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“Renato? Ren, can you hear me?” Tears splashed down my face.Get a fucking grip, Charlie, you’re a nurse. Save him.“I won’t let you die. I need you, so you’re not allowed,” I murmured furiously as I attempted to rip open his black vest and found it hard as hell.
I went searching for a knife to cut it off. I had to find the bullet hole and put pressure on it.
“You fucking wrecked my life and made me fall in love with you, and then you think you can just die on me? You evil, horrible bastard. I promised you my soul, and you have to be alive to claim it,” I muttered, finally getting my hand under the vest and finding a hard, padded expanse of material. It felt vaguely familiar.
I stopped breathing, moving my hand under the vest over the smooth material beneath until I found it. A bullet encased in the hole it had ripped in the ceramic plate.
“You can’t get rid of methateasily,anima mia. I’m afraid you’re stuck with me.”
I looked down and found him watching me. His voice sounded more like himself.
“You have a bulletproof vest on?!” I screeched at him.
“Of course, I do. What’s the point in waiting my whole life to meet you, just to die a few weeks later?”
I went to hit him, but somehow, I was just hugging him. His arms circled me, and he kissed the top of my head.
“You could have been shot in the head!” I protested.
“There are worse ways to die.”
I thumped him, and my hand stung from hitting the bulletproof vest.
“Besides, most people, professional gangsters or not, are fucking terrible shots.”
His grim humor made me smile, despite it all.
“Enough talking,” he said and pulled me tighter into his arms.
My ribs hurt at the squeeze, but I didn’t mutter a peep. It felt too good.
“Are you better now?” I asked, my voice muffled by his gear.
“Better?”
“You were different before…scary.”
“I’m scary all the time, Charlie, it’s just you who doesn’t see it.”
“Do you really love me?”
“Do you think I offer myself up for target practice for just anyone?”
I swallowed and leaned up on an elbow.
“I might love you, too,” I admitted quietly.
He laughed and then winced. “Oh, I know.”
“You know?”
“I knew when you destroyed that little bug and told the cops to fuck off.”
“You heard that?”
“Of course, I heard that. I’ve never been prouder.” He kissed my forehead.
The helicopter had landed a little distance off, and Elio strode toward us over the bloodied snow, another man beside him. His companion was pale and tattooed, with the hardened air of a very dangerous man.
