Fugitive (Deceptive Series Book 2)

by M. D. Melai

  A nurse came in moments later and took Giorgio and Giovanni back.

  “What happened?” I asked, turning to Dante and Elle. “Where is Emilio? And when is Mamma getting here?”

  Elle was pale and looked like she was going to be sick at any moment.

  “Mamma is on her way, and Emilio… is in surgery too,” Dante said.

  “Surgery?” I asked sounding alarmed.

  “Yes.” Elle’s voice was barely audible.

  “What happened? What happened to Papà and Emilio?” I was demanding now.

  “The Heinrichs knew. They knew the moment we met with them that Elle wasn’t you. They asked to see her hand Lily! Your hand! They knew. Someone told them. Someone in the house tonight knew and told them,” Dante said as his face turned red, and then all of a sudden, he charged Lucas.

  “Was it you?” he screamed as he pinned Lucas against the wall. “Was it you? Did you tell them?”

  “No,” Lucas said firmly. “I love Lily. I would never put her in danger, or anyone else in this family.”

  Dante backed up off of him about the time the hospital security guards approached us. Lucas waved them off, telling them everything was okay and he was fine.

  Dante took a few deep breaths as he tried to regain his composure again.

  “Who was there? Who did this?” I asked.

  “Nickolas was there, and Heinrich himself, as well as several of their men. Heinrich and Pops went back and forth and then Heinrich ordered them to kill Elle,” Dante explained.

  My eyes widened and I immediately looked at Elle. She didn’t even look up at us. She just sat there wringing her hands.

  “Emilio jumped in front of her and they got him three times.” Dante was starting to sound distraught.

  I gasped in horror.

  “He is going to be okay,” he quickly shot back. “He took one in the shoulder and two in the leg. It’s still serious, but no main arteries were hit.”

  I let out the breath I had been holding. I was thankful he was going to be okay. I was still worried though.

  “And?” I asked.

  “Everything went crazy after that,” Dante continued. “We all started shooting. It was pure chaos after that. Heinrich and Nickolas ran like the piece of shit cowards they are. When everything was over with, I turned and Elle was over Pops. He wasn’t breathing. Blood was everywhere. Elle was doing CPR on him. I ran over and helped Elle get him up, and then John and Dex,” he paused and motioned to two men standing off to the side, “picked up Emilio and we came straight here.”

  “Is he going to be okay?” I asked, trying to hold myself together.

  “They don’t know,” Benito spoke up.

  A nurse came out the door.

  “Dapprima family?” she asked.

  “Yes, that’s us,” Benito said.

  “We may need more blood. Is there anyone else in your family that has his type?”

  “Me,” I said moving past everyone. “I’m his daughter. I don’t know my blood type though.”

  “It’s okay, we can test it. It won’t take us but a minute.” And with that, she motioned for me to go ahead of her. I turned back to see Lucas and Violet looking back at me as I went through a set of doors.

  The nurse said the lab was full, so she took me to a side room. She told me to sit down and that she would be right back. She needed a testing kit. I didn’t have time to even think, she was back so quickly.

  “Okay, I’m just going to prick your finger really quick,” she said as she took my hand. “It won’t hurt. Then I will squeeze a couple of drops onto this.” She held up a little tester. The nurse wasted no time as she pricked my finger and squeezed it so hard I flinched.

  “How long will it take?” I asked.

  “A minute or two,” she said as she squeezed a few drops into a small circle on the tester. When she was finished, she sat it on the counter and told me she would return in a few short minutes.

  I sat there, placed my elbows on my knees, and put my head in my hands. I felt like I was living deja vu.

  Once again, I was caught in a nightmare. I started crying as I sat there, alone for the first time. I couldn’t lose my father. We had unfinished business. He couldn’t leave me.

  God. Please don’t take him. Please. I need him. Please.

  The nurse barged back into my room, startling me from my prayer. She walked straight over and looked at the test.

