Author: Alexa Land
Category: LGBT
Go to read content：https://onlinereadfreenovel.com/alexa-land/page,15,529414-all_in.html
“Dante, you have to try to get help! You have to call an ambulance.” I looked up, realizing that not only was this conversation on speaker phone, but every single person in the bar was staring at me, wide-eyed and hanging on every word. I yelled to the crowd, “How do you call an ambulance in Sicily? What number do you dial?”
Several people including Jamie and Dmitri, who were right beside me, whipped out cell phones and started frantically searching the internet. In just a few seconds a stranger waved his phone and shouted, “One-one-eight! That’s what he has to dial for an ambulance!”
“Dante, you have to dial one-one-eight. Do you hear me? You have to try to get help.”
“Don’t want to hang up.”
I said, “You have to. You have to hang up and then you have to dial one-one-eight.”
“No. Stay with me, Charlie. Please.” His voice was a faint whisper.
“I need you to get help, Dante.” I pressed my eyes shut and said, “I’m going to hang up. I want you to dial one-one-eight the moment we get off the phone. Then I’m going to call you back in one minute.”
“No. Don’t go.”
“Tell me what you’re going to dial when I hang up.” I tried to make my voice firm, even as I shattered with despair.
“One…one…eight?”
“Yes. I love you, Dante. I’ll call you back in one minute.” And I ended the call.
I turned to Christopher and whispered, “Oh God, what did I just do? What if he dies? He wanted me to stay with him. What if he dies in the next minute? I’ll never forgive myself for hanging up on him!”
Christopher pulled me against him, clutching me fiercely. His voice was shaking as he said, “You did the right thing, Charlie. That was his only chance. You have to believe he’s calling for help right now. It was the only thing that could save him.”
I shook and clung to my friend for just a minute, and then I let go and took a deep breath and called Dante back. It was on speaker again, and everyone in the bar held their breath as the phone rang once…twice…three times. On the fourth ring, voice mail picked up. I disconnected and tried again as fear trickled ice cold through my body. Again I got voice mail. I tried again. And again. And again. It went on like this for several minutes, and each time I got the same result.
I completely lost it then, crying so hysterically that I could barely breathe. “Let’s get him home,” someone said. Strong arms were around me, supporting me. I’m not sure what exactly happened after that.
Eventually I realized I was back home, seated on my couch, clinging to Christopher like he was the only thing anchoring me to this earth. I gradually became aware of other people around me as the tears tapered off and were replaced with a cold, aching emptiness. Jamie sat beside me, his hand on my shoulder. Dmitri paced nearby, placing call after call, trying to get information on Dante. Jess sat on the loveseat with a laptop computer, and every time Dmitri hung up, Jess would recite another number, which Dmitri dialed. He’d then say something into the phone in choppy Italian. The only words I could make out were Dante Dombruso.
A gentle hand on my knee made me focus my attention on the person in front of me. Callie sat on the edge of the coffee table, holding a glass of water. “Are you really here?” I asked her, reaching out a fingertip to touch her auburn hair.
“Yes Charlie, I’m here. Jess and I came right over when Jamie texted her. Here sweetie, try to drink a little water.”
I tried to take the glass, but my hand was shaking too hard. So Christopher took it for me and held it to my lips, and I managed a couple choking sips.
Jamie was brushing tears off my face with the back of his hand. He said, “Dmitri and Jess are calling every hospital in Sicily. And Dmitri called Dante’s men, they’re all trying to find him.”
I nodded at that, wrapping my arms tightly around Christopher. “Don’t let go of me,” I whispered to him.
“Not a chance, Charlie.” He kissed my forehead.
“He can’t be dead,” I whispered as he rubbed my back. “He just can’t be. We just found each other. I can’t lose him already.”
“We don’t know what happened,” Christopher said. “So don’t give up, Charlie. I’ll help you hold on to hope.”
