Song above for the chapter: "Find You" Ruelle

FEDERICO

I stare into the abyss of the night sky as the rain falls over me matching the erratic beating of my heart. The darkness is consuming me again. She was the one thing that shone so bright and now everything is dark again.

I blink at the hazy image of her standing over me, she's so beautiful.

"Elenora."

Her name has always brought a sense of warmth to me and I hold onto the warmth hoping it drowns out the coldness of the night with the rain pouring over me.

The image bends down to touch my face. "You're not here," I tell myself. "You're not real. You left...You left me." My vision is starting to fade.

"Rico, I'm here, with you," Her voice tells me, but I know she's gone. She's not coming back. The pain in my chest increases along with a heavy pressure.

The vision of Elenora yells out, she looks around and then begins screaming."No! No! Rico, don't let them take me! Rico!"

I snap into focus and reach for her hand. Our hands only brush against each other before punches and kicks are thrown at me. "No, stop it!"

"Rico! No! Don't let them take me! Rico!"

I'm kicked in the face and everything begins to fade.

"You didn't kill him!"

"He's as good as dead, bro, but I can finish him."

"No, we gotta go, people are going to see us. We got what we came for. Shooting him was just for fun."

________________

Bright lights shine in my eyes as I come and go out of consciousness, but the voices start filtering in.

"Is he going to be okay, Doc?"

"It's too soon to say, but the surgery went well considering how deep the bullet was lodged; he's lost a lot of blood. Has Nora been found?"

"No, no one has seen her and she's not at the penthouse, Luca's hotel or her parents. Clara had her phone during the wedding so there's no way of reaching her. No one knows where she could have gone." Several more voices begin talking all at once.

—"He's going to lose his shit if he wakes up and we don't have her."

—"Where is my baby? Where is my daughter?"

—"Signora Borelli, we have all our men looking for her."

—"What kind of people are you? Why did you have to hurt her like this?"

—"I hope Rico wakes up, so that I can kill him myself."

—"Clara, that's not helping anything or anyone."

—"I will deal with Federico myself when and if he wakes up. Right now, I need your men to pull up all of the cameras from around the building."

—"You don't give orders around here, Tiziano."

—"That's enough! Do you all remember you're in a damn hospital? You all need to leave. Domani, I will notify you when he wakes up."

—"Don't tell him Nora hasn't been found yet. I need to see if the cameras caught anything, first."

—"As you wish. I hope Elenora's safe, she's didn't deserve to be caught in the middle of all this."

—"He didn't want her to be, he just ran out of time before finding another way."

________________

"All things considered, Rico, you're well enough to be discharged; I'll fill out a prescrip—"

"There's no need, Pia."

"Don't try to be a hero, Rico," she replies.

"I'm far from that and you know it."

She places her hand over mine and squeezes. "I have faith everything will work out. You can make things right." I fight the urge to scoff and nod instead.

The door to my room flings open and Rosetta struts in followed by her guards. "Pia! How is my nipote?" (nephew)

"Alive, not that you care," Pia answers in a clipped tone as she writes on my chart.

"Careful, Pia."

"I don't work for you; I never have. The only reason I tolerate you is because Mariella was my best friend and I have loved and cared for Rico since I delivered him."

"But you didn't raise him, did you?" Rosetta's cold eyes challenge Pia.

"Enough." I turn to Pia and grab her hand. "Thank you, Pia." I kiss her hand. "Thank you for taking care of me."

The fierceness in her gray eyes softens as she looks at me. "You bet, caro. Your bandage will need to be changed out daily, I can be there in the evenings to do it, if you like?" (dear)

I shake my head. "I'll manage, but thank you."

"Alright, I will follow up in a week and see how it's healing." She pats my hand and walks out of the room without saying anything to Rosetta.

