by Serena Light
"Want to put her down?" She asked from the doorway.
"When I put her down she begins to cry," Alessio shook his head. "Her fever hasn't gone down either. The doctor said to nebulize her,"
"By doctor you mean mom?"
"Yeah,"
"Okay, I'll get the nebulizer from the pharmacy," Serafina made her way to her husband, giving him a quick peck on the lips before grabbing her bag. "I'll be back in a jiffy,"
She left Alessio in their bedroom and made her way out of the house. Nodding to the guards she made her way into her car before driving off with the men following. The roads were deserted at this time of the night and the pharmacy parking lot empty and dark.
Putting the gear into park, she made her way inside and bought the nebulizer, asking a few questions about the device before buying it. Unlocking her car, she got an unsettling feeling of being watched. Looking around her, she saw no car besides that of her guards at the entrance. Shaking her head, Serafina settled into her seat, putting the nebulizer in the back, ready to head back home to her family.
She had just put the keys into ignition when she caught sight of a truck hurtling straight towards her.
Salvatore sat up with a gasp, clutching his chest as unbelievable pain enveloped his being, a scream getting stuck in his throat.
"Salvatore!" Nicole called out in panic, rushing towards him as he collapsed to the ground, unable to breathe and wheezing. His mind raced with thoughts and his face paled, his hands trembled with his palm growing clammy and his stomach twisted itself into knots. His chest felt heavy and he couldn't bring himself to inhale with his heart racing, feeling like he was having a heart attack, his entire body on fire.
His neck, chest, and head felt like they were being burned, his bones trembling and aching and his vision spinning.
Grabbing his inhaler, Nicole shoved it into his trembling hands, watching him take a hit before coughing, and worry gnawing at her mind to see him like this.
"Salvatore," She called out to him, rubbing a hand over his back as he stared at the ground with wide eyes.
"Serafina..." Her husband choked out, feeling the pain ebbing away and being replaced by something hot.
"Do you want me to call Serafina?"
"There is something wrong with Serafina,"
Chapter XXVI: Feared and Ruthless
"There is something wrong with Serafina," Salvatore spoke breathlessly, his eyes wide with panic and his complexion had gone white as a fine sheen of sweat coated him, his fingers trembling as he touched a hand to his chest, his vision blurring at the pain. "There is something wrong..."
Just as those words left his mouth, his phone rang behind them on the coffee table.
Nicole's gaze snapped up towards the device, her mouth running dry at the possibility of what could have happened. She had heard stories of how the twins knew when there was something wasn't right with the other, and how they had a deeper empathetic connection with each other, but she had never witnessed it, and right now, she prayed for him to be wrong.
She watched Salvatore struggle to his feet, leaving her to kneel on the floor as he grabbed the device and put it to his ear.
His wife could notice how his grip tightened around the sleek body, slowly lowering it as he tried to calm himself. Without a word he made his way to the door, and out of the bedroom.
"Salvatore," Nicole called out after him, rushing behind him and watching him bound down the stairs, barking orders at the men as she knew, something happened.
Struggling to keep stride with him, she ran after him, the blood rushing through her ears making his orders sound muffled to her ear, and his eyes bright and his words sharp. She took hold of his shoulder when he stumbled and groaned, holding his side and brought back his hand to come clean, as he exhaled shakily. Getting into his car, the door slammed shut behind him as he revved the engine, Nicole buckling her seatbelt just in time since her head collided with the backrest at the way he pressed his foot down on the accelerator.
She clutched onto her seat at the speed her husband was driving, much too scared to look away from the road as he swerved between cars, broke traffic signals, and caused near-collisions. Her breath came out in heavy pants, the fear evident in the way she refused to blink and gritted her teeth from crying out in panic. She wanted to tell him to slow down but knew better than to speak at the moment.
Soon enough, they arrived at the hospital, Nicole's legs feeling like jelly as she stumbled out of the car, her husband ahead of her.
Salvatore ran into the hospital, his eyes wide and his breathing erratic as he scanned the surroundings, catching sight of one of Serafina's guards, bile rising in his throat to see all the blood on him.
