“Against the world,” she repeated and hugged him tight loving that old expression. It felt even truer today than it had all those years ago.
She felt the rumble of Gio’s laughter before she heard it. “You know,” he laughed. “I was intending to get up, and get out here early today. You were always such a distraction. Do you how many demerits I got for being late when I started the force? Shit, they almost flunked me out of the police academy because of you.”
She laughed. “I remember. If it weren’t for Andy, they would have kicked you to the curb.” Andy was what close family called his older brother, Andreas.
“Yeah, and my dad.” Gio remembered how proud his father had been when he had joined the academy. He’d wanted all of his boys to follow in his footsteps.
“Yes, your dad. Such a good man.”
“He was.”
“I miss him,” Gio admitted.
“Andy still looking for the guy who killed them?” she asked, tracing her fingers over his crazy life tattoo, La Vida Loca. He’d gotten that when they were together, after his police academy training was complete.
“Yes. Always. He won’t stop.”
“It was so horrible. I was so sad. I know you were. I wish I was there for you then.”
“Shh, no regrets. No more. Promise?”
“Promise.”
Gio dropped the tendril of her hair and kissed her on the top of her head. He wanted no more regrets. He wanted to live a life with her and their son. He vowed to make it happen and it could very well happen today. But, he needed to move.
* * *
One hour later, Gio was downstairs in the kitchen. He had quickly showered and changed. He made breakfast burritos for everyone and they were staying warm in the oven. Johnny was still upstairs asleep. He and Lisa had watched him together standing in the open door way.
“He is a beautiful kid.”
“I think so. He looks just like you.”
“I wonder what our daughter will look like?” he said matter of factly.
Tears sprung to Lisa’s eyes and she looked up at his face as he continued to watch their son.
“You want more?” she asked, breathing the words softly rather than saying them.
“Yes. You?” He was looking at her tenderly.
“For you? Anything.” She hugged him around the waist tightly.
“Good. I really want to see it all, you know.”
She just nodded. She couldn’t speak.
He patted her on the rear end, below her towel. “Go finish getting ready. I’ll make breakfast, then I gotta go. Something big is going to happen today.”
“What?” she said a little too sharply, and Johnny rolled over, but didn’t wake. He hadn’t mentioned this before, and his words had shocked her.
“Shh, downstairs,” he cautioned. He hadn’t wanted to mention it, but it had just slipped out. He’d tell her what he knew. He wanted no secrets.
She nodded and went upstairs to finish dressing while Gio headed downstairs.
* * *
“So what’s happening today?” she asked, as she fixed them each a cup of coffee.
“I’m not sure. But from one of the conversations we overheard, and the increase in the volume of calls, they are planning something today. It may be nothing, just another sex session, but I don’t think so. It’s just a hunch.”
“Oh God, do you think this nightmare could end today?”
“It might.” He hoped so. He was ready to try again with Lisa. Start fresh.
“Please, from your lips,” she prayed. “That would be wonderful.”
“Okay, I really do gotta go. Kiss the kid for me. I want to be on Connie like white on rice today.”
Lisa rose to kiss Gio goodbye and walked him to the door. He opened it and stepped out onto the stoop, she with him.
“Phew, it’s going to be a scorcher. I feel the humidity already,” Lisa stated fanning herself.
“You’re telling me,” Gio pulled out the keys to his car, and gave Lisa a quick kiss. She stepped back inside as he hit the remote control on his car to start it so the air would kick in.
The explosion was instantaneous. Lisa stumbled to the floor in the front hall, but not before she saw Gio flying through the air. She heard him fall, as she let out a terrifying scream. “No!”
She scrambled to her feet. Running outdoors, she saw Gio lying in the grass ten yards away from the burning inferno of what was left of his rental car. The fireball burned and a massive volume of black smoke curled up into the morning sky blacking out the sun.
Gio’s clothes were burnt, his face black with soot, and she grabbed his shoulders to pull him further away, but his clothes tore where he had been burned. She was crying hysterically, but she wasn’t about to give up. She grabbed his arms, and dragged him.
