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Chapter Fourteen

Matteo

I bribe the priest to allow me and Julia to get married. I also might have shown him my gun and threatened him if he didn’t marry us. Not my finest moment but Julia and I want to get married today and we’re going to make it happen.

Inessa and Elena are the only other people in attendance in the large empty catholic church. It’s so empty that our voices echo inside.

I stand at the end of the aisle, waiting for Julia to come down.

When the doors open and she enters in her new wedding dress that she bought just for me I almost lose my breath.

It’s fucking cliché but it’s true. She is a vision in her gown.

Knowing that I’m going to marry this woman is the best feeling in the world.

Inessa walks at her side, since Viktor isn’t here to give her away. I try to push down my worry about Viktor. He won’t show. He won’t ruin this for us.

Julia reaches the end of the aisle and takes my hand.

“You’re beautiful,” I tell her and she flushes, which just makes her even more stunning.

The priest begins the ceremony but I don’t even look at him. I only have eyes for Julia.

When it’s time to say our ‘I do’s’ I don’t hesitate. I say ‘I do’ with my whole chest. I’m ready to be married to Julia. I’m ready to put her above everything else in my life, something I was never able to do before.

I will save her like I couldn’t save my mom.

The priests ask Julia if she’ll take me as her husband and she proudly says, “I do.”

The memory of her standing at the end of an aisle about to marry Connor hits me. She hadn’t said ‘I do.’ She doesn’t’ hesitate to say it now.

“I now pronounce you husband and wife,” the priest says. “You may kiss.”

I take Julia’s face into my hands and gently press my lips to hers. This is it. Now is our time to be together forever.

But then the large church doors burst open and someone comes running down the aisle. When I pull back from Julia, I see that it’s Connor fucking Barry himself.

He’s running right towards us with a gun in his hand. A gun that’s pointed at me.

He pulls the trigger.

I dive to the side but in the process, I accidently pull Julia down with me. She lands on top of me with a huff.

Inessa and Elena scream as they duck behind the pews. The priest takes off running. So much for being a hero.

“Don’t hide behind her,” Connor seethes. “Get up and fight me like a fucking man.”

I sit up, pulling Julia up with me. “Are you ok?”

“I think so,” she says.

“Good.” I turn to Connor. “I’ll fight. If you put your gun down. If you want a fight, let’s fight with our fucking fists.”

“Connor, put the gun down,” Inessa says.

He whips around to stare at her in shock. “You’re here? Does Viktor know that?”

“How did you even find this place?”

“I had some men follow you out of the house. You weren’t exactly secretive, Inessa. But they ended up losing you… until my men saw Matteo and Julia going wedding dress and ring shopping. This was the closest catholic church in the area. It wasn’t hard to figure it out.”

Inessa turns to me. “I didn’t know he followed me. I swear. I didn’t set this up.”

I believe Inessa. Unlike her husband, she doesn’t want me dead.

“Put the gun down,” Julia says. “Please, Connor. You might accidently kill me.”

“You’re marrying the fucking enemy!” His voice echoes through the large cathedral. “But that’s all right. Because once I kill Matteo, you’ll be mine again. Viktor will reward me for the death of your kidnapper.”

“Julia, run.” I try to push her towards the side door but she doesn’t move.

“I’m not leaving you.” She stands in front of me. “If you want to kill Matteo, then you have to kill me too. And if you kill me, then Viktor will never reward you.”

“Move out of the fucking way,” he seethes.

“No.”

I’m proud of Julia. My wife. But losing her is the last thing I can let happen. If Connor wants a fight, then he’ll have a fight.

Acting fast, I push Julia to the side and jump off the platform and run right into Connor before he gets the chance to shoot. His gun does go off but he misses me. I push the gun out of his hand and punch him square in the face. Connor only punches me in return.

I get on top of him and start raining down hits. His face becomes a bloody mess but he’s still alive. He needs to die. Die. Die.

“Matteo,” Inessa says, grabbing my arm and trying to pull me away. “Matteo!”

Her frantic voice makes me stop. When I look at her, she points to the altar where Julia is lying on the ground, bleeding.

She has a wound to her arm. The blood is seeping into her white wedding dress.

She was shot. Connor must have accidently shot her. Unless… it wasn’t a fucking accident.

With a snarl, I punch Connor once more before I run to Julia and pick her up. “I got you. You’re ok.”

“Connor,” she gasps out.

