Page 50 of The Doctor's Promise
“I enjoy it when you get better. Now, take your poison.” She handed him the painkillers, the few drugs he was still allowed. “Only to take the edge off, I’m afraid.”
“Better than nothing.”
“Are you hungry?”
Zani turned on the charm. “Not for food.”
The nurse, Georgia, grinned. “That’s all that’s on offer.”
“Then no thanks.”
“Just keep your fluids up, and I’ll be happy. Oh, and you got a card. I left it on your table.”
When Georgia had gone—Zani missed her already, she was super-cute with a great rack and a butt that he could bounce coins off—he opened the envelope she had left him.
At first, he didn’t understand what he was seeing: a piece of paper with a collage of photographs set out like a photo story on it. One was of a woman from a distance, taken as she was walking along a street somewhere, he guessed, in France. Her hair was dark, her body slim, dressed in a simple summer dress.
It was the next photograph that made his knees give way. The woman was laying on her back, her eyes open and staring. Sophia. Her blonde hair dyed brunette, her beautiful face lovely even in death.
Two telltale bullet holes in her torso. Blood spread across the cotton of her dress.
They had found her.
The next photographs sent chills down his spine. Rafa. Noemi. Bepi. And the words written under them…
One of them is next.
As they droveto Rafa’s parents house outside of the city, Noemi squeezed her lover’s thigh and smiled at him. “What are you going to tell them about Zani?”
“Nothing. Or at least I’ll fudge the details. Tell them he’s gone away to clear his head. I promised him that if he went through rehab, I’d protect him. Dad’s a mild-mannered guy but he’d been pushed to the brink by this. As angry as I am with him, I don’t want Zani’s life ruined.”
“You’re a good man.”
“Would you believe it if I told you Zani wasn’t the devil either?”
Noemi smiled. “I would and I do. I believe he’s genuinely sorry for what happened.”
Rafa smiled. “We’re here.”
He turned into the driveway of his parent’s estate, but it was still a few moments before the house came into view.
“Wow.” Noemi gaped at the size of the place—it made Rafa’s place look like a shack. “How many bedrooms does this behemoth have?”
Rafa laughed. “You really don’t want to know… but it has two ballrooms.”
“Because of all those pesky balls one needs to have at the exact same time,” Noemi shook her head, smiling. “How the other half live.”
“Says the surgeon.”
Noemi snickered. “I’ll let you know when I need a house the size of Bainbridge Island.”
Rafa helpedNoemi from the car and then retrieved Bepi from his car seat. Noemi took a few deep breaths. She had only ever been in the same room as Rafa’s parents once, while they visited Thomasina, and although they had been introduced, she had been too occupied with Tomi to pay much attention. Hindsight is a great thing, she thought to herself now. If only I had known then that I would be giving birth to their grandchildren in a couple of years.
The thought made her giggle, and Rafa raised his eyebrows. She told him in a low voice, and he laughed as they walked to the door. “If only we had known, indeed.” He took her hand. “Don’t worry, sweetheart. They’ll love you.”
He opened the door, and rather incongruously in Noemi’s opinion, called out. “Mom, Dad, it’s me.” Noemi hid her grin; they’d been announced by the CCTV already, she was sure.
She squeezed his hand again, and he smiled at her as his parents came to find them. Stefano Genova grinned widely. “Hey, hey, hey!”
