Chapter Twenty-Five Red and Blue

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE RED AND BLUE

Everything was red and blue. A line of heavily armed policeman surrounded the exit. We stumbled forward, and I slipped into the role of terrified-innocent-teenager more easily than I had hoped possible. I was crying so loudly my voice was resonating with the sirens’ pitch. Luca held my head against him and whispered fake nothings into my hair. His fingers pressing tighter and tighter against the wound, the nausea curling in my stomach.

Over my head, I heard him speaking to the policemen. ‘She’s in shock. She was in the bathroom when it started. I had to drag her out of the stall.’

I pressed my face into his jacket, and wailed some more.

The cops were asking Luca questions about the shooter. He was batting them away expertly. ‘I don’t know. I was with my girlfriend the whole time. She had a panic attack. Can I take her home?’

I sniffed again. My face had grown deathly pale.

Seeming satisfied and somewhat distracted by our display, the cops ushered us behind them, out of the way, and we joined a huddle of students being herded back from the entrance.

I turned my face to Luca, blinking him into focus.

He was already looking at me, a frown rippling across that smooth composure. ‘How is it now?’ he asked. ‘I’ll ease up the pressure.’

‘I need to lie down.’

He pulled me tighter against him, so I was half leaning, half standing. ‘I’m taking you to the hospital. Vita will have a look at you there.’

‘No,’ I groaned, my head lolling against him. ‘Please, no hospitals.’

‘I’m not taking any chances, Soph.’

‘No outsiders.’

‘Vita is Paulie’s wife. She’s a doctor.’

‘No hospitals,’ I laboured. ‘Can’t you bring Vita to us? If the Marinos came to a school, I doubt they’ll have any moral hesitancies about barging into a hospital. You didn’t see Donata. She’s baying for blood. She’s a loose cannon now.’ I nearly flopped over from the effort of those few sentences.

Luca seemed to be considering it, because instead of arguing back, he went silent. He knew I was right. It was too dangerous, and my condition wasn’t serious enough to warrant the risk.

‘I’ll figure something out,’ he said at last, the words filtered through a sigh.

We hobbled further away from the crowds, but not far enough to stop Millie spotting us and making a beeline for us. Cris struggled to stay arm in arm with her; only Millie could sprint like that in heels.

‘Sophie!’ She tried to grab me by my arm.

‘Don’t!’ Luca pulled me backwards. ‘Don’t touch her.’

Millie dropped her hand as if I had burnt her. She narrowed her eyes at Luca, then at me. They widened, just a fraction, taking in my appearance. ‘What. The. Actual. Bloody. Hell. Is. Going. On?’

‘I don’t know,’ I said quickly. My eyes were telling a different story. Don’t talk about this in front of Cris. ‘It all happened so fast. I think the shooter’s still in there.’

Millie was having a hard time piecing everything together. I was deathly pale and hanging by a thread. Every passing second, I was leaning more on Luca and less on my own two feet. I had to get the wound seen to. I had to lie down. I turned to look up at him, and as quietly as I could, I told him, ‘I think I’m going to pass out.’

‘We have to go,’ he told Millie shortly. ‘Immediately.’

Millie clocked what was happening – well, maybe not the whole thing, but she could see the strength draining out of me and the urgency creeping into Luca’s voice.

‘To Evelina ?’ she asked him.

‘What’s Evelina ?’ said Cris.

‘Yes,’ Luca said to Millie.

‘Are you OK, Sophie?’ Cris said, watching me now too. ‘You don’t look so good.’

‘I got a fright,’ I said, trying to force my head up straight. ‘I had a panic attack in the bathroom.’

Cris wasn’t buying it exactly, but he was a million miles off the truth and I could tell he was more concerned about Millie than me. Luca started to wheel us off in the direction of his car. ‘We’ll catch up with you later, Millie,’ he said, a note of warning in his voice. ‘You and Cris should head home.’

Millie was watching us closely, whatever she wanted to say clamped down on her tongue. It wasn’t the right time. ‘I’ll come with you guys. Cris, babe—’ She turned around to her boyfriend, fluttered her lashes and made her voice go all gooey. ‘I’m going to go back with Sophie and make sure she’s OK. I’ll call you in a little while.’

‘Millie, I don’t think—’ Luca began.

‘Let her come,’ I hissed. ‘She knows.’

‘She’s a liability,’ Luca muttered.

I pinched him in the arm. ‘She’s my best friend, and trust me, she’s not going to let this go.’

Cris slid his arm around Millie. ‘I’ll just go with you,’ he said, still half perplexed.

‘I’ll call you soon,’ Millie said more firmly. She wriggled out from under his arm. ‘Soph’s having a hard time and I need to be there for her.’

I elongated my face and did the most unattractive grimace I could muster up. ‘I’m so scared, Cris,’ I said. ‘I feel like I might break down any second.’

‘What about him?’ Cris pointed at Luca, but was still looking at Millie. ‘He’s with her.’

