“Is she smiling?” I don’t even try to keep the irritation out of my voice. How fucking hard is it to look at her beautiful fucking face and tell me how she’s feeling? Jesus fucking Christ.
“She’s not… not smiling, boss.”
“For fuck’s sake.” I rub a hand over my face as Tommy and Matti come in and find a seat, Matti sitting on the blanket that Sophie folded and left on the bench. I scowl at him and he frowns back, confused. “Jett, here’s how this works. You don’t make decisions about what’s worth telling me. Everything is worth telling me. Every stop. Every person she talks to. If she coughs, I want to know. You understand?”
“Uh, sure. Yes, sir.”
“She eats today. Real food. Make sure of it.”
“Sir… I don’t know if it’s my place to—”
“If she wants to go anywhere alone, no she doesn’t. She can be as mad as she wants, but she doesn’t go without you. Am I clear?”
“Understood.”
“And Jett.”
“Boss?”
”She’s not a job. She’s your only fucking thought tonight.”
“Of course, Mr. Demonio.”
When I hang up, Matti and Tommy are quiet, watching me.I move my arm gingerly, trying to loosen the tightness that cramped my muscles the minute she was out of my sight.
Matti squints at my back. “Thought you got stitched up. What happened?”
“Looks like all your stitches ripped,” Tommy comments blandly. “Do we need to call the doc?”
“Why are you here?” How and why my stitches ripped are none of their fucking business.
“We hit Red Hook Wednesday night,” Tommy starts. “Their distribution warehouse. We took out roughly two million in product, maybe more. We hit Newark the same night, their consolidation point on the south side. That one burned for six hours. The meatpacking location we’ve been watching, we hit the personnel there. Four of theirs are in the hospital. Two aren’t.”
I nod. “And?”
“That’s three strikes in under a week,” Matti says. “They’re going to hit back, and they’re going to hit hard. We need to decide where we want to be standing when they do. Tommy wants to take the fight to them before they can regroup. I want to pull everyone in, fortify, make them come to us.”
“You both want your women and children home,” I say.
They look at each other.
“Yeah,” Tommy says. “We do.”
I lean back against the head board and cross my arms, carefulof my side. “Until my woman and my child are safe at home, the war is not my primary focus.”
The room goes very still.
Matti’s expression moves through phases as he processes what I said. Tommy blinks once.
“Your—” Matti starts.
“Sophie is pregnant.”
Matti moves first, crossing the room, and claps me on the shoulder. I nod at him.
“Congratulations,” Tommy says. “Seriously, Vin. Congratulations, man.”
“Thank you.”
