Marco

"Roxi, wake up!Where is the fucking doctor?!" Kary is screaming in the hospital hallway.

I can still feel her pulse but it's getting weaker. Please, Roxi, stay with me. This cannot end like this. You did nothing wrong. Ever. The only thing you did is caring for other people so much it hurt you.

You should have stayed in the plane...

'I want to be where you are.' Well so do I. And if it's in the eternal darkness then it's probably anyway overdue for me.

A young female doctor is walking towards us. Behind her are two nurses with a cart.

"Mettila giù, per favore./Put her down, please."

I do that. She looks at Roxi a bit too long without doing anything.

"È stata colpita nella parte superiore dell'addome da circa tre metri di distanza. La traiettoria del proiettile era verso l'alto. Non c'è una ferita d'uscita. Da quella posizione, probabilmente ha rotto una costola, ha colpito il pancreas e un rene e, si spera, non lo stomaco./She was shot in the upper abdomen from about three meters distance. The trajectory of the bullet was upwards. There is no exit wound. From the position it probably cracked a rib, hit the pancreas and a kidney, and hopefully not the stomach," I say, holding back a sigh.

"Si... Si, davvero/.Yes... Yes indeed," say the doctor looking at me rather strangely. "Lei è un dottore, signore?/Are you a doctor, sir?"

"No, io... sono solo bravo con le armi da fuoco,/No, I... Am just good with fire arms."

"Le hai fatto questo allora?!/Did you do this then?!"

"English, please, ma'am. And whatever you are saying is rather irrelevant anyway. My friend is over there. Stop looking at him as if you saw the grim reaper and do your job or I will see you don't have one anymore after the shift is over." Kary does act on all her feelings and I want to hug her to still the pain I feel too.

"This is unnecessary rude, miss..." the doctor is astonishingly calm.

"No, it's not. Time can be critical and I don't want to burry the only other person in the world I care about. Do something. Now!"

"We are going to. I was just astonished that her state is rather good given the conditions. The OR is ready. We were told you were going to come. And yes, I am the best in my field in Rome, even if I look young."

Kary is speechless for a second.

I touch Roxi's face one more time and she tries to open her eyes.

"Don't go..." she whispers and my heart skips a beat.

"No. I will be here when you wake up. Promise."

And the nurses carry her away. I was never keen on praying because I never thought I would deserve the mercy of any god but... Maybe just this one time, if you are there...?

"How did she know we were coming?" Kary whispers and puts a hand on my shoulder.

"I texted grampa. I could let this be fine by just anybody."

"And do you think he would want to help Roxi after, you know...?"

"No. But he knows I would never forgive him if she dies."

It's been one hours and twenty six minutes since Roxi is in surgery. I feel every damn second.

"If she dies, I will hate you forever," says Kary, calmly without looking at me. "I might even tell Aziz to kill you."

I know, Kary. I would hate me too.

"And I hope your idiot brother burns in hell."

"I would understand if you do. And he probably does..."

"Gosh, you really are as self deprecating as she said." Kary looks up and almost smiles. "She hated herself so much for what she did to you."

"Too bad; I didn't hate her at all."

"You are weird." Now it's a real smile. "Will you take her to live with you and your murderer Grampa?"

"Only if she wants to."

"She does."

"Daniel doesn't, though."

"Dani is a child. While I know that the residence of a Mafia boss might not be the best place to grow up, it's only two years left till he is full of age. And... Maybe you can consider boarding school." Her smile makes me smile a bit too.

"And you'll be around?"

"Obviously."

"So he'll be around too?" I take a suggestive look at Aziz, who is talking on the phone some meters away.

"No... I don't know."

"Let me guess. It's complicated."

She looks away out the window.

"No, it's really not, that's the scary part, when it's supposed to be but somehow it works seamlessly and it scares the shit out of you."

"What are you afraid off?"

"Many things. That I spite dad even more and at the same time I want to do that. That he will actually kill me at some point. Yup, he would," she says with a sad smile. "And that I am maybe... Not that gay after more than half of my life it has been big part of my identity."

"Hmm. Liking one boy doesn't make you not like girls anymore. And you are yourself, in your very unique way. Labels are just that."

"Yeah, you must know a thing or two about labels."

After minutes of silence she asks," How do you imagine your wedding?"

The question takes me by most obvious surprises.

"I uh, never thought I would ever get married for a long time. And lately my opinion had to take a step back."

"That's not what I asked."

"I guess only the two of us. Somewhere beautiful and peaceful. Do you think Roxi would like that?"

"Probably. She changed a lot in the last few years. And she likes you a hell lot so I guess if you are there nothing else matters. It's so cute it makes me want to puke."

My girlfriend's best friend has a very peculiar way of expressing herself. It's funny. And talking to her made me not see early enough who was walking into the hospital. The uniform is unmistakeable; an Interpol task force. And if I run now, I will be guilty of whatever they are accusing me off.