Chapter Sixteen
My life felt like a nightmare that I couldn’t wake up from. It had been seventeen hours since Dante’s phone call. My friends stayed with me in shifts, except for Jamie and Christopher, who stayed with me constantly. I didn’t sleep, and couldn’t eat. The only thing I did was lay in bed staring at my phone, which was plugged in on my nightstand.
Christopher went to the kitchen and Jamie sat down beside me on the mattress, the two of them working out a wordless choreography to make sure I was never left alone. Jamie brushed my hair back from my forehead and said softly, “You need to try to rest, Charlie. You won’t miss anything. The phone’s right there, and if it rings, it’ll wake you. I’ll wake you. I’ll sit right here while you sleep.”
I shook my head, staring intently at the phone, as if concentrating hard enough would somehow make it ring. “Go home to your husband, Jamie,” I mumbled.
“I’m not going anywhere until I know you’re ok, Charlie.”
“But I’m never going to be ok. Not if he’s gone. I don’t know how I’ll survive it.”
“I’ll help you. You’ll get through it,” he said.
Christopher came back then, climbing up onto the bed and snuggling against me. He rested a little bowl on his leg and hand-fed me something that I didn’t taste as he said, “We still don’t know what happened. We’re not going to give up hope.” He shot Jamie a look as he fed me another bit of food.
Hours dragged, one after the other in a painfully slow procession. I started to doze just a little, despite myself, until the ringing of my phone jarred me awake. I grabbed it so quickly that I almost knocked over the lamp on my nightstand. Jamie’s hand shot out to catch it as I fumbled with the on button and blurted, “Hello?”
“Charlie. My angel.”
“Dante?” I yanked the power cord out of the phone and sat bolt upright, praying this wasn’t a dream.
“God, it’s good to hear your voice.” His own voice was faint, groggy, scratchy. It was the most wonderful thing I’d ever heard in my entire life.
“Darling, where are you?”
“Rome. In a hospital. Just woke up from surgery. Had to call you right away.”
“Dante, what happened?”
“Was shot.” He sounded even groggier, as if talking was wearing him out. “Called an ambulance, like you said. Guess they found me. How long was I out?”
“Almost –” I looked at the clock “– twenty three hours. The longest of my life.”
“Nurse is trying to take the phone away. I’ll call you soon, ok?” I heard a woman’s voice speaking to him in agitated Italian, and then the line went dead.
“He’s alive. Thank God he’s alive,” I murmured, overcome with relief and gratitude.
“Where is he?” Jamie asked. He was sitting at my bedside, looking tired and rumpled in clothes from a day ago.
“A hospital in Rome. He just came out of surgery.”
Christopher smiled at me. “If he’s strong enough to call, he’s obviously doing ok. I’m so happy for you, Charlie.”
Jamie sent off a quick text, and then he stood up and said, “I just told Dmitri that Dante checked in from a Roman hospital. He’ll tell Dante’s men to call off the hunt. I’m going to go home and get some sleep, unless you need anything, Charlie.”
I shook my head. “Thanks for staying with me, Jamie. You’re a good friend. Please tell Dmitri and Callie and Jess thank you for all they did, too.”
He reached out and squeezed my shoulder. “I will.”
After he left, Christopher took my cell phone from my hands and plugged it back in on the nightstand, then turned the light off and pulled the covers over both of us. “Thank you for being so strong for me, Christopher Robin,” I murmured, kissin
g the top of his head. “I don’t know how I would have gotten through this without you.”
“I didn’t really do anything,” he whispered, already falling asleep. “But you’re welcome.”
The next time he called was almost eighteen hours later. I snatched my ringing phone off the nightstand and answered it with, “Dante?”
“Hi angel. Sorry it took me so long to call back. They gave me something that knocked me out.”
I grinned and said, “You sound a lot better.”
“Was I even speaking in complete sentences when I called before? The anesthesia hadn’t really worn off yet.” Dante’s voice was still a bit thin, his breathing slightly labored.
“You were, actually. How do you feel?”
“Like I’ve been shot four times.”
“Oh God.”
“I’ll tell you all about it when I see you.”
“When will that be?” I asked, expecting him to say it would be days or weeks before he was well enough to travel.