His sister's blood.
Swallowing back the lump in his throat, he walked towards the man, his stomach churning with every step, the worry forcing his shoes to feel like they were filled with cement and made every step a torturous expenditure.
"Boss..." The man trailed with pained eyes, opening and closing his mouth with no sound coming out. "I..."
"Tell me," Salvatore spoke through gritted teeth, aware of his wife's hand on his shoulder. "Tell me, right now,"
"He...he came out of nowhere, the parking lot was empty...it was empty, boss, and we were at the pharmacy and she was getting in her car...and this-this-this truck, this truck came out of the dark and rammed straight into her..." The guard choked out, Salvatore's body growing tense with every word. "We didn't dare pull her out boss...her neck...God, her neck and her arms..."
Salvatore turned away from the man, his arms rising above his head as he wanted to punch something. His heart ached and stuttered in his chest, his lungs filling with cement causing trouble to his breathing, the Mafia Boss trying to regain his bearings because an asthma attack was the last thing he needed at the moment. The tears blurred his vision with the lump choking him. Swallowing it all down, he turned back to the guard.
"Find me the man who hit her," His voice was hoarse and his hands trembled as he pointed to his man. "You find him alive, you get that?"
"Yes, sir," The guard nodded, gesturing the way to Serafina as Salvatore and Nicole followed him.
Arriving at the 2nd floor, Salvatore found the entire floor cleared with his men stationed around the perimeter. Giving his boss a nod, the guard walked away when Arsenio came running after them.
"Salvatore!" The eldest Regnante called out in panic, their parents hot at his heels. Their father's clothes ruffled and his hair disheveled with his wife beside him in no better state, clutching at his hands and tears streaming down her cheeks.
"What happened?" Arsenio spoke breathlessly, rushing towards the twin, his parents looking at him with pleading eyes that it wasn't too serious.
He tried saying something, he tried to speak, but the lump in his throat and the blood rushing through his ears made it difficult for his brain to make the connections. Salvatore opened his mouth before closing it when no sound came out. Swallowing, he closed his eyes, trying again.
"She was hit by a truck," He finally spoke with closed eyes, feeling his fingers trembling before giving a startled jump to feel Nicole's hand slipped into his. "It came out of nowhere and rammed into her,"
The broken sound that escaped his mother had Salvatore's heart sinking to his feet, feeling like he would throw up. He watched how she gripped her knees, her breath stopping as her body just crumbled, their father instantly enveloping her in his arms as she clutched at his sleeve, trying to get the air her lungs were denying her.
Unable to watch without breaking apart himself, Salvatore walked away in search for the doctor, coming across a nurse instead.
"Serafina Regnante is in surgery," He informed her curtly. "I'd like a status report,"
"Serafina...?" The woman trailed in confusion, flipping through the clipboard in hand. "Regnante, you said?"
"Romano," Nicole spoke beside him, Salvatore never having realized she was following him. "Serafina Romano,"
&n
bsp; "Yes, she came in an hour ago, vehicle collision, and oh..." The nurse looked at the page in confusion. "She's currently in surgery and no formal note of injury has been made, but according to this, she had multiple broken bones, fractures, internal bleeding, and significant head trauma,"
"Who's..." Salvatore rubbed a hand over his forehead, feeling Nicole's fingers intertwining with his and giving his hand a squeeze. "Who's head of surgery?"
"Dr. Lucio Greco,"
Nodding, he walked away from the nurse, feeling the grip of his wife's hand tightening around his hand as he swallowed thickly and rubbed his free hand against his forehead.
"Salvatore..." Nicole trailed, wanting to say something as she could notice evident distress across his features. She knew that he could be the calmest in any given situation, but when it regarded his family, he was prone to losing his composure. "Hey..."
Before she could even continue, her husband pulled away from her hold, his gaze fixated ahead as she noticed that darkness that suddenly enveloped him. Nicole watched him march across the ceramic floor, his shoes clicking and his face devoid of any expression. She thought he was going to his family; instead, he walked past them and grabbed the man between two guards at the top of the stairs, everyone watching.
