Chapter 6

• TERZO
• My consciousness came and went, but the pain remained and intensified. I lost a lot of blood. I could feel it.
• I got shot before, and I knew the effect of gunshots on my body. I was lucky she missed the major arteries, or she intended to.
• I knew she wasn’t a killer. I saw it in her eyes. She wasn’t like my sister Celestina. She was more like Maverick, who was naive about our underworld business and only trying to protect herself.
• I groaned in pain as I tried to move. It still hurt, but I needed to know if she made it out safe. She still played an important role in my plan.
• As much as I wanted to lock her up somewhere in the basement, I’d rather keep her with me. I had to make sure her father wouldn’t put a bounty on my head. I couldn’t afford to keep running from hundreds of mercenaries, thugs, and assassins who tried to kill me.
• The first thing that reached my nostrils was the smell of ethanol, blood, and iodine, and then a musty scent.
• Before I collapsed, I remembered seeing a familiar face that I hadn’t seen for over a decade, but I must be hallucinating. It was impossible, or I was dead for seconds.
• I cracked my eyes open, and the first thing I saw was the old painted ceiling. I knew where I was. I was in the basement of the building.
• “Gio?” My mouth was so dry I could drink a gallon of water.
• “Oh, he’s alive,” said the familiar deep voice, but he had aged.
• “Shit.” I quickly got up, ignoring the pain in my shoulder. “Oh, Dio.” I stared at my mother’s brother. He was alive. I wasn’t hallucinating after all. How could this be possible? “Uncle?”
• My heart thudded in my chest. I was both relieved and happy to be alive, and I met my uncle Gian Carlo Silvano. He was the best uncle I could ever ask for. When he died, I lost a part of me. He was my savior, my hero, and his home was my sanctuary until he was gone.
• “Well, you look like shit,” he said in Italian as he came close to me.
• I ignored the intense pain and threw myself at him.
• My eyes stung. I didn’t give a shit if Gio saw me cry. I hugged my uncle tightly. “Where have you been? I should have shot myself the first time I’d been to Turkiye if I knew I would see you, zio.”
• “Ease now, Terzo.” He patted my back and kissed me on the cheeks. “You grow old, son, but handsome nonetheless. You look exactly like your mother.”
• I was still staring at him in disbelief. He grew older, but his eyes were sparkling. He looked happy, and that was what I had wanted from him.
• When my mother died, he took the hardest. He went on a boat for days and came back still empty and sad. One day, he just left and never came back without goodbyes. It was my second heartbreak.
• Losing both my only family from my mother’s side changed me. My father knew I was closer to Gian Carlo than him, and he was fine with that. He even once told me that I was too soft to run the family business because of how Gian Carlo treated me.
• “You’re lucky she missed your subclavian artery, or you could be dead by now,” he said half-jokingly. “I patched you up. It will leave a scar, a reminder not to piss off a woman.”
• “Wait. You’re a doctor now?”
• “Yeah. A vet.”
• “A vet?” I was still holding his arms. I couldn’t let him go just yet. “Did you knock me out with a horse tranquilizer because I felt I passed out too quickly?”
• He smiled. The smile I missed so much. “A low dose of Propofol so I can take out the bullet from your shoulder. You’re welcome.”
• I held his hand. “Uncle, what happened? Does Papa know you’re still alive? Why did you fake your death?”
• “It seems it runs in the family, figlio. Faking deaths.” He chuckled. “No one knows except your father, but I’m still updated with what’s going on in your life. I wish I could take you out of your family business, but from what I heard, you’re starting to run a legit company.”
• I nodded. “It hasn’t been easy, uncle. I wish you were there to guide me. Celestina would be happy to see you.”
• “No one can know that I’m still alive, son. I already started a new life, and I’m very happy here.”
• Until I felt the ring around his finger. “You’re married.”
• “Yes. I’ve been married for five years now, but we’re not lucky enough to bear a child.”
• “I’m happy for you, Doctor—”
• “I’m Lorenzo Rossi. I’m still an Italian married to a Turkish woman.”
• “Will I see you again, uncle?”
• “Of course. You should adopt a cat or a dog and bring it to my clinic.”
• I chuckled, feeling overwhelmingly emotional. “It’s really good to see you, uncle.”
• “Your guy, Gio, is waiting for you outside.” He hugged me one more time before he walked out the door, leaving me happy and sad at the same time.
• When the door opened, I grimaced to make myself look like in pain so I wouldn’t look like I just wept.
• “I got your painkillers.” Gio came with a plastic bag and a bottle of water.
• “Grazie.” I took two caplets and emptied the bottle of water. “Where are they?”
• “They’re at the hotel downtown. You need to rest. She’s safe with Marco, boss. Don’t worry, I just talked to him. They just had their dinner. Are you hungry?”
• “I’m not fucking hungry. We need to bring her to the US.”
• “Why?” He stared at me as if I had just lost the function of half of my brain.
• “Her father arranged for her to marry someone. I need to know who. If I give her to Francesco, I just end her already miserable life.”
• “You mean you want to protect the woman who just shot you, who almost got you killed. Are you fucking insane, T? Does she know you’re the one who killed her brother? If she finds out, she will not miss next time. Trust me. That woman might not be who we think she is.”
• “You’re right, but she’s not a killer. The moment she figures out who I am, she gets two choices— to run away and hide throughout her life or come to me and apologize.”
• “And then?” His brows furrowed.
• “That’s where my plan comes in.”
• He shook his head in disappointment. “I thought we went to the fucking Russia to bring her to her father—”
• “I know the plan, Gio, and you don’t. She didn’t shoot me in the brain, but it all changed when she said she was already arranged to someone else.” Also, something that Ilya told me that didn’t sit right. Francesco fucking Giordani was going to betray me.
• The phone suddenly rang, and it wasn’t mine.
• Gio fished out his phone and checked the caller ID. “It’s Marco.”
• “Put it on speaker.”
• He answered. “You’re on speaker.”
• “She escaped.”
• “Come again?” Gio asked even if I heard it pretty clearly.
• “Motherfucker.” I wanted to throw and break something, but she was already gone.
• “Mi dispiace—”
• “I don’t want your fucking apology, Marco. You only have one job, and yet you let her slip away. Get ready and pick us up from the apartment. I know where she’s going.”