The Body #4: Nico and Cosi

Chapter 22 (Janie): The Whip Cracked

Copyright © 2024 by GroveltoHEA

"She's alive!" Nico choked out the words after checking Cosi's pulse. "She's alive. Where's the fucking ambulance? Where the fuck is it?"

"Almost here. Fina's outside waiting for them," I said soothingly. 

Funny how you can be screaming, wailing and crying inside and outwardly appear cool because you know if you let go, you'll never get control of yourself again. Moxie, Vic and Ant were sweeping the house to make sure there weren't any threats, and I was trying to help Nico with Cosi but he wouldn't let me.

Nico had ripped off his T-shirt and was using it to apply pressure to both bullet wounds, one high on Cosi's shoulder, the other lower in her chest. I felt tears threatening, watching my friend not moving at all, but now wasn't the time.

"Costanza, Costanza," Nico called to her in a ragged voice, but her eyes didn't even flutter in her deathly pale face. "Costanza, you're going to be fine. You and the baby are going to be just fine. Help is almost here, sweetheart. Just hang on. Hang on. Hang on."

I knelt beside her, opposite Nico, willing her to live, too. "Come on, Cosi. Come on. You've got this."

Mamma. Mamma? Say something. Please. Mamma, please! 

"House is clear," Moxie said as the three of them came back into the room.

"Ambulance is here!" Fina called.

"Tell them to hurry up and get the fuck in here now!" Nico yelled.

"Desti and her papa were inside when she got home," Vic started in a low voice. "He asked her if she thought he'd let her get away with beating up Desti and terrifying her with the knives. Cosi told him to put the gun away and he said...he said it was time for her to meet her father, then I heard two shots, the gun definitely had a silencer on, and then I heard the front door open and two more shots were fired."

"The guards," I yelled. "Shit. The guards. Where are they?"

The girls and I spread out, looking around frantically and found the two guards in the closet, gagged and unconscious, but alive. We pulled them out, and they weren't in bad shape but they'd both been pistol-whipped after being shot, if the huge knots near their temples were any indication.

Vic was already calling for more ambulances as the paramedics were rushing in with a gurney for Cosi.

"Last thing I heard was Desti's papa saying something about the airport," Vic said after she made the calls. 

"On it," Ant said running to her car for her laptop. 

"Hurry the fuck up," Nico was shouting to paramedics. "Help my wife -- she's pregnant -- two gunshot wounds and she needs to get to the hospital now!"

"What about the other two --" one of them said unwisely.

"You even think of looking at them before my wife and I'll cut your throat," Nico snapped.

"Sir, you're going to have to step back --" the other one said tentatively.

Nico was about to lose it on them, so I took control, although truthfully I wasn't far behind him in losing it.

"Nico, move. The sooner you do, the sooner you can get her to the hospital. Cosi needs to get to the hospital."

Nico moved, then seemed to regain himself as he watched them work on Cosi, his face tortured.

"I'm going to the hospital with Costanza," he said quietly, his voice lethal. "You go find Desti and Rocco."

"I'll make sure Desti gets to a safe place," I said, knowing he'd understand. "And I'll take her papa back home so you can talk to him later? OK?"