Chapter 92
Tony
I run after Nonno and Ariana. He starts giving orders as soon as we’re inside. The whole front room has been turned into an impromptu hospital. I guess they planned this all out to the finest details. I watch as he places Ariana on a bed and a team of doctors gets to work hooking up monitors and drips. Cords are flying everywhere with exact precision as they start cutting away the makeshift bandage.
“She’s pregnant.” I say to no one in particular. One of the female doctors looks up at me and gives a sympathetic smile and nods at me. Another woman romes up beside me and passes me hospital gown.
“Let’s get you looked at.”
“No. Not until I know she’s okay.”
“She will be out for some time. I think she would want you to be looked at.”
“No.”
“Tony, sit your ass down now.” My mother says coming up behind me with Luciano who is also handed a hospital gown. We’re led to beds closest to Ariana and let the nurses do their checks. They patch up wounds and give us both an IV for fluids and then allow us to sit in chairs beside Ariana as the doctors‘ work on pulling out the bullet. I look over at Luca who’s clearly needing a lot more attention than us, but he too hasn’t taken his eyes off of her.
Within minutes the room is buzzing with men being brought in, checked and cleared to the backyard where the women are catering to everyone that’s deemed okay. Nonno comes and sits beside me.
“Thank you, Nonno.”
He places a hand on my shoulder.
“She’s a tough one, that girl of yours.”
“She is…”
“Smart too.” I smile at him.
“And carrying the next heir.”
“You won’t mind if it’s not biologically yours?” He asks me as Luca joins us.
I look up at Tony and Luca and we all smile at each other.
“No, it doesn’t matter who biologically made this child. They will be ours, all of ours, and the next Don if it’s a boy.”
Nonno pats my shoulder and smiles warmly at me.
“Good. That’s the right answer, Son.”
“Alright guys, she’s stable and the bullet missed everything important, luckily, just scrapped her lung. Who wants to see this little bundle of joy?”
“Yes! I want to see our baby!” Luca raises his hand like an excited school boy and quickly regrets his decision when he winces from the pain.
“Alright, lets get this all set up.” The nurse says/turning a monitor towards us and lifting the hospital gown they had placed on our girl.
“Wait…we should wait until she’s awake.” I say. Mamma and Madre come up behind us.
“She’s already seen the baby, if that’s what you’re worried about, and the doctors need to check on his or her health anyway. It’s okay to look.” Mamma says, brushing some hair from Ariana’s face and standing behind Luca, whispering in his ear, “the baby is absolutely gorgeous by the way.”
1/3
Chapter 92
You’ve seen it?” He says.
Well of course, who do you think has been taking care of her while you three have been gone?” She puffs her chest out slightly. I make a mental note to do something special for Mamma and Madre.
Okay, here we go, the nurse squirts some jelly on Ariana’s little bump that’s now visible and starts sliding a little wand around on it. I take hold of my angel’s hand as the screen starts to show a little black and white circle.
So she’s three and a half months along now…” The nurse says.
“and she doesn’t want to know the gender!” Madre rushes out.
No gender revealing, got it” The nurse smiles. “Here’s the feet…and here, here’s your baby.”
“Wow..” I whisper.
“That’s amazing” Tony says beside me.
Luca sniffles and I look up to see him crying. “That is the cutest fucking this I’ve ever seen!”
We all laugh a little at him as he comes to sit by Tony. Mamma helping to move his IV. He places an arm around Tony’s shoulder, and I do the same. We sit with our arms locked around each other just starting at the tiny baby on the screen while the nurse looks at every different angel, taking measurements and doing checks.
“The baby looks completely fine and unfazed by the war you’ve all just been through. As a medical professional I highly recommend that you don’t allow her into any more gun fights.” She looks at us sternly.
“Can we get a picture of the baby?” I ask.
“Of course. Let me get some printed out for you three.”
She cleans up Ariana’s stomach, putting her down back in place and I cover her with a blanket.
“We’ll get you three some food. I take it you won’t be moving any time soon?” Madre asks and I politely accept her offer. I won’t be letting her out of my sight.
“Luciano“, Nonno says coming to sit beside us. “We should talk about what’s happened since you’ve been gone. The women will sit with her. Come.” He gets up and I reluctantly follow as Nonna takes my place. I follow him to his office down the hallway with Luca and Tony. Inside are some of the retired top tier men from my Nonno’s and father’s era, and a couple men around my age I don’t recognise. We all crowd into the decently sized room.
“To execute this mission, Ariana brought in some of the men her brother’s trusted.” He motions to the unknown men.
*Marcus and Darren. We we’re very close to Carlos and Sam and were honored to help their little sister.” I shake their hands and thank them for their
service.
“We may very well need to recruit these men, as they no longer have a family, and our family is now down a number of men. That’s one topic to be put up for discussion. Nonno says. We talk for a few hours as Nonno explains what transpired just now and the reason why the old boys were so happy to be involved. Gregory explains the history between our family and the Ivanov’s. They also explain why they had lied to me about my parents downfall. At the time I was overseas, helping form shipment plans. When I returned home due to Nonno’s instructions, he had told me it was a random attack. He now tells me he had lied so that I wouldn’t feel the urge to get revenge and dissolve the treaty he had formed to stop the loss of more of our men and family. I’m pretty pissed, but I also understand why he did what he did. Now though, my mind drifts to Alexander.
“We didn’t kill him…” I say mindlessly.
“You…didn’t?” Nonno asks..
“No… Ariana shot him with a dart and the guards swarmed us. In the heat of the moment we were all just so focused on getting out. I don’t think he’s dead.”
“Well, he is going to be fucking pissed when he wakes up.
