The Guzzi Legacy: Vol 2

by Bethany-Kris

  She tried.

  “Hmm. He’s going to be fine.”

  “So everyone keeps saying.”

  She believed them, too.

  It was just hard right now.

  Marcus pushed away from the doorjamb, taking a single step into the room as he took a second to look over his younger brother in the bed. “Funny this happened now—six months ago, a year ago ... if someone called me and said Beni had been shot, I wouldn’t have been surprised. Him and Bene, they’re reckless and wild. Never could keep them under control, you know? Especially not when they were together and feeding off one another.”

  He sighed, folding his arms over his chest as he added, “And then he went to Chicago, calmed down a bit, and this was not the call I expected to happen. Not for him, anyway.”

  Beni was still wild, she thought.

  Maybe not crazy wild, like Marcus suggested, but just enough for her. All she had to do was think back to their time together—how he could make anything fun as long as he wanted to do it. The way he made split second decisions or chased the idea of a good time just because. The club, carnival, and even the other night in the pool ...

  All of it.

  That was Beni.

  Beni was fun.

  “Anyway,” Marcus said, shaking his head, “Ma wanted to come back and sit with him for a bit, but she didn’t want to take you away, if you wanted some more time. I said I would come back and ask for her.”

  “She’s his mother. She can come back whenever she wants.”

  Marcus smiled. “She knows ... but that’s not our ma’s way, you know?”

  Well, she was learning.

  “Tell her it’s okay.”

  He nodded, and then quickly left her alone with Beni again. It wasn’t long before the click of Cara’s heels announced her arrival, but August was already standing to gather her things as the woman entered the room.

  “Where are you going?”

  “Don’t you want to sit with him alone?” August asked.

  Cara smiled from the doorway. “I would love to sit with him and you, if that’s what you would like, too.”

  “Yeah, sure, I would love that.”

  With everyone else, it felt like August had to constantly be strong. Not that they made her feel any other way, and they surely didn’t say anything of the sort, either. Cara was different, though. Something about Beni’s mother seemed ... well, motherly.

  “Sit,” Cara said, gesturing at the one chair, “and I’ll just use this one over here. How about that?”

  “That’s good.”

  It wasn’t.

  Nothing would be good until Beni woke up.

  August went back to doing what she could, for the moment. Which wasn’t much, but holding Beni’s hand, and resting her forehead against his warm arm while she listened to the rhythmic beep-beep-beep of the machine on the other side of his bed grounded her. It kept her from floating away again where it seemed like she was watching herself from above, and not there.

  She would much rather be there.

  With him.

  21.

  A hard, but dry grunt left Beni’s lips as the doctor peeled back the bandage on his chest, and with a gloved hand, pressed around the now-exposed wound. “This is not where I was before I passed out.”

  He knew that for certain.

  This room ... he recognized it. Familiar tapestries, and a large, four-poster bed with sheer curtains one could pull around it for a false sense of privacy. The artwork on the walls, he had stared at before in his lifetime. He remembered thinking the paintings were terribly big when he was a child and didn’t understand at all why someone would want that, instead of bright colors like on cartoons.

  It was a bedroom.

  In his aunt and uncle’s mansion.

  “You would be correct,” the doctor said, “now hold still so I can get a good look at this wound, and clean it again, if need be.”

  “When—”

  “That includes talking, Mr. Guzzi.”

  “Your bedside manners are shit.”

  The doctor chuckled. “Your uncle doesn’t keep me on call because of my bedside manners—he does so because I am one of the best trauma surgeons in this city.”

  He knew he wasn’t supposed to talk. Even breathing made his chest feel like it was going to tear open all over again. That didn’t stop his curiosity, and he had never been known for following the rules set out for him, even if it meant it would hurt like hell.

  “Is that the only reason?” he asked, ignoring the silent reprimand for talking in the doctor’s gaze that turned on him. “I’m just saying ... because being good at what you do doesn’t explain why you jump at the demand of a mob boss, that’s all.”

  “An old family debt, how about that?”

  Ah.

  “Good enough for me.”

  “Great, now hush.”

  “Are you going to tell me why I’m here?”

  The doctor let out a hard breath and gave Beni another look. “You are as ... difficult as the one that looks just like you.”

  “His name is Bene.”

  “Yes, he told me that.”

  “I have a lot of questions.”

  “So it seems.” The man shook his head, and resituated the bandage back in place on Beni’s chest. “Lucky for you, the wound looks good. Not to pat my own back here, but having done too many of these fucking things, I can handle a wound like this.”

  Beni was pretty sure that was the first time he ever heard a doctor swear while tending to him. That included the one he called a prick for resetting his bone when he was twelve, and had broken his ankle from falling out of a tree trying to climb as high as his twin had in the back yard. That shit hurt.

  “As for your question about being here,” the doctor said, pulling off the latex gloves and discarding them to a nearby trashcan, “as you can see from the monitor there ...” He pointed at a machine showing Beni’s blood pressure, and heart rate. “Your vitals have been stable from thirty-six hours in, so I gave your uncle the choice to move you to a place where you would be more comfortable waking up. He decided to do that, and here you are.”