“Mommy,” she heard Johnny’s cry from the doorway.
“R-run, run to Grandpas. Call an ambulance, call the police, call the fire department, call everyone.” She screamed and saw out of the corner of her eye her son running down the block for all he was worth. He hadn’t even hesitated a second.
Lisa grunted and managed to get Gio’s body another ten yards from the explosion. Then she felt someone beside her. It was Nikko.
He pushed her away, and then he was yelling at her to call for help, as he pulled Gio even further away from the burning car. He had thrown his phone at her, and she fumbled in the grass for it, and dialed 911.
Nikko was doing CPR, and she could see Gio was bleeding. His face was marked by only a few burns, but he wasn’t breathing.
“911. What’s your emergency?”
Lisa rattled off the address so they would type it in the system first. “I need everything, ambulance, police, fire department, a bomb went off in a car in a residential area. Please hurry. My . . . my . . . man has been hurt.” She stumbled over the words.
“We have emergency vehicles on the way, Ma’am. Please stay on the line.”
“Nikko?” she asked. Nikko looked at her, he had stopped CPR. A cold dread ran through her. Fear gripped her heart like never before. She nearly passed out, until she heard Nikko’s words.
“He’s breathing. But it’s bad. Real bad,” Nikko choked out the words as he picked up his brother’s hand feeling his pulse. It was erratic. He was alive, and that was all that mattered. She heard the sounds of sirens coming from miles away. Hurry, she prayed, as she sat in the grass too dumbfounded to even move.
She felt something behind her, and looked up to see her father with tears in his eyes. Kneeling beside her, he took her shocked body into his arms as the tears came. “It’s not fair,” she cried like one who had gone insane, and her father held her, rocked her, and held her. He didn’t know what else to do.
Chapter 26
Burns
Lisa sat in the waiting room of the hospital. She hadn’t heard from anyone in hours. It was noon, and other than an ER doctor coming to speak with her and Nikko shortly after they arrived, they had heard nothing yet. She’d spoken to Johnny who was with her sister after spending the first hour with her mom. Mary had picked him up, her mother too. The neighborhood was swarming with reporters and police vehicles. She’d thought it better to get them both out of there.
Her father had just left to go be with her mother. He didn’t like her to be without him for long, but promised to return once Bridget arrived to sit with her mom.
Nikko came and handed her a cup of coffee. She shook her head. “You need to drink and eat something.” He handed her a bagel. When she shook her head again, he forced it into her hand. “Just do it,” he ordered.
“Not until I can see him.” She put the bagel on the table before her.
“Lisa, eat,” he picked up the bagel again until she took it from him. She pulled off a small piece and woodenly chewed. He sat next to her. “You heard the doctor. He said he had some burns, flash burns. They are working on those. Cleaning him up, making him comfortable. They have him sedated. The worst is the h
ead injury where he hit his head. The bleeding has stopped. They were gonna stitch it up.”
“But if he doesn’t wake up?” She swallowed the lump of gluten in her mouth.
“Don’t think that.” Nikko snapped in his impatience, regretted it immediately, but Lisa didn’t even notice. She’d been like a zombie unless a doctor or nurse came into the room.
“Sorry, but I just feel this is my fault, and until I see him, I can’t think, I can barely breathe.”
Nikko repeated the words the doctor said once more, and it seemed like he’d said the same words a million times today. “The doctor said the burns are not too bad, but would heal, flash burns do. One on his arm might need a graph, but he wouldn’t know until the specialist came. The head wound needed stitches. They needed to do an MRI to see if there was swelling, but the burns had to be treated first.”
“I understand, but I need to see him, Nikko.” Lisa gripped his hand in hers.
“I understand,” he soothed her, taking her hand more comfortably in his own. “I want to see him too.”
