Page 230 of Breaking Rosalind
The sooner he’s dead, the sooner I can put the memory of him to rest. I close my eyes and try to tune out the world, but it’s futile. Ignoring the presence of Cesare Montesano is like trying to ignore the sun.
At sunset, we arrive in Hamlet. It’s a small town nestled in the countryside, with redbrick houses surrounded by rolling hills. I sit up in my seat as Cesare rolls up to the largest building in town.
The medical center is a modern building that looks at odds with the quaint surroundings. It’s three stories high, with a mirrored façade that reflects the sunset’s orange hues.
My heart thrums, and every instinct screams at me to rush in with guns blazing.
“There’s a guesthouse across the road,” I say to Cesare. “We could get a room, and?—”
“No.”
“No, you don’t want to scope out a hospital that might be filled with Galliano guards? Or no, you don’t want to wait and see if the brother comes in for a visit so we can make two kills instead of one?”
He turns to me, his teeth bared. “You can be insufferable sometimes, do you know that?”
“I thought you liked a woman who talks tactics.”
“Bitch,” he mutters under his breath, the corner of his mouth twitching.
“Don’t you forget it.”
“Aright, we’ll check into the guest house, get a room overlooking the medical center, and watch the movement of the guards.”
“Good.”
“But don’t go thinking I’m going to give you any cock.”
Ten minutes later, he’s fucking me hard and fast into the mattress, making me scream into a pillow for hurting his feelings.
NINETY-TWO
CESARE
Of all the women I could be obsessed with, why did she have to be an avoidant? Rosalind has been hurt so many times she keeps her heart in an iron safe.
The scraps of information I get from her puts together a picture of a girl whose neglectful mother exposed her to a predator. I think Britt was her only friend because it sounds like her colleagues at the Moirai treated her with contempt. Then there’s Miranda, who still believes Rosalind is her sister who murdered their parents.
Each time I press for more, she retreats behind her walls or distracts me with sex. It’s frustrating, but she’s right about one thing: whether she forgives me or not, I’m still technically her captor.
We spend the next few days observing the hospital in shifts from the guest house window, logging the times Tommy and his men come to visit his brother.
Sofia really did shoot Matty in the stomach the morning he tried to stab her in the Parisii Cemetery. His men brought him here for an emergency exploratory laparotomy to repair the damage to his intestines and spleen.
Rosalind bribed the orderlies working in Matty’s ward to keep her informed of the movements in and out of the old bastard’s hospital room. According to them, there are two guards stationed inside the room to keep him company and another pair patrolling the hallway.
The guard change takes place precisely at 6:00 AM, and again at 6:00 PM. A local hooker visits after the evening change and stays in the room for an hour, and then Tommy visits at 7:00 AM and then 8:00 PM to bring a home-cooked meal.
I wake up in the late afternoon to find Rosalind stationed at the window with a pair of binoculars. Sunlight streams through the glass, turning the ends of her hair a rich shade of mahogany.
Her face, concentrated and serious, is bathed in a golden hue. I can’t even bask in her beauty because I’m lovesick. It’s entirely my fault for treating such a brilliant woman like a mere pet.
She’s so busy sending rapid text messages she doesn’t even notice that I’m awake. When she finally turns from the window and our gazes meet, her features harden.
My heart sinks at her coldness. It’s confirmation that she’s counting the days before she can walk out of my life. Every time I ask about the future, she changes the subject to our mission.
I pick up my phone from the bedside table and check the time, finding that it’s already five. “Anything out of the ordinary happen while I was asleep?”
Her gaze darts back to the window. “They’re discharging him tomorrow morning, which means we will strike tonight.”