Page 87 of The Doctor

Paulo was the closest thing to a parent I had left.

“Sir? Are you okay?”

I couldn’t see the woman in front of me from all the tears in my eyes. I couldn’t put up a fight as she guided me out of the room.

I couldn’t take it if I lost Paulo to this.

I wasn’t at his side.

This was all my fault.

30

Clara

They came in a slow trickle. First, Paulo’s daughter, Queenie, and her boyfriend, Mateo. After the very pregnant Queenie blanched and nearly fainted at the sight of me, the nurses had insisted I change out of my blood-soaked clothes and into some scrubs. When I got back to the waiting room, Paulo’s sister, Carmen, and her husband, Lorenzo, were there, followed shortly by many others. By the time they rolled Paulo into emergency surgery, they’d asked us to move to a waiting room upstairs in order to get the ever-growing crowd of Syndicate men and women under control.

Zee hadn’t been seen since he arrived, when he’d left Angelo Santini, his girlfriend, and her daughter in the back seat of his car. The three eventually wandered in, and I’d busied myself trying to tend to Lyndsey and Laney’s minor wounds. It was the least I could do.

It was necessary. Without it, I’d surely spiral from all I’d just witnessed.

Every time I saw a new face, the image was distorted, layered with spraying blood and bullet holes. Laney’s little face was the only one it didn’t happen with, so I lingered near her, hoping for a reprieve.

“When’s Papa Paulo coming out?” The little girl looked up at me with her pretty pale blue eyes, and it nearly broke my heart.

I wanted to pick the girl up and hold her, to give her the comfort I so desperately needed. But I barely knew her, and when we’d shared a dinner table just weeks ago, it was clear the child didn’t like to be touched.

Working through the tight knot in my throat, I told her, “I’m not sure, sweetie. But hopefully soon.”

She surprised me then, slipping out of her chair and putting her little arms around my neck. “Don’t cry,” she said, so quietly I could barely hear. “Mommy said it’s going to be okay.”

Tugging her close, I let her words wind through me, hoping it was the truth. Our hug didn’t last long. Footsteps slapped against the tile floors, causing the curious little girl to pull away.

“Uncle Jet!” Laney’s smile lit up her face, but when I turned and stood, I didn’t find her smile being returned.

“Clara.” Jet grabbed my shoulders, peering down at me with eyes as hard as steel. “I need to know what happened.”

“We were—” More footsteps pounded down the hall, halting my explanation.

“Clara?” It was my father, racing toward me with my mother right on his heels.

Reluctantly, Jet let me go, and I hated it. At least with him between us, the blame thrown my way wouldn’t find as easy of a target.

“My God, Clara!” Adalberto Vinci hugged me for the first time in as long as I could remember. My mother didn’t wait for her turn, instead wrapping herself around me and my father like she did this all the time.

“We’re so glad you’re okay.” She pressed a kiss to my head. A kiss. From the woman who’d not reached out to me once since Stephano last threw me out of his club. “When I heard, I thought…”

“We thought the worst,” my father finished for her.

I shrugged out of their grasp, needing space, needing a return to the reality where my parents didn’t give a damn about me.

That reality twisted when I saw who was behind them.

My brother’s hard blue eyes scoured me before he lifted his chin in acknowledgement. It was him I was looking at when I stammered, “How do you even know what happened?”

Jet cleared his throat as all three of them turned their attention to him. “Lyndsey was in the car with Zee when you called. She tried to relay what she could, and I called Berto. I didn’t know…” He tugged at his left sleeve. “I need to know what happened.”

Once again, I started to talk, and once again, I was interrupted. This time, when my name was called, I spun toward the doors the only nurses we’d seen had disappeared through. I saw Zeno’s distraught face. I registered him rushing toward me, hair loose around his shoulders and eyes wild. It wasn’t until his hands were clamped around either side of my face and I was stretched out until my heels left the floor, that I realized Zeno’s mouth was crushed to mine.