“In about fourteen hours.” He drew in his breath as if something was hurting him, then let it out slowly.
“What? They didn’t really let you out of the hospital already, did they?”
“I wouldn’t exactly describe it as let me, but I am out of the hospital and on my way to the airport.”
“Dante, you’ve been shot. You just had surgery!” I exclaimed. “What are you doing?”
“I’m coming home to you, angel. And once I get there, I’m never leaving your side again. I was so fucking stupid to break up with you. I need to be with you.”
“But it’s too soon! You’re going to hurt yourself.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“So, it must be a Dombruso thing,” I said, knitting my brows. “I thought it was just your grandmother. But apparently the whole family has a pathological need to flee hospitals.”
He chuckled a little, then said, “Ow.”
“How are you getting to the airport? Don’t tell me you hopped in a cab!”
“No, I’m on a stretcher in an ambulance, hooked to an IV. I hired a doctor and two nurses to come with me on the plane I chartered, to make sure I survive the flight.”
“Dante, this sounds incredibly risky. You need to go back to the hospital!”
“I’ll check into a hospital when I get to San Francisco. The medical team will keep me stable until then.”
“Dante, why are you doing this? I’m so afraid you’re going to hurt yourself. Why are you in such a hurry to come back here?”
“I told you, Charlie. I need to be with you.”
“That’s not enough of a reason to take chances with your health like this!”
“I’m doing this as safely as I can, angel. And I am coming home to you. I won’t spend one more night apart from you.”
I sighed and said, “You’re epically stubborn. Do you know this about yourself?”
I could hear the smile in his voice when he said, “I do know that. And do you know I’m completely in love with you?”
Now it was my turn to smile. “Yeah? You’re sticking with that, even now that you don’t think you’re dying?”
He chuckled a little, but it quickly turned into a grunt of pain. And then he said, “I love you, Charlie. Thinking I was dying only accelerated telling you what I’ve been feeling for awhile.”
“I love you too, Dante. When I thought I’d lost you, my whole world ended.”
“I’m so sorry to worry you like that. And I’m so sorry for breaking up with you, and for chaining you to Austin – God I was an asshole. I’m so sorry for all of it.” After a moment he added quietly, “I’m sorry for putting my need for revenge ahead of you, knowing it could get me killed.”
“I understand why you had to do that,” I said. “Is it over now? Is Natori dead?”
“Yes, he’s dead. But so are a lot of other people. He killed all three of the men I brought with me. They were good men, and they died for my vendetta,” he said, his voice full of regret. “There’s been so much blood spilled. So much. But no more. I accomplished what I needed to do, and now I’m retiring, handing the family business over to my cousins. I’m through.”
He gasped in pain, and I asked frantically, “Are you ok, Dante?”
“Yeah. The ambulance just hit a rut in the road.”
“Where are you hurt?”
“I was shot in the left arm and the right wrist, and both those bullets broke bones. I have casts on each arm. Another bullet passed through my chest cavity, but missed all my organs. A fourth lodged in my thigh and severed a major artery, but the surgeons patched it up.”
“Oh my God! How are you even holding the phone?”
“I’m not,” he said. “I’m wearing a headset.”
“I can’t believe you’re travelling in that condition. It’s insanely risky.”
“The only risk is letting you see me like this. I really can’t imagine why you’d still want me once you see me this pathetic and broken. But I’m swallowing my pride and rushing home to you anyway Charlie, because I miss you so much.” His voice was getting really raspy now, and was made even worse by clearing his throat. “We’re pulling up to the airport now.”
“Have you made plans for your arrival at SFO?”
“Yeah. A private ambulance will be taking me to Rosewood. Maybe I’ll get Nana’s old room,” he said lightly.
“Call me as soon as you’re on the ground.”
“I will, angel.”
When we finally said our goodbyes, I fell back onto the bed. He was coming home. He was probably totally endangering his health in doing so, but my Dante was coming home to me.
