The Roman's Woman (A Singular Obsession Book 4) (28 page)

This place was cold and empty. Nothing mattered, not even when the paramedics ran up and took over chest compressions from Enzo.

It was too late.

“Gio!”

It was Enzo, waving in his face. He was saying something about not watching, but Gio ignored him. All that mattered was holding her hand and not letting go.

They had thrown a blanket over Sophia and another over him, but one of the EMTs was still pushing on her chest. Another had one of those plastic things they fit over her mouth with a bulb attached. The EMT kept squeezing it, forcing air in and out of Sophia’s lungs like a bellows.

He should tell them it was too late. He had pushed her into the water-filled trunk and she had drowned.

In the end, it hadn’t been Richard.
He
had killed her.

But Gio didn’t say anything, and he didn’t move. He was made of stone, up until the moment Sophia turned and coughed, spitting out water. Then he was shouting—or it should have been. His voice came out thin and half-strangled.

“Sophia!”

She was alive. The relief would have knocked him to his knees if he hadn’t already been sitting.

“Baby, look at me,” he said, his grip tightening on her hand as he brought it to his lips.

“What happened?” she whispered. Her voice was raspy, damaged from nearly drowning.

“You’re fine now,” Gio said, his head swimming. “Don’t try to talk.”

She grimaced and tried to sit up, but stopped short and put a hand on her chest as if it hurt.

“Stay down, miss,” one of the EMTs ordered. “We’re bringing a stretcher.”

Sophia gave him a tiny nod, but her attention was diverted to something behind them. Gio turned around to see Richard being walked to a police cruiser. The Englishman was on his feet with his hands cuffed behind his back, weeping openly.

“I’m sorry!” he kept crying. “I’m sorry!”

You haven’t begun to be sorry
, Gio vowed to himself.

He turned back to Sophia and tried to stand as the EMTs transferred her to a stretcher, but he must have moved too quickly because he staggered. Despite being fitted with an oxygen tank, Sophia reached out to him, touching his left arm.

“Gio, you’re bleeding!”

Glancing down at his arm, he was surprised to see a stream of bright red blood flowing down to his elbow.

Everything grew very bright for an instant. The glare of the headlights from so many emergency vehicles temporarily blinded him.

Wait
. The popping sound. Richard had pointed something at him. There had been a noise and then his arm had stung.

“Oh,” he said slowly. His voice sounded as if it was coming from a million miles away.

“I’ve been shot.”

Then everything went dark.

Sophia grimaced and cracked one eye open. Bright fluorescents stung her sensitive retinas. With a little groan, she lifted her head and looked around.

Oh, yeah.

She was in a hospital room, hooked up to wires and tubes. The EMTs had saved her life last night, but her ribs were bruised and one of them was cracked. Breathing was painful. She reminded herself that it was a small price to pay for being alive—repeatedly.

The clock on the wall read two PM. Barely five hours had passed since she’d finally gone to sleep, but she’d refused to rest until she knew Gio was out of danger.

He’d had emergency surgery when they had arrived at the hospital. The bullet hadn’t been in a dangerous place, but he had lost a lot of blood. Enzo had told her that Gio hadn’t even noticed, and none of his security team knew he had been shot.

He could have died. It had been so close, but the cold water of the quarry slowed the bleeding down, enough to allow the doctors to save his life with multiple transfusions.

It was ironic that she’d been in better shape than Gio in the end. In fact, the hospital staff had to negotiate with her to stay in bed while he was under. The surgeon assured her he was just sleeping off the anesthetic, but he still hadn’t woken when she finally collapsed.

In the meantime, Gio’s best friend Alex had blown in, throwing his weight around and shouting at people. Most of the doctors and nurses scrambled to carry out his orders. The rest ran around trying to escape. She was grateful for Alex’s presence. He had made sure the staff would wake her if there was any change with Gio. There was also the added benefit of him interceding between her and the police.

Detectives had come to interview to find out what had happened. She quickly understood that their primary concern was the Italian billionaire’s life, but since it was also her chief concern she didn’t begrudge them their questions.

However, they grilled her relentlessly, making her repeat over and over again what Richard had done. They wanted to know every detail of her history with him. And all she wanted to do was find out how Gio was.

Alex had come in during the middle of all that. He’d shut the detectives down with a brusque commanding presence she’d occasionally glimpsed Gio use when he was talking business. The questions had stopped immediately, the officers cowed by that dominance that must have been innate to the rich and powerful.

Right before the detectives had left, Alex had taken them aside and hissed something with a ferocious expression. It had taken her a minute to realize he was calling for Richard’s head. Alex had looked so intimidating that she’d blurted out an apology to him for putting Gio into danger, stunning him into silence.

“Never apologize for something like that,” he said, his brow creased. “Gio loves you, and he wouldn’t want you to feel guilty for some psycho’s actions.”

“It wasn’t psychotic,” she said, explaining about the stolen research and how Richard would get fired once the truth was out.

“He did this for a
job
?” Alex asked in disbelief.

She shrugged. “You’d be surprised what people will do for tenure.”

The handsome Greek man had shaken his head and promised to follow up with the police and Gio’s family so she could rest. But that had been hours ago and she had slept enough. Gio should be awake now and she wanted to see him.

With slow painful movements, she rolled to the side and pushed herself up to a sitting position. She wasn’t hooked up to an IV, but she did have a monitor taped to her finger. Taking it off, she braced herself on the bed, hoping the oversized hospital gown wouldn’t fly open in the back while she hunted down Gio.

Sophia stopped short in the doorway. Alex hadn’t left. He was pacing in the hallway and, for a second, the expression of dismay on his face terrified her until she heard what he was saying.