He’s lying on the floor, breathing ragged, but alive. I want to finish the job but I need to focus on Julia. She’s my priority and she’s hurt right now.

“We need to go,” Inessa gasps, running over to Connor’s gun and picking it up before he can use it on us. “We need to go now.”

The four of us run out of the church.

I turn to Elena and Inessa. “You two should return to your homes. It’s not safe for you. And tell Viktor what Connor did. How he hurt Julia. Make him see what kind of man he is.”

“Ok. I will. Will Julia be ok?”

I shift Julia in my arms. “I’ll make sure of it.

Now go.” I rush to my car as Elena and Inessa rush to theirs.

After placing Julia in the passenger seat and hearing her groan in pain, I floor the car to the nearest hospital.

I don’t have a private doctor in this area.

Dante’s doctor is over an hour away and Julia is still bleeding. She’s turning pale.

The hospital ER rushes at me faster than I can even think. I slam on my breaks and get Julia out of the car and hurry inside.

“I need help!” I shout as two nurses come running in my direction. “She’s been shot in the arm. I need help.”

They get Julia onto a gurney and take her into a room where I cant follow.

A doctor stops me. “You need to give us time to work on her. But talk to that nurse. Answer her questions.” He hurries inside the room to work on Julia.

I can see them cutting away at her dress – her beautiful wedding dress – and they inspect her arm.

The nurse outside of the room pulls me to the side. “Does she have any allergies to any medications?”

“Uh… I’m not sure.”

“Is she on any medications?”

“I don’t know.” The fact that I don’t know any of these things about Julia is gut-wrenching. She’s my wife. I should know these things.

“Did you two just get married?”

“We did. Someone attacked the church and shot at her.”

“Did you call the police?”

“No. I came here right away.” I need to call Dante and tell him where I am so he can help me clean up this mess. Getting police involved in Mafia business is never a good thing.

“If you two just got married, why do you not know these things about your wife?”

“It was… spur of the moment. We haven’t known each other that long. I’m sorry. I can’t answer your questions.”

The nurse sighs and eyes me over with a judgy look before she hands me a clipboard with a file on it. “Fill this out. Anything can help.”

I walk to the side and call Dante. “I need your help.”

“Now, why would you need my help? You were supposed to stay in the safehouse.”

“Julia and I left. We got married.”

He’s quiet for a long moment. “Why do you insist on making my life harder, Matteo?”

“Connor showed up and shot at us. I’m fine but Julia got shot.

In the arm. I don’t think it’s life threatening but…

fuck. She was bleeding out. She looked so pale.

You need to get here because I know they’re going to call the police.

” I rattle off the address of the hospital.

“Get here as fast as you can and make sure Viktor doesn’t hear about this. If he does…”

“It will be fucking Armageddon. I get it. I’m on my way.”

The police arrive within five minutes of me getting to the hospital. They’re efficient, I’ll give them that.

I explain to them what happened. How a man attacked our wedding but I lie and say I don’t know who the man is.

I tell them how I managed to punch the attacker but I left to get Julia to safety.

I don’t know what happened to the attacker.

I purposely do not say Connor’s name at all.

The less they know this is Mafia business, the better.

“Where there any other witnesses?” the officer asks.

“Yes. There were two women there but I didn’t know who they were. They acted as witnesses. But they ran after the shooting.”

“You had strangers act as witnesses to your marriage?”

“My wife and I just wanted to get married. We didn’t want a big party. Those women were there and they were more than happy to be witnesses. I never got their names though. I’m sorry.”

“What about the priest?”

“He ran. I didn’t see what happened to him after that.” The moment the police are done questioning me and leave, I text Dante, telling him to take care of the priest. I can’t have the priest telling the cops about how I threatened him to marry me and Julia. That will not look good.

Dante tells me he’s on it, though I can tell, even through text, that he is not happy with me.

The doctor working on Julia comes find me after some time. “We managed to stop the bleeding but she’ll need surgery on her arm. She’s being taken there now.”

“Can I talk to her?”

“I’m afraid not. She fell unconscious during our treatment and we had to place a breathing tube into her mouth. You can wait in here.” He leads me to a private room. “We’ll let you know when she’s out of surgery.”

I slump onto the chair, all my energy leaving me. I can’t believe this. Today was going so well. Julia and I were so happy and now… this. I’m stuck in a hospital waiting room, wondering if Julia is even going to survive this day. All because of fucking Connor. I am going to kill him one day.