Page 155 of When We Fall: Part One

“I-I’m just off the Mayfair campus. In the alley off Tenth St., It’s Rosalie. She’s been attacked. I-I killed the guy. I need a clean-up.”

“I’ll see you soon.” He disconnected the call, leaving me to hold her in my arms. I couldn’t carry her out like this. There may be witnesses, so I waited, cradling her to my body and whispering to her. Her breathing remained deep and even, but her face was so busted and bruised. I cried softly as I held her, vowing I’d find the motherfucker who was behind this and make him hurt.

The headlights from a blacked-out SUV pulled up, and I stared at my father as he briskly walked toward me, Klaus and Alessio with him. A slew of his men were behind him in a van. I knew that van. It was a meat wagon. They were the clean-up.

“Come,” Matteo instructed, reaching out and opening his arms for Rosalie. I hesitated for a moment before handing her off to him. He held her in his arms, an unreadable expression on his face as Alessio helped me to my feet.

“Your hands,” Alessio murmured. “You must have broken bones.”

I grunted, not even realizing I was hurt. Instead, I went to Matteo and took Rosalie from him before I followed him to the SUV and got in, him taking Rosalie once more. Once in the third row, I held her in my arms. Alessio got into one of the captain’s seats next to Matteo, and Klaus entered the passenger side. A guy named Frank drove. I recognized him from Matteo’s place. He was always the driver.

I didn’t care as long as we got her help.

“She needs a doctor,” I said. “Please. The hospital.”

“No hospital. Too many questions,” Matteo answered. “We will take her to my place. I have a doctor waiting.”

I didn’t argue. I wanted her to be safe, so I’d do this.

We rode in silence, me holding her tightly.

“Wake up,” I whispered to her. “Please, LeeLee. Wake up.”

Nothing. She was out.

When we got to Matteo’s, he helped me out again and led me into the house. He took me straight to a room off the main hallway where all sorts of medical equipment was set up, a doctor and a nurse already waiting.

Carefully, I laid Rosalie onto the bed and rattled off to the doctor what I knew while they set to work.

“Can you step out, please?” The nurse asked as she scurried about.

“No,” I said fiercely.

“We need to check to see if she was raped,” she said gently. “Please. Step out.”

I ground my teeth, my throat tight.

“Alessandro. Come,” Matteo urged softly. “Let them work.”

Swallowing hard, I obliged, leaving the room with the door closing behind me. The moment I was out, I slammed my fist into the wall, putting a hole in the sheetrock.

“Easy. Easy, son,” Matteo said.

“I should have been there. I wanted to be there,” I managed to say. “Fuck. FUCK!” I pounded on the wall again, so much emotion and pain pouring through me that I thought I was going to drown in it.

“Alessandro. Please.” Matteo reached for me and pulled me into his arms. “It’s OK. She is safe now. The man is dead. He got what he deserved. Please. Repeat after me. It’s OK. She’s safe. Say it.”

“She’s O-OK. S-she’s safe.”

“Again,” he urged.

“She’s O-OK. S-she’s safe.”

“Believe that. She will be fine. I promise.”

“I want them dead. He said it was a young Russian man. He didn’t know his name. I want them all dead.”

Matteo hugged me to him for a long moment before he called out to Klaus.