Attacks and assassination attempts in the criminal world were common occurrence. Gio was high up in the ladder that his status alone was enough to deter most people. But some people still took the occasional chance. Those who were foolish enough to try were often dealt with swiftly, either by Gio himself or by his guards. And from there life went on, he dusted himself up and kept going.
That was the way it had always been. But now things were different. Someone had come not just for Gio, but for Elle as well.
An ambush, a drive by ambush for that matter. A literal storm of bullets all aimed at his Elle. Gio had seen the victims of multiple gunshot wounds before, it was never pretty. Heck, even a single bullet could decapitate a person.
The thought of Elle torn to shreds by a hail of bullets had Gio's heart rate picking up again. What if it had not been just the bullets. What the attack back at the club had gone differently? What the men had seen her coming before she could stun their leader? What if he had been too slow to act in taking advantage of the situation. What if she had gotten hurt in the scuffle that had come as he fought off one of the men? The what ifs swirled round and round in his head, trapping him in mental prison where all of his worst nightmares came true. Stuck in the vortex of negativity, he did not notice that he had tensed up until Elle let out a pained whimper.
Even in her sleep, she tried to pull away, but the motion was aborted half way as she collapsed back against him, all that remained to show her discomfort being the slight twitch of her fingers.
Scared to wake her, or worse, hurt her with his bruising grip, Gio forced himself to relax. His hands slowly eased their tight grip on her sleeping form and she relaxed.
Come morning things would be hectic. They were already hectic, with the clean up and moving the lone survivor amongst Gio's attackers to a safe location. He should either get some shut eye so that he had a clear head when he faced what was to come in a few hours, or he could extricate himself from Elle's loose hold and go handle things.
But Gio did none of the logical things. Instead he stayed in bed, needing the feel of Elle pressed against his side to ground him.
Whatever would come later, whatever decisions he would need to make moving forward, those were for later.
In the present all that mattered was Elle's light snores filling the room. Her soft skin against his hard muscles, her sweet scent slowly intermingling with his own. Her hair soft where her was toying with the ends, her every exhale making goosebumps rise over his skin.
All signs of life, of health. Everyday things, important things, things that could have been taken away in the blink of an eye, so Gio savored them.
He held her in his arms and he felt more grateful than he had ever been in his life.
Still asleep, Elle let out a soft cry, and Gio shushed her, but it was not enough. She began trembling, her hands curling into loose fists. Her legs kicked lightly, the pained whimpers becoming more frantic. Clearly whatever it was that she was dreaming off was too strong for her to fight off on her own.
Not wanting her much needed slumber to be interrupted, Gio did something that if questioned, he would deny until he breathed his last.
He sang to her.
It was not really singing, so much as it was humming, which in his books made it even worse, only kindly old grandmothers could get away with humming. But for Elle he swallowed his pride and did it anyway.
The vibrations moved through his throat and against his sealed lips. The song was nothing more than a melody, just him making sounds, his baritone low and soothing, and wonder of wonders…it worked.
Her kicking stopped first, her legs settling against his, no longer trying to kick off the covers. Then she unclenched her fists, het fingers curling up loosely once more. The last thing to stop was the cries, her whimpers turning into loud breaths, and then her soft snores returned, her whole body relaxing against his as all of the fight went out of her. With her nightmare no longer gripping her tight, Gio stopped humming, thinking it would be better for her, but she proved him wrong.
"Gio," She said his name so quietly that he would have thought he had imagined it had she not said it again.
"Gio?" This time there was a note of panic in her voice. She was still asleep, but the longer she continued to fuss, the more likely it would be that she would wake up.
Sure the nightmare had long passed and there was no sign of more returning, but she was agitated. So Gio did the one thing he could think of, he started humming again. And that was all it took. At the first low note, Elle settled, her breathing evening out and Gio ran a soothing hand over her back as continued to hum. He hummed until he couldn't anymore, his throat raw from overuse. And then once that happened, he just lay there and held her. Sleep came upon him without him even realizing it. One moment he was wide awake, aware of everything going on, and the next he was fast asleep, Elle's breaths his own personal lullaby.