by Stasia Black
Marcus shoved open the back door. “Bullet wound, upper left chest. She’s losing a lot of blood.”
Several more techs had brought a gurney and together they expertly lifted Cora out of the car and up onto the gurney.
Marcus followed behind as they wheeled her into the hospital. He only spared one glance back for Demi, standing beside the driver side door, watching her daughter be wheeled away.
He should have texted his lieutenants right then and there to grab the woman before she could sneak out of the city.
Instead, he kept running beside the gurney. Blood, there was so much blood. It was even more apparent against the white of the gurney sheets. So much blood. Just like Chiara. It was just like Chiara, and what if he lost Cora, too?
More people joined the procession running beside Cora as they flew down the hall with her. Nurses, doctors, all of them calling out questions and medical jargon that Marcus could only half follow.
He clasped Cora’s hand and kept up his mantra, interspersing, “Stay with me,” with, “I won’t ever let you go.”
But as they finally wheeled Cora into a room for surgery, an orderly pushed Marcus back. “You can’t come in here, sir.”
Marcus glowered at the man and got right in his face. “She’s my wife,” he growled. “And she just got shot. You do not want to try to get between me and her right now.”
The orderly looked like he was about to shit himself but with a wobbling chin, he repeated, “No loved ones allowed in during surgery, sir.”
“Do we have a problem here?” asked a second man, a nurse who had moved from Cora’s side to join the orderly, blocking the door.
“Get back to my wife’s side,” Marcus all but shouted. “What the fuck are you doing over here? She needs you over there.” He pointed back to where four people hovered around his wife, all of them working on her. He wanted to be beside her as well, holding her hand, promising her he’d make everything okay again.
But that was a crock of shit.
There was every chance that nothing would be okay. That she would die.
The orderly put his hand on Marcus’s arm to try to guide him out of the room and Marcus shoved him off. But he turned of his own accord, not wanting to distract them all from the far more important work of focusing on Cora. He stormed down the hallway several paces as they shut the door to Cora’s room.
For a second, he was completely at a loss.
What was he supposed to—
How could he—
He turned to the hallway wall and banged both fists against it, letting out an enraged roar.
What the fuck had she been thinking?
Throwing her body in front of a bullet for him?
Why would she do that?
Why the fuck would she do something so fucking idiotic?
He’d effectively kidnapped her for gods’ sake. He’d seduced and married her under false pretenses. Put a collar around her neck and chained her to the bed. Who in their right mind would take a bullet for someone like that?
If she wasn’t dying in the other room, he would go and fucking strangle her for her stupidity.
He wanted to strangle someone, that was for damn sure. Someone needed to pay. Blood for blood.
He whipped his phone out of his pocket finally and dialed Angelo before even calling Sharo.
“Yeah boss?”
“You’ve got your war. Hit the vulnerable targets you’ve talked about in Metropolis. I want blood. I want the streets to rain with fucking blood.”
Twenty-Five
The war with the Titans was begun. And Cora was in a coma.
It was a medically-induced coma, the doctors kept reminding Marcus, as if that was supposed to make him feel better.
They said she would wake up any time now. But they’d been saying that for days. And she still hadn’t woken up.
The bullet had entered her chest and gone down into her gut, which was better than if it had traveled toward her heart or lungs, but still—fucking coma.
Marcus sat by her hospital bed, her cold little hand lifeless in his. When he wasn’t conferring with his lieutenants, he was here. Sitting on this hard, plastic chair, holding her hand.
Oh what the great Marcus Ubeli had been reduced to. He squeezed his stinging eyes with his thumb and forefinger.
“The doctor said it’s good to talk to you. That hearing familiar voices might help you, I don’t know.” He shook his head, looking out the window at the cold, dreary rainy day. “Might make you wake up faster. Or that you might still be able to hear my voice or some bullsh—”
“Anyway,” he leaned forward, giving her hand a squeeze. “I’m not sure if my voice is one you’d be excited to wake up for, all things considered… But I’m all you’ve got.”
None of his Shades had been able to get a beat on Demi before she slipped out of the city. Which was probably a good thing. Marcus didn’t trust himself with her if he ever got his hands on the woman. She put Cora in this bed. But not only that.
Tell your sister I send my fondest regards. Mine was the last face she ever saw, too.
If Demi was telling the truth, it hadn’t been Cora’s father after all who’d killed his sister. And why would she lie? She’d thought it was Marcus’s last moment on earth. No, she was telling the truth.
And the more Marcus thought about it, the more it made sense.
The Titans had been a smart outfit back in the day. They hadn’t just been brawn, there’d been brains behind the operation as well.
Except that, after they got kicked out of New Olympus and retreated to Metropolis, they devolved to being just brawn.
Because Demi had taken off with her small daughter. And she’d been the brains all along. It was only because she was back that the Titans were able to do the scheming and machinations it took to even attempt to retake their territory in New Olympus.
