she threw open her car door. The hospital had many men gathered to the front. Some of them she wasn’t sure if they worked for her husband, or had come to bear witness to his death. She hated them all.

"Where is he?" she shouted at the first nurse she saw.

Dominic grabbed her arm and pulled her in the right direction. "The emergency room is this way. This is where they take gunshot victims. Be calm. Remember, where you are."

"How do you know that?" Mirabella asked. She looked around at the weeping family members of other loved ones that were hurt. "How can you tell this is where people who are shot are taken?"

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