Page 100 of Doll's Eye

“Sposami, amore mio.” Her face drops completely as she studies me for a long moment. “Tomorrow.”

Her eyes narrow. “You still have a long way to go, De Luca.” Then her face softens with a smile. “Plus, I want a wedding, which could not be put together in one day.

“I want you as my wife.”

“I want the dress,” she retorts quickly.

“You have the dress.”

“I want the flowers and music and chapel and everything. I want it all.”

I’m quiet as I admire her beauty and defiance. “A week.”

Her green eyes widen and her luscious lips part. “A year,” she finally counters with.

“Two weeks.”

“Two years,” she says with an eyebrow arched and I full-on laugh.

I missed her so fucking much. “This is the one and only time I’ll do this. You have six months.” She grins in victory. “But we sign the marriage license in one week.”

“Massimo Antonio De Luca. You—”

I cut her off with a kiss that is too painful to deepen. “I love ruffling those pretty feathers of yours,” I murmur against her lips.

“And I’ll admit I love it when you ruffle them.” She kisses my cheek. “Can we go home now? I fucking hate Russia.”

“You and me both, baby.”

Alessia isn’t parted from my side the entire journey back to the airstrip where both planes are waiting. As soon as I take a step outside the vehicle, Vinny comes rushing towards me despite all his obvious injuries. The guy has been through it over the last several weeks. “Oh, thank fuck.” Then his eyes widen when he gets a good look at me. “Holy shit.”

“Yeah, holy shit,” I mutter.

Alessia saw me trying to pull some of the stitches around my mouth out myself and chastised me before grabbing her brother. So, Santino joins us on my plane for the ride home.

Fucking sewed my mouth shut. I’m almost impressed by their level of sinisterness.

Once we’re up in the air, Santino sets up the medical supplies. “You’re going to have some gnarly scars,” he murmurs as he cleans the area first.

“Chicks dig scars,” Alessia says with a sliver of enthusiasm.

“Youdig scars, Less. Little psycho,” Santino teases though he’s serious. I eye her and she shrugs her shoulders totally unoffended.

“Alright. Now, stay still for me,” Santino says, and I close my eyes purely from exhaustion. The adrenaline has been slowly leaking from me draining me of energy and causing my other injuries to throb.

The stitches definitely do not feel good coming out, but a hell of a lot better than going in. It’s not like they numbed me or carefully did them. They made sure it fucking hurt.

“And…done,” he says several minutes later, and I feel something soft pressed to my mouth. Opening my eyes, I find an angel smiling as she holds some gauze against me. “Now, what else needs urgent attention other than your eye that has doubled in size?”

My hand is obviously broken, which will have to wait for x-raying after we land, but he was able to stitch up the gash on the back of my head and another one on my chest. Not much else he could do, though, for the bruising and broken ribs that will also need to be x-rayed other than give me ice to help manage the swelling.

Santino says he’ll be back with some ice packs and I lift my hand up in gratitude as Alessia verbally thanks him. He nods his head and disappears to sit somewhere else, giving us privacy.

“Well, it doesn’t seem like your lips are bleeding too badly.” She lifts the gauze then cringes before putting it back. “Maybe not.” I drop my head back, and my eyelids feel heavy with a crushing weight of fatigue. “Let’s lean you back, baby.” She leans across me and hits the button to recline my seat. “I’m going to go help Santino get you some ice and make sure to get you some water and painkillers.” I nod my head in response. “I’ll be rightback. Hold onto this.” She lifts my hand to replace hers and then kisses my cheek before getting up.

My mind practically goes numb from overwhelming exhaustion. The only energy I have is to think about the fact that I’m alive.

“Alright, pain killers, water, and a shit ton of ice,” she says when she comes back. “Here.” She uncaps the bottle of water and hands it to me along with the pills. “Shit. You definitely need new gauze.” She takes the soiled stuff from me while I drink and she replaces some clean ones in my hand and I rest my head back down.

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