It had been right under Marcus’s nose the entire time and he hadn’t seen it. Demi was a woman in a traditionally man’s game and she’d used that fact to make everyone underestimate her. Including Marcus.
It wasn’t a mistake he’d be making again.
So many mistakes.
“This wasn’t supposed to happen.” Marcus let go of Cora’s hand and shoved his chair back, standing up. “None of this was supposed to happen.” He kicked the chair for good measure.
“I had a plan. I had a plan and you weren’t supposed to be— I was never supposed to…”
He shook his head, then he walked back to her bed and put a finger in her face. “I didn’t ask for this. I’m a simple man. I want simple things. To keep a lid on this city when every godsdamned day some new idiot thinks they are gonna try being a big shot and steal somebody else’s territory. I keep the drug running to a minimum, I see that it stays out of the schools, I make sure Santino treats his girls okay, and gods knows no gun goes in or out of the city without my say-so.”
He got further in Cora’s face. “And do I do it for the money?” He laughed, pulling back. “What the hell would I do with more money? You see how I live. Money is only good because it gets you power. That’s the only currency I ever cared about. Without me calling the shots, this whole place would go to shit. I know because I tried once, letting someone else take the lead. But I already told you that.”
Marcus collapsed on the side of Cora’s bed. Her slim body was so small, there was plenty of room. “What I didn’t tell you was that it was me that got my sister killed. I should’ve claimed my birthright the day my mother and father were gunned down. But I didn’t.” His voice almost broke on the last word. His deepest fucking shame.
“I let them down and I let Chiara down.” He bent over Cora’s body and whispered his confession with his forehead to hers. “It’s my fault she died. We hid. For an entire year, we hid away at the Estate. I didn’t continue the work my father had started. I let the Titans run rampant in the city, naïvely thinking they’d leave us alone.”
He shook his head, his voice a
bleak whisper. “We were both kids. Teenagers. I thought they’d leave us alone.”
But it hadn’t mattered to Cora’s mother. Marcus should have known any Ubeli would be considered a threat as long as they drew breath.
Marcus hadn’t even considered it, though. Because his father lived by a Code. Women and children were left out of it, kept separate from the business. It was Gino Ubeli’s most sacred law.
But he should have known that the Titans had no such scruples. He should have known and, even though he was young, he should have taken up the mantle his father had left behind. He knew the business. His father had begun schooling him from the time he was eleven. All the players knew him well.
They certainly hadn’t minded taking orders from him a year later when he was sixteen. Then again, he hadn’t been a normal sixteen-year-old. After Chiara’s death...
Mom had always said he was a sensitive child. But he’d numbed any sensitive parts he had left and made himself a robot.
He executed men without even the blink of an eye. He felt nothing. And he’d gone on feeling nothing. For so long that it became normal. It was good for business. He could make the ruthless calls without emotion.
“Until you, Cora,” he whispered, lifting his head and looking up at her. “Please come back to me. Come back to me, Cora.” He cupped her face roughly. “You have to come back to me. You’ve made me feel again and it scares the shit out of me. I was never supposed to feel this deep ever again. I was never supposed to love anyone—”
He pressed his lips to hers but they were cold and unmoving underneath his.
“Wake up,” he commanded. “Wake up!” She was always so good at obeying before. Why the fuck not now?
He shook her shoulders in frustration. With great effort, he stopped. What the hell was he doing? He let her go and stood up again, taking a step back. Jesus Christ. He turned his back on her and scraped his hands through his hair.
What the hell was he doing? He was acting crazy.
And he didn’t love her.
He couldn’t.
What was he doing here day after day, hovering over her bed like a lovesick schoolboy? It was because of her that he hadn’t taken action sooner against the Titans.
Again. He’d been lulled into thinking that there was a path forward that could actually lead to peace, when long experience had taught him that brute force and violence was the only language the world understood.
He turned for the door. No, softness had no place in his life.
He opened the door only to find Sharo on the other side, his fist raised like he was about to knock.
“What is it?” Marcus barked.
Sharo looked him up and down. “Brother, are you all right?”
Marcus glared at the bigger man even though Sharo towered over him. Things had really gone to shit if his second in command thought to question him so intimately. That was not how their relationship worked. Marcus gave commands and Sharo enacted them. Sharo offered wise counsel at times and could play devil’s advocate with the best of them. But never did they ask one another about their personal lives or their fucking feelings.
“Report,” Marcus demanded.
Apparently Sharo wasn’t giving in that easily, though. “It’s okay to take a minute,” Sharo rumbled. “You care for the girl. I see how you are around her and I like what I see.”
Well now Sharo was really starting to piss him off.
