28 Seconds: A House of Valentine Novella (20 page)

I went to Tony first but he seemed the most stable. I checked his eyes, his pulse, his breathing but they all matched what I’d been told in the car. The second one looked stoned...still awake and euphoric but his body was shutting down on him even though he didn’t realize it.

“He had less than the others, didn’t he?”

The doctor stopped and turned my direction. “Yes. Not even half a glass. How did you know that?”

I ignored him and moved to the last man. He was completely erratic, bleeding from his nose and ears, blood trickling from somewhere on his arm. As soon as I got in his field of vision, he lunged for me, but Al had him pinned down with a single hand before he even got close.

“He’s a Goretti?” I asked, turning to Cole.

“Yes. How-”

“And Tony? You said he was addicted to a bunch of substances...was heroin one of them?”

“Yes.”

“I see heroin overdoses every day. This is
not
fucking heroin,” the doctor spat.

“Ariana, he’s just-”

“Scared to lose them, I know, Cole.” I glanced over the three of them again. “It’s an opiate. I’m sure of it. Do you have naloxone?”

“Yes, of course, but if you’re wrong-”

“Then I just can’t be wrong, can I?” I spat back. “Where are the glasses?”

“Ariana, no-”

“Cole, look at me.” I touched his cheek, making sure he realized this was an argument he couldn’t win. “It’s Tony and I brought this on. Where are the glasses?”

Al shoved past us, grabbed one and brought it to me. I smiled in thanks but he didn’t return it.

“You know if that kills you, he kills me, right?”

“It won’t,” I promised. “Tolerance of a horse, remember?”

I didn’t bother to wait, afraid Cole would wrench it out of hands, and downed two giant gulps. It took a moment for my body and my brain to process it. As soon as I understood I relaxed, knowing that they were going to be okay. Apparently, I relaxed too much because Al and Cole were at my side, both grabbing me to keep me from falling to the floor.

“You need more naloxone...a lot of it. It’s acetyl fentanyl.”

“I don’t know-” the doctor’s voice was a desperate plea for help.

“China white?” I tried. “Apache? TNT? If you tell me you guys actually call it goodfellas here I may have a fit.”

“It’s an opiate,” Cole clarified, finally understanding. “Fairly new street drug here in the states. Five times the strength of heroin.”

I could feel it starting to burn into my system and I closed my eyes but Cole was shaking me.

“Naloxone, Ariana?”

“It will work,” I assured him and could hear men scrambling somewhere in the room, the doctor issuing commands and instructions. “Use three or four times the normal amount for a heroin overdose. Every five minutes and keep giving it until they wake. Shouldn’t take more than one or two doses for the others. They’ll come out of it instantly, but Goretti-”

“He’s a heroin addict,” Cole guessed. “He already had tons of it coursing through his system.”

I nodded and swayed. “He’ll live, too. If you were wondering.”

“Not on my list of concerns at the moment, no,” he chuckled.

I could hear the lightness in his voice, knew he trusted me enough to know that Tony would be okay...and that was all that had really mattered.

“What about you?”

“I don’t need any. I didn’t consume enough. I’ll burn the acetyl off in twenty minutes, tops.”

“You’re slurring.”

I nodded and then my eyes flashed open. Cole’s arms were around me fast, holding me in place. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

“Is there a separate room here?”

“An office in the back.”

“Now, please, I need to be there now.”

He didn’t hesitate and, with a swirl of movement and colors that made me clench my eyes, he had me tucked on a sofa. I could barely feel his fingers tightening on my wrist. “Ariana-”

“Please, don’t let me hurt anyone.”

“What?”

“I’m so sorry...didn’t think it through...so scared for Tony.” I knew I was babbling, knew the tears were drenching me, but I couldn’t control anything any more...the acetyl had kicked in and I was utterly helpless. Memories were assaulting me from a hundred different places at once...happy, sad, violent, lethal, sickening, terrorizing.

“Ariana-”

But I was past being able to vocalize anything. I could feel myself curl into a ball, could hear my own whimper as each memory flashed, but I couldn’t say a single damn thing.

“Ariana!”

“Cole, move.” Another voice, slow and gruff, was somewhere near.

I would hurt them, whoever it was, I just knew it. I screamed, so loudly it hurt my own ears, but still couldn’t form any words.

“Get him out.”

“Tony, you piece of fucking shit-”

“Now!”

I could hear the fight, the scramble and then the complete silence except for my own terrorized whimpers. I could feel myself lifted, just barely, and then felt soft brushes against my hair. They did nothing to calm me and I bit down another scream, feeling the hot taste of metal filling my mouth.

“Scream all you want, kid,” Tony’s voice was soft beside me. “Goretti and Cole are making enough noise to cover up any sound a little thing like you could make. You and I? We’re going to have a long talk one day. First being, did you forget opiates affect memory neurons or were you just willing to put yourself in hell to save us? Either way, you’ll never do reckless shit like this again. At least not on my watch. Understand? No, I know you don’t but I’ll remind you later.”

I felt my body thrashing against him but he seem unperturbed and just tightened his grasp on me. “I know you can hear me. I know you think you’re going to hurt me and want me to leave. Cole’s gone. He’s safe, and I can take you out with one hand so stop fighting that battle because I know there are a million others raging.” As soon as I settled, his hand was back on my hair, brushing tender strokes.

“I know where you’re at, Ariana. I’ve been there. I wondered, out on the beach that night, why you would be so willing to risk everything to get your mind to shut down. But then I realized, it was like looking in a fucking mirror. I don’t know what your memories are, but I can’t imagine they are much different than mine. Death, murder, rape, lies, betrayals, the loss of people you love, the hatred that consumes you over that loss...we’re a lot alike, you and I. Your wars were just fought on a different battle ground.