‘I don’t care,’ said Millie brusquely. ‘In times like this, a girl needs her best friend. I’ll call you later. I promise.’ She gave him a quick kiss on the lips and then turned on her heel. She took my other arm, and Luca steered us, arm in arm, to his SUV.

Millie dropped her voice. ‘Has she been shot?’

‘Yes,’ Luca said. ‘Just a little.’

‘Just a little ?!’ Millie released an impressive string of curses. ‘You have a lot of explaining to do, Falcone.’

‘I told her not to follow me.’

‘Shut up!’ I snapped. ‘Of course I was going to follow you.’

Luca shook his head. ‘You are so frustrating.’

‘Are we going to the hospital?’ Millie interrupted.

‘No,’ I said. ‘It didn’t go into my shoulder.’

‘I’m getting her help,’ Luca said.

‘You’d better be,’ Millie snapped.

We climbed into the SUV. Luca hopped in the front and started the engine.

‘How are you feeling?’ Millie asked me.

‘A little bit like death,’ I said weakly.

‘Don’t even joke about that, Soph. And please tell me I did not see Donata and your uncle speeding away from the school a few minutes ago?’

‘About that…’

‘Oh, Jesus.’

‘Sorry,’ I murmured. The pain was starting to subside, but the heat was still raging through my arm.

Millie frowned at me. ‘When we get to Evelina , you’re telling me everything.’

‘Mil, I—’

‘No,’ she snapped, cutting me off. ‘I don’t know what went down tonight but I know you are in a whole lot more danger than you’ve been letting on, so if you want me to be your friend, then you’re going to have to let me in. No ifs, no buts.’

Luca was watching us in the rear-view mirror. ‘Sophie’s taken a vow,’ Luca reminded her. ‘She can’t tell you anything.’

‘Excuse you?’ Millie scooted forward, her head jutting between the front seats. ‘Luca Falcone, you can shove that vow right up your—’

‘Millie!’ I interrupted, yanking her back. ‘It’s all right. I’ll tell you.’

Millie folded her arms, her narrowed gaze on the back of Luca’s head. ‘You come to my dance and endanger my best friend by going off shooting your gun at random people and then you expect me to wave you off without so much as a single question as to what the hell went on. Meanwhile, my best friend is suffering from a gunshot wound – and let me tell you something, pretty boy, if I find out it was you who shot her, I will yank every perfect hair out of your head one by one and then slam my fist into your face. I swear to God, you’d better hope the explanation for this shitstorm is water-tight, because it will be your funeral if—’

‘ I didn’t shoot her,’ Luca cut in. ‘Don’t insult me.’

‘Do you want a medal?’ she retorted. ‘Because the way I see it, you were the last person with her, and now she’s all shot up.’

‘I told you to stay put.’

‘I’m in charge of my own actions,’ I interjected. ‘So how about you stop blaming each other?’

‘OK,’ said Luca. ‘Shall I blame you, then?’

‘For not staying behind while you went charging to your death?’ I supplied.

‘Stop hate-flirting, you two,’ Millie interrupted. ‘Who was it? Who the hell shot her? Was it Donata? Was it Jack ? Who do I have to maim now?’

I almost laughed. No fight skills or guns or training, and Millie was perpetually undaunted in the midst of all these assassins.

‘Zola Marino,’ Luca replied. ‘Donata’s daughter. I shouldn’t have gone after her. She’s a loose cannon. I was afraid of what she’d do to get your attention, Sophie, to pull you away from the crowds. I was afraid who else she might hurt in her attempt to flush you out. I was trying to neutralize her.’ He stopped to bite off a curse. ‘I should have looked for Donata first. For your uncle. I made the wrong call.’

‘Wait, you went after Sara’s sister?’ Millie asked. ‘What the hell was she doing at our dance? Does she go to Cedar Hill High?’ She paused, then sucked in a gasp. ‘Wait, is she dead now? Did you kill her?’

Luca and I exchanged a look in the mirror. God. Where to begin? Millie didn’t even know about our involvement with Libero. She didn’t know about the blood war. She didn’t know about what I was planning. She didn’t know about anything.

Luca was having the same thought. He scrubbed his hand across his forehead, a heavy sigh filling up the lingering silence.

Millie sat back, her face turned towards the roof of the car. ‘OK,’ she said calmly. ‘The way I see it, you both have two choices. You can sit here covered in your lies and your silence and keep exchanging furtive glances right in front of me and thinking that I don’t notice, or one of you can open your mouth and start talking.’

‘I’m inclined to go for number one,’ Luca said.

Millie blew a laugh at him. ‘That was a fake option, Luca. If I have to track down every Marino in Chicago to find out what the hell went down tonight, then I will. You think Sophie is stubborn? Well, let me introduce you to Sophie 2.0.’

A laugh trickled out of me. ‘It’s a very long story, Mil.’

‘Well, then,’ she said confidently, ‘lucky for you we have a long drive.’