It was Sandlin’s expression that caught his eye as he looked at the two of them on the couch. He looked as if he was sitting in heaven surrounded by angels. His face held a light as he looked at Sasha as she read to him. Her face held a similar expression. Filled with love. Sweet, unconditional love. His woman had plenty of it to give and she did so without thinking once of the cost to herself.
The light dimmed for a brief second and seemed to sway. Sasha coughed and rubbed her eyes, but continued to read. When she did it a second time, Giovanni saw tiny bits of dust floating in the rays from the bank of overhead lights. It looked for a second as if white powder spun in the flickers. The lights shimmered, as if they’d moved, and he caught a glimpse of a thin transparent line running from the seats in the couch to the light above it.
He was moving before it really registered what was happening. Why the lights kept dimming and appeared to sway. The trip wire one identified with the military. He threw his body over Sandlin and Sasha, covering her head with his shoulders and arms, his body completely blanketing Sandlin so that his chest smashed Sasha’s brother’s face.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The crash, as the bank of lights fell onto Giovanni’s back, reverberated through the room and shook the building. He was hit so hard, for a moment he thought his back was broken. Glass shattered and fell around them, covering the couch. Shards were hot as they pierced through his clothing. The metal rod holding the bank of lights hit across his back and bounced off, rolling onto the floor. Broken plaster rained down, a cloud of it so that for a moment the room seemed white. The ceiling cracked all the way across the room and down one wall. He tried to move his bad leg, but something bit at his calf and hurt like hell.
Emilio was there immediately, pushing the metal rod aside and gently brushing glass and plaster off Giovanni’s back. “Wait, don’t get up,” he cautioned. “You’re covered in blood.”
Giovanni took a moment to assess his physical condition. His back hurt, but it wasn’t as if anything was broken. His calf hurt the worst. He lifted up just a bit, to ease his weight off the two under him. Immediately there was a flare of pain as if needles were poking into his back, but he knew the wounds were more superficial than anything else.
“Sandlin?” Sasha’s voice trembled. “Sandlin, say something. Giovanni? What happened?”
He realized she couldn’t know what had happened. He had her pinned down under him, his arms surrounding her head, his chest over her face. Poor Sandlin was in a very uncomfortable position, but he was alive. Giovanni could feel movement under his body as Sasha’s brother squirmed.
“I’ve got to get off them before I crush them,” Giovanni warned Emilio. In three minutes his entire family was going to show up, and Stefano was going to lose his mind. Emilio would get chewed out and so would Sandlin’s bodyguard. He forced his body to roll off the couch but he landed on his belly. A groan was torn from his throat as pain shot up his injured leg and flashed through his back. He knew he’d been hit with the heavy metal rod. That was the pain in his back. The leg pain worried him. He’d been off work too long waiting for the damn thing to heal to have something go wrong with it.
“Giovanni.” Sasha’s voice soothed him. He could hear the alarm and a part of him was happy she cared enough to be worried.
Emilio’s hand on his shoulder prevented him from pushing up off the floor. He couldn’t see Sasha or Sandlin, but he was aware the staff was already checking on the few patients who had been in the room and hustling them out.
“You’ve got a large piece of glass from one of the lights in your calf,” Emilio explained. “And several pieces in your back. That was an explosion,” he added.
“I got that,” Giovanni said, trying not to laugh at his cousin. Emilio sounded so affronted. “Just get that shit out of me, but check Sandlin first. I think I crushed him.”
“You smashed my face.” Sandlin crouched beside his head, leaning down to peer into his eyes. There was a trace of amusement, as if the man found the entire thing funny. “You have blood all over your back.”
Sasha sat on the floor beside him, stroking caresses in his hair. There were tears running down her face. “You could have been killed. What happened?”
There was no way they could keep this to themselves. The police would already have been called by the staff. He knew the detectives assigned to Sasha’s case would be coming, but Giovanni wasn’t going to tell them anything he had learned—his brothers would get that information. “Baby, don’t cry. I’m all right. The light structure above the couch the two of you were on fell.”
“What the fuck happened, Giovanni?”
That heralded the arrival of his oldest brother. He found himself grinning. He reached for Sasha’s hand, the movement sending another flash of pain through his back. “In case you were wondering, Stefano, I’m all right.”
“You don’t look it. Emilio, where the fuck were you?”
“That’s not a very nice word,” Sandlin said. “Why are you so angry? Giovanni is going to marry Sasha.” He patted Giovanni’s arm. “I have to go now.”
Giovanni could see the man assigned to Sandlin hovering, worry etched into his face. He kept glancing at the ceiling, as if afraid the rest of it would come crashing down. That was entirely possible. “Get Sasha out of here. I don’t want anything falling on her head.”
“I’m not leaving you. The ceiling is fine. It has a few cracks, but it’s intact,” Sasha assured. “Even if the entire thing was falling, I’d be staying, so don’t waste your breath.”
Emilio continued to pull the shards of glass from his back. Giovanni could see that Vittorio had shown up. Taviano came striding into his line of vision. He crouched beside Stefano.
“What happened?” Stefano asked, his voice a thread of sound.
“Bastard definitely has skills when it comes to setting charges. He rigged a line between the couch and the lights and just got lucky that we were all here in one place. Sandlin’s bodyguard mentioned a glass company was working on repairing windows. He kept Sandlin on the other side of the Center. The bastard has military experience, Stefano, which means, since we have his DNA, we should be able to identify him. He’s an expert. That trip wire was nearly in-visible. I just got one glimpse of it because the light shone just right on it,” Giovanni told him.
He wanted to curse at Emilio as the man patiently removed the shards from his back. “Get the one out of my leg. It hurts like a mother.”
“Stop complaining,” Stefano ordered. His hand on Giovanni’s shoulder and the worry in his voice belied his words. “He’s waiting for the doc.”
“I don’t need a doctor. It’s a piece of glass.” Giovanni wanted to sit up. He felt vulnerable lying on the floor facedown. It helped that his brothers had arrived. He could hear Ricco talking to some of the staff, gathering information. “Did the bodyguard go with Sandlin?”
“He’s safe, in his room. The guard is in with him,” Stefano assured.
“Check out Sasha. Make sure she wasn’t hit by any of the glass,” Giovanni ordered.
“I’m fine. You had me completely covered,” Sasha assured.
“Cops are here. Bradshaw and Maverick,” Taviano whispered. “Emmanuelle is giving them quite a performance, wringing her hands and looking as if she’s going to burst into tears any moment. They’re both occupied with reassuring her the world isn’t coming to an end.”
“Anything else you can tell us?” Stefano asked Giovanni.
“He’s clever, methodical and an expert in explosives. He has military training. He isn’t afraid to take chances and he knows how to blend in. He set those charges to blow exactly the direction he wanted them to. He scouted this room and knew this couch was always in poor lighting and the overheads had to be on and it has a lamp if the overheads are off.”
“As long as I’ve been coming here,” Sasha added, her voice pitched low to match Giovanni’s, “no other patient used this couch because of the way it’s always darker in this corner. Sandlin likes it because he thinks of it as his.”