Page 95 of Mafia And Taken

“When can I get out of here?” I tried to make my voice strong despite the pain I was in.

“Right now, we just need to take each day as it comes and monitor the healing and keep an eye out for any signs of infection or complications. How is the pain?”

“It’s fine. I can manage.”

“Get him some more pain relief,” ordered Marco.

“I don’t need it. For fuck’s sake, I don’t want to be all drugged up and I want to get out of here.”

“I’m Capo and you’ll follow my orders.” At that moment, Marco’s cell phone rang, and he excused himself while the doctor went to fetch some more painkillers.

Only Cate was left in the room with me. She had stayed silent until now, but she could no longer hold back the tears which started to run down her pale cheeks.

“Hey, come here,” I said, awkwardly holding my arm toward her. She rushed over and hugged herself to my side. “It’s okay. I’m okay now. Everything’s going to be fine.”

“I thought you were going to die…there was so much blood. We couldn’t stop the blood loss. I thought I wouldn’t see you again.”

Right then, the door opened, and Juliana walked in. “Marco told me that you were awake! You had us worried.” I watched as behind her trotted in Mr. Fluffy.

“You know that dogs aren’t allowed in hospitals, right?” I grumbled, my pain making me cranky.

“The doctor said something like that to us until Marco gave him one of his looks and reached for his weapon.”

Marco came back in at that moment. “Juliana needs to keep her blood pressure down, and she was worried about leaving Mr. F at the villa after that shitshow today.”

Juliana nodded. “Mr. Fluffy would worry about you. He saw you after you’d been shot, and he saw all the blood.” Mr. F put his front paws on the side of my bed and whined before nuzzling his wet snout into my hand.

I was too tired and in too much pain to worry about him messing up my bedsheets, so I just patted him on the head, and he wagged his tail at me. At that moment, I could kind of see Juliana’s point about how the dog helped take some stress away.

Then I thought to myself, I must be high on painkillers to be thinking such mushy thoughts about the dog.

I tried to shift my body again, but the stitches pulled at my side, making me grunt in pain. The doctor returned and added something to my IV line. “I told you, I don’t want more painkillers.”

“You need to rest.” Cate’s voice was quiet. “We all need you well again and back with us.”

She saidwith us. I wondered if she meantwith her, but I didn’t have the chance to ask. As the meds took over and dragged me back into drowsiness, something didn’t feel right, but I didn’t have the energy right now to work it out.

***

When I came around later, I saw that Cate was asleep in the chair next to me. Her arms were propped on the side of my bed, and she rested her head on top of them. On the other side of my bed sat Marco.

“You’re awake,” said Marco.

“I can see nothing gets past you. Why didn’t you go home?”

“Cate refused to go back to the villa, so I stayed here with her. I sent Juliana back with some soldiers to get some rest. You’ve got a pretty loyal girl here, you know? She hasn’t left your side since you arrived here.”

“How long was I out for?”

“After they finished operating, you were unconscious for a further twenty-four hours.”

“Shit.”

“Exactly. You had me really worried there. Don’t do that again, man.”

I winced as pain stabbed at my side. “Don’t worry, I don’t plan on doing this again anytime soon.”

“The doctor says you’ll be here for a few days yet.”

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