Heaven.
He had to be in Heaven.
There were angels in Heaven. Angels with beautiful smiles.
Luca couldn’t remember the last time a woman had smiled at him the way the angel on the adjacent bed was smiling right now.
Well, except for Gabrielle. But she’d been unhappy in the ambulance on their way to the hospital, and unhappier still when the emergency room staff had whisked him away to the operating room.
Would she smile now that he was in Heaven?
His hand drifted to his chest where the doctors and nurses had attached various tubes and wires beneath his hideous gown in an attempt to save him. He had tried to explain that he could not maintain la bella figura when his boxers were on display, and he required something more appropriate to his dignity than a hospital gown. Even Gabrielle had agreed. Her face had been wet with tears when his trousers were cut off and the gown draped around his person. He wished he could have seen her smile one last time. He also wished he could have died wearing his clothes.
Miss you.
He blinked to clear his vision, and focused his gaze on the angel who sat on a hospital bed across the room. Her eyes were the blue of the endless sky, and her hair the gold of the sunlight as it streamed through the stained-glass windows of his mother’s church.
Someone must have put in a good word at the Pearly Gates because he would definitely remember if he’d spent a year in confession.
“Devo essere morto ed ora mi trovo in paradiso perchè è proprio un angelo quello che vedo di fronte a me.”
He heard the murmur of voices, and then the angel’s smile broadened. “Your mother is on the phone. She told me I had to call the minute you woke up. She heard you and she says that roughly translates as, ‘I have died and gone to heaven. I see an angel.’ She’s on her way now with a little something for you to eat. I think she’s also angry that you got shot again, but I haven’t learned many Italian curse words so maybe she was shouting for joy.”
And didn’t that just wake him up. When his mother was angry enough to curse, people suffered.
But he still saw an angel.
On a hospital bed.
“Gabrielle? Are you hurt?” He tried to push himself up, but pain lanced through his chest and he sank back on the pillow.
“I’m fine. I just wanted to stay with you so you didn’t wake up alone.” She slid off the bed, and walked over to him, then stroked a soft finger along his jaw. “You were in surgery for hours and then you slept for an entire day. I was very annoyed that you threw yourself in the path of Jeff’s bullet, but Don Toscani came by and he said it’s a habit of yours.”
“Don Toscani saw me in the hospital gown?”
“Everyone saw you. Your mother saw you, Angela saw you, Alex saw you, Matteo saw you, your crew saw you, and Frankie, Mike, Paolo, and Sally G…”
“Enough.” He held up his hand. “Where are my clothes? I must dress.”
“You didn’t have a shirt on when you decided to try and stop a bullet with your chest, and the medics cut off your pants because they were worried you had kidney damage from the beating. So the gown is all you’ve got. Suck it up.”
He lifted an eyebrow in response to her disrespect, but she just laughed. And it was a beautiful sound.
“You weren’t hurt?” He covered her hand, pressing it against his cheek.
“No, thanks to you. But Jeff is dead. Frankie shot him after he shot you. I’m good with that. I didn’t need revenge to fulfill me anymore. And I don’t think I could have handled taking a life—especially his life. I think justice was served, and David is at peace.”
“Poor bella.” He squeezed her hand. “So much loss.”
“Good things came of it,” she said. “The FBI rounded up all the members of his operation, and we’ve cut off a major drug supply into the city.”
“Your department must be proud of you.”
She twisted her lips to the side. “Well … I’ve actually been suspended for going rogue. I broke a lot of rules doing what I did. Apparently using information that was accessed without authorization from the police database to hunt down a drug lord and break into his house to save your boyfriend from being tortured is frowned upon, even if the drug lord is a dirty cop. Good thing I didn’t mention my boyfriend’s crime connections or the half a million dollars of dirty money that Paolo thought to scoop up before the police arrived.”
“The boyfriend is pleased that you went rogue to save him,” he said. “Not so pleased you put yourself and your job at risk.”
“I think I always had a bit of rebel in me. You just helped me see it. It may also have come out when I found Clint beating on Nicole at our house. Not that he’ll ever report my use of excessive force. He moved away after our altercation. I don’t think he’ll bother Nicole again.”
Luca couldn’t help but smile. “I wish I’d seen that.”
“You probably would have told me it was dangerous and tried to stop me.”
He turned his head to kiss her palm. “I love you, Gabrielle. I will always want to protect you, whether it’s having your back or being by your side.” But what was he going to do now that Garcia was out of the picture? Leaving her as Nico had directed was not an option, but Cosa Nostra would never let him go, and the penalty for breaking the rule against associating with cops …
Dare he believe in miracles?
“What will happen with your job?” he asked.
Her eyes sparkled, and he felt a quiver of excitement in her hand. “I’ve only talked about this with my commander on the phone, but because everything turned out well, it looks like I’ll be given a choice of leaving on good terms or staying to face disciplinary charges.”
Luca steeled his face to a neutral expression. He didn’t want to push her one way or the other. Regardless of her decision, he would find a way for them to be together. But if she did leave …
Gabrielle’s lips quivered with a smile. “Stop looking at me like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like you don’t know what I would choose.”
Hope flared in his chest. “What will you choose, mio angelo?”
She leaned over and pressed a soft kiss to his lips. “I choose you.”