She’s My Queen

9. Are you hit?

9

ARE YOU HIT?

CRISTINA

M y ears are ringing. My face is plastered to the cold stone of the terrace, and the weight of Severio’s body pressed against my back makes it hard to breathe. My compressed lungs struggle to get air.

Like a fish out of water, I gasp, and my throat hurts from screaming.

The ringing in my ears makes it hard to hear. I can’t figure out what happened. During the ritual, I slapped Severio for pretending he drank the poison. Then I refused to kill either of them. But then something appeared in the sky, and the next thing I knew, Severio tackled me while I screamed against the background of a barrage of bullets raining down on us.

Something warm is trickling down my leg.

My blood?

His blood?

A man’s boot appears in my line of view. There’s blood on it. Not knowing who this is and not hearing anything at the moment, I remain quiet under Severio.

“All clear,” the man says. I think it’s Gordon.

“Are you hit?” Severio asks.

I wait for Gordon to answer.

“Cristina?” Severio barks, and something about the urgency of his voice makes me snap out of my shock.

“No.” I clear my throat when it comes out scratchy. I try to speak again, but it seems I’ve lost my voice.

Severio snarls like an animal and pushes up on his elbows. His hands sweep over my body, prodding the place where I felt the warmth. It must be blood.

“She’s bleeding,” Gordon says.

It is blood.

“Nah, that’s mine,” Severio answers.

“Where are you hit?” Gordon asks.

Severio scoots over, dragging his left leg, leaving a trail of blood behind. He leans against the railing, and Gordon kneels next to him. He pulls out a knife, and rips open Severio’s pants. Blood gushes out of Severio’s thigh, and I start to cry.

They’re great big ugly tears, and snot’s coming out of my nose and mixing with the debris I’m lying in that I can’t seem to get up from.

Gordon puts pressure on Severio’s wound.

More blood comes from Severio’s leg. I should get up and help, but my body’s locked, my mind unable to unlock it and move me. It’s as if I’m paralyzed. Am I? The moment the thought enters my head, I hitch a breath, my mouth opening.

I look up and catch Severio’s blue-eyed gaze. He’s shockingly calm.

“You’re okay,” he says to me, even though he’s the one being treated. “Keep your eyes on me,” he says. It’s a command if I ever heard one. “Don’t look around.”

“Okay,” I manage to choke out.

“Severio!” a man shouts from downstairs. “I’m coming up! Severio, answer me!”

Severio curses and extends a hand. “Come to me.” He turns his head toward the villa’s entry, and I register fear on his face. Who is coming up? Oh my God, they’re coming to finish us off.

I try to get up, but can’t because my body isn’t ready, my mind still trying to recover from shock.

I get up on my hands and knees and almost collapse like a newborn calf. “I can’t stand.” I cry harder, pleading with Severio to leave me on the floor.

“Crawl to me.” He tries to get to me, but Gordon pushes him back with a firm hand over Severio’s chest.

Corrado barges onto the terrace with guns in each hand, his face twisted in an animalistic snarl. He takes a single look around and points one piece at me, the other at the body on the floor.

“Crawl to me now!” Severio shouts, and in fear for my life, I do as he says.

Corrado shouts as he empties both weapons. I cover my ears and scream silently now because I have no more voice while Severio tucks me against him as much as he can. Not for the first time in my life, I wish I were smaller. Smaller women make smaller targets.

Silence descends.

“You’re fine,” Severio says into my temple. I’ve tucked my face into the crook of his neck as if he was sand for my ostrich head. I inhale the cologne I associate with him, but now I also inhale dirt, blood, and gunpowder.

“Where are you hit?” Corrado asks from right next to me.

My body freezes again, and Severio tucks me even closer, if that’s possible.

“Take it easy,” Severio says. “I’ll live.”

“I am taking it easy,” Corrado says, clearly enraged. “I let the girl live. My uncle is dead. And the only reason Gordon is breathing is because he’s my wife’s brother.”

“He shot down the drone.” Severio tries to reason with his brother.

“But not before they got you.”

“Corrado,” Severio says in that same tone he used on me. The one that makes me want to do whatever he asks. His shoulder moves, and I lift up and off him so he can reposition his arm.

I sit beside Severio with my knees folded. When Corrado scoots closer, our knees touch as he leans toward his brother. Severio cups Corrado’s face, and the brothers touch foreheads for a moment. Their closeness makes my heart settle into a regular rhythm again. I can finally take a deep breath and exhale.

“Tell me,” Severio says.

“Everyone is fine,” Corrado answers. “The drone must’ve used silencers because we didn’t hear anything down there on the beach. I happened to have been strolling Rosa when I saw the drone crashing.”

“Where are our girls now?”

“I’m sure on their way up since they saw me running.”

“Paulina can’t see me like this. Gordon, find her and stay with her.”

Gordon salutes him as one would their general. “On it.” He turns to Corrado. “He’s hit in the thigh and the calf. The one in the calf has no exit wound.”

Corrado tucks his weapons into the back of his pants, which draws my gaze to the bullet holes in the terrace floor where, only minutes ago, my body lay covered by Severio’s. Those are Corrado’s bullets. He would’ve killed me like he killed… I swallow, trying not to think about the man’s body on the floor.

Gio. It’s Gio. Oh my God, I was going to marry the man just yesterday.

Renewed tears stream down my cheeks. I’m trying my best to suppress them, wiping my face, my snot, inhaling, but nothing works.

“We need to get you to the hospital,” Corrado says.

Severio shakes his head. “Bring the staff to me.”

“You might need surgery.”

“I know. It’s why I asked for staff.”

“Severio, please,” I beg. “Let them treat you.”

He’s not even looking at me. “Don’t make me repeat myself.”

Corrado grinds his teeth so hard, it’s audible. “Fine. I’ve sent Jesse out, and we’re investigating. Once you’re cleared and our plane departs, I’ll interrogate everyone personally.” Hazel-green eyes meet mine. “Starting with you, princess.”

I’m suspect number one.