Page 72 of Mafiosa
‘You’re fading.’
‘It’s the pain meds,’ I said, struggling to keep my eyelids open.
Millie huffed a sigh. ‘Let’s put this on pause until you’ve slept it off. Let’s get you into your pyjamas.’
‘I’m sorry,’ I murmured, unzipping the dress. My hands were moving in slow motion. The sides of my vision were fuzzy. There was no pain in my shoulder now. ‘The dress is stained.’
Millie helped me shimmy out of it, doing most of the work while I just flopped around like a marshmallow.
‘I don’t care about the dress, Sophie.’
I wriggled into a T-shirt and sweatpants. ‘I wish you did.’
‘No, you don’t,’ she said.
‘I wish you were less observant.’
‘I wish you were less stubborn.’
‘You’re just as stubborn as me.’
‘Yup,’ she said, helping me under the blankets. ‘That’s how I know I’m going to win.’
‘Win what?’
My eyelids were drooping. I felt at peace, like I was floating above myself. The argument was far below me, in another place.
She tucked the duvet around me. Dropping her voice, shebrushed the hair from my face, and her voice followed me into the darkness as I drifted off. ‘I’m going to win this argument. I’m going to drag you out of here if it’s the last thing I do.’
Then I was gone, and so was she.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHTBREAKFAST
‘My cereal tastes funny.’
‘That’s because you’re still high,’ Nic pointed out. ‘How many painkillers did you take this morning?’
I held up two fingers to him while I crunched. ‘Everything tastes like marshmallows.’
‘That’s because you’re eating Lucky Charms,’ he said, laughing.
I smiled at him, my mouth still full. I imagined I looked like a chipmunk.
‘How’s your shoulder this morning?’ asked Elena, who was making an elaborate fry-up across four pans.
‘It’s OK,’ I said, rotating my arm to see how much it hurt.
Yup. Still hurt.
Felice was at the head of the table, peering at me overhis frothy cappuccino. ‘Welcome to the Gunshot Club, Persephone. Do you feel invincible?’
‘No,’ I said. ‘Should I?’
‘No,’ he said, his smile curling. ‘You shouldn’t.’
I stored that veiled threat along with all his others and demolished another spoonful of Lucky Charms while the smell of bacon filled up the kitchen.
‘How many eggs, Gino?’ Elena asked over her shoulder. She was still dressed in her silk dressing gown, her long dark hair spilling in waves down her back.
