Chapter 33
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
GREG
Hospitals were not my favorite places. The smell, the incessant mechanical whirs, whistles, and beeps, and the muted feeling of despair all put me on edge. I clamped down on those feelings. I was here for Tony. Everything else was meaningless.
Marco was waiting for us at the entrance. Tony and Michael flew out of the car and into their brother’s embrace. I stayed behind to help Paolo get the luggage out of the trunk. When we were finished, I held out my hand. “Thank you. Please tell Sal I said thank you as well.”
“Of course, Mr…?”
“Hayden. Greg Hayden.”
Paolo smiled. “I’ll pass your message along to Mr. Vitale.”
Tony, Michael, and Marco came over, all profusely thanking Paolo for his time. He just smiled and said, “It’s family.”
After the car drove away, Marco asked, “Are we going to owe Sal for this?”
Tony shook his head. “No. Like Paolo said, it’s family.”
Marco led us to where he’d parked his car so we could stow our suitcases. I elected to keep my laptop with me, as did Michael and Tony.
We had to stop at the entrance to the main lobby to show ID and tell the security guard who we were visiting.
The guard did a double-take when he saw average, blond, blue-eyed me standing with three dark-haired, dark-eyed Italian gods.
When he handed me my visitor pass, he murmured, “Lucky you.” I snickered and winked at him as I took Tony’s outstretched hand.
The operating room lounge was full of what I instantly recognized as D’Angelo family members, along with who were likely their spouses or significant others. It was lot of people. An older woman with shoulder-length dark hair liberally streaked with gray hurried over to us when we arrived.
“Anthony! Michael!” The two men gathered their mother in their arms, uttering soothing words while she wept and spoke to them in rapid Italian. It took me a moment to realize that Tony and Michael were responding to their mother in Italian.
Marco was still standing beside me, so I leaned over and said, “I had no idea Tony could speak Italian.”
Marco nodded. “We all do to some extent. Gianna is the best, even though she’s the youngest. But she has a real ear for languages. I think she’s up to five now.”
“Wow. That’s impressive. I retained a tiny bit of the Spanish I learned in school. That’s about it.”
Liam came over to us, putting an arm around Marco’s waist. “Have you had dinner yet?”
I shook my head. “We were about to have dinner with Tony’s cousin when he got the call.”
“Cousin?” Liam asked. “As is Cousin Sal?”
“Yeah,” Marco replied, sounding unhappy about it.
I couldn’t help my curiosity. “Is there something wrong with Sal? He seemed like a very nice man.”
“Oh, he is,” Marco replied. “Unless you get on his bad side. Then you’re fucked. He’s the kind of man who, if he says you’re dead to him, he means that literally.”
Liam sighed. “What Marco is trying not to say is that Sal is in the family business, so to speak.”
“Family business,” I repeated. “I don’t…” Then it hit me. Family. Italian. “Oooh,” I whispered. “Okay. But he seemed like such a nice guy.”
“He is a nice guy,” Liam insisted. “He helped us get a friend of ours out of a difficult spot not that long ago.”
“Yeah, he did,” Marco grudgingly admitted.
“Anyway,” Liam said, elongating the word. “I was going to suggest that you, Tony, and Michael get something from the café. You have a few hours before he’s out of surgery.”
I glanced over to where the two brothers were still talking to their mother. “It looks like they might be a while.”
Marco sighed. “I’ll go rescue them. Mom tended to rely on Tony when I was in the Navy. He’s always been something of a caretaker. Pops will listen to him when he won’t necessarily listen to my mother.”
He went over to his mother and spoke quietly to her. She glanced at me, said something to Tony in Italian, and then shooed him and Michael away. They came over to me, and Tony said, “I’ve been told to feed you.”
I chuckled. Trust an Italian mother to want to feed a stranger. “We’d better go before it closes.”
The three of us went back into the atrium to the small café. We got sandwiches and sodas and sat at one of the tables set around the atrium. I leaned over to Tony and asked, “How are you holding up?”
He waggled his hand. “Cosi cosi.” He shook his head. “Sorry. I meant so so. When I drop into Italian, it takes me a minute to get out of it.”
“I didn’t even know you spoke Italian,” I said. “You’ll have to teach me some so I can talk to your parents.”
A soft smile curved his lips. “I’d be happy to.”
Michael had opened his laptop and was alternating between typing on his keyboard and checking his phone. Finally, he made a sound of satisfaction. “Gianna’s on the plane. I got her a first-class seat. The flight will land in two hours.”
Tony pulled out his phone. “I’ll see if Rory is available to pick her up.” He went to get up to make the call, but I put a hand on his arm to stop him. “If you can’t get anyone, I’ll go get her. I just need a car.”
His eyes got glassy and he kissed me. “Thank you. That means a lot to me.”
After Tony left to make the call, Michael closed the lid of his laptop and said, “I’m so glad Tony finally found someone who’s good to him. He needs that.”
I wasn’t sure what to say to that, so I simply said, “Thank you.”
Tony came back smiling. “Rory said he’d do it. Set him up with a bonus in his next paycheck.”
“Will do,” Michael said, opening his laptop.
We finished our food and made our way back to the waiting room.
Tony let his mother know when his sister would be arriving.
I settled myself on a small sofa in the corner and opened my laptop, figuring I could put the finishing touches on the character art I’d been working on while Tony spent time with his family.
I was startled out of my artistic zone when Tony exclaimed, “No fucking way!”
When I looked up, I saw him staring at his phone, with Marco and Michael looking over his shoulder. I saved my work and closed my laptop. “What’s wrong?”
“One of our clients needs a personnel extraction in Colombia,” Tony replied.
It took me a second to remember why that would be a problem. “Oh. But you have a family emergency.”
“There’s no fucking way I’m leaving with Pops in the hospital,” Marco growled.
“But don’t you have those new people you just hired?” I asked.
Marco and Tony looked at each other. “We do,” Tony said slowly. “We could send them in with Gabe, Andrea, and Pete.”
“But what about tech?” Marco asked. “We haven’t hired Michael’s equivalent yet.”
Michael shook his head. “I’m not leaving either.”
Tony ran his hand down his face. “Fuck.”
“What about Deshawn?” Marco asked. I had no idea who that was.
Michael was already shaking his head. “His younger sister is still in high school. There’s no way he’s leaving the country. Hell, he won’t even leave Philadelphia.”
“We have to do something,” Tony said. “We have a contract with these people.”
Michael blew out a breath. “As much as I hate to admit this, Sal’s computer guy, Gio, is really good. He’d be able to handle the work.”
“I thought you had to help him last month,” Tony said.
He shrugged. “It was a minor thing he was getting wrong. Once I showed him how to do it, he took off. He’s a natural.”
Tony rubbed the back of his neck. I could practically feel the tension rolling off him.
With a heavy sigh, he said, “Okay. I’ll call Sal to see if he’ll loan Gio to us.
Marco, you make the calls to put the rest of the team together.
” He looked at Michael. “We’ll definitely owe him one for this.
He’ll probably want you to stand in for Gio while he’s gone. ”
“If he even says yes,” Michael added glumly.
Tony sat next to me and leaned his body heavily against mine. “I’m about to find out.”
I put my arm around him so he’d be more comfortable. I kissed his cheek when he settled in with a sigh. “Thanks for being here.”
In that moment, I knew there was nowhere else on Earth I’d rather be.