Page 148 of Be With Me
It was Alessio, unconscious, lying behind the sofa with blood soaking his clothes. Fuck. Was he even alive?
“Can you pull him out of here? I need to check on Dad.”
I grabbed Alessio under the arms. One of my cousins appeared beside me and grabbed his feet.
“You ready?” he shouted. “On three!”
We lifted Les and carried him into the living room, where the women were crouched on the ground, their hands covering their heads.
My mother rushed to me. “What happened?”
“I don’t know. Something exploded.” I pressed my fingers to Alessio’s neck.
He was still breathing.
“Someone call Doc!” I shouted as I searched for injuries. There was glass embedded in his shoulder, and there was a burn on his arm, but nothing life-threatening. He must have hit his head hard, though.
“He’s on his way!” someone shouted back.
“Did anything go off here?” I asked, lifting my gaze to my mother. But she was already gone.
I wiped my forearm across my eyes and blinked, trying to clear the fog in my brain. Everything felt sluggish, like I was operating at low capacity, but the damage in the living room didn’t seem too bad beneath the smoke billowing in from Dad’s office.
The bomb had gone off only in there. Who the hell could’ve planted it?
Planted.
The bonsai tree?
No.Fuck.
Was that the bomb? Dad had been standing right next to it.
“Keep an eye on him,” I barked at my cousin as I got to my feet.
I was halfway to the office when I heard my mother’s scream.
CHAPTER44
MIA
Balloons bobbed against the fluorescent lights of the campaign office. A handmade Happy Birthday sign hung on one of the walls. On the table in front of me sat a paper plate with a slice of untouched confetti cake.
We were here for someone’s birthday. Whose? I had no idea. An email had told me to show up, so here I was. The Uber ride from my apartment had been a blur. My body had arrived where it was supposed to be. But my mind?
My mind was elsewhere.
When I got home last night, I poured myself a generous glass of red wine and sat on the sofa in the dark silence of my apartment, turning everything over.
At first, my thoughts were doused with doubt and insecurity.
Had I fooled myself into believing Romolo felt something real for me?
No. I knew deep in my heart I hadn’t.
If I’d learned anything about Rom in the last few weeks, it was that he didn’t show you how he felt with his words.
He did it with his actions.
