It felt like her eyelids weighed a ton as she tried to open them, and she whimpered in distress. Why couldn’t she open her eyes? She whimpered again as she tried as hard as she could to force her eyelids to open until finally, they opened up just enough for her to see the face of a man dressed in a fireman’s uniform, right down to the yellow helmet he wore. “Ma’am, can you hear me?”
“I… I can.” She tried to lift her hand but she was too tired. The struggle to open her eyelids had sapped her strength. What was wrong, what had happened? Why was she on the street with a fireman kneeling over her. “What’s happened?”
“Ma’am, it looks like you’ve been shot and then hit a pole. We’re taking you to the hospital, you’re safe.”
Marie tried to nod but her head was so heavy all she could do was let it fall to the side. That showed her the car, peppered with gunshots, and she wondered how she’d survived. Pain lanced through her head as a wave of nausea covered her skin with gooseflesh. The wrenching burn of pain was all she knew as the agony in her side suddenly became too strong to ignore, too much to bear, and the world went dark again.
“She’s coming around,” she heard Matteo whisper near to her and she reached out for him, fear stealing her voice away. All she could do was make an odd sound as she reached out to him, for him, and she opened her eyes to look around. Where were they? Where were those men with the guns?
“It’s alright, baby, I’m here. Don’t worry, you’re safe and I’m here. Those men are gone.” He slid into the hospital bed beside her and took her gently in his arms. “Don’t move, alright, Marie? You’ve had to have one very epic surgery and you’re going to be here in the hospital for a while. Which is probably the safest place you can be right now.”
“What surgery?” she whispered, not sure why anyone would do surgery on her.
“You were hit on the left side. The bullet severed a section of your intestines and the surgeon had to put it back together and clean up the area around it. It’s been dealt with but you’re not out of the woods yet. They want to keep you in to watch for infection and to make sure you won’t need another surgery.” He took a deep breath and ran his hand down her right arm. “Baby, I’m sorry. You were apparently targeted for an assassination attempt. I don’t know why yet, but that’s what it looks like. The police are investigating, and you’ll have to speak to them in a few minutes, but for now, I want you to know, I’m handling this. They will be taken care of. Keep that in mind when you talk to the police, alright?”
“I will,” she said carefully. His voice had been gentle when he spoke, but there was a deadly undertone to it that she couldn’t ignore. “I’m not scared, anyway, Matteo. You’re here with me.”
She squeezed his hand gently and then put her head back on the pillow. “I’m so tired. I want to go back to sleep.”
“You can after you talk to the police, honey. Come on now, have a sip of water, and let the nurses look you over first.” A pair of nurses dressed in rose-colored scrubs came into the room.
“How is your pain, Mrs. Mazza?” the nurse with rich, dark skin asked as she leaned over the left side of the rail of Marie’s bed.
“It’s not bad. I don’t feel much, to be honest.” She gave the gentle-looking woman with a cut chin-length bob a tentative smile.
“Good, your medicine is working then. May I check your wound?” She waited for Marie’s answer patiently, and when Marie nodded in response she pushed the covers down and pulled up Marie’s hospital gown to check the bandages that now covered her stomach. Her hands were covered in purple gloves and it made the touch less personal and invasive, at least to Marie.
She turned her head away from the nurse to look at Matteo. She didn’t want to see the wound right now, not until she’d absorbed all of this. She’d been ambushed and shot at, the same way her parents had been all those years ago. For the second time in her life,