"Who hired you," Salvatore gritted out, his heart pounding in his ears and his blood rushing through him. "Who hired you to do this?"
"No...no one, sir," The man squeaked like a mouse caught in a trap. "No one hired me, it was an honest mistake,"
"Don't fucking..." He trailed with a humorless chuckle, glaring at him with loathing. "Lie to me!" His voice rose and ricochet off the walls, Nicole jumping back at his yelling, never having heard him raise his voice.
"I'm not! I'm not!" He exclaimed in panic, trying to struggle out of the hold of the guards.
"Clear the floor!"
A growl tore through Salvatore as he grabbed the man from the throat, forcing him to gag and claw at his wrists. Nicole watched with a gaping mouth as her husband lifted him off the floor with his hold on his neck.
"Who hired you?" He asked again in an ice-cold voice, the shorter man gagging and clawing at his wrist.
Not receiving an answer, Salvatore dropped him, coughing and heaving for breath, before he began screaming and kicking as the Mafia boss grabbed him from his hair, dragging him across the ceramic floor. Nicole noticing how the hospital staff wanted to intervene before they were intercepted by the Regnante men and pushed away.
Nicole watched with a dry mouth as her husband led the man towards one of the curtained-off rooms, effortlessly picking up the struggling victim and slamming him onto one of the beds, his hands coiled around his neck.
"Now you tell me what I want to know, or I will force it out of you," Salvatore grinned like a feral beast, his heart thumping loudly with the adrenaline surging through him, knowing he was going to enjoy this. "I will try again. Who hired you?"
"No one! No one!" The man sobbed brokenly his legs kicking before he was restrained when Salvatore gave a nod to his men. "Please! I didn't see the car! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"
"I force it out of you then," The mafia Boss smiled jovially as he nodded to two more men, each of them restraining one of his arms as he stepped away, rolling back his sleeves and glancing down at the tray of medical equipment laid out, surveying his options; meeting the man's cries and pleads with a deaf ear.
A gasp escaped Nicole to realize what he was going to do and found herself running to stop him, but her way was intercepted by Arsenio, holding her back and pulling her away. She looked towards the rest of the family, wanting to know that they shared her thoughts, but all she got was Rosalie sitting on the floor and looking at the tiles with Arcangelo standing tall beside her and watching the scene before him.
They watched Salvatore pick up the scalpel, surveying the precision blade in the light before shrugging and turning back to the weeping man who tried to thrash and break away.
Grabbing hold of his hand, Salvatore stretched his finger out and placing the blade where his finger connected with his palm, his victim's cries getting stuck in his throat as he looked at the Mafia Boss with fearful eyes.
"Who hired you?"
"Please...no..." He blubbered, his words morphing into a bloodcurdling scream when he began to cut away at the layers of skin, and tissue, through muscle and nerves until he reached the bone, knowing the blade wasn't sharp enough to cut through that.
Salvatore looked up at the man who was shaking his head in pain, screaming and crying when he took hold of the half-cut finger. An ear-shattering scream echoed off the walls, some of the hospital staff throwing up when the Mafia Boss grabbed the abused limb and snapped the bone in two.
Nicole turning away and covering her mouth when her husband repeated the process with the second finger. The man's cries and wails echoed off the walls with the smell of blood and disinfectant infiltrating the area.
"Who hired you?" The question was repeated before Salvatore began on the third finger, cutting away at the flesh before snapping the bone in two.
"JAYSON LEONE!" The man cried out, blubbering and delirious from the pain, Salvatore putting the scalpel away from his hand where he had left three stumps instead of fingers. "Please...it was Jayson...Jayson hired me..."
Salvatore grabbed the man face into his hand, digging his blood-soaked fingers into his cheeks.
"Who hired you?"
"Jayson Leone..." He sobbed.
"Everyone hear that?" Salvatore redirected his words to his men, all of who nodded in confirmation. "Lovely," He grinned that feral grin.