“No, no. Stay put, Calen, Gio’s going to be fine. Him and Sophia both. You have enough to deal with. How is Maia taking it?” Alex paused and grimaced. “How much blood? Fuck,” he said. “And you said you think her family is involved?” He broke off and saw Sophia standing there. “Listen, I’ve got to go. Sophia woke up. Okay, I will.”

He hung up the phone and gave her a reassuring smile, waving away a nurse who hurried in her direction.

“What’s going on?”

“Nothing for you to worry about,” he said, coming closer. “You should be in bed.”

She narrowed her eyes and stared him down—or up. He was a head taller than she was. There was a bit of a standoff for a minute, but Alex soon caved in to her stubbornness.

“Okay, something is going on with one of Maia’s friends,” he explained. “She’s gone missing. Calen wanted to come when he heard Gio is in the hospital, but Maia is frantic and they can’t fly over here.”

“Because they found blood. A lot of it,” she supplied, nodding sickly.

Alex inhaled deeply and held out his hands in a gesture oddly reminiscent of Gio. “I don’t want you to worry about this. You don’t even know the girl. I haven’t even met her. Just focus on getting well again and go lie down.”

Struggling against a surreal sense of detachment, she agreed—but not about lying down. “I want to see Gio.”

“He’s fine—”

“
Now
, Alex.”

She could tell he wanted to argue with her, but after a slight hesitation his expression softened. “Follow me.”

Gio’s room was two floors up. Judging by its size, he’d been given the presidential suite of hospital rooms. He was lying on the bed asleep, a little pale, but nowhere near as bad as she’d imagined. But she didn’t relax until his broad chest moved up and down in deep even breaths.

Without waiting for help, she went to the side of the bed and climbed in. Luckily, it didn’t seem to be a standard size. Apparently, the presidential suite meant bigger hospital beds too.

Alex made an approving little noise as she arranged herself to cuddle up on Gio’s right, avoiding the bandage on his left side. Once his good arm was touching hers, she fell asleep instantly.

When she woke, she was staring into bright gold eyes.

“I’m so sorry,
mi amore
,” Gio whispered.

Raising a brow, she gave him a mock scowl. “You better not be apologizing for saving my life.”

He didn’t smile. In fact, it looked like she’d broken his heart.

“I’m sorry for killing you.”

“
What
?”

His amazing eyes grew red and he blinked rapidly. “In the car, when you were trapped. We had to shut you in the trunk to work the seat loose. We hoped there was air at the other end, but it had sunk too far.” He raised his hands and gave them a damning glance. “I pushed you away, and you drowned. You were dead.”

Sophia’s mouth dropped open. She didn’t remember that, but her memory was still pretty fuzzy about last night. Inhaling deeply, she moved until she was burrowing into Gio’s arms.

“I was dead the minute Richard locked me in the trunk. The only reason I’m still alive is because you saved me.” She tilted her head to meet his eyes. “What were you doing there, anyway?”

He bit his upper lip and sucked in a breath. “Um, after I received your text I decided to wait for you outside of Richard’s.”

Her eyes widened.

“Don’t get mad,” he said quickly. “I was simply concerned for you. It turns out I had good reason to be.”

Sophia buried her face in his chest. “Man, you’re never going to let me live that down, are you?”

His good arm came up from underneath her to pass over her back before stopping at her butt. Pushing her tighter against him, he lowered his head to kiss her forehead. “I’m not going to say I told you so—after today. I told you so,” he added playfully.

She wrinkled her nose at him and reached over to twist one of his nipples through his hospital gown.

“Ow!” he said, laughing. “All right, I'm sorry. I won’t say it again.”

Mollified she gave him a quick kiss. “You weren’t right about everything. Richard didn’t attack me because he was obsessed with me. He believed I’d be easier to control if we were still together. He knew I’d find out about the stolen research sooner or later. And I was sort of a pushover back when we were a couple.”

Gio snorted. “Well, you’re not one now. In fact you're the strongest, most fierce woman I know. Enzo said if you hadn’t kicked the seat open as far as you did we might not have been able to free you in time.”

He paused to run a finger down her cheek. “I can’t believe Richard thought he was going to get away with it. He should have known I would turn the world over if you disappeared.”

Hugging him tighter, Sophia rubbed her cheek against him. “Have I told you I love you lately?”

He smiled down at her, a soft hot grin lighting up his face. “No, but you did yell it not so long ago.”

She giggled. “Now you can hear it at a normal volume. I love you.”

Gingerly, he moved his bad arm so he could trace her lower lip with his fingers. “And I love you,
mi amore
. More than anything.”

Sophia spun in her office chair while she tried to find the right words to say to Maia over the phone. She knew Calen wanted everyone to be as honest as they could about the possibility of a happy ending when it came to the disappearance of her friend, Thalia. But she couldn’t dash all of her new friend’s hopes, either.

“Maia, I think you’re right. Until they find a body, you have to keep looking—as long as you’re not knocking down doors yourself. You’re a mother, right? You have a little girl, and she has to be your priority.”

“I know that,” Maia said with a sigh. “And there’s no way in hell Calen would let me search myself. He has three guys on it. But I can tell he thinks it’s pointless.”

“Don’t give up,” Sophia said in a low voice. Where would she be if Gio had given up on her?

“I won’t,” Maia said after a pause. “Listen, I have to go. The baby’s crying.”

“Okay. We’ll see you next week,” Sophia promised.

Gio was flying them to New York for the opening of a new five-star hotel. He was an investor in the Caislean chain, and they were both invited to stay at the hotel that first week. So were Gio’s other University friends, so it would be a reunion of sorts.