  “I'm sorry, Ms. Dapprima. You’re not a match.” She looked back at me with sad eyes. “Do you need me to walk you back to the waiting room?”

  I'm not a match. That wasn’t fair. My father needed me and I couldn’t even help him.

  “Ms. Dapprima? Are you okay? Would you like me to walk you back to the waiting room?”

  “I’m… I’m okay,” I said dazed. “Why didn’t mine match?”

  “You probably have your mother’s blood type,” she said as she smiled.

  “Oh… yeah I didn’t think about that.”

  “What type am I?” I asked.

  “You’re A negative.”

  “Okay thanks,” I said as I stood up and headed out the door.

  When I made my way back to the waiting room, my mother, Lorenzo, Paolo, and a few more of my father’s men had joined our group. My mother was crying and leaning into Benito. When he said something to her, she looked up. She motioned for me to join her. Her rosary beads where hanging from her hand, and when I sat next to her, she held me close.

  A new nurse came to get us shortly after that and took us all up to the O.R. waiting area. She said the doctors and nurses would be able to communicate better with us that way.

  Shortly after we were seated up there, Benito got a phone call from Emilio’s mother. She said that she and his sisters were on the next flight to New Jersey, and that they would get here as soon as possible.

  We waited for what seemed like forever. Benito sat between my mother and Giovanni, Giorgio paced the floor, and Dante held Violet like she was going to be ripped from him again. I sat in between Lucas and Elle, who was now laying her head on my lap.

  I felt sorry for her. She hadn’t spoken a word. I knew exactly how she was feeling at this moment. I had been there. It was awful. I just kept soothing her by stroking her hair and telling her everything was going to be okay. I was lying though, because even I didn’t know if everything was going to be okay.

  We found out more information on Emilio. He had made it through the surgery and was coming out of the anesthesia quickly. The surgeon said the bullet that was lodged in his shoulder was removed. They said he had lost a lot of blood, so it took them a little longer than expected to repair the wounds. The surgeon said he would be fine and we could see him shortly.

  The waiting room was so quiet. Every time the door would fly open, everyone would turn towards it. Sometimes it was a nurse giving us an update, and sometimes it was nothing.

  Every time we got an update it was the same thing. “The doctors are doing all they can do. He is hanging in there for now.”

  I wanted to know where he was shot, but I just couldn’t bring myself to ask. It had been over three hours now, and the adrenaline was starting to wear off. I could tell everyone was getting tired. A hospital aide brought us a cart with coffee on it and everyone had been taking turns getting some.

  Elle had finally drifted off to sleep sometime before the sun peeked through the sky. I was fighting the urge to join her myself. I paced the room with my brothers, took my mother to the hospital chapel, and I drank my weight in hospital coffee.

  Emilio’s mother and sisters arrived in the early morning hour. Everyone had already taken turns seeing him, except me. I just wasn’t mentally ready yet. Everyone kept me up to date and told me that he was asking about me.

  At exactly eight a.m., my father’s surgeon walked through the doors. It was the first time anyone had seen him.

  “Dapprima family?” he asked as he approached us.

  “Yes,” some of us said while other
s nodded.

  Benito brought my mother up front as all of us joined behind them.

  “We got the bleeding under control and repaired the wound as best as we could. He lost a lot of blood. Right now it’s a waiting game since it was a gunshot wound to the head…”

  What? To the head?

  I could feel my body starting to sway. Lucas grabbed me from behind and pulled me in close. My mother’s sobs broke through my own thoughts.

  “His brain is swollen, and he has fallen into a coma. We aren’t sure what will happen from here on out,” the surgeon finished.

  I didn’t hear anything else after that. My own mind couldn’t conceive what was happening, and the stress of the events from the day seemed to be more than my body could handle.

  “I don’t—” I started to say as I turned around to face Lucas.

  His eyes grew wide.

  And that was the last thing I remember.

