Chapter 27
Mia
I put the leftovers from dinner in the fridge for Santino when he gets home later and plop down on the couch. I pick up my laptop and start to scroll through websites for things for the house when my phone rings. I smile down at the name.
“Hey, Gia. I haven’t talked to you in what feels like forever.”
“I know! Aria is here too. You’re on speaker.”
“Hey, Mia!”
Aria shouts. “How’s that hot husband of yours?”
“Aria!”
“What? He’s hot, you can’t deny that. Have you gotten to experience said hotness yet?”
I smile and feel my cheeks heat even though there’s no one here to see my embarrassment “As a matter of fact, yes, I have.”
“WHAT?!”
they both screech together, and I pull the phone away from my ear. “Tell us everything. Now. Is he there?”
“No, he’s out at a meeting or something. I don’t know. I know not to ask too many questions.”
“Then spill, Mia. We want to know everything.”
I think I’ve needed some good girl talk, because everything just spills out of me. Not everything, but a lot of what’s happened between me and Santino.
We talk for over an hour and they fill me in on their newest campaign ad they booked and club promotions they’ve attended. I was so envious of their lives for the longest time, but now that I’m with Santino, I honestly can’t say I want to be them instead.
Yawning, I lean my head back on the couch and close my eyes. “Alright, guys, I’m tired. I’m going to go to bed now.”
“Us too. Call us soon,” Gia says.
“And we want to see your new house!”
Aria adds.
“I’ll give you a tour as soon as Santino finishes giving me mine.”
“Ohhhh, yes ‘a tour’. I wish I had a man to give me a tour.”
“And with that, goodnight.”
I roll my eyes and hang up, scooting down on the couch.
I hope Santino makes good on his promise to wake me up with his mouth when he gets home.
My phone starts buzzing on the table and I pat around with my eyes closed until I find it. I don’t even bother opening them to see who it is before answering.
“Hello?”
I rasp, my voice thick with sleep.
“Mia,”
someone says right away, their voice desperate and fraught with worry.
My eyes pop open in a flash and I sit up. “Who is this? What’s wrong?”
“It’s Emilio. Santino…he…”
Panic seizes me. “What happened to him?”
“He was shot.”
My vision blurs. “Al and I rushed him to the hospital and he’s in surgery now, but they don’t know if he’ll make it yet. There was so much blood,” he adds quietly at the end, lost in the memory.
“Which hospital? I’m on my way.”
“Penn Presbyterian.”
“Where is that?”
I ask frantically. “I don’t know that one.”
“Philly.”
“Why is he in Philly? He said he just had a meeting tonight.”
I run to our room and change out of my pajamas and into the first thing I find, not caring if it matches or what I look like. “Forget it,” I say when he doesn’t answer me right away. “I’ll be there as fast as I can.”
“You don’t have to rush. I was just calling to tell you. I don’t know how long he’ll be in surgery or…”
“Don’t fucking say it,”
I growl. “I’ll be there as fast as I can.”
I hang up and toss my phone in my purse, then dig in the bowl of keys by the door until I find the ones to the sports car he drove on our first date. I need something fast.
The only thing holding me together is pure adrenaline, and as I wait for the elevator, my legs start to shake, but I hold it together. I have to for Santino.
I’m Mia Antonucci.
I’m the wife of a mob boss, and I’ll be damned if I don’t fucking act like it when I need to be strong for my husband.
Squaring my shoulders, I step into the elevator and ride it down to the garage. I click the key fob to find the car and then run over to it. I start it up and the engine roars to life. It takes me a few seconds to figure everything out, but when I do, I put the hospital into the GPS and tear out of there.
Please don’t die. Please don’t die.
I repeat it over and over in my head, needing God to hear me. I can’t lose him. Not yet. Not when we just started our lives together.
Pressing down on the gas pedal as soon as I hit the highway, I weave in and out of the lanes to bypass everyone in my way. I get a few honks, but I don’t give a shit. And the cops wouldn’t dare pull me over right now, either.
My grip on the steering wheel is so tight, that when a call comes through on Bluetooth and I loosen my grip to answer it, my knuckles pop.
