Page 91 of Because I Need You
“Just, at least wait until we see each other and discuss this in person,” he added quickly. I could tell he was on edge, probably pacing his office as he spoke to me.
“I’m not going to leave you, Giovanni.” I sighed. “I just need a moment to process all of this.”
“Okay.”
“Okay.”
“I don’t do that, Isabel. I swear I don’t. This was different.”
“Okay,” I whispered again, because I didn’t want to even think about it anymore.
Besides, what else could I say, really? He’d done it. He’d admitted to it. I hung up the phone and clicked out of the article. I didn’t condone murder, but I never wanted to see that man’s face ever again. When I set the phone aside, my grandmother was opening her eyes. She looked at me, at the food, and back at me.
“Isa.” She smiled wide. “My favorite nieta.”
I shut my eyes for one second, smiling at that. I wasn’t sure how long the good mood would last, where she acted like I was still seven years old and the light was still in her eyes, and her husband was still alive, but I was certainly going to enjoy it.
“Your only nieta,” I said, standing and rolling the table over her bed and opening the box of pizza.
“You’re still my favorite.” She smiled, looking at the pizza. “Cheese?”
“Yep.”
“From Joe’s?”
“You know it.” I smiled as she sat up and took a slice in her hand.
“Best pizza in town.” She took a bite and looked at me as she chewed.
“Do you like this room more? Are you sleeping better?”
She stopped chewing, her eyes clouding, and I inwardly kicked myself for ruining the moment, silently praying that she wouldn’t remember how much she hated and blamed me for taking time she would’ve rather have been with her husband than with me. She started chewing again before she asked for water. I poured her some in a plastic cup and gave it to her.
“I like this room better,” she said after a moment. “It’s colder and there’s no balcony that leads to the parking lot.”
I smiled softly. “So, no more visits from the boogey man.”
“That’s right.” She finished the slice of pizza. “I think I’ll have my dessert now and save the other slice for when Dolores comes in trying to feed me the disgusting mashed potatoes and pork chops they made today.”
“That doesn’t sound that bad.” I laughed, closing the pizza box and opening the cheesecake.
My grandmother was chewing her first bite of the cheesecake when I heard a sound behind me. My skin prickled, an uneasy feeling settling in my gut, but when I glanced over my shoulder, I saw nothing, merely shadows moving beneath the gap on the bottom of the door. Nurses, probably. Petra, most likely, if she’d come back from the vending machine. I turned back to my grandmother, who was smiling at me, that light in her eyes again that I hadn’t seen in so long, so, so long. I heard a noise again, this time, the door handle, and my heart launched to my throat.
When I turned around again I saw a man standing there, covered in camo from head-to-toe, like he was about to go into a forest for a hunt or somewhere for war. A ski mask covered his face, and if that wasn’t enough to knock me off kilter, the huge gun he was pointing at me was. I stumbled back, my ass landing on the edge of my grandmother’s bed, as I stared up at him, my heart pounding in my ears.
“Leave her alone,” she said behind me, grabbing my right arm.
I only took my eyes off him for a moment to look over his shoulder. Where the hell was Petra? She should’ve been standing outside. My eyes bounced back to the gun, and I really looked at it now, noticing the silencer on the thin barrel. I only knew what it was from movies I’d watched, where they used those to not alert anyone else of shootings. I stopped breathing. He was really going to kill me. I couldn’t, for the life of me, figure out why. He must’ve been mistaken, that was my only thought.
“What do you want?” I asked shakily.
“You.” That was all he said as he brought the gun closer to me, setting the silencer between my eyes.
I squeezed them shut. If I had to die, at least let it be quick. Please, God, let it be quick. As I sat there, with my eyes closed, everything flashed before my eyes, but the most prominent one was Gio. This was going to tear him apart. I knew that. He’d told me about his best friend who died a couple of years ago, and how that had nearly broken him. I knew this would be ten times worse, not because I thought I was more important than his friend, but because it would be two people he loved and lost back-to-back.