  Beni remembered none of that.

  “How long was I out?”

  The man checked his watch. “Fifty-two hours, now.”

  Huh.

  “You are very lucky, young man,” he said, “and I hope you know that.”

  Beni nodded. “Yeah, I do.”

  “I removed the IV this morning because you were showing signs of waking up, and the quicker you start doing for yourself—eating, walking to the bathroom, drinking—the better. You were getting antibiotics to prevent infection through the IV, but you’ll be taking it in pill form now. And you’re going to be in a lot of pain for a while. Painkillers will only do so much, and you’re going to have to be careful about how much you take. Understand?”

  “I got it.”

  “You won’t be doing very much for the next two months except resting. That includes work, picking up a broom ... that pretty woman waiting out in the hallway with the rest of your family. Do you hear me?”

  Beni’s laughter echoed in the quiet bedroom. God, it hurt like hell. His chest felt like someone had taken a sledgehammer and beat on him over and over until there was a giant, bloody hole left behind. But none of that mattered. Not one bit of it.

  Why?

  Because he was alive.

  Maybe it was the sound of his laughter filtering outside the bedroom, but soon, the space was full of familiar faces. They slipped into the room one after the other—all wore smiles, and he grinned back, gaze sweeping over them to find the one he wanted the very most.

  He loved seeing his ma. Knew he scared his dad. All his brothers looked like they wanted to both kill him and hug him. His twin practically bounced on his fucking heels, only held back by his mother locking her arm around his at the elbow. His friends, and the rest of his family also came into the room, but they hung back.

  With her.


  August.

  She smiled softly, waving two fingers as his gaze finally landed on her. More than anything, he wanted to get up out of that bed, and go to her. Or even, have her come to him. Both worked just fine for his purpose of getting her closer, as far as he was concerned.

  That was hard to do with everyone talking at once, though.

  Literally.

  “Scared the hell out of us, Beni.”

  “Look at you, awake.”

  “How’s he doing, doc?”

  More questions.

  More statements to him.

  Beni just kept looking at August, though. She hung back near the far wall with his uncle and aunt, and Tommaso and Camilla. She let his family approach him first, and have their time, which he appreciated. He was sure the rest of them were grateful, too.

  He still wanted her closer.

  “Hey,” he mouthed.

  She nibbled on her bottom lip before mouthing back, “Hey, you.”

  “Love you.”

  “Love you, too.”

  “Okay, two or three at a time,” the doctor grumbled, waving his arms at the now very large crowd gathered in his room. “Everybody out—choose who is staying for a quick visit, and the rest have to leave.”

  Corrado gave Beni a look, and pointed his finger at him as he turned to leave, “Ma, Dad, and Bene can go first—but if you ever pull shit like that again, I will put you underground myself.”

  “Corrado,” Alessio—his brother’s lover—muttered, “be easy on him, now.”

  “I said what I said.”

  “Corrado!”

  Their mother, that time.

  Beni nodded at his brother. “I hear you.”

  “Good.”

  Marcus came just close enough to the bed to clasp a hand down to Beni’s ankle under the sheets, so he could squeeze gently. “Glad to see you awake, yeah?”

  “Yeah, Marcus.”

  They filtered out of the room one by one. Including August, but not before he gave her a wink. Not that he had the energy to entertain, or chat, but when the door closed and he was left with just his parents, and brother ... they didn’t ask for much.

  Cara approached first, bending down to clasp his face, so she could press a kiss to his forehead. “Look at you, my boy.”

  “I’m okay, Ma.”

  “Barely.”

  Well, he didn’t argue that.

  “Scared the hell out of me,” his father added, finding the spot on the other side of his bed. His mother moved just long enough for Gian to run his fingers through the hair at the crown of Beni’s head. “I’m going to need you to not do that again, son.”

  “That’s fair.”

  At the foot of the bed, Bene rubbed his chest.

  “Fucking felt that.”

  “Did you?”

  Bene shrugged. “Too much.”

  Cara squeezed his shoulder and gave Gian a look. “Come on, let’s go find him something to eat and drink. I think Abriella has a stew ready for the rest of us.”

  Beni wasn’t in the mood to eat. He didn’t argue with his parents about leaving, though, and soon he was alone with his twin.

  Bene wouldn’t meet his gaze.

  He understood why, though.

  “Fuck you for doing that,” Bene muttered.

  “Didn’t really plan it, you know?”

  “Put me to my knees, Beni, on a fucking sidewalk in Toronto. Thought you were dead—like my heart was coming right out of my chest into my hands. I know I’ve been an asshole lately, and shit, but that doesn’t change anything.”

  No, it didn’t.

  Not between them.

  “Anything you want?” Bene asked. “Other than soup, or water?”

  Yeah.

  He didn’t even have to think about it.

  “August.”

  Bene nodded. “Sure, I’ll get her in here for you.”

  “Thanks.”

  “And take those fucking painkillers. My chest still hurts.”

  Beni laughed, as weak as it was. “Will do.”