“You saw me playing a part,” Marcus snapped. “Cora was always a chess piece for me to play against the Titans. And she served her purpose. She drew Demi out and now we know who’s the real brains behind the operation. And as an added bonus, wifey dearest made herself a shield and took a bullet for me. I’d say that’s mission accomplished as far as she’s concerned, better than I ever could’ve hoped for. Plus, she’s a great lay, so—”
“That’s enough,” Sharo cut him off, stepping up and getting right in his face. “I know you’re hurting and that’s the only reason I’m not—”
But then Sharo’s head jerked up as something behind Marcus’s shoulder caught his eye and he pushed Marcus to the side.
“Bella, you’re awake!”
Twenty-Six
Ten Minutes Earlier
Everything was dark. So dark and cold.
Cora had never felt colder in her entire life, or more alone. It was like being locked in the cellar but a million times worse. In the cellar, at least she’d been able to feel the floor beneath her feet. She could count the steps up to the door, nine steps up and nine steps back down. There were the brick walls. How many hours had she spent feeling along the contours of each one, memorizing them?
But here in the void, there was nothing. She tried to scream but no noise came out. She tried to flail her arms but they wouldn’t move. She couldn’t even feel them. She heard voices, muted, coming from very far away through the dark fog.
I’m here! I’m right here. Come and find me!
But no one ever heard her. No one lifted a hand down into the darkness.
The voices moved away.
But they’d come back. Closer. She concentrated so hard. Please, she begged.
And she heard it. Clear as a ringing bell.
His voice. Calling her name.
“Cora.”
Everything within her, all of her soul, recognized him.
Yes, I’m here!
“Come back to me, Cora.”
I’m here. I’m here, can’t you see me?
He was commanding her to wake up and for the first time after wandering for so long in the darkness, in that terrible, terrible void, she felt something. Actually felt it.
His hands on her face.
She was back in her body. She could feel her limbs, her arms and legs and face and fingers and her nose.
Her lips. Her lips that he was kissing.
But he was gone, pulling away right as sensation came back to her body in lapping waves, a little more each second.
And with it came a terrible heaviness. She was back in her body again, but it felt like she’d gained five hundred pounds. She tried to lift her hand to signal Marcus but it was a lead weight. It wouldn’t budge.
Her eyelids felt the same but she cracked them determinedly open.
Blinding light split the darkness and everything tumbled together, the void and the light and Marcus. Cora wanted to cry and she wanted Marcus to hold her again. She wanted his hand in hers. She remembered that, how he would hold her hand sometimes.
Was he even still here?
She dropped her eyes closed again and listened. Yes. There was his voice. And Sharo. They were both here.
She had to let them know she was awake. What if they left her because they didn’t know she was here? She couldn’t let them leave, she couldn’t let them—
So, even though it took everything she had, she forced her eyelids open again, but she wasn’t any better prepared for the blinding light.
She focused on the voices to help steady her and forced her eyes open even wider.
And that’s when she heard his voice again. His precious voice.
But… The things he was saying…
Cora was a chess piece… served her purpose… mission accomplished… a great lay.
Cora blinked. Once and then again. No. Someone was playing a trick on her. Or her mind was. She wasn’t awake yet after all. This was a horrible dream because her Marcus would never say things so cold and callous. She meant something to Marcus. Didn’t she?
Liar. How many lies had she told herself to make her situation more palatable? She’d done it back when she lived with her mother and all over again with Marcus. Telling herself they loved her. A thousand times even when all the evidence was to the contrary.
Pathetic.
“Bella, you’re awake.” Sharo at least sounded genuine in his excitement at seeing her awake.
The light was still painful but Cora dragged tired eyes over toward the large man as he hurried to her bedside. Her vision w
as a bit blurry but she didn’t miss Marcus in the background keeping his distance.
Sharo took her hand and, focusing, she managed to give a wan squeeze.
She let her eyes close again.
Now she knew the truth. She and Marcus weren’t star-crossed lovers or any of the rest of the romantic bullshit she’d made up in her head.
She was still the puppet and everyone else still thought they were pulling the strings.
“I’m gonna take you home,” Marcus told her as he walked over, and she bowed her head in agreement.
One thing was sure, though.
She’d never let herself be taken in by Marcus Ubeli again. She’d escape New Olympus and his clutches as well as her mother’s. She’d find someplace she could truly be free.
And in the meantime, she imagined lifting her leaden fist to her chest, she’d be free where it mattered most—the part of her that none of them could ever touch.
Marcus & Cora’s story continues in Awakening, Book 2.
AWAKENING
I wasn't capable of love. Not until I met Cora. My angel.
I’ve claimed every inch of her body and I only want more.
I’m a man who craves control, but her power over me is absolute. She holds my heart in her hands.
She can never find out.
The demons in this city want to destroy her.
It’s my job to protect her innocence. Lock her safe in my high tower.
But I’m the danger that she’s trying to escape.
The ruthless man in her bed.
A demon worse than all the others.
One who cannot save her from himself.
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