Chapter 7 - The Crimson Vows
When Lauren opened her eyes, the smell of antiseptic was the first thing she noticed. For a terrifying second, she thought she was back in Suite 404 at Mercy Grace.
But the room was different. It was the underground medical suite of the Cassano estate. The lighting was soft, and the steady, rhythmic beep of her own heart monitor was slow and calm.
She tried to shift, but a sharp sting in her abdomen made her gasp.
"Don't move," a low voice said from the darkness beside her bed.
Alessandro was sitting in a chair, his white shirt replaced by a clean black sweater. His forearm was bandaged, and his face looked hollow, shadows deep under his eyes. He looked as if he hadn't slept in days.
"Where is Matteo?" Lauren managed to ask, her throat dry as sand.
"He’s upstairs with his mother. He doesn't have a scratch on him," Alessandro said. He stood up, leaning over her bed to pour a glass of water, gently holding the straw to her lips. Lauren drank gratefully, the cool liquid soothing her burning throat.
"The bullet passed through your oblique muscle," Alessandro explained, his voice flat but intense. "It missed your vital organs by an inch. My private surgeon patched you up. You've been out for thirty-six hours."
Lauren looked away, staring at the ceiling. "Your world... it’s too loud, Alessandro. I’m just a nurse. I can't live in a fortress that gets blown up."
"The fortress is clean now," Alessandro said. He reached out, his long fingers gently catching her chin, forcing her to look back at him. His touch was incredibly warm, devoid of the violence that defined his life. "The man who sold the codes was my brother-in-law's cousin. He thought Moretti would make him a king. He’s gone. And the Moretti family... they no longer exist in the city of Chicago. By tomorrow morning, their assets will belong to Isabella."
Lauren’s breath caught. The sheer speed and brutality of his vengeance was terrifying, but as she looked into his dark eyes, she didn't see a monster. She saw a man who would burn the world to ashes just to keep the people he cared about safe.
"Why do you stay here, Alessandro?" she asked softly. "With all your money, you could leave. You could take Isabella and Matteo and go somewhere where no one knows your name."
Alessandro’s thumb gently traced the line of her jaw, a slow, lingering movement that made her heart skip a beat on the monitor. "I used to think I stayed for the power, Lauren. For the legacy my father left behind. But sitting in this chair for thirty-six hours, watching your monitor... I realized I don't care about the city anymore."
He leaned closer, his forehead almost touching hers. "I stayed to make sure the woman who saved my family was safe. But I realized the only way to truly keep you safe... is to make you untouchable. I want you to stay, Lauren. Not as a nurse. As my wife."
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The monitor let out a sudden, rapid sequence of beeps as Lauren’s heart rate spiked. "Alessandro... you're crazy. I’m a regular person. Your people... they won't accept a floor nurse from the south side."
"My people accept who I tell them to accept," he said, his voice dropping to a fierce, possessive whisper. "And I don't want a woman from my world. I want the woman who looked at a flatline and refused to let death win. I want you."
