Dealer and his Bestowed Bride (The Rossi Family Mafia Book 2) (18 page)

"Don't worry Mr. Rossi, Mr. Franco informed me that he has as many men as he can spare looking for Piper."

"How long have they been looking?" I asked. "How many of them are out there? Are there any leads?"

Mr. Armento pursed his lips, "Again, they are working as hard as they can. The best way to help her now, is for you to heal up and go home."

"So that's it? Robert's out there somewhere still? What about getting him out of the way?"

"Sadly, the Napoli Mafia's intentions have been revealed. There's no use in trying to disguise Robert's death as anything other than murder. We have people better suited than you for that sort of work" Mr. Armento turned around and stepped toward the door. "Enough talk. You need to rest so we can get you out of here before Mr. Franco changes his mind. You should be thanking me, Luca, he wanted a bullet in your brain."

With that, Armento stepped out of the hospital room. Soon after, a nurse hurried in to check on me. She asked me to do a few reflex tests, but I didn't pay attention to her.
 

Piper was out there and from the way Armento had held himself, it didn't seem like anyone was looking for her. Why care about one young woman when you possibly had a war on your hands? To them, she was collateral damage.
 

There had to be some way I could get in contact with her or—

I blinked as the nurse flashed light into my eyes. "Excuse me," I said.
 

The nurse turned the light off and raised her eyebrows. "Si?"

"Did you happen to pick up any of the things on my person? A cell phone, maybe?"

"I can tell you that we found cocaine in your pocket," she said in a slightly annoyed tone. "Thank the Lord you had that in there so we knew what you had in your system."

I chuckled, I had forgotten about that small baggy. "Old habits die hard, I guess." I said. "Could you at least check to see if my phone was recovered?"

The woman rolled her eyes and stood up straight, placing the light into the pocket of her bright pink shirt. With a curt nod, she left to look at my things.

There was no time to wait for a nurse, especially one who thought I was a nuisance. From what I knew about Robert, he was bad news, especially for Piper.

"Damn it!" I looked down at all the wires coming off of me and the stupid sling that held my arm. I was trapped in a horrible prison of a hospital.
 

"You're lucky," the nurse's voice called out from the door. She walked over to my cot with a cardboard box that she was rifling through. "This is what we found on you at the crash."

I glanced in the box. They had taken the cocaine, which was fine. I didn't need it anymore anyway. There in the box was my wallet, hotel key, and my phone. She set the box on my lap.
 

"Grazie," I said with a grin, grabbing the phone out of it with my good arm.
 

"Preggo," she replied, giving me the sort of disapproving look your mother would give you.
 

After she left the room, leaving me alone, I turned my phone on and flipped through it. There were a few messages, five from Franco and one message from Piper. I stared at the screen. Not long ago, she had sent my phone a map location.
 

It wasn’t far from Florence either. If they were still there, it probably wouldn’t take thirty minutes by car.

Hope filled me. She was still alive. While I didn’t think Rob wanted to kill her, knowing Piper she might put herself in a situation where she could be in danger.
 

A sudden burst of energy rushed through me and I knew that I couldn’t spend any longer in the hospital bed. Glancing at the door, I started tearing off the wires that stuck to me. Quickly, before anyone passed, I threw my blankets off of me and turned to take my first step since after the accident.
 

I winced at the pain, but it wasn’t unbearable. I knew my ribs were bruised and it felt like my arm had been dislocated and roughed up when I hit the ground.

After a few steps, I found my bearings and took my box.
 

There was one problem.

I was naked.
 

Well, I did have the backless robe that they gave everyone who came into the ER, but it wasn’t exactly the best way to escape a hospital. When I took a few steps toward the exit, trying to figure out where I could go to find some clothes, I immediately jumped back toward the beds.
 

Two Mafia guards flanked my door.
 

Damn it.
 

I tried not to freak out. There was no going out that way, not with the men watching me like a hawk. I could try to attack them with something in the room. Perhaps there was a needle or something—

Then it hit me.

The hospital was an older building and there was a large window on the other side of the room. I looked back, afraid that someone would spot me checking it out, then tiptoed forward toward the window.
 

My room had two beds. The other was currently empty. However, it had a privacy curtain so that two patients could share a room without looking at each other all day. I tugged on the curtain so that the nurses couldn’t see me poking around at first glance.
 

When I inspected the window, I saw that it was slightly ajar to let air through. I pressed my hand against it, letting the window swing out. My head peaked over the edge to see where I was located in the building. I was on the first floor, thankfully, and there was only around a meter to get to the ground. It was all soft grass that lead to a parking lot.
 

There had to be a vehicle somewhere, or maybe even a taxi that I could take.
 

But then there was the problem of my clothes.
 

Very carefully, I shut the window so that it was back to being only a sliver ajar, then walked back to my hospital bed. While the wires couldn’t all stick back in their original places, I placed them into the sheet that covered me until it looked about right to the untrained eye.

“Excuse me! Gentlemen?”
 

One of the guards popped his head into the room. “Could you let Mr. Armento know I’d like to speak with him?” I hoped he understood what I was saying because his face was stone. In any case, he turned on his heel and walked slowly down the hall.
 

I thought it worked, but I was still unsure.

After a few moments, Mr. Armento walked into my room. Instead of laying in the bed, I made it look like I was getting ready to go. I had taken off my robe and was stark naked in front of him.
 

“Holy shit!” I yelled when he walked in. “Jesus, dude—close the damn door!”
 

“Oh,” the very proper man turned and closed the door behind him.

“You asked for me?”
 

“Yeah, look here,” I offered him my cell phone.
 

When he got close enough I took the IV stand and hit him over the head with it, sending him into the firm hospital bed.
 

