Page 69 of Till Death Do Us Part

My phone was clutched in my hand. One day, it would be his throat in its place. “You are not even welcome past the office in his home,” I spoke in Sicilian, my voice almost strangled.

Tommaso turned back to the television and turned it up. The men who lived upstairs were in the shadows, watching and waiting.

Chapter24

Roma

I’d be going home tomorrow, but the doctor wanted to keep me overnight for observation. I had a concussion. I also had a broken nose, whiplash, and some bruising and cuts. I was told Elsa was still being taken care of. More than once I heard we were both lucky to be alive.

The room was dark, and I kept going in and out. I saw my father sitting in the chair in the corner. Alfonso and Jack were next to him when I woke up again. The next time, it was my sisters with Babbo.

When I woke up again, a lone figure sat in the chair, head in his hands. He was unmistakable to me.

“Felice,” I breathed out. The relief in my voice was apparent.

“Dino,” he said, his voice husky. “Your driving could use some finesse, but you saved yourself and Ms. Lang.”

“I learned from the best,” I whispered. “Even if I take a sting-like-a-bee approach and you take a float-like-a-butterfly one.”

He laughed softly and I grinned, but it hurt. It hurt because I wanted Felice to stay the night and take me home the next day. I wanted him close because he’d become the definition of safety to me. But I knew that wasn’t possible.

As if he sensed my feelings, the bed dipped and he pulled me close, kissing my head. I held on to him, not able to let go.

The entire situation made me angry and sad. And I was shaken.

In my dreams, I still felt the world turning upside down, all concept of control lost. I heard the groaning of giving metal and the screeching of tires. The smell of Elsa’s blood had clung to the cold surging through the broken window, and it wouldn’t go away. It was probably from my bloody nose, but I couldn’t stop smelling it.

He cradled me in his lap while I clung to his shirt. I must have fallen asleep. I knew the moment he placed me back on the bed, covered me with a blanket, tucked something soft in next to me, and kissed my lips.

I felt like a part of me was ripping away.

My eyes felt heavy, but I forced them to open. “Felice?” I called out.

Silence met me in the darkness.

He was gone.

Chapter25

Roma

Iwas hiding from my family. I did the whole Christmas morning thing, but then decided to take my coffee and sit in the sunroom. Though it was more like an ice room. Snow had piled on the glass, and it was like sitting inside of a snow globe.

I didn’t even bother grabbing a book or playing the dinosaur game on my phone. I was thinking of Felice and how I hadn’t seen or heard from him since the night he came to visit me in the hospital. The phone he’d given me was gone, and he wasn’t answering his phone or responding to texts.

I thought about paying him a visit at one of his places, but apparently he didn’t want to talk to me. All I had was another dinosaur he’d left me. It was like the first one, and tucked inside was a card with four words written on it:

I’m always with you.

I’m always with you?Yet he refused to see or answer me. Maybe because he was shaken from what had happened? And Felice Maggio didn’t seem like a man who knew what to do with feelings he wasn’t used to.

Case in point. A couple of days after the accident, the man driving the delivery truck was found dead with a bullet in his brain. That was something Felice could do something about. But vulnerable feelings? He had no clue how to kill them.

I took a deep sip of my coffee, closed my eyes, and set my head back. A few minutes later, the sofa dipped, and I opened my eyes.

“You can run but you can’t hide,” Lo almost sang. She shook her shoulders. “How does the new sweater look?”

“Like it was made for you,” I said.

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