“What do you know?”
I ask Nico right away when I answer.
“He was ambushed.”
“Ambushed?!”
I yell. “Ambushed doing what? He was supposed to just be in a meeting. What did you guys make him do?”
“We didn’t do anything, Mia. This wasn’t us.”
“Then who?”
“We don’t know yet, but Leo, Dante, and I are headed down now in the helicopter and will sort it out. I wanted to call to see if you knew what happened yet and if you’re okay.”
“No, I’m not okay. My husband has been shot and is in surgery fighting for his life, and he could very well die. I’m far from okay.”
Nico falls silent, and all I hear is the whooshing of the helicopter blades in the background. He must think I’ve gone crazy.
“I have to go. I’m on my way to the hospital now, and I need all my concentration.”
“Please drive safe, Mia. We’re touching down in five.”
“Okay, bye.”
I hang up, now pissed off.
They had to have known what happened right away if they’re almost in Philly already. I must’ve been an afterthought call by his brothers once they got Santino to the hospital and relayed the situation to everyone more important than me.
I know Santino needs me, though. No one else may know, but I do.
I drive a little faster than before, and shave at least ten or fifteen minutes off the GPS’s original estimated travel time.
The moment I pull into the garage beside the ER, I park in the first spot I see and run into the waiting room and straight to the desk with a nurse.
“Please, I need to know where my husband is. Santino Antonucci. He was brought in with a gunshot wound and his brother told me he was in surgery.”
She types something on her keyboard. “Yes, he’s in surgery right now, but that’s all the information I can give you. You can wait in the lounge down the hall for the doctor to come out and tell you more.”
“So, he’s alive?”
I ask tentatively, playing with the keys in my hand.
She gives me a soft smile. “Yes, he is as of right now, and he has one of the best surgeons in the country working on him.”
“Okay.”
I nod. “Thank you.”
I blindly walk down the hall to the lounge she referred to and find it empty. His brothers aren’t here? They must be meeting Nico to handle whatever went wrong.
Hanging my head in my hands, my adrenaline starts to wear off and I’m shaking. That’s when the first tear falls, that then turns into a hundred silent ones.
“Mia.”
A hand rests on my shoulder and I look up into Vinny’s concerned eyes.
I swipe my cheeks with the sleeves of my sweatshirt. “What are you doing here?”
“I wasn’t going to let you wait here alone. The others are handling the situation, so I came to sit with you.”
“Thank you,”
I whisper, and he takes the seat beside me, wrapping his arm around me. More tears start to fall when I realize how alone I’ll be again if Santino dies.
“It’s okay, Mia. It’ll all be okay.”
“I don’t know anything yet. All they’ll tell me is he’s in surgery.”
“I can go find out more if you want me to. I just don’t want to leave you alone like this.”
“No, go. Please find out anything you can.”
I practically push him to his feet, and he leaves on a mission.
I watch the clock on the wall as the seconds dial moves smoothly in a circle and the minute hand ticks by ever so slowly. It moves ten times before Vinny comes back.
“What did you find out?”
“He was shot twice. Once in the shoulder, but that was a through and through that was easily stitched up. The other one nicked his liver and caused massive hemorrhaging, which is why he’s in surgery.”
I cover my mouth with my hands, holding in a sob.
“No, Mia, shhh.”
Vinny sits back next to me and rubs my back. “They got the bleeding under control and are working on closing him back up.”
“So, he’ll live?”
I ask, needing any sliver of hope to hold onto.
“Yes, he will.”
“Oh, thank God.”
I throw my arms around my brother and hug him like I haven’t in years. “Thank you for using you’re annoying charms on the nurses for me.”
“You’re welcome, little sis,”
he chuckles.
“Have you heard from Nico? He called me while I was driving and said he was about to touch down with Leo and Dante. How did this happen, Vin? Why was Santino down here?”
Vinny looks away and runs his hand through his hair and rubs the back of his neck. “Just focus on Santino. We’ll handle the rest. We’ll take care of it, Mia.”
I knew he wouldn’t tell me.
“I know you will.”