Mr. Armento was out like a light. I stayed perfectly still for some time, afraid the men outside would have heard our scuffle. After enough time had passed that I knew they hadn’t heard anything crazy, I ran over to the visitor’s chair and propped it against the door. That would at least save me some time.
 

I made quick work of Mr. Armento’s outfit. It was a bit slim on me, but overall I looked sleek and more put-together than usual. I did wince as I wiggled my injured arm into the jacket, but otherwise it did not look like I was a patient. As I put on his clothes, I started to notice what Mr. Armento had in his pockets. Eyeglass cleaning fabric, a wallet with over 3000 Euro in it, rental car keys, and a gun. I took it all, except the little square of fabric.
 

“Good luck, man,” I told the unconscious Mafioso, grabbing my possessions and placing them in my pockets before getting to the window.
 

It was night again and I could see my breath as I crept through the window. As I got my legs out, I heard someone yelling from the other side of the door.
 

Thud. Thud.
 

The guards were trying to break through. Luckily, the chair was in the way to stop them … for now.
 

I ran for it- well, as much as I could run. It was a struggled run, one where I tried to keep most of my weight on my one good side. Any pressure on my bad side made me see stars.

Fumbling, I took the car key out of my pocket and clicked the unlock button, looking out on the parking lot. At the far end of the lot, I saw tail lights flash.
 

My ride was waiting for me.
 

I grinned.

Here I come, Piper.

I was shivering from the cold,
staring out of a window into the darkness beyond. I was terrified that so much time had passed since my text to Luca. If I was correct, we were closer to Florence than I realized, nestled in the Tuscan countryside.
 

Robert watched me like a hawk, only leaving to have loud conversation with what had to be the Milan Mafia.
 

It wasn’t looking good for either of them.
 

From what I had gathered over the last day of him yelling into his smartphone, a full on war was starting up between factions. There had been tensions for a while between the two, and this was the spark that would light the fire.

There had already been another shoot out but in Naples this time. A few of Franco’s men had died. They planned for more fighting and eventually wanted to make their way to the big man himself.

I felt sick to my stomach as I listened to his conversations. Whenever I was offered food or wine, I declined it.

Was this going to be my new life?
 

Was I forever cursed to be stuck with my ex, trapped in a Tuscan prison?

While it was beautiful in Tuscany, I could see cracks in the foundation of the place. The men eyed me like I was some sort of meat and all of the women were submissive. One even used a lot of foundation to try and cover a bruise on her face. The guards had guns and waved them around gesturing while talking.

Someone would get killed in this house if they hadn’t already, whether that be from an accident or on purpose.

I just hoped that it was Robert.

He had let me sit in the living room for the evening as I paged through book after book that were only in Italian. Luckily, I could understand most of what they had to say, but not everything.
 

“Looks like you’re having fun over here,” Robert said, walking in from one of his heated calls. I could tell by the look on his face that he wanted to take it out on someone, but it wasn’t going to be me.
 

I shrugged. “I guess you could put it that way.”

The man walked over and sat next to me, too close. It was like he still believed that we were a couple. The fact that he thought we could still be a couple after what he had done was sickening at best.
 

I tried to scoot away from him, but he had snaked his arm around me and pulled me in even more.

“You look tired. Don’t worry, soon we’ll be out of this mess.”

“What?” I asked, trying not to show that I was panicking inside.
 

“It’s getting dangerous around here. We’ll be leaving for Milan in the morning. You’ll love it there.”

“So, I’m just supposed to go with you?”

“Where else would you go?” his voice was like ice. That was a good question. If I wanted to go anywhere, I would probably pick a small, warm, island. Far away from all of the drama and violence that the Mafia had caused me. I couldn’t tell Robert that, though. The worst place I could possibly be was on a deserted island alone with him.

“Home, I guess?”

“New York? Why would you want to go back to that trash heap when you could live in Europe? The food, the culture, the people! They’re all better!” He was waving his free arm, trying to get me excited about Milan, no doubt. But I wouldn’t take the bait. There was no way in hell I was going to follow him into a Mafia den.
 

“I’m a bit over Europe after what happened at the club,” I sighed. “What’s so wrong with home? I thought you loved it back there?”

“They didn’t understand my potential back in the United States.” Rob said, bringing me closer. “Here, they appreciate me.”

Rob motioned to the entire room, “Look, they gave me this house as a bonus. Right in the heart of Tuscany. It even has its own winery!”

“You must be very proud of yourself,” my voice dripped with sarcasm. Rob didn’t like that. The sarcasm wasn’t something I used much of when we were in a relationship. Once I was born again into the Mafia, it was probably the only way I survived.
 

“Are you disrespecting me?” Rob took a handful of my hair and pulled so that I was looking straight into his eyes. There was no one home behind them. The man he used to be back when we first started dating was gone and had been replaced by darkness. Terror filled the pit of my stomach. I stayed silent, lips sealed as we stared each other down.
 

He shook me, pulling harder at my scalp.

“You used to fucking disrespect me all the time in New York.” He was yelling so loud that I could feel spit hit my face.

“I-I didn’t mean to,” I said quietly.
 

“You didn’t fucking mean to? Really? Come on, I wasn’t born yesterday. You threw a fucking glass of wine at my face!”

His rage wasn’t going to stop. I could feel his grip get tighter and his face get redder. Just when I thought he was going to hit me, he let me go.

Rob heaved a great big sigh, running a hand through his own hair to smooth it back.
 

“But …” he said, closing his eyes in a calming fashion, “...I forgive you.”

I stared at him like he was a crazy person. He WAS a crazy person. His mood switched from complete and total rage to calm and collected another second. Robert had really flown off the deep end in the last two years.