  Chapter 22

  The next week dragged by slowly. My father’s condition hadn’t changed much in that time period. The only thing the doctor said was that his brain activity was stable and that if it took a turn for the worse there was nothing they could do but keep him comfortable.

  I prayed on and off throughout each day for my father and for Emilio. Emilio was recovering nicely at home. He had been released after a couple of days in the hospital. The doctors said he would need to have physical therapy to help regain the strength in his leg and shoulder.

  His mother and sisters were staying at our house with him in order to take care of him and the rest of us as well. I don’t know what we would have done without them.

  I was happy that Emilio was going to be okay. Since his return home, we had been texting and calling each other several times a day. He continuously asked about my father and me. I would reply that there was no change on my father and that I was fine.

  He would try, and sometimes succeed in making me laugh by telling me about his ‘overbearing’ mother. He even pleaded for me to come and get him one day by saying if his mother tried to follow him into the bathroom one more time he was going to lose it.

  My mother, brothers, and I were taking turns visiting my father. Every time I was alone with him, I would always tell him how sorry I was for running out on everyone and how I would never do it again. My family needed me here, and if my father made it through this, I promised that I wouldn’t go back. I hoped that he could hear me and know that I was truly sorry. I was sorry for leaving, but also for how disrespectful I was to him over the years. I knew he loved me and he was only trying to protect me, and like the stubborn girl I was, I always retaliated. I would take it all back if he would just wake up.

  “Lily,” Lucas said as he opened the door. “Visiting hours are almost over. Your mother wants you to go home and get some rest. She said you need to sleep on a bed and not in a waiting room chair.”

  “I don’t want to leave him,” I said as a tear fell down my face.

  “I know you don’t, but your mother promised that if anything changed, then she would call,” Lucas said, walking around my father’s bed and taking a seat next to me.

  “I wish there was something I could do. This is my fault, and all I want to do is fix it,” I softly said, not taking my eyes from my father’s face.

  “Hey, look at me,” Lucas said as he lifted my chin to meet his eyes. “None of this is your fault.”

  “Yes it is,” I said dropping my eyes to my lap. “If I wouldn’t have left, then they wouldn’t have taken Violet. We wouldn’t have had to rescue her and my father would be okay.”

  “Stop it,” Lucas said, taking my face in his hands. “There’s no way you could have known what might have happened if you would have stayed. There’s still the possibility that they could have taken Violet, or you. None of this is because of you Lily. None of it,” he said sternly before taking me in his arms.

  I cried into his shoulder wanting all of this to just go away and for things to go back to the way it was. This whole situation was completely messed up and I was to blame for it. No matter what Lucas said to me, I couldn’t shake the feeling of knowing that my father was going to die, because I was too stubborn to obey orders.

  “Hey, we’re leaving in a few minutes. Benito and my mother are staying behind, but the rest of us are heading out,” Giorgio said to Lucas.

  I felt Lucas nod and then I heard the door shut. I pulled back and looked at him. He looked just as devastated as everyone else, but as soon as he noticed I was looking at him, he gave me an encouraging smile.

  “Let’s go home and get some sleep, and first thing in the morning we will come back. Okay?”

  I nodded and he helped me up. I took one last look at my father. The breathing machine made noises and I could see his chest rise and fall. I reached out and took his hand, and then I placed a sweet, soft kiss on his knuckles.

  “I love you, Papà.”

  ***

  When we arrived at the house, Lucas put in all the information codes and the gates opened. I hated being at this house right now. Everything had happened here. My confinement, my escape, and the last place everyone was at before the situation went from bad to worse.

  Lucas pulled straight up to the front door and put the car in park, before getting out and coming to open my door. I took his hand as he helped me out and into the house. Everyone flooded our foyer and all I wanted to do was go upstairs, take a shower, and go to sleep. The sooner I went to sleep, the faster the time would tick away and I could see my father again.

  Dante, Violet, and Emilio’s family all wanted to know if there had been any change. I just shook my head. Dante and Violet both gave me a hug after that and told me to go get some sleep.

