Page 125 of Promised to the Don of Naples
I saw the two shots leave the pistol of the man in the middle, saw the two bullets go into Tonio's chest, saw his black shirt fill with dark brown in two spots almost over the sternum.
Tonio staggered backward.
"Tonio."
Luca ran past me and fired twice. The two men fell, one by one, in the pantry doorway.
Tonio slid from my arm to the floor. I sat down beside him and put his head in my lap.
"Tonio, look at me."
"Signora."
"Hold on."
"Signora…" He laughed a little, blood in his mouth. "Thank you for the lilies."
I went still. The lilies. My father's lilies.
I felt something I didn't have a name for yet.
"Tonio."
He closed his eyes, and his hand fell from my arm.
I washed his blood off my dress at the bedroom bathroom at four in the afternoon.
Luca came in and shut the door, and went to the sink. He took my hands away from the faucet and washed them for me, slowly, every finger, the hot water carrying Tonio's blood down the drain.
"Bella mia."
"Sì."
"You're going to Capri tonight."
"Luca…"
"With the nonna. And with Matteo."
I swallowed hard.
"Matteo?"
"I'm letting him out now."
I felt my blood boil. With relief, with anger, with fear, with everything at once.
"I don't want to go."
"Bella mia, today you go. I'll come with you as far as Capri, but I'll be back early tomorrow."
"Luca."
"Lo prometto, I'll come get you in two weeks at the most."
I rested my forehead against his chest, over the Latin tattoo. I felt his heart still beating fast—it hadn't come down from the run downstairs.
"Va bene," I murmured.