There's a price to pay for everything in life; for joy, laughter, relief and... for death. Thirty-seven deaths isn't a casual number. Two of them are particularly crushing. I have killed my own brother and was ready to kill my fiance. Even if it was not my bullet, Hitomi's death is on my hands too.

I don't even have an idea for which of them they are here for, or who might have done this. Hitomi and the whole clan of Yoshida, the same as other crime families, don't usually rat on each other. They prefer to take each other out without involving the police. It is also that so many people die each year involved in dirty business that the police sometimes don't even bother investigating.

"Marco Medici, you are arrested," one of the officers says in English. His accent is foreign and the look in his eyes is mildly said hateful. Maybe he is even vaguely familiar.

"On what grounds?" I ask calmly.

The other officers surround me. Objectively that's not a bad idea.

"Multiple felonies. Since you are considered extremely dangerous, we reserve the right to discuss the details when you are in custody."

"This is not legat," I state.

"Here is the warrant." He hands me a paper that reads 'suspicion of murder'. Very vague.

"This is not enough. I need to talk to my lawyers."

"Sure... After you are in custody, pretty boy," says the same officer. So he does dislike me personally.

And no, I cannot leave right now.

"Please," I say in the end. "My partner just suffered a major surgery. If you give me a day, I will turn myself in after she is awake and I have talked to her."

"Who do you think we are?" The guy starts laughing. In a way that was naive but worth trying.

I could eliminate all of them in less than a few minutes. But unlike before, I actually want to live and have plans. Not long ago I promised her I will be there and I have to be.

Aziz and Kary look very concerned at the officers putting the handcuffs on. She probably asks herself why I don't resist while he knows very well why.

"I would like to talk to my lawyers," I repeat.

"You don't have any right to anything," says the one again."Move!"

I am not hotheaded... But. For a few second control slips and I elbow the guy with the handcuffs and punch the condescending guy pretty hard. So hard I feel his nose bridge crack under my knuckles.

There is noice and several guns pointed at me under Kary's frightened gaze.

"Filho da puta.../ Son of a bitch," he swears and it dawns on me where we met before.

"Davi, are you alright?" asks one of his colleagues.

"Yeah. Take him," he whispers while whipping the blood off his face. "That's another five years for assault," he spits at me.

"Karyme, take care of Roxi," I manage to say while they drag me away.

She nods and walks towards Aziz who witnessed all this steel faced.

It's dark and silent in the cell they put me in. We are not in Italy anymore. It's probably Germany or so. Meanwhile, the news of the explosion has surely made it to the world. Yoshi and his men might have cleaned up the place of the ambush too, but I am not sure if that cleanup is in my interest.

They let me here for hours in the dark. That's how they usually do it to wear prisoners down. And it works. It works because I don't know how Roxi is, if she is our of surgery, if she is frightened or disappointed... If she is in pain.

"You are finally where you belong." I look up. I haven't heard this voice often enough to memorize it but who else would say this in these circumstances?

"Did you come to enlighten me about the charges?" He looks as if he didn't sleep. Can't help wondering what he had been thinking of. Why Roxi left him for a guy like me? A murderer and a gangster? That's a legitimately good question, if you are very dumb there is, and you wonder why a girl who you were violent towards would do that.

"No. I will keep you wondering."

"Then why did you come?"

"To tell you that you will rot in prison and Roxana will be with me, where she belongs."

"No, she will not. With or without me she doesn't want to be with you."

"She is not mentally stable to decide that. And she will be all alone, with her little brother who adores me. The little guy might want to live with me. And then I suppose she will follow. Or I can tell her I will not try to get you the maximum sentence if she is a good girl. She has her wild moments but there are also times when she is really really good and obedient."

He is saying... words, but in front of my mental eye, I see only how I peel the skin off his face.

"God, I regret giving you the benefit of the doubt. It was the right thing to do but the road to hell is paved with good intentions."

"What could you possibly have done?" He lets out a smug laugh. "Fucking nothing, as you cannot now. As you will not when I marry Roxana and she will have my children. Lots of them."

"Don't touch her."

He comes closer to the bars and so do I.

"I most certainly will. All over. And she will like it as she always did."

"Don't!" It's a low guttural sounds.

"Or what? You will kill me?" he sneers.

I grab his arm and pull him till his forehead hits the bars. He wasn't expecting it. I hold him tight and coil my hand around his neck.

"Yes," I whisper very slowly. "And I will take my time."

He lets out a grunt, gapping for air.

"Is everything all right?" Two officers look at us and come closer.

Well fuck. They point their guns at me and yank him lose. Lucky bastard.

"You will so regret this," he hisses. Then he is the one whispering. "This is attempted murder. You will never get out of here. And remember... All over, again and again and again..."

________________________

Ok, so yeah, this works better. It needs some darkness before we get a sprinkle of something nice... Or not. :D

This time around it's not rushed. Opinions?