Chapter 25
Vincenzo
Just hearing Anna’s voice, her reassurance calms my nerves as we head to the safehouse.
I text the man I trust with her life and then proceed downstairs to the underground clinic and hospital that no one but our family knows about.
No one, not guards, no one, except for Terry who’s been with us since the beginning of fucking time knows about this spot.
Nicolo is right on my heels and I’m sure Gianni and Agosto are not far behind, because everything else, even things back at the warehouse, they take a backseat when Mamma’s life is on the line. Even Pa’s life became secondary to hers the minute he heard the love of his life was in trouble.
Doc walks out and his eyes meet mine. “She’s going to be okay, Vincenzo, but we need to get this taken care of right away. The EKG and lab tests confirm what we suspected. She has blockage to the heart.”
My jaw tightens with angst, and I can feel my brother’s tension rise right along with mine. I glance up as Gianni and Agosto join us and Doc repeats what he just told Nicolo and I.
Gianni closes his eyes. “What’s involved? How long before you take her under?”
“She needs intervention by specialty. Your team from the casino, they’re on the way. Jeoffrey put transport into play.”
I start to go over protocol, security, blindfolds, all the things we put in place to keep this fucking facility safe, but Doc puts up a hand. “All protocols will be followed. No one will ever know where we are. We’ll go in through the groin, use a balloon, and place a stent or two.”
I glance around the multimillion-dollar complex, thanking the heavens above that we invested money in its creation and didn’t wait for a full-out war and dead soldiers like some of the other families before building it for ourselves.
I look to Nicolo. I may be the boss, but she’s his mother too, and as the two eldest I want us on the same page for the rest of the family. He gives me a nod of agreement.
I turn to Doc. “You’ll do the surgery yourself? Minimal staff? They’ve all been cleared? No one new? Blindfolded as they come in? All the protocols we put into place. Not one fucking deviation that could put her at risk, capisce?”
Nicolo nods, and the doctor who is the best surgeon around and has been on our payroll for years clears his throat. “While there’s always risk involved, you have my word I’ll do whatever I can, and this is a very routine procedure these days.”
I nod, turning from him and the others to get my fucking emotions in check, because nobody ever prepares you for the time in your life when your mother is lying there helpless and about to go under the knife.
“Is she awake?” I ask.
Doc sighs. “We had to give her meds and sedation. She’s conscious but in a semi-sleepful state. You can go see her but don’t expect her to be fully awake. Your mom may or may not speak to you.”
My brothers and I follow Doc through the door that I know to be the scrub station before entry to the exams or procedures can be accessed. Doc points to the sink. “Hands.”
I arch an eyebrow, turn the water on and soap my hands from the dispenser while Doc stands there making sure I do it right. “Protocol,” he says. That’s what I love about Doc. He doesn’t give a damn who I am or what I threaten, lives are what’s important to him.
Whatever it fucking takes to keep my mother safe. “Hands,” I growl to the rest of them who are standing around watching me wash my own.
Doc gives me a nod of approval. “Scrub up everyone, don’t touch anything and follow me.”
The electric eye automatically opens the door into the room where mom is staying. When I approved the plans for a ten room, double occupancy facility I never dreamed my mom would be the first one overnighting or getting a procedure done under its roof.
I follow Doc as he leads us down the hall and enters the first room on the right.
My chest tightens as I walk into the clinical space, and the stillness of my mom’s body lying on the sterile hospital bed wearing a gown she wouldn’t be caught dead in otherwise with my sister sitting next to her holding her listless hand in her own causes my chest to tighten.
Lanah looks up at me with tear-stained eyes and rushes to my arms. “I’ve never been so scared in my life, Vincenzo. I thought she was gone, and I didn’t know what to do, no one knew exactly what to do… “
“Except Anna… I heard. It’s not your fault, sweetheart.”
My fearless princessa, who I have locked in a gilded cage, unable to escape if trouble comes our way and yet somehow, she managed to get the best of the security, save my mom, and still decide to stay with me. I meet my sister’s eyes. “Tell me what happened.”
Lanah strokes my mother’s listless hand, and her eyes meet mine.
“She’s been feeling a little off for a while.
She didn’t say a thing, but I could tell.
I asked her so many times, and over and over again she said it was nothing.
I’m so sorry I didn’t say anything to you, Vincenzo. I just thought she was grieving Dad.”
My jaw locks tight with emotion. If only we could have told her that he’s still alive, maybe she wouldn’t be lying in that hospital bed, but if we had told her, I know, just like my dad knew, that nothing would have stopped her from being by his side.
Lanah just wasn’t old enough to be without her mom.
He knew it and was man enough to make the decision so that Mom didn’t have to and damn it all that I was the only one he’d trust with that information.
I cross the room and draw her into my arms. “Nothing about this situation is your fault, sweetie.”
She looks down at Mamma with me. “If she dies, what happens to the family?”
I stroke her cheek. “That’s not even an option. Doc’s going to fix her up and then we’re going to take her home, capisce?”
Tears leak down the cheeks of my little sister. “What if she doesn’t make it?”
I wipe her tears with a finger, stroke after stroke because they are coming so fast. “She’s going to make it. There’s no doubt in my mind. What I need to know is did anything happen before she lost consciousness? Did she get a call, someone come to the door, anything like that?”
Lanah’s eyes meet mine. “Nothing, Vincenzo. She was helping me with a school project. All of a sudden, down she goes. I swear, that’s it. No calls, no sudden surprise knocks on the door or any of the things you and Dad warned us of. You have to believe me. I would tell you otherwise.”
I will myself to breathe normal. Maybe this is nothing to do with another family making a move, initiating a hit on my mom, or anything of the kind.
But until those test results come back a hundred percent positive it doesn’t have anything at all to do with a chemical that shouldn’t have even gotten to her, I’m not going to know that she’s safe. And I need to know that she is.
Doc walks into the room. I may give him room to do what he needs to do but inside my feelings are a cauldron of overflowing emotions.
This is not the way that my mother is going down.
Everything in my chest tightens, knowing my dad is on his way and may or may not make it in time to be with the love of his life at the time she needs him the most and that no matter what the minute he gets here, it’s going to open a floodgate of emotions and almighty hell.
Lanah moves her hand from me to our mom and all I can see are the tears flowing down her cheeks. “It’s my fault, I should have told someone that something was off.”
I drag my little sister into my arms. “It has nothing to do with you. You have to believe that, Lanah.”
She nods. “One day, when I’m done with school, I’m going to be able to help protect my family.”
My heart clenches. “It’s not your job, sweetie. Ma will be okay, you’ll see.”
Lanah shakes her head. “You don’t understand. I lost my cool when Mamma went down but Anna, she never did. She was raised to be a mafia queen. I may be enrolled in the wrong program.”
My little sister, she is nothing but fearless, and if Papa thought keeping her protected from the daily grind would keep her from learning the daily issues and what they entail, he was as wrong as I am, because no matter what we thought, she sees far more than we wanted her to see, and that right there is a problem we may need to deal with sooner rather than later.