Chapter Seventeen
Christopher Robin and I had been playing canasta with Mrs. Dombruso all evening in the lobby at Rosewood. She’d roped in a little old man to be our fourth, and we were no match for the senior card sharps. Finally, Mr. Previn was ordered back to bed by one of the nurses, and we had to call it quits.
I sat beside Mrs. Dombruso, not really watching the local news and glancing at the time every few seconds. “He ought to be landing soon,” she said, noting my restlessness and patting my hand. Dante’s flight had faced weather delays at foggy SFO, and I didn’t even know if he was on the ground yet.
“I can’t believe he’s doing this. What if he had a medical emergency while on the plane? He’s taking such a risk. He should have stayed in Rome until he was a little more stable,” I ranted, not for the first time.
“He misses his sweetie pie,” she said. He’d called her this morning as well, and had told her he was rushing home to me.
“I miss him too, but I’m worried sick. What if his condition took a turn for the worse while he was in the air? And he’s so stubborn, he wouldn’t be talked out of this terrible idea.”
“You’d better get used to stubborn, Charlie.”
Christopher returned with a couple snacks from the vending machine. “Did you bring me something?” she asked him.
“Yes ma’am,” Christopher said, handing her the candy bars. She stashed one in the pocket of her purple velour track suit (which came with a matching bedazzled purple velour baseball cap) and unwrapped the other. We’d discovered over the course of the evening that Mrs. Dombruso had a raging sweet tooth and a penchant for junk food.
My phone rang and I lunged for it, knocking it off the armrest of my chair. I snatched it up with a breathless, “Dante?”
“Hi, angel.”
I sighed with relief and slumped in my chair. “Hi sweetheart. How do you feel?”
“Not bad. The doctor gave me something that knocked me out for most of the flight.”
I grinned and said, “You sound a little loopy.”
“Yeah, sedatives and narcotic pain killers’ll do that to ya.”
“Are you still at SFO?”
“Nope. I would have called sooner, but I just woke up a minute ago.”
“So where are you?”
“I’m right here, Charlie.” That came n
ot from the phone, but from the double doors that had just slid open.
I dropped the phone and raced to his side. Dante was pale and exhausted looking on a stretcher pushed by a nurse, tubes, machines and bandages everywhere. But he was also smiling. I simultaneously burst out laughing and crying, all my worry, all my fear colliding with my relief at seeing him here, alive, with me. Dante reached under his blanket and pulled out a clean, white, monogrammed handkerchief, holding it up to me between the index and middle fingers of his broken right hand. I laughed and cried even harder as I took the handkerchief from him and wiped my eyes.
And then I leaned over and kissed him, lightly, carefully. He moaned against my lips and returned the kiss urgently, passionately, as I held his face between my hands. When we finally broke apart, I looked into his beautiful dark eyes and whispered, “I love you, Dante.”
He smiled up at me, his eyes sparkling even through the narcotic haze, and said, “I love you too, angel.”
“What are all of you looking at?” Mrs. Dombruso demanded from somewhere close behind me. “So my grandson is a gay homosexual. You got a problem with that? If so, you can all go fuck yourselves.”
I glanced up and realized we had quite an audience. Several doctors and nurses crowded the lobby, all in various stages of embarrassment. In the past, this would have mortified me, but right now I really didn’t give a shit. I only cared that my Dante was here with me.
“Hi Nana,” Dante said with a drugged up grin. “Hi Austin.” I looked over my shoulder and saw Mrs. Dombruso leaning on Christopher, her arm linked with his. He was grinning at me happily.
“The boy’s name is Christopher Robin,” Mrs. Dombruso corrected.
“It is? I didn’t realize,” said Dante, knitting his brows as his foggy brain tried to make sense of that.
It took over half an hour for the medical team to get Dante set up in his room and perform a thorough check of all his vital signs. I sat in a chair in the corner and watched as the Italian doctor explained in choppy English and elaborate hand gestures the extent of Dante’s injuries to the three American doctors. Mrs. Dombruso bustled in with Christopher’s assistance, and kissed her grandson on the forehead before swearing at him for a good ten minutes for flying home in his condition.