Home > Shadow Storm (Shadow Riders #6)(7)

Shadow Storm (Shadow Riders #6)(7)
Author: Christine Feehan

She was already at the bed, staring down at Valentino Saldi, the love of her life, the man she would have died for, killed for, given up her entire life for. There was too much blood on his clothes, soaking into the sheets.

“He needs to be in a hospital.”

“If I could take him to a hospital, I would have,” Dario snapped. “Tell me what to do.”

There was only one thing she could do if she was going to save Val’s life. “You’ll have to trust me, Dario. You won’t like this, but he’s going to die if I don’t get us help now.”

She yanked out her phone and texted the emergency code to the one person she trusted the most in the world. She knew he would come through, no questions asked. He might flay her alive later, but right now, right when she needed him, he would come fast and bring help and get every single item on the list she sent to him to her as quickly as humanly possible without asking why. Even when she said who it was for and that he’d been shot and that he was dying.

“Dario, is anyone else in this house? I need to know now.” Emmanuelle began removing Val’s shirt as fast as she could. He’d been shot multiple times. She needed to see the entry and exit wounds.

“Giuseppi, his father,” Dario added unnecessarily. “He insisted on holding off Miceli’s army when they came at us while I got Giuseppi out to the SUV. It’s armor plated. By the time I got back, they’d nearly overrun the entire house. Valentino had been shot so many times I thought he was dead, but he’d crawled to the door, and I dragged him out and then carried him to the car. I don’t know if any of our boys made it out alive. We knew Miceli was going to make his move, but we thought he’d wait another couple of weeks. We’d heard he had an auction for young girls coming up. This seemed like a stupid time for him to chance fucking that up, so we weren’t really ready for him.”

That was almost more than Emmanuelle could take in. Miceli was Giuseppi’s brother and Valentino’s uncle. And an auction for young girls? Did he mean Miceli was selling young girls? What the hell was going on? She had to concentrate on saving Valentino. He’d lost too much blood. The wounds didn’t look like they were in bad places, only that he’d lost so much blood he could be bleeding out.

“Is Giuseppi armed?” She stuffed the shirt into the worst of the wounds and pressed down as hard as she could.

“Yes. And I am as well.” He lifted the gun in his hand.

“Does Giuseppi need medical care?” Not once had she taken her gaze from Val’s body, trying to assess exactly how bad he was.

Stefano strode into the room, ignoring Dario who spun around, gripping his Glock and nearly landing on his ass. Her brother went straight to the other side of the bed, his gaze moving over Val, and then ripped back the sheet to begin stripping off his bloody trousers.

“Dario? Is Giuseppi wounded? Are you?” Emmanuelle persisted.

“The old man is fine. I took a couple of hits. Nothing major.”

Stefano glanced over his shoulder. “That’s why you look a little gray and nearly fell on your ass when I walked in. Sit down.”

Few people disobeyed Stefano when he used that tone, but just in case, Emmanuelle wanted to reassure Dario. He was set on guarding Giuseppi and Val.

“My entire family will be showing up, and they’ll be armed to the teeth. They’ll make certain no one gets to them, Dario. Just sit down.” Inside she was chanting Hurry, hurry, hurry, much like Dario had been doing.

Vittorio was next, striding in, and with him were Enzo and Enrica, two of their cousins and bodyguards. They were carrying trays of items. Vittorio had a home on the lake and lived close. He had a small medical unit there and thankfully had many of the things they needed to start the lifesaving process for Valentino.

It was Vittorio who put the IV into Val’s vein, not Emme. Her hands were shaking too badly. Fortunately, their surgeon lived on the lake as well. Stefano had sent a car for him and his team. He was on retainer, paid enough that he came, no questions asked.

While they set up for surgery in the master bedroom, Enzo and Enrica began to unload weapons from the trunk of the car and bring them into the house. They found the main security room and turned on the cameras. Ricco and Mariko arrived next, and Mariko immediately went into the bedroom to help the nurses with Dario. Emmanuelle was sent out under protest.

“Baby, what’s going on?” Giovanni turned up, circling her waist with his arm.

“I’m not certain. Dario sent me an SOS, so I came here. Valentino’s been shot several times. Giuseppi’s in the other room. I’m going to go check on him now. He’s probably very concerned about Val. It looks as if Miceli tried a takeover.”

“Can we expect that his men will show up here to try to finish the job?” Giovanni asked.

“I don’t know.” She didn’t. She didn’t want to be away from Val, but she wasn’t of any use in the surgery room. She wasn’t the nurse or doctor type. She was more the assassin type. “But we should be prepared, just in case.”

She walked quickly down the hall to the closest guest room and knocked on the door before calling out, “Giuseppi? It’s Emmanuelle. Dario called me. May I come in? My brother Giovanni is with me.”

She listened for movement. Giuseppi was older. He and Greta, his wife, had adopted their nephew, Valentino, when his parents had been killed. They’d never had children of their own, and they clearly loved Val. She knew they did. Greta had adored him, and Val had reciprocated that feeling, but then Greta had been easy to love. Both Giuseppi and Valentino were mourning her death from cancer.

“Come in, Emme,” Giuseppi called out. His voice sounded stressed, but he also sounded like the Giuseppi that had ruled an empire for decades. He might have been down, but he wasn’t out. His brother had tried to kill him, but worse, Miceli had tried to kill his son.

Emme made certain to keep her body in front of Giovanni’s. As she came through the door, she could see Giuseppi sitting in a leather chair in front of a gas fireplace, the chair turned toward the door. He had a blanket over his lap, but the gun was on top of the blanket and pointed directly at her.

She ignored the gun and went straight to him, her relief at seeing him alive shocking her. Tears burned behind her eyes. “He’s still alive, Giuseppi,” she whispered, as she hugged him. “Stefano and Vittorio are with him. They brought a surgical team. Dario’s wounded. They’ll work on him, too. I didn’t see how bad Dario was. He refused to even sit down until we had Val prepped for surgery.”

“Dario always looks after Val,” Giuseppi assured her, patting her shoulder. “Let me look at you.” He held her at arm’s length, his eyes running over her. “You look scared for him, Emme. Valentino is strong. He’ll pull through.”

She nodded, but Giuseppi hadn’t seen him. There was so much blood. Too much. She wanted to bury her face in her brother’s chest and sob, but they needed to secure the house. “How many men do you have that you can count on to be loyal?”

Giuseppi sighed. “Valentino and Dario shot four that were traitors in our own house. That saddened me greatly. These men were ones I had known most of their lives. I have no idea how Miceli managed to get to them, but I will find out. I would never have believed they would turn on me.”

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