The surgeon gave calm instructions, and the nurses moved quickly and efficiently setting up his mobile operating area for him. They could have used Dario’s men, but he didn’t say a word; he just kept breathing when it was his turn to push air into her lungs. Then her heart caught the rhythm and she was forced to return to that freezing-cold body she was so disconnected with.
Dario sank back on his heels and glared at her. “Don’t you do that again, Brielle.”
“I’m going to second that,” Raimondo said. “You took a few years off my life.”
“Let’s get her onto the table,” Dr. Arnold instructed. “I have to find where she’s bleeding internally and get it stopped.”
Dario and Raimondo just picked her up and carried her to the table before the nurses who were sterilizing everything could sterilize them. If Brielle wasn’t so frozen, she might have laughed. Always the bad boys. Suddenly, she remembered. It was important. She needed to tell someone. Ignoring the bags of fluids the nurses were hanging around the table, the ones flowing into her arm, she forced herself to find her voice.
“Tell Elie . . . for me, he was always the one.”
Dario swore. “Don’t do that, Brielle. You’ll tell him yourself. Just make up your damn mind you’re going to stay alive. It’s bullshit to quit breathing. It isn’t that hard to keep it up.”
He had no idea how difficult it was to draw in a breath. For some reason, it felt as if her lungs were frozen, blocked by great chunks of ice. She couldn’t manage a smile for him, even though she wanted to. She was too tired. Her lashes fluttered, eyes closing again.
“Why is she doing that?” Raimondo asked. “You can’t let her go to sleep.”
“I’m putting her out,” Dr. Arnold said. “I’m not about to dig through her body while she’s awake. Go help my assistant with your friend. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
Brielle was fading, but she wasn’t out. She wanted someone to tell her how Leone was doing. Everyone was whispering since the doctor had arrived, everyone but Dario. Usually, he lounged against a wall, so quiet no one noticed him after a while. He wasn’t quiet now. He was like prowling panther.
“Where the hell is Elie?” Dario hissed at Raimondo as they moved away from the dining area to huddle together, leaving the two medical teams to work on their patients. “I know he’s supposed to be back soon. He’s going to lose his shit when he sees this mess. I’ve got a cleanup crew coming for the bodies. They should be here any minute.”
Raimondo glanced out the windows. Dario’s bodyguards were back inside their vehicle, out of the rain and wind. “What’s wrong with you? How could you bring unknown men with you in a lockdown situation? We could have lost both of them. I needed help, Dario, and I was counting on you.”
“I wouldn’t have brought anyone I didn’t know and trust personally.”
“That isn’t the protocol. In a lockdown situation, when we’re under attack, we have to follow procedure to the letter. All of us were counting on you.”
“I came. Your enemies are dead because we killed them. Those men you don’t trust helped me kill them, Raimondo. They put their lives on the line for perfect strangers.”
“They put their lives on the line for you, not for us. I still didn’t know them or what they might do, any more than I knew the legitimate Interpol agent who came to ask Brielle about a report she did. He appeared on the up-and-up as well. Stefano is going to eat you for breakfast for this fuckup if Elie doesn’t do it first, and you deserve it.”
Dario sighed. “I suppose you’re right. It never occurred to me to have his people investigate them, or at least go talk to Stefano about them and introduce them to the family. I’ve always done whatever I want, particularly in matters of security. It’s my business and I like to keep it that way.”
Raimondo shrugged. “It is your business. But those men are your personal protectors, which means they travel everywhere with you. You attend Ferraro family functions. You’re around Francesca. Stefano’s children. Grace. Can you imagine Vittorio if some stranger was around his wife and he had no idea who that man was? These are protective men, just as you are. You would never allow that shit; why would they?”
He wasn’t backing down an inch. Seeing Brielle covered in blood, crashing the way she had, being alone with two people he cared about, afraid he was going to lose both of them, had Raimondo angry with Dario all over again.