Page 38 of Blood and Penance
“Wait!” I grab her by the arm, stopping her from racing off. “You need to stay with Seraphina.”
She yanks her arm away and glares at me. “What the hell do you mean I can’t come! He’s my son!”
“And he’s my son, too!” I blow out a breath to calm my anger. “I can’t protect him, if I’m worried about you too, sweetheart. Will you please just fucking listen!”
“Gianni, I’m not staying here while our son is still in the hands of that madman!”
“My father is not going to hurt him, Phoenix. Then his plan won't work. Just stay with Seraphina and as soon as we get Giancarlo, I’ll bring him to you. I promise.”
I don’t give her a chance to respond before I walk away from her. If she tries to follow, I’ll just have some of Lorenzo’s men keep her here. She'll be pissed but it would be best for all involved if she doesn't come.
“You ready?” Lorenzo asks when I reach him.
“As ready as I’ll ever be.”
“He’s not going to go without a fight,” Lorenzo says as we slide into the back seat of one of his SUVs.
“I don’t expect him to.”
“It’s time, Gianni,” Lorenzo says, checking the magazine of his weapon.
We both know what that means. Today will be the last day Giovanni Puglisi walks this earth. He should have left my family alone.
I can’t do anything but nod because if he’s willing to take my son, he’ll do anything. That means he can't remain alive.
“God, forgive me for what I’m about to do."
Chapter Twenty-Four
Phoenix
I’ve been pacing the hall of some kind of medical clinic. I should have known the Puglisi’s wouldn’t have used a real hospital. While it pissed me off that Seraphina is being cared for by anyone connected to the Puglisi family, it has state-of-the-art equipment, and I trust Gianni’s judgment that this is the best place for my sister to be right now. And Dr. Ramirez, the surgeon working on Seraphina, is also supposed to be one of the top surgeons in the country and seemed genuinely concerned about her care. Why he’s on the Puglisi payroll, I have no idea.
“What did Ramirez say?” Sergio asks.
Seraphina had been shot twice and has lost a lot of blood. However, by the marks marring her skin she put up one hell ofa fight to keep my son safe. While I’m fucking furious that she’s had any contact with Sergio because she knows how dangerous he is, I lay what happened at the feet of Giovanni Puglisi, and this bastard waiting on an answer he'll never get from me.
I stop pacing and glare at him with disgust. The mere thought of his question has me contemplating his murder, especially knowing that he’s the reason Seraphina’s hurt and my son is with his crazy ass grandfather. But no matter how much I’d love to kill him, I wouldn’t be able to get close to him because of the two gigantic goons standing on his left and his right, looking at my every move. Like I might attack their boss at any moment. If they weren’t here, I would.
Sergio’s shirtless, only wearing black slacks and dress shoes. His chest and arms are covered in very intricate tattoos, including the Puglisi name tattooed across his chest. It’s the same black and white tattoo Gianni has across his. From what Gianni told me, all the members of the Puglisi family get this tattoo when they kill their first man. It commemorates the event as well as show their loyalty to the Family like taking a life in the name of Giovanni Puglisi isn’t enough.
I remember the day Gianni had gotten his like it was yesterday. He had just turned sixteen, and we were going to skip school that day to hang out the entire day together. However, he didn’t show up at our favorite spot when he was supposed to. I stayed there all day waiting for him. The longer I waited the more worried I became. When he showed up sometime right after nightfall, I knew something was wrong.
He had a very hard time coming to terms with what he had done for his father that day. He cried the entire time he told me what he had been forced to do by Giovanni. He didn’t even know the man’s name, but he’d been forced to cut his tongue out of his mouth because he was a rat, then put a bullet in his head. And that’s when I knew I’d always hate Giovanni Puglisi. He only cared about himself. I refuse to let Giancarlo anywhere near him and suffer the fate his father had to live through.
Sergio’s been patched up from where Gianni shot him in both shoulders. Stark white bandages, against his inked skin, are soaked through with blood. I wish Gianni had aimed a little lower so I wouldn’t be having this conversation with him.
I hate him.
“This is your fault,” I sneer. “And you have the fucking nerve to ask me what the doctor said. Why are you even here, Sergio? Get the hell out of here!”
With a long, slow breath, he extends his legs, the muscles relaxing, his head lolling back against the cool white plaster of the wall as he stares up at the ceiling. “I’m not going anywhere, Phoenix.”
“Nobody wants you here!”
“It doesn’t matter,” he says so calmly it gets under my skin. “I’m not leaving until I know she’s okay.”
“Well, it’s none of your fucking business if she’s okay. You’re the reason she’s even here, asshole!!”