Nikko was just as worried. He didn’t like not seeing for himself, so he got what Lisa was about right now. He called his brothers in the ambulance ride over, and they were both coming. He didn’t know when, but he was glad they were on the way. He’d also managed to call in some help to keep a tail on Connie and Albert. They hadn’t gone anywhere last night, and that bothered him. That meant someone else was working with them. Maybe this master person, but he didn’t know for sure. He also called Alex. But they really needed Andreas’ eyes on this thing, and Blaze too. They needed to circle the wagons, for Gio this time, Johnny and Lisa too.
Just thirty minutes later, after Lisa managed to eat bits of the bagel at Nikko’s constant urging, a commotion in the hallway roused Lisa from her stupor.
She looked up as the two swinging doors burst open, and two large men, raven black hair, and blue eyes emerged from them. Andreas and Blaze. Their eyes scanned the room, and settling in on her and Nikko quickly approached.
“Any news?” Andreas barked stopping before them. Nikko got up and shook his brother’s hand, then Blaze’s next.
“Nothing more yet.” Nikko glanced at the clock. “It’s been hours.”
Andreas’s booming voice stopped everyone in their tracks. “Someone go find my brother’s doctor, and get me a report, now.”
One nurse sidled out of her seat, and slipped behind the door marked authorized personal only. He nodded towards the reception desk, and the lone nurse held up one finger.
He looked down at Lisa, and seeing her soot covered face, had to ask, “Are you okay?”
She nodded and began to cry. Not caring about her clothes, he pulled her into his arms. “Shh, It’s gonna be okay, red. It’s gonna be okay. I’m here now.”
And for the first time since the explosion, Lisa let herself lose it as Andreas held her. It took a few minutes, but soon she found the strength to stop crying.
Andreas urged her to sit, and tell him what happened. Blaze was on his phone, but listening attentively.
“Nikko, call your guys, and have this Dan guy put two people on each of them until we can handle it. Spare no cost.”
Nikko nodded and pulled out his phone to make the call.
“Blaze, you getting everything I told you I would need.”
Blaze nodded glancing up briefly from his phone, but whipped it closed thirty seconds later when a doctor emerged from the back rooms.
“Nikko Marino?”
“Here,” Nikko stood once more and approached the doctor, flanked by his other brothers.
“I’m Andreas Marino.”
“I’m Blaze Marino,” each said in turn. “His other brothers.”
Lisa stood silently next to Andreas wanting to hear the doctor’s words.
The doctor nodded at each of them.
“Gio is just coming down from x-ray. No swelling. Which is fabulous news, and the burn on his arm that we were concerned about, is bad, but the burn specialist doesn’t think it needs a skin graph. The burns to the face, as we said earlier are all superficial. They will heal with time.”
“Thank God,” Lisa was the first to speak.
“When can we see him?” It was Andreas.
“I’ll have a nurse come get you shortly. We are settling him into a room. We want him overnight, just as a precaution, but he will need to follow up with the burns. They must be kept clean, and dry. The bandages need changing every two hours for the first forty-eight hours.”
“Understood.” Andreas spoke the word succinctly.
The doctor left them then with a curt nod.
Andreas turned to the group and took charge. “After we see Gio, Blaze, you head over to the house. See what needs to be done. I’m guessing there will be smoke damage. I want everything fixed the way it was. Get everyone’s belongings and bring it to the apartment in the city.”
“Gotcha.”
“Nikko, if you want to go as well, and grab a shower, go. You’re a mess. Come back and bring something for Lisa. I’ll stay here. I’ll make them let her shower in Gio’s room.”
Nikko nodded.
He turned to Lisa next. “Lisa, where is Johnny?”
“At Mary’s.” she answered softly. Andreas had always been commanding and everyone jumped when he spoke.
“Nikko, go get him. Bring him to see his father, briefly,” he added when Lisa was about to protest. “He will worry unless he sees the both of you himself. Then if he wants to, he can come stay with us, or choose to stay with his aunt. It’ll be tight, but I want us to stay together until we figure this thing out.”
Everyone nodded. To Lisa he added, “It’s good to give the kid a choice, makes him feel like he has some control. Okay?”
