Leo (Vigilance #3) - Silvia Violet Page 0,68
he couldn’t handle this. Well, you were wrong.” Giorgio sounded so fucking satisfied with himself. I would have punched him if I had the strength.
“What the fuck happened? How’d Swain know we were there?”
X blew out a long breath. “I pushed Emilio too hard. He warned me he was treading on dangerous ground. Someone who works for Swain had tracked some spyware back to him. They fed him misinformation, and worse, they exposed him to his rivals.”
“Fuck. Where is he now?”
“He showed up at my house, and I brought him with me. He’s with Niall too.”
“Wait. He came to your house?”
“He’s known who I was all along. I assumed he did, so I wasn’t all that shocked.”
I supposed if he couldn’t find out X’s real identity, he wouldn’t be the hacker we needed.
X parked in front of the Marchesis’ house, and I didn’t get a chance to ask any more questions. Giorgio hobbled in front of me, and X insisted on helping me stay upright. I wanted to insist I could walk on my own, but I wasn’t sure I could. Between the tranquilizer, the blood loss, and the beating, I wasn’t doing so good.
I faded in and out of consciousness as Dr. Morelli cleaned my wounds and assessed the damage to my ribs.
“You’re going to need to rest for several days. Maybe a week. You need time to heal.”
“It’s really not that bad,” I insisted.
She narrowed her eyes at me. “It really is.”
“I’ll make sure he takes some time off,” X said.
The scowl I gave him made Giorgio laugh, but the doctor turned to him next.
“The tranquilizer did a number on you too. You’re not in good shape either.”
I was focused on Giorgio’s attempts to convince the doc he was fine when I felt a jab in my arm and glanced over to see her injecting me with something. “I’m giving you a pain killer. It will help you—”
“No!” I knew it was too late, but I didn’t want her to knock me out. “I need to—”
“Where is Leo? I want to see him.” It was Ezra. “I need to know he’s all right.”
As soon as Dr. Morelli pulled the syringe from my arm, I swung my legs over the side of the bed and pushed to my feet.
“Wait. You can’t—”
I lurched forward before she or X could stop me.
“Ezra!” I managed to make my way down the hall to the foyer. When Ezra saw me, his face lit up. I wanted to run to him, but I had to lean against the wall to stay on my feet. “You… you came to see me.”
“Where the hell else would I go?”
“I need to tell you something.” My words slurred. The pain medication was already taking effect.
I tried to focus on Ezra, but there seemed to be two of him.
“Leo, are you supposed to be out of bed?”
“No.” X grabbed me from behind. I winced as his fingers pressed against one of the deeper wounds.
“Sorry,” he said. “I can’t let you fall over.”
I tried to grab his hand to pull it off me, but my fingers didn’t seem to work right. “’S’ok. I can w-walk.”
I grabbed at the doorframe to stop X from taking me back to bed. I knew once I lay down, I’d be out cold. “Ezra!”
Both Ezras in my line of vision smiled. “You can tell me later. You need to rest.”
“I love you.” I said the words as I fell onto the bed, or at least I tried to. I wasn’t sure they actually made it out of my mouth. Someone placed a soft pillow under my head, and I couldn’t think anymore.
The next time I woke, Ezra was gone.
X was sitting on a couch near the bed, and Emilio was there too. The younger man seemed to have fallen asleep with his head on X’s shoulder, and X had his arm around him. I had so many questions about that, but I couldn’t manage to hold my eyes open.
I came more fully awake sometime later. X was no longer there. This time Niall and Giorgio were seated on the couch in my room.
“How come you’re not in bed?” I asked Giorgio.
“Because I can actually stand on my own.”
“Lucky you. I don’t care what the doctor says. I’m leaving here tomorrow.”
Niall protested. “I don’t think—”
“Neither one of you would stay either.”
They both huffed.
“Tell me I’m wrong.”
Neither did.
“I need one of you to drive me back to Boston in the morning.”
“I’ll do it,” Niall said. “But you’re