  • • •

  Beni was just beginning to drift into a light sleep when the bedroom door opened again, and the woman he wanted more than anything slipped into the room. His twin hadn’t been gone more than five minutes. Probably just long enough to find August, and let her know she could come see him whenever.

  It was a testament to his exhaustion.

  “Sorry,” she whispered, “do you want me to leave so you can—”

  “No,” he mumbled, rubbing the heel of his palm to his eyes as he tried to roll sideways a bit on the bed. Fuck, that felt like pure hell. It had him groaning under his breath, and twisting to his back way too fast. “Holy shit, that hurts.”

  August crossed the room faster than he could blink, her hands finding either side of his naked torso to lay flat like she was trying to steady him just long enough for him to get comfortable again.

  Strangely, it helped.

  It calmed his heart, too.

  “Easy, easy,” she said softly.

  Those hands of hers drifted over his form.

  He watched her through his lowered lashes.

  “I’m sorry,” he mumbled.

  August dragged in a shaky breath. “God, for what?”

  “That you heard it. That I scared you. All of this.”

  “It’s okay, I’m just happy you’re here.”

  No, it wasn’t okay at all.

  He would do his best to make sure it never happened again.

  It was the best he could do.

  “You know,” she said, moving the blankets aside so that she could sit on the edge of the bed beside him, “your family is pretty amazing.”

  “Are they?”

  They’d always just been his.

  “And overwhelming.”

  Beni laughed.

  It still hurt.

  “They are definitely that,” he muttered, resisting the urge to rub at the deep ache in his chest. “But that’s what makes them great.”

  “It does, you’re right.”

  He managed to find the strength to reach over and grab onto her wrist. He didn’t need to say anything, simply tug on her arm to get what he wanted. Which was her resting beside him in the bed, her head resting on his shoulder, so he could feel her heartbeat and hear her steady breaths.

  He had been the one who almost died.

  It was her that he wanted to feel alive.

  Funny how that worked.

  “Everyone knows, by the way,” she said quietly.

  “Knows what?”

  “That I’m staying here in Chicago. I called my parents a couple days ago. I chatted with Alessa before I went to the movies with Cam that afternoon, too, and told her I would take the job and start whenever she needed me to.”

  Beni found himself grinning. “Oh?”

  “Mmhmm.”

  “What did your parents say?”

  “They’re going to help me pack up my apartment, so I don’t have to fly back right now.”

  “So ...”

  August leaned up just enough for him to see her smile, before she leaned in and pressed a quick kiss to his lips. Even though she pulled away far too soon for his liking, he still felt that kiss fucking everywhere.

  “So,” she said, “I’m not going anywhere unless I’m going with you.”

  “That sounds perfect to me.”

  More than, really.

  “Oh, and we should come back around to that conversation now, too. Remember?”

  He blinked, trying to bring back whatever it was she was talking about, but his brain failed. Not surprising, considering how goddamn tired he was at the moment. Once he fell asleep, he bet he would stay that way for a good day or more.

  A healing body took a lot of energy.

  “What conversation?”

  “Your place. Me. Moving.”

  Ah.

  “Yeah,” he said, not hiding the happiness that was thick in his tone. “That on
e. Not sure now is the right time ... me being in a bed, injured and all.”

  August laughed lightly. “Why, because I might feel manipulated by the situation, and that’s the only possible reason I would choose to—”

  “You said it, not me.”

  Her cheek rested against his. “Who else is going to take care of you for the next two months, huh?”

  Well ...

  “When you put it like that,” he murmured.

  Her smile curved against his jawline before she kissed the same spot. “That’s settled, then.”

  Like it had ever been in question?

  “Love you,” he said tiredly, voice faint.

  August’s fingertips drifted through his hair, lulling him closer and closer to sleep with every passing second. He bet it would be far better to sleep with her beside him, though. “Love you, too. Always, Beni.”

  On his back, with a bullet hole in his chest, drifting off to sleep while he watched her as long as he could, and her voice filled his mind ...

  Life was looking damn good.

  Even if right then, it also hurt.

  Beni wasn’t sure when he woke up again, but when he did, he found August sleeping beside him in the bed. Turned on her side facing him as he laid on his back, her forehead pressed against his arm, warm breath tickling his skin, and her hand stayed tightly tucked in with his.

  “She’s been sleeping about an hour, or so.”

  The familiar voice had Beni looking to his left. There sat his father, reading a newspaper—The Tribune, it looked like—on a recliner in the corner of the bedroom. He might have been annoyed that someone was in the room with him and August while they slept, except he couldn’t find it in himself to drudge up the emotion, all things considered.

  He scared the hell out of his family.

  It wasn’t a shock they wanted to stick close.

  “Good,” he replied, “she probably needed the rest.”

  “Yes, like your mother, she wouldn’t sleep while you were out. Corrado and Les headed back to New York—they send their love, and Corrado ... his threats, you know, it’s how he shows he cares, but they have to get back to Ginny.”

  Right.

  “How far along is she now?”

  “Twenty-nine weeks pregnant. Did we tell you it’s going to be a girl?”

  “No.”

  Or if they did, he couldn’t remember.

  “Beni?”