In The Shadows ✔

[109] Anchored

They carry the dishes into the kitchen and find all the Scorpions, their girls, Flavio, and Ciro sitting at the long table when they walk back into the cafe.

Bart yells, "float like a butterfly, sting like a scorpion!" 

Everybody joins in at the end of the sentence. Logan laughs and takes the empty seat next to Dino. Dino wraps his arm around Logan and looks into his eyes. "How are things, bro? With you I mean?"

Logan shrugs and Dino pulls him in a headlock. "Don't pretend you don't care. We're all sitting here with mixed emotions, pride and fear swirling together. None of us can watch her in pain and we can't even imagine what it has to be like for you. Did it take her long to come to?"

Logan nods and rubs his face.

"That must have been damn scary, man. But she's okay, right? Ricardo kept swearing she wasn't back in the shadows."

Logan turns his gaze to Ricardo and nods at him. "Yeah, she's okay. I've never seen her this bruised though..."

Bruno cuts him off to say he's never seen her this hurt either before Logan continues. "Her jaw was dislocated. They put it back in place without local anesthesia. Her cheekbone is broken en they are not sure whether her ribs are broken or bruised. But they definitely hurt badly. She can't chew without pain. Or laugh. But there's no internal bleeding... I was scared to death..."

Bart angrily asks: "Why the hell did they put that jaw back in without something for the pain?"

Bruno answers: "Because she didn't want that damn poison in her body. She woke up before she reached the hospital and demanded to be taken right back."

All the men at the table laugh before they go silent, all taking a moment to think about Scorpia. The woman who's stronger than all of them together.

Bruno's phone rings and Duane's name appears on the screen. He puts it on speaker and yells: "Hey Duane! You're on speaker! We're all together."

"Hey everyone! Are you all okay? Celebrating your win?"

The men cheer and bang on the table.

"How's your queen doing?"

Logan says she's sleeping but okay.

"No man, she's not okay. She's out of this world. Beautiful and strong. So fucking strong that I'm in pain every time I breathe."

They laugh and Duane explains the reason for his call. He wants to find out if they're interested in joining a tournament he is organizing with a friend and is taking place two months from now. He also asks if Bruno's willing to fight Freddie one more time, for old times sake.

Bruno laughs and adds: "Ask him if he wants to fight Scorpia. Wanna bet he's suddenly very busy that day?"

"Are you telling me he's scared of Scorpia?"

Bruno's loud laughter thunders through the cafe and he tells him all about the tournament Scorpia and Freddie first met.

Duane laughs along with him. "You've got yourself a very special sister. I would love to see footage of her early days sometime."

"That can be arranged, Duane. Maybe even in a movie theater. But we're celebrating now. We don't have time to talk to a loser like you."

Duane yells between chuckles: "Official invitation will be there soon and the next round is on me!"

Ciro feels his phone vibrate in his pocket and pulls it out to look at the screen.

Dannazione.
I shake out of my bed every time Bruno laughs.
If you can sneak off without anyone noticing, could you come up?