"Restrain him." He ordered, the man panicking and screaming, whimpering when Salvatore tore off his shirt. His pleads and begs dying away when the Mafia Boss placed the tip of the scalpel on his sternum, slowly applying pressure and forcing a perfect drop of blood to develop. "When you meet him in hell, tell Jayson, Salvatore Regnante sends his regards,"
With that said, Salvatore drove the blade into his skin before running it down and cutting him open from sternum to navel, the stench so vile it had Nicole throwing up as the wails drew security guards up, everyone gagging and turning away from the sight. The man's cries came to a sudden halt; but not before the sickening crunch of bones was heard throughout the area.
Bracing herself against the wall, Nicole looked up to see her husband walked back with an impassive mask and burning eyes, his arms and clothes covered in blood, forcing them to cling to him, but he was completely unperturbed by it all over him. Instead, he looked around him as if he owned it all as if he was the king of the world, but the thing that had Nicole's heart drop to her feet was the feral grin her husband regarded every one with.
They all noticed how his eyes hardened when they landed on Alessio, the man having just arrived and looked a complete mess with blotchy cheeks and tears running down his face, his hair standing in odd angles and constantly fidgeting.
"Serafina..." He choked between his tears, gasping when Salvatore grabbed him the front of his shirt, both of them so close that their noses were almost touching.
"Where are they?" The Mafia Boss demanded. "Where are Marina and Michele?"
"At...at home, I couldn't bring them," Alessio sniffled, looking up at the man that was not only his brother-in-law but also his Boss. "They were sleeping,"
"With whom?"
"With my mom," He sniffled. "They're with my mom,"
"Tazio, take four men with you and ensure that Marina and Michele are safely taken to the Estate,"
"I'll go with," Marco's voice spoke up, Nicole suddenly realizing that he was there as well.
Nicole watched Arcangelo trying to say something to his son, being silenced by a raised hand.
"Don't question me, Consigliere," Her husband ordered, his father taken aback by his words. "If you're forgetting, this is my Mafia, I am the Boss,"
Arcangelo gave him a cold look before pushing himself away, walking towards his wife and eldest son without another word.
That was when she knew...
This is why he was known to be so feared and ruthless...
The fear must have been evident on her face because Salvatore turned to her with a smirk, looking at her with a mocking smile.
"Oh, don't look so surprised, sweetheart," He even sounded different to her ears. "This is the man you married, baby,"
Nicole couldn't bring herself to face her husband, not with the cries of that man echoing in her skull. She was Mafia daughter and no stranger to torture, but this...this was something she never wanted to see again.
She sat beside a silent Alessio, watching her husband's back turned towards her as he watched the sun begin to rise outside the window, having washed the blood off him and changed clothes. He had even significantly calmed down, but despite that, she couldn't bring herself to go near him.
"Mr. Regnante?" A voice called out, as everyone looked up to see a lean man standing before them in medical scrubs and a mask over his mouth. "Serafina is out of surgery,"
Serafina was in the ICU and wasn't fit enough to receive any visitors, so instead, the doctor led them to the spectator room, where they all stood before the glass surface, watching a nurse fix the I.V bag and obscured their vision of her. But when she stepped away, Nicole wished she hadn't and instantly grabbed onto the hand nearest her, squeezing it before looking up at the impassive mask her husband looked ahead with.
Salvatore's twin lay on the bed with a bandage covering her entire head, her neck in a cast along with her arm and leg. She had cuts littering her face along with bruises decorating various parts of her, her eyes shut with a tube down her throat and wires connecting her to various machines around her.
The Mafia Boss felt the sob welling in him, finally realizing why it hurt all over. He wanted to break down right there, he wanted to curl into a ball and cry, and he found himself looking up at the faces around him, wishing that one of them was more composed than him, but he found everyone on various stages of shock, far too broken to say anything. And he hated, he hated the fact that he wasn't allowed to cry for his twin sister and be the one to take in charge of the situation, but after a deep breath, he pulled himself together, telling himself 'not here'.