Page 7 of Taking His Heart

“I don’t need you to stick up for me, CJ. I can tell this asshole to shut the bloody hell up myself,” Daniella says before storming from the room.

“Someone tried to shoot her. Do not let her out of your fucking sight,” I tell Aiden, who has been awfully quiet this entire time.

“Don’t die on me. I like being the spare. I have no intentions of being the heir,” he says before following Daniella out of the room.

“Seriously? You’re just jumping in front of bullets for people you hate now?” Alfie asks me.

I’m saved from having to respond when the doc walks in, already opening his bag. The next half an hour is a blur. I’m pumped with enough drugs that everything is hazy. And then I’m drifting off to sleep.

My eyes blink open, the sound of my mom’s voice bringing me back to consciousness. “Mom?”

“Oh, thank god you’re awake.” She rushes over and sits on the edge of the bed. Her lips press against my forehead and then my cheek. “Don’t you ever scare me like this again, Carlo Junior. I swear to god, I will kill you myself if you do,” she says.

“Sorry,” I tell her. I’m not sorry. I saved Daniella from getting hit by a fucking bullet. “Where is she?”

“Who?”

“Daniella?”

“Oh, she’s out in the hall. She wouldn’t come in, but she also wouldn’t leave,” Mom says.

“Okay, that’s good.” I lean my head back against the pillow.

“Is it?” Mom asks. “What were you doing with her, CJ?”

“She was out front of the Royal. I stopped to ask her where she was going dressed the way she was.”

“First, it’s the twenty-first century. You don’t get to tell a woman how to dress, dipshit. Second, have you forgotten what happened the last time you got involved with her?”

“Antonia, he doesn’t need relationship advice right now. He needs rest,” my father’s voice cuts through.

I turn to see him leaning against the wall on the opposite side of the room. I didn’t even notice he was there.

“Someone tried to shoot her, Dad. I want to know who,” I tell him.

“I’ll find out.” Dad nods his head. “Antonia, let’s leave him to rest.” He takes my mother’s hand and guides her to her feet.

“I’ll be downstairs. I’m not leaving this house until you’re ready to come home with me,” Mom says.

“I’ll be fine, Mom. You don’t need to worry about me.”

“Oh, I know you’ll be physically fine, CJ, but your shitty taste in women is going to be the death of you. Don’t ever jump in front of a bullet for someone else again. Your life is more important,” Mom warns me.

“What if it were Jazzy? Or Aiden?” I raise a questioning brow at her.

“Saving your sibling is a lot more admirable than saving someone who broke your heart.”

“You did the right thing,” my dad tells me. “Antonia, you would have done the same thing if it were me, even when you hated me.”

“Pfft, I would have pushed you towards the bullet, not away from it.” My mom smirks at him.

“Sure you would have.” Dad laughs. “Get some rest,” he orders as they exit the bedroom.

I look around, recognizing the décor of Alfie’s guestroom. I can just imagine how pissed my cousin is at having everyone in his house. And that thought brings me the tiniest bit of comfort.

Chapter Four

Ishould go back to the hotel. I’m not needed or wanted here. And yet, here I am, still sitting on the floor outside of the bedroom CJ was taken into. His mother asked me if I wanted to go in. I didn’t. I also can’t seem to bring myself to leave.