Lisa respected him asking this time, and nodded her assent. He was right too. It was not fair to her son to keep him away in a crisis. He would only worry more.
They all settled in, and Blaze brought fresh coffees for everyone to wait for word that Gio was in a room. Lisa found herself able to choke down some of the vile brew, and it helped to revive her some. The wait was a little longer than they expected, and she felt Andreas tensing beside her every time a door swung open. He had always been hard wired, but having him here only soothed her frayed nerves. He was in control now, and that gave her confidence a boost. But by the time the nurse finally arrived to escort them to Gio’s room, she was on the verge of tears once more.
They followed the nurse to a bank of elevators, and up two floors to the burn unit. They were all made to scrub clean and put on scrubs, the nurse explaining that any contamination would hinder the healing. They all listened to the nurse’s instructions as she modeled what they were to do, and followed her directions precisely.
Then she led them down a maze of corridors to Gio’s private room. He was lying in bed, and there were several small bandages on his face, neck, and a larger one on his arm. The nurse then explained to Lisa that she would show her how to properly change them later on in the evening. Lisa nodded her appreciation and turned to the still figure on the bed. Gio was sleeping, still under sedation, but he looked good to her eyes. She felt the tears brimming, and wiped them with the back of her clean scrubs. She needed to suck it up.
The men were already gathered around Gio watching, but Andreas backed up and made room for her, so she too could stand vigil.
Andreas spoke. “Hey Gio. We are all here pretty boy.”
Gio smiled, and they knew he heard him although his eyes hadn’t flickered yet.
“Pretty boy?” Nikko chimed in. “Who the hell you looking at?”
They saw Gio’s hand move and then his middle finger lifted in response to his brother’s gibe, and faced in the direction of Nikko’s voice.
“Prettier than you, asswipe,” Gio croaked out as he tried to get rid of the fog that threatened to take him back under.
“That a boy,” Blaze spoke up.
“Aw, you’re all here.” Gio spoke the words and
they came out like gravel to his parched throat. “You’d think I was in an explosion or something?”
Lisa couldn’t help but smile at the banter between these men. They had not changed at all.
Gio’s eyes cracked open and he caught a wisp of red hair. “Ah, my girl too. So sweet.”
“Johnny’s coming too,” Lisa whispered.
“Perfect,” he whispered and faded out once more. He slept for another fifteen minutes. Nikko and Blaze took off to take care of the list of things they needed to do, promising to return as soon as they could.
Andreas and Lisa held vigil.
* * *
It was dinner time by the time Nikko returned with Johnny and fresh clothes for her.
Lisa had already showered and was wearing scrubs from one of the nurses, but after letting Johnny visit with his dad for twenty minutes, she thought it was best to have him not linger and dwell on his father’s injuries. She changed in the bathroom and took her son to dinner downstairs in the cafeteria. Johnny wanted to stay at the apartment Andreas had in the city. Proud of her brave boy, she promised him she would be home in the evening. She hated leaving Gio alone, but Andreas said he would spend the night, making her decision easier. Her son needed some time to grow accustomed to the new situation, and she was sure he would have questions. So many upheavals had been thrown in his way all at once. Just as they were leaving to go downstairs, her father arrived and he joined them for dinner.
Her father, to her surprise kept the conversation lively, filling in more gaps for Johnny by recounting stories of Gio and the trouble he caused in the neighborhood, but spoke proudly of his accomplishments as well. She thanked her father one more time, as they made their way upstairs for one more visit with Gio before they left.
Blaze returned and handed her the apartment key and the rental car key which had all their stuff inside. She promised to unpack for them when they told her to go ahead and decide the sleeping arrangements for them all. It was a three bedroom apartment, but had a pull out.
She’d put Johnny in with her tonight, and give Blaze and Nikko one room, and Andreas would keep his. When Gio was released she’d give him her room, and take up the living room with Johnny.
The Bounty Hunters: The Marino Bros.: Box Set Page 66