And I know you are seeing every one of them, over and over, like a movie in your head where you can’t hit the stop button. It’s a living fucking hell, Ariana, but you’re going to survive it and no one, not even Cole, is going to know what today cost you...unless you tell him. I promise you, kid, you are going to take on the world and I’m going to be beside you every step of the way.”

“Cole,” I mumbled.

“And there she is. Look at me, Ariana.”

He checked my pulse, watching and evaluating me, then smiled. “Welcome back, kid.”

“That was so fucked up,” I croaked and he helped me sit up. He handed me a bar towel and I buried my face in it to soak up all the tears.

“You made the unfortunate choice of taking only a little. If you’d taken a whole glass, you would’ve enjoyed the ride and begged for more.”

“My mistake.”

“You try anything that reckless again and I’ll shoot you myself.”

“But not before fondling yourself in public.”

“You are a little shit,” he laughed. “Let’s find Cole. He’s worried sick about you.”

“Tony...thank you. For everything.”

He pulled me toward him, touching the sides of our heads together. “I meant every damn word of it. After what you just went through, Ariana, I know there’s nothing you can’t handle.”

Cole was on us the instant we opened the door. His clothes were torn, his face and knuckles bloody. I let him wrap his arms around me but shifted my eyes to the room.

“How are they?”

“I don’t give a shit about them,” he hissed. “How are you?”

“She’s walking and talking, isn’t she?” Tony grumbled. “Let her breath for chrissakes.”

“You and I, Tony, we are-”

“Going to table the testosterone and tell me where we are at with these guys.”

“You’re deflecting,” Cole accused.

“Yes, I am. The rosary
for my mother
is less than an hour away so, forgive me if I’m trying to pull myself together and not be a fucking basket case. Now someone tell me something.”

Al was beside us and from the blood covering him, it was clear he’d been the one to battle Cole hardest. I touched the cut beneath his eye and then ran a soft hand over the ragged splits in his knuckles.

I narrowed my eyes and turned. “Cole, did you beat up everyone? What the hell?”

“I had to get his gun away,” Al explained.

“You men are so fucking childish sometimes.”

“Antonio is up and moving, not even a headache. He doesn’t remember much.”

“Lucky him. Is he Valentine?”

“Yes,” Cole answered. “And you pretty much just earned his loyalty for life, I think. He confirmed that he’d never done an opiate of any kind. That’s why he was in a happy place even if it was killing him.”

“See?” Tony grinned. “Happy place.”

I rolled my eyes at him. “And the Goretti?”

“Carlos, I believe,” Al frowned. “He’s out of danger but still in pretty bad shape. I think they’re going to take him home and keep dosing him there.”

“Do we know who did it?”

Cole shook his head. “All the families had people here. It could have been anyone with an axe to grind against the Valentine family.”

“But-”

Cole turned to me, watching me closely. He opened his mouth to ask for me to continue but Al interrupted.

“Damned disrespectful shitheads.”

“Al, did you just
curse
? Is this becoming a habit?”

He nodded, embarrassed. “Today of all days to try something like this? It’s goes against everything.”

“It is bold,” Tony agreed. “But we’ll worry about that later. You two,” he eyed me and Cole, “need to get cleaned up and changed for the rosary. We’ll clean this up here and meet you at the church.”

I tensed as they walked away and Cole’s hand was quick under my shirt, stroking the small of my back. He tucked himself closer to me, his voice soft. “Something you don’t want to say in front of Al and Tony. What is it, Ariana?”

I turned to face him, my hand shifting to his chest. “Cole, I know your anger was out of control-”

“You want to lecture me? They beat the shit out of me to keep me from getting to you, Ariana. I think I have a right-”

“No, will you please listen?” I cut him off. “You were worried for me, angry, and I get that. It’s probably why you didn’t realize, but look around you, Cole. This was not an attack on us.”

“Did you just say us?”

“The Valentine family.”

He couldn’t help the small grin that crossed his face. “Of course it was on
us
. Goretti just got caught in the crossfire.”

“No.” I twisted his shirt into my fist. “Really look, Cole. Valentine...Goretti...and,” I nodded to Tony.

“Valentine.” He shrugged but then his muscles stretched harder against the fabric of his shirt, his whole body turning to stone. “No. Romano.”

“You guys, make out later! The car’s waiting.”

Cole nodded and straightened, leading me toward the door. “I’m leaving a security detail here.”

Both Al and Tony turned his direction. “What? Why? We’re-”

“I asked him to.” I smiled the most innocent smile I could manage. “You know us women. Paranoid and motherly to a fault.”

“Nice save,” Cole snorted as we stepped outside, “but motherly? You?”

“If anyone hurts Tony,” I growled, “I
will
kill them myself.”

Cole’s hands cupped my face and he pressed his lips into mine in a soft heart-warming kiss. “Welcome to
us
, Ariana.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

My father was waiting at the door when we arrived, tapping his foot impatiently. “Where the hell have you two been? We’re supposed to-” his eyes finally caught sight of Cole and it was impossible to miss the concern wash over him. He stepped to him, his hands flying to Cole’s head and traveling down his body to check every wound. I couldn’t help but be jealous - my father hadn’t even bothered to come see me for days. “Cole, what happened?”

“Ariana, can you-”

“Yes. Go get a shower. I’ll be up to change in a minute.” When he hesitated, second thoughts about leaving us alone, I scowled and waved him away and turned to my father. “Somewhere private?”