Page 148 of The Savage

Giacomo doesn’t bother trying. One slips free. Then another. Dispersed a minute later by a pristine white hanky.

Orazio nods slowly. ‘Thank you,’ he says. ‘For telling us. And for what you did.’

I turn to leave.

‘Giada.’ Giacomo’s voice stops me.

His mouth works, then his throat bobs before the question finally emerges. ‘Did she suffer?’

The question hits like a blade.

‘No,’ I say. Then I hesitate. I see his pain. His need. ‘She was sad to be leaving,’ I add gently. ‘But she’d accepted it.’

His eyes close.

When I step back into the hall, Renzo is there instantly. But Orazio’s voice snaps behind him. ‘Let her go spend time with her sisters.’

Renzo hesitates.

‘You,’ Orazio adds, pointing, ‘come in with your brothers. We have plans to make.’

The old general is back.

I kiss Renzo quickly. He presses his forehead to mine for a heartbeat longer than necessary. ‘I’ll find you,’ he says.

‘I know.’ He always does.

Then I turn down the corridor towards the women who share my blood.

And for the first time since everything shattered, I don’t feel alone.

* * *

Renzo

Orazio doesn’t wait for the door to close.

‘You want to tell me why you thought disappearing from a hospital like a two-bit ghost was a good idea?’ he snaps, cane planted, eyes sharp as glass.

I don’t flinch. I don’t apologise.

‘I did what I had to do,’ I say. ‘She needed to be removed from that place and I wasn’t waiting around to ask permission.’

The room tightens. Just outside the door, my brothers shift. Dante exhales through his teeth.

Orazio’s eyes narrow. For a beat, I think he’s going to unload. Then something else settles there. Respect, mean and earned.

‘You’ve always been like your nonna, may she rest in peace,’ he says. ‘Stubborn. Right. Expensive. Fucking pain in my culo.’

I almost smile.

He turns and barks, ‘You. You. And you. In here. Now. I have a great-grandson I need to cuddle.’

My brothers file in, Cesare looking far too smug. But one by one, they refocus, grim, keyed up and ready. While Nonno fires questions at everyone who so much as looks at him, I pull my phone from my pocket and check it again.

Nothing.

Nightowl’s still dark.