Rosetta turns away with a look of haughty disdain, raising her chin as she walks to the chair near the window. "I'm sure Domani has filled you in by now, Tiziano's name has been splashed all over the press the last few days, not to mention the videos people took during the reception are uploaded on all different platforms. A scandal of a lifetime," She cackles. "It's just the way we always wanted it to be."

I take deep breaths. "No. No, it's not. You took me down with him."

"Oh, don't be so dramatic, Rico. You know we have people who are taking your name out of everything. And it's Barone that's all over the press not Di Maggio," She sighs as she leans back, crossing her legs.

"I must say it was rather touching to see Domani and your two hulks defend her against her chauvinist pig of a nonno." She chuckles. "How deranged is he, to blame her for what was going on?"

The machine reading my heart rate starts to beep erratic as I not only listen to her mock the entire fucked up situation that she created but also remember how Orsino violently shook Elenora before he slapped her with such force it knocked her down.

The door opens and Domani walks in, but stops short when he sees Rosetta. "What the hell are you doing here?"

Rosetta admonishes him. "That's no way to talk to family."

"Family?" Domani scoffs. "Your blood doesn't run in my veins, thank God. Especially, since family is expendable to you. I will greet you with nothing less than you deserve."

Domani looks at me. "I have the surveillance footage from the nearby businesses. Are you sure you want to look at it here?"

He's trying to ice out Rosetta but I'm too anxious to know what happened to Elenora. "I don't want to waste any more time, Dom."

"Don't tell me you're helping Tiziano look for her?" Rosetta questions.

"I'm looking for my wife!" I shout. "If that bothers you, then get the fuck out. But know this, if I find out you had anything to do with her being taken, family or not, I will hold you accountable."

"After all the sacrifices I made raising you as a child, holding you as you cried yourself to sleep night after night, Federico... I stayed with you when you would wake up from the nightmares that plagued you for months on end. And this is how you repay me?" She turns away weeping.

Guilt seeps into me remembering the nights she would stay until I fell asleep after I'd woken up from a nightmare and sometimes, I would find her on the floor of my room.

I stand from the hospital bed and walk to her. I turn and hug her with my free arm, since the other one is in a sling. "Zia, you know I have always appreciated what you've done for me. You took me in when you didn't have to and I'm grateful to you. But..."

She leans away looking back at me.

"Elenora is my life and I will not stop until I get her back, whatever the cost; I will bring the world to ashes to find her, including those responsible for taking her and anyone who hurts her."

She stares at me for a moment and then nods her head as she wipes her face. "I understand Rico. But who's going to hold you accountable for hurting her in the first place?"

I clench my jaw. "I should have handled it better and I will spend the rest of my life making things right."

"What if she wants nothing to do with you?"

I turn away to unclasp the sling. Domani hands me a shirt to put on and I grunt from the pain that shoots out from the movement of slipping my arm in and pulling the shirt over my head.

"Rico, are you prepared for the fact that you might not have a place in her heart, anymore?" She continues.

"I'm prepared for anything." The reality is, it would fucking destroy me.

"If that were true, you wouldn't be here right now, Federico." She points out the obvious.

I focus on Domani. "Let's see the footage." His eyes shift to Rosetta and his jaw ticks before he proceeds to open the IPad.

His eyebrows scrunch as he navigates through a few tabs and continues tapping at the screen. I turn away as I slip a pair of sweats on and grind my teeth, fighting through the pain as I bend down to tie my shoes.

"Well?" I question when I see he still hasn't brought anything up.

"It's not pulling up for some reason. I just checked it with Mickey before I got here," Domani says and then calls Mickey.

"Yo," Mickey answers.

"The video isn't pulling up."

"Have you tried turning the Ipad on and off?"

Domani rolls his eyes. "I bet you've been waiting a long time to use that."

Mickey chuckles. "You know it. Okay, let me get in remotely..."

"I've got to run to a lunch meeting; let me know what you find, Federico," Rosetta says and kisses my face. "Domani, have Mickey send me the clip."

"Sure," Domani says without looking at her. She kisses his face as well before she heads out with her two henchmen following behind.

