𝐌𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐇𝐞𝐫 𝐌𝐚𝐝𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬

36 | Flowers Are An Act of Romance

Jack Maniscalo took his last breath in front of me, bleeding profusely from his neck, chest and eye socket. I don't know what went through my head to do this, but I rolled his heavy body over and into the pool.

I didn't hear any screams, nobody had run up towards us and people weren't staring; I guess the music blasting through the speakers was enough to distract the wedding guests from looking up the hill. It was a steep incline, I doubt they could have seen the gruesome effects on Jack's body, potentially they would have just seen two people fighting.

His blood turned the water around him a light pink colour, slowly growing darker and colouring the pool eventually. Exhausted, I sat on the tiled ground, looking at the body sink to the bottom.

"Darling...?" Tom said gently from across the pool, causing me to flick my head up and stare at him through wet eyelashes and glassy eyes. I couldn't help but cry when I saw him, feeling completely overwhelmed.

"I-I'm sorry Tom. I'm so sorry," I whimpered, looking down at the blood smeared across my bridesmaids dress and spread along my forearms and hands.

"That's Jack... You killed Jack..." he said with furrowed brows and a look of sheer shock planted on his face.

I know that having Jack Maniscalo off our radar was ultimately a good thing for the two of us. Perhaps a good thing for the broader Holland family alongside Haz and Robyn. But I hadn't thought about the consequences of killing one of the most prolific Mafia bosses, no matter how sadistic and traitorous.

"The pool is pink," Tom said looking down at the water in a long silence, staring at Jack's lifeless body.

"I uh, I didn't want the body to stain the cement... I didn't really think this through," I said, clearing my throat due to the difficulty to actually speak. Jack had choked me to the verge of damaging my windpipe, I sounded like I smoked ten packs of cigarettes a day.

He finally walked around the pool to stand next to me, holding his arm out and looking down at me, offering his hand to help me to my feet.

"How badly hurt are you?" He asked quietly, putting his arms under mine to help lift me and lighten the weight of my body.

"I uh, I'm not sure yet. The adrenaline is kind of distracting me from the pain... He hooked me in the face though so I can't tell if anything is broken," I said looking at Tom fearfully.

"He's split your cheekbone, open your mouth for me darling," he said carefully cupping the other side of my face and prying my jaw open.

"Does that hurt?" He asked, craning his head to look inside my mouth.

"It's sore but definitely not fractured or anything. My teeth feel okay too," I said running my tongue around my teeth to check for any broken pieces.

"He mustn't have wanted to kill you then... He definitely could have hit you harder," Tom chuckled, taunting me as he brushed my hair back over my shoulder.

"H-how's your Mum?" I asked, sniffling my nose and wiping it, seeing blood rather than snot. Fun.

"Harry and Sam took her back but they noticed something was up so they took her to the hotel spa to get away from their rooms. Turns out the door had been wired to set off explosives a few minutes after they opened it. Lucky she wasn't in there," Tom smiled, putting his arms around my waist and taking a deep breath.

"What do we do about the pool?" I said looking at the very obvious dead man floating at the bottom.

"The hotel staff are mafia affiliates so they'll be fine... It's just Robyn's side of the wedding guests who we need to hide this from," he said looking around.

Now this will sound crazy, but the idea we came up with was definitely not the smartest thing to do. Rather than asking the hotel staff if they had some sort of pool cover that they may use when the pool was being cleaned, we came to a different conclusion:

Cover the top of the water with flowers so the pink water looks romantic for the wedding.

I know.
It's ridiculous. Tom had run inside to the lobby to recruit two of the staff members to help us and started raiding the large gardens around us for flowers. They also let me use one of the robes from the pool cabanas to cover up my blood covered dress.

They also blocked off the walkways from the wedding party up to the pool, directing guests through an alternate path when they wished to return to their hotel rooms. Honestly, this plan was working.

We needed a hefty amount of flowers to do this, but as the sun was setting and the dim outdoor lighting illuminated the hotel grounds, the flowers actually looked good. We probably looked crazy running around with fistfuls of flowers, tossing them into the water whilst Tom was wearing his suit and I was wearing a Terry towelling robe.

At night, you couldn't really notice the pink water unless you looked directly at the pool, but the flowers covered Jack's body enough to allude to the fact this whole thing was themed for the wedding.

"Okay, okay, okay. This actually looks okay for now. Thanks boys, I owe you one. Just until we can get the body out yeah?" Tom said slipping several bank notes into the hands of the two staff members as they left.

"They're trustworthy right...?" I said leaning my head on Tom's shoulder as we looked at the floral water.

"Half these guys are ex mafia, the ones who get injured and can't work. And their families come here too. Let's go back to the room," Tom said putting his arm around me and rubbing my arm soothingly.

I nodded, walking slowly back to our room with Tom and looking at myself in the bathroom mirror. I looked like a fucking wreck, blood across my face with dark bruising already surfacing under my skin.

"Let me clean you up," Tom said turning the bath tub taps on and sitting me down on the edge.

"Are you angry at me for killing Jack?" I asked softly, looking up at him.

He stayed quiet. Looking at me sadly and crouching down to see eye to eye with me at my level.

"I'm so proud of you Y/N," he smiled gently.

"But what about the mafia rule?" I whispered.

"I'm the godfather darling, I make the final call. He threatened us, my family and other distinct mafia members. He needed to go. I promise, nothing bad is going to happen to you, not under my watch okay?" He said slipping the thin dress straps off my shoulders and sliding it down my torso.

"I love you Tom."

"I love you Y/N."