Under My Skin

Chapter 25

Enzo's phone rang. It didn't finish its first chime before he answered it. Words mumbled into his ear as he stood up from the bed. He didn't respond to the person on the other side. Instead, he looked directly at me as he hung up the phone. His eyes were stern yet hopeful. I pulled out my earbuds to hear what he had to say.

"They found her. She was in the fridge at Juliani's Restaurant. Angelo is taking her to the emergency room as we speak."

Gianni jumped up onto his feet and confirmed the name of the hospital before dashing out of the room. His shoes skidded down the hallways as he rushed to the garage.

As I stood up from my desk, Enzo rushed to my side. I forced myself past him. However, Enzo grabbed my arm to stop me.

"How are you feeling?"

"I need to see her."

"You can barely stand," Enzo said. I pulled myself out of his grip and took a step just to spite him. My teetering legs faltered causing me to fall back into him. Although the panic had subsided, my mind had not yet reconnected with my body. They were both on separate pages of two different books.

"I need to see her." It was all I could say. It was all I thought.

"Give yourself a few minutes to get your bearings back."

"I need to see her."

Enzo grabbed me. The strength of his grip was somewhere between aggressive and gentle. It was firm enough to jolt me but soft enough not to hurt me.

"I will take you in ten minutes. She is safe now. She will still be there. I need to know that you're okay first."

The energy to fight just didn't exist in me. Enzo grew more concerned when he saw the sixth page of my notebook on display.

"Water," I muttered as my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth from every word uttered.

After guiding me to the bed, Enzo scurried off to the kitchen. In his absence, my body began to stabilize once more. The heat from the panic evened out. The tension in my chest subsided. The unevenness of my breaths equalized. However, I still felt as if my heart was in someone else's grip.

Looking back, it was the worst panic attack I'd ever had. It was twenty minutes of distortion and impending doom. But it was over. And I was going to be okay. Or at least I thought.

Enzo returned, but it wasn't Enzo.

It was Niccolò.

But was it Enzo? Was I still not seeing things as they were?

Was that a gun? Or was it a glass of water?

"I've come to rescue you, babe."

Niccolò never said that to me before. Is my mind making things up now? Or was that really him?

He took a step closer. I scampered to the other side of the bed. I didn't know how much more adrenaline my heart could handle before exploding.

"Oh, come on. It's me!" It still sounded like Niccolò. It still looked like him, too.

"Prove it to me. Where was our first kiss?"

It smiled. It held an impish grin on Niccolò's face as he reminisced.

"Outside your bedroom door."

My eyes widened as I made the conscious decision to believe this was in fact Niccolò, and that was indeed a gun.

Niccolò flipped the gun around as he spoke. It danced from one hand to the other. It pointed at the ceiling and the floor. His cursory attitude frightened me. One wrong word, one wrong move, and pop.