Page 115 of The Silence Lies

More blood pours, and Giovanni groans out.

“Can you sedate him?” Sera’s concern for her bodyguard grows dire by the minute.

“I can, Donna Bianchi. But I have no equipment to ensure he stays with us. He’ll have to endure it, I’m afraid.”

Sera takes a step back, her chest heaving as she watches the doctor prod at the wound again. He grabs forceps, asking the twins to hold Giovanni down. “This will hurt,” he reminds us all.

And fuck me, does it look like it hurts.

Giovanni writhes on the table. He stifles every cry and groan, but I can see Sera growing more agitated by the second. She chews on her thumbnail, like it’s the only thing keeping her anchored and strong.

The doctor keeps driving the metal instrument into Giovanni’s stomach in search of the bullet.

Giovanni groans out once more, then passes out.

And there’s just silence.

Clang.

“It’s out.”

Sera marches towards her bodyguard, kneeling down to the table and taking his hand. “Gio,” she whispers.

He’s out cold, though, and I don’t think he’ll be waking up anytime soon. The doctor is already filling a syringe full of some milky liquid, placing it on the table beside his other stained instruments.

It feels like time moves at a slower pace after that.

The doctor stitches Giovanni back up, cleaning the wound once more before placing a clean dressing over his work. More seconds tick by slower as he tells Sera to keep an eye on him. “The next twenty-four hours are crucial.”

She looks up at him with red eyes. It’s only now that I realize she’s been crying. “And then what?” she whimpers.

The doctor rests his now clean hands on her shoulder. “Rest. Lots of rest.”

Sera nods back, whispering her gratitude to the doctor before Raf walks him out.

But the silence doesn’t last long. It seems Luca hasn’t quite forgotten about how her and Giovanni got into this mess and he’s not about to let up.

“Sera,” he starts.

“Not now!”

“Then when?” he challenges. “When we’re all fucking dead?”

Sera spins around so fast that none of us see it coming. One minute she’s kneeling at Giovanni’s side, and the next her fist is connecting with Luca’s face.

“Vaffanculo!” she screams, shaking her hand out.

“Are you fucking done?” he screams back at her, his jaw flaring red from the contact. “That could have been you.” He points a finger at the bodyguard still lying motionless on the kitchen table. I don’t think I’ll ever look at that table the same, but I don’t voice that thought.

“So you’ve said,” Sera barks.

“So tell me why the fuck you thought it was a good idea to leave without us?”

Sera glares back at Luca. They’re both so enraged that it’s probably going to take tranquilizers to calm them down. Whatever Sera’s father said to her tonight not only pissed her off, but tore a part of her open. She never lets mediocre shit get to her, and her father is definitely the least of her problems. So what the hell did he say? It must have been some messed up shit for Sera to be reacting like this.

“I don’t have to tell you shit,” she sneers.

Luca’s eyes widen and there’s no mistaking the shock and hurt swimming in them. “Ok,” he replies calmly—the calmest I’ve ever seen him. “Is that how it’s going to be?”

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