Twisted Bond by SR Jones
Chapter Five
Giovanni
We approach the hospital via the long, meandering driveway. We take a small side road to our right. This leads to an overflow parking lot a five-minute walk away. The road takes us away from the hospital at first but will bend around to come back toward it after a few minutes driving. Every so often, one can catch light from the windows at the hospital through the trees. If it didn't have the bright floodlights outside, it would look like something out of a horror movie.
The road takes us back into forest cover for a moment, and then the trees thin out again, and I glance once more at the imposing structure. I turn away, and then turn straight back.
There's a glowing light in the windows of the very top floor rooms that’s too bright and too warm to be lamps. What the fuck? I lean closer toward the window and then open it to take a better look.
“Holy crap.”
“What?” Marcello asks from the backseat where he is checking his gun over.
Behind us are two more cars filled with our men, and they’ll be preparing too.
“Look at the house,” I tell him urgently.
“Mother of God,” Marcello murmurs.
The place is on fire.
Amelia is in a building, and it is on fire.
White-hot terror hits me square in the chest, and I bend over as I struggle to take a breath in.
I need to get to her now. I turn to Matteo who is driving.
“Put your foot down,” I demand.
The car surges forward, but what if I'm too late?
What if my pride, my vanity, and my belief that I could control everyone in this world like some sort of God playing with the mere mortals costs the life of the only woman I've ever loved? I should have simply told her when I was visiting her father all those years ago that I found her bewitching, and that one day I would send for her and request that she visit me. Instead, I used her father’s mistakes to create an elaborate plan to get Amelia with me, without having to lay my heart on the line.
I'm deserving of everything that comes my way.
Amelia isn't, though.
I send up a prayer to God to please, please save the woman I love. I make a bargain with him. I promise him that I won't do as Konstantin did and keep her with me against her will.
Dear God, I swear on all that is holy. If you let Amelia live, I will only keep her with me if it is what she wants. I'll be a better person. Please save her. Don't make her pay for my mistakes. Don't take her from this world.
I glance out the window and see blue and red lights flashing through the trees. The jarring sound of sirens reaches us, and I follow the progress of the vehicles as they screech to a halt outside the mansion.
Amelia better be safe, or I will wreak vengeance on her grandmother and the doctor who imprisoned her.
I make another bargain then. I promise God, again, that if he saves her, I will become a reformed character. If he doesn't, all bets are off.
We finally reach the overflow parking lot and slide to a halt. I’m already out the door as Matteo puts the car into park. I’m running toward the hospital before I can even think.
“Gio, wait.” Marcello races to catch up, his boots pounding the gravel behind me.
I don't pause, and I don't turn around. I need to get to her, that's all I know.
“Giovanni, listen,” Marcello shouts. “You could end up getting arrested. This is not the way to deal with this. We’re not meant to be here.”
“He's right, Gio.” Matteo joins in the exhortations.
I stop running and swivel to face them. “No one knows who we are. We can simply say, if anyone does ask us, that we were passing and saw the flames and wanted to help. I need to see if she's okay. What do you suggest I do? Simply drive back on home and wait to hear the news on the television.”
“Of course not,” Marcello snaps. He rarely shows real anger with me, so I must be genuinely fucking him off. “I'm simply saying, let's make a plan.”
People are spilling out of the front entrance, but they are too far away for me to make out who they are.
Again, I’m running toward the building. If Amelia isn't outside, I'll go inside to find her myself.
As I near the start of the manicured lawns, something catches my eye to the right of the building, and I turn to take a closer look. Three figures are running fast for the tree line. My gaze follows them, and something tells me that one of those figures is my Amelia. I don't know why or how to explain it, but some deep instinct tells me to go in that direction where the three figures are racing fast toward the tree cover.
I pivot and change direction. Full speed, I run straight past Marcello who stares at me, mouth open. Then he changes direction and follows behind me.
“What are we doing now; going for a picnic in the woods?” he pants as he catches up with me, jogging alongside.
“I think that's Amelia.” I point straight ahead to where the three figures are about to disappear into the woods.
“You can see her from here, in this dark?” he says incredulously.
“No, I can't. My instincts are telling me it's her, though.”
As I'm running toward the forest, I get the strangest sensation, as if someone else is with me. I don't mean Matteo, or the men, but someone … something else. It sends a shiver down my spine, but I don't pause to examine it, and instead keep racing toward Amelia.
I'm gaining on her quickly now. I need to go even faster, though, because once she hits those woods, I might lose track of her. Lungs burning, I pump my arms and reach for the last vestiges of energy. The figures have disappeared into the tree growth now. Damn it.
I crash into the woods, staring around me.
I shout, “Amelia!”
There is no answer.
“Amelia, it's me, Giovanni.”
But still no answer.
“Maybe she doesn't believe it's you?” Marcello comes to a stop beside me. He bends over and places his hands on his knees, taking in deep breaths.
The crushing sound of footsteps behind us alerts me to the rest of the men arriving.
“Amelia, it's me. Your vampire from the library.”
I know that she'll understand what I mean by that. Those moments in the library when we first met. Moments no one else could know about.
I strain my ears to listen for any sound, but there's nothing. Despondent and convinced I must have been wrong, I turn back to the house when something slams into me hard enough to take my breath away.
I look down, and all I can see is red hair. My arms act of their own accord and wrap tight around the bundle of warm, soft curves molded to my front.
“Dolcezza,” I murmur to the top of her head as I kiss her beautiful red hair.
I wrap my arms around her as tightly as I can and hold her to me. Her arms are around my waist, and she's shaking like a leaf.
“Gio, you came for me.”
“Of course, I did, my love. I will always come for you,” I say, then remembering my promise to God I add, “if it's what you want, of course.”
“Is this the mafia guy?” an American voice says, as a young girl steps out of the cover of darkness.
Amelia giggles. “He's my Italian, yes,” she says.
“Gio, this is my friend Georgie, and without her I wouldn't be free right now. Can you please help us get out of here?”
Of course, I can help them get out of here.
“The best way back to the cars is through the woods so we can't be seen,” Marcello says.
Amelia steps back, and from the light of the moon I can see her looking beyond me. “Oh my God, Giovanni. How many people did you bring with you?”
“Enough to rescue you, my damsel.” I reach for her, pulling her toward me, unable to put off the urge riding me any longer. I brush my lips against hers, breathing in her familiar scent.
“There's no time for those shenanigans,” Marcello says with a soft laugh. “Let’s get going.”
He leads us through the woods as if he knows them like the back of his hand. God knows how he's not managed to fall, but he dodges through the trees in the undergrowth until they begin to thin out.
I take great care to follow in his steps and hold tightly onto Amelia’s hand so that she's right by my side.
When we reach the cars, I turn to Amelia. “You’re riding with me,” I tell her.
“Of course,” she says breathless.
“You two ride together with Matteo,” I tell her two friends. “Marcello, you drive Amelia and me, with Matteo taking the other car. I want an armed man on point in each vehicle. Piero, you take the third car.”
“I’ll see you both soon,” Amelia tells her friends.
They look alarmed, but she takes hold of the one called Georgie’s hands in hers and gives them a squeeze. “Georgie, trust me, these men will get you somewhere safe, okay?”
“Come on,” I tell her. “We don't have time to be standing around. If the police see us, we’re done for.”
I open the rear door and guide her into her seat.
As I close the door behind her, a rush of victory settles over me. A moment of overwhelming rightness. My jewel, my prize, my beauty is back where she belongs.
Now, I must make her want to stay forever.