  Lucas walked me up to my room. I couldn’t help but glance towards Emilio’s room. His lights were out in his room, so he must have been fast asleep.

  I thought Lucas was going to stay for a few minutes and then leave, but he told me he would wait until after I got out of the shower. I didn’t argue with him. Instead, I nodded and headed straight to the bathroom. I hadn’t had a decent bath in almost a week. It was exactly what I needed.

  I let the water run for a while before I started adding bubble bath and salts. I turned out all the lights, lit a couple of candles, turned on some light music, and slowly lowered myself into the warm water. I was hoping this would help calm me. I needed peace and serenity as I tried to clear my head and not concentrate on what my life had become.

  My nerves were just starting to calm when a knock came at my door. I picked up the remote to my stereo and switched off the music.

  “Come in,” I said as I slowly sat up and rearranged the bubbles to cover myself.

  Violet entered wearing her bathrobe, and her hair was pulled into a bun.

  “Sorry. I didn’t mean to bother you, but I thought a bath sounded nice too. Can I borrow your bubble bath and salts?” she asked.

  Leave it to Violet to scare me to death when all she needed was bath amenities.

  “Yeah sure. They’re under the sink,” I replied.

  “Awesome, thank you.”

  She grabbed them, waved, and then left. I took a sigh of relief and turned the music back on before I slipped back into my soothing oasis.

  I thought a lot about my father. I endlessly prayed that he was going to be okay. If anything happened to him, then I didn’t know how I would recover. Losing Roman was enough to almost send me into a downward spiral. If my father died, then I knew without a doubt that would be the result.

  Tears streamed down my face before I could stop them. The image of my father popped into my head: the white bandage around his head, the tubes providing him life, and his motionless body not being able to respond to my touch. I was scared that I wouldn’t be able to hear him speak again, or have his arms wrapped around me, making me feel safe. I would even miss our fights. Many of our fights, now that I knew everything, showed me that everything we ever fought about, he had my best interest at heart. He was a
lways watching out for me and made sure that I was protected. I still had never thanked him for that.

  I cried out without meaning to and I immediately clamped my hand over my mouth. I silently sobbed into my hands and then went underwater. I screamed underwater for a few seconds letting my hurt and guilt out as much as I could. My body was reacting as if my father had already passed. It was in shutdown mode and there was no way to turn it off.

  When I resurfaced, my bathroom door flew open and Lucas stood there with wide eyes. I quickly closed my eyes not wanting him to see how bloodshot they were.

  “Lily!” he yelled as he knelt down beside the bathtub and took my face in his hands. “Look at me, Lil!”

  I opened my eyes to meet his. He was staring at me intently. He grabbed the strands of my hair and pushed them back behind my shoulders.

  “Come on, Lil. We need to get you out and dressed. The water is starting to get cold,” he said before turning toward the cabinets and getting out a towel.

  “He’s gone,” I mumbled.

  “What are you talking about?” Lucas asked.

  “My father. I can feel it. He’s gone.”

  “No, he’s not. There hasn’t been a phone call yet. He is just how we left him, I promise. Your mother or Benito would have called if something would have happened.”

  “It’s all my fault. I’m such a terrible daughter.”

  Lucas came back and knelt down beside the tub. He once again took my face in his hands and stared deeply into my eyes.

  “You are not a terrible daughter. None of this is your fault. This is just something that happened and we are going to get through it. Your father is going to get through it. I know that you are worried and upset, everyone is. And, if I know anything, it’s that your father is a fighter.”

  A new set of tears began to fall and Lucas caught every one of them. He was right. My father was a fighter and the strongest man I knew. He would be trying the very best he could to make his way back to all of us.

  I knew that I was psyching myself out, and I didn’t try to stop myself. When I got into the bath, I promised myself that I wouldn’t let my mind wander. And what had I done? That exact thing.