"Okay, I'm in. Let me just click on it and....wait," Mickey pauses.

"I got it Mickey. I just didn't want Rosetta to see the footage, she didn't know it was Nora who shot Rico. You heard her ask for a clip to be sent to her. Send her something different, I don't care what it is, but don't let her see this, do you hear me?"

"Sure, Dom. But..." Mickey pauses. "I gotta say this is weird. The family has been divided since the wedding...I mean Rosetta went behind Boss' back, and now we're going behind her back...I just never thought this would happen. And don't take this the wrong way, Boss, but is Elenora worth it? Considering what's on the video, I don't mean to be offensive or out of line, but she nearly killed you, man."

"But she didn't. And yes, she is more than worth it," I state, irritated. "And I will handle everyone who went along with Rosetta's plan, Mickey."

"I would like to take this opportunity to remind you, I had nothing to do with that sex video, the quality for one was shit and it's obvious it isn't you when you look at the tattoos on Gabriels chest, though at first glance it's pretty convinc—"

"Mickey!"

"Yeah, boss?"

"I know you didn't do it, the look on your face when it started playing was obvious," I tell him. "Thanks for getting this so quickly."

"No problem, and since you're going to watch it, I'll let you know now, the plates are fake. Duko said the police have dealt with a string of robberies with similar vehicles and if he's right on his hunch, we're dealing with the Irish-Italians and this particular group has ties to a few of our rivals, including Diego." Mickey informs me.

"Run the video."

Domani hits the button and we see Elenora running then slowing down as I approach her. She aims the gun and waives her other arm around as she talks to me. I always loved how she uses her hands to talk.

When I see myself jerk back from being shot the sudden burning inside my chest flares up again. Elenora stares at me for a moment before she turns to walk away but then she stops. She doesn't turn around and appears to be talking to herself, which doesn't surprise me.

She runs back and presses a hand on my chest and the other on my face. I wish we could hear what she's telling me. A black van pulls up and four masked men jump out and a struggle ensues as they start pulling her away before they punch and kick me, knocking me out.

One of the men pulls a gun and aims it at me but another stops him and then they jump into the van, driving away. Not long after, Domani and Luca run to me and then Mostro and Ciccio join them as they help carry me away.

"She came back." I rewind the video to the point where she's leaning over me and holding my face.

"That's love for ya, or so I hear," Mickey chimes in. "Though the tiny, yet crucial detail that she shot you shouldn't be overlooked—"

Domani ends the call. "I'll tell him we lost the signal." He turns to pick up the Ipad. "So, you ready to go home?"

"It's not home, without her. And no, I need to find out if Duko's theory is right."

"What do you need?" Domani folds his arms as I look over the city lights outside the hospital room.

"We need to send out word to all of our runners and find out if anyone heard anything on Elenora; she's been gone for four days days. Aside from the wedding fallout everyone's heard of by now, I'm sure someone's bound to notice a woman in a wedding dress."

"I'll reach out to Whisper, if anyone has heard or seen anything it's him. He's always in everyone's business." Domani offers.

"Don't tell him who we think is involved, I want to see what information he releases without being prompted."

I rest my forehead against the cold glass of the window. "I need her back, Dom."

"You know we'll do everything we can to get her back, but aside from what Rosetta said. Are you prepared for the worst possibility? You know what the Irish-Italian crew is known for."

I shut my eyes tight not wanting the images to seep into my mind.

"If they're involved and use Elenora for their businesses, it won't be just them that I destroy but all of their associates."

"You're willing to start a war?"

"For her, yes."

Domani sighs. "Let me talk to Duko, we may be able to avoid an all out war if we get his help, but it will be tricky. If we can confirm who it is, then we can discuss what the plan should be."

I nod then look over at him. "Thanks, cuz."

"We're family, Rico." The statement doesn't hold the same meaning it once did after what happened and by the look on his face, I know he knows it, too.

***