Page 151 of Ruthless Redemption

Matthew is unconscious on a portable bed in the corner of the room, his large frame dwarfing the single mattress, a white sheet resting over his abdomen while sensors connecting him to an EKG machine are plastered across his chest.

“Bella.” Lorenzo pushes to his feet from the chair at Matthew’s bedside. “Come. Take my place.”

I’m not sure I can move any closer. I’ve waited all this time to see the man I breathe for. To get confirmation he’s alive. But he still looks like he’s clinging to this world by the tips of his fingers.

“It’s okay.” Lorenzo waves me forward. “He’s stable.”

The label doesn’t fit. Matthew is frail. Fragile.

“Come on.” Salvatore leads me forward with a hand around my wrist, his hold releasing me at the foot of the bed.

Lorenzo murmurs questions, at me or the brothers, I’m not sure.

I don’t answer. I don’t listen.

My attention is fixated on the beeping of Matthew’s monitor while his chest slowly rises and falls.

“Why don’t we give them some time alone?” Lorenzo says. “Yell out if you need us.”

I nod in appreciation and move behind the chair as the men ascend the stairs.

“I’ll go, too.” Evelyn approaches me. “He’s heavily sedated. He won’t wake up for a while, and when he does, he’ll be groggy. But you should talk to him.” She gives my shoulder a quick squeeze. “Some say that helps recovery.”

I wait until the door squeaks shut behind them before I crumple into the chair.

“Matthew,” I whisper.

He lays there, eyes closed, his dark lashes resting against pale skin.

My vision blurs, my caged tears finally ready to break free. I weep as I drag a hand over his body. Across the remnants of blood. The cut I caused on his neck. The stab wound on his wrist.

Heat trails my cheeks as I lower the sheet, dragging my touch farther past his boxer briefs to the slices on his thigh. Then I finally lead my fingers to circle the surgical tape surrounding his bandage along his abdomen.

He was a blank canvas before he met me.

Now he’s a man riddled with scars.

“Forgive me.” I lean forward, draping an arm over his chest, resting my tear-slicked face against his bicep as I succumb to heaving sobs. “You always seem so invincible. And now that you’re like this—” My throat dries. “I can’t live without you, Matthew.”

I hear the echo of his voice in my mind, the words he said earlier coming back to haunt me.“I’m sorry,la mia stella polare.I thought we’d have more time.”

I thought we would, too.

I thought we’d have a future. That I’d finally found happiness.

“Please come back to me,” I beg. “I’ll do anything.”

I remain nestled against him, clinging tight, my tears finally ebbing to dry against my cheeks.

I stay there when the nurse reappears to check his stats and don’t move once she returns upstairs.

Remy brings me food, the sandwiches and bottle of water remaining untouched all afternoon.

I fall asleep at one point. Nightmares keep me company. I see snapshots of the shard in Matthew’s back. The blood staining his shirt. But I hear him. His voice is there, so clear and tangible in my ears.

“I’d never leave you,la mia stella polare.” His touch glides over my shoulder, the contact light. “La mia ossessione.La mia vita. La mia anima. Il mio santuario.”

I startle awake, my pulse alive at the sound of his voice. But when I look at him, he remains lifeless.

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