“Yeah, he knows something is up, but I haven’t said a word. I told Sal and Marco not to say anything either. He definitely needs to hear all this from you.”
“Think he’ll be pissed?” I ask.
“Honestly, I think he will be fucking proud of you. Michael, you have taken over this family flawlessly. You have handled every crisis with expert mastery. Hell,I’mfucking proud of you.”
“That means a lot, little brother. Thanks.”
“Want me to come with you when you talk to Pop?” he asks.
“Naw, I got this, but thanks.”
I get up from my desk and decide I’ll go see him now. Alex follows behind me, and we leave my office. Alex heads for the kitchen, and I turn and go up the stairs toward my father’s room.
“Come in at your own risk,” he replies when I knock on the door. My father, the jokester.
I walk in, and my mother is sitting in the chair across the room from his bed, reading. “Whatcha reading, Mom?”
“Oh, you know, another romance novel. I just can’t seem to get enough of them.”
“Yeah, after you readFifty Shades of Grey,you were sucked in. Is the sex in those books that good?”
“Michael! Shame on you. You shouldn’t talk about such things to your mother,” she admonishes.
My father and I laugh. I love teasing her about the smutty sex books she reads. She gets so offended but reads them anyway. I personally think it’s kinda cute.
“Mikey, sit,” my father says. He looks at my mother and says, “Francesca my love, can you give Michael and me a minute?”
She gets up from her chair, book in hand, and says, “Now, Michael, don’t you upset him.”
“I won’t, Mamma, I won’t.”
After my mother leaves the room, Pop looks at me. “So I know you have much to tell me. It seems everyone else knows but me. I’m not used to that, Michael.”
“I know, Pop. I just wanted you to rest before you knew everything.”
“Well, I’m rested and getting better every day.”
“Okay.” I sit in the chair my mother just vacated and rest my elbows on my knees. There is so much to tell him, and I’m not sure where to start. “The night you were rushed to the hospital, Gallardi attacked the house. They flew in with helicopters and opened fire. That you already know, but what you don’t know is they also kidnapped Zaira.” I watch as horror comes across my father’s face before it turns into confusion.
“What? But she’s here. I saw her just the other day.”
“Yes, she’s fine. We found out Darius was working for Gallardi. We nabbed him at his house the next day. After several hours in the watershed, he finally told us where we could find her. We went in that night and got her.” I’m worried he may say something about reacting without thinking, and I am prepared to come to my own defense on the matter, but he says nothing and I swear he looks pleased with what I did.
“When you say ‘we,’ who do you mean?”
“Ice and his boys, Ricco, and myself.”
“Well, she’s safe now.”
“Yes, she is, but one of Ice’s men didn’t make it.” He looks down and then back at me. I know it’s not disappointment I see from him. He just knows how this goes and how we risk our lives every day. It doesn’t matter that it was from the MC. A life lost is a life lost.
“Who?”
“It was his VP, Pop. Hawk.”
“Damn, I’ve known Hawk for years. How is Ice holding up?”
“He took it pretty hard but is completely focused on retaliation. Which, I have to say, I can’t blame him.”
