Giorgio (Vigilance #1) - Silvia Violet Page 0,76
focus on him
“I love you, Lane. You’re going to be okay. You have to be okay.”
“I…” I tried to say the words back, but I wasn’t sure if I got them out before darkness took me and I slumped against him.
The next time I came fully awake, it took me several moments to figure out where I was. Feeling around and blinking against the bright light coming in the window eventually led me to realize I was in my own bed in my apartment. I tried to remember how I’d gotten there, and slowly everything up until the moment Giorgio had told me he loved me came back to me. Had he really said that? Or had I dreamed it?
From that point on, the events of the evening were sketchy. I had a vague memory of being sick in a car and then someone—a doctor?—talking to me. Obviously, someone had brought me here and put me to bed. Had it been Giorgio?
I heard voices coming from the living room. I started to get up to see who it was, but the moment I tried to stand, my head pounded, and my stomach threatened to revolt. I slowly lay back down. Trying to listen closely wasn’t much better for my head, but I needed to know who was out there.
“Just tell him. It’s way past time.”
Was that my mother? “Mom?”
A few seconds later, she appeared in the doorway.
“Oh, darling, you’re awake, and you look so much better.”
If I looked as bad as I imagined, I must have really looked like hell last night. “What are you doing here?”
She moved forward, sat on the bed, and took my hand. “Your f—Giorgio’s boss called me. He thought I’d want to see for myself that you’re all right. I can’t believe they allowed you to be part of this. I’ve already—”
“It was my idea, Mom. I wanted to help. It was something I needed to do.”
“The whole reason I hired them was to see that you were safe.”
“I’m okay. I’ve just got a headache.”
“The doctor said you’d feel hung over today from the sedative you were given.”
I guess that part of my memory was right. “I saw a doctor last night?”
“Yes. Don’t you remember? Giorgio’s boss brought you back here and summoned a doctor.”
“And then called you?”
“Y-yes.” There was something she wasn’t telling me but trying to figure out what made my head ache viciously.
“Alan, is he…”
“He’s dead. The other men who were there when you were rescued are injured but alive. Giorgio wanted to be sure they could be questioned.”
I could imagine that questioning was going to be very unpleasant for them. “Is Giorgio here?”
She shook her head.
“Where is he?”
“I’m not sure. He and the other men who were supposed to be protecting you stayed behind to deal with the…aftermath.”
“You mean to cover up what happened?”
“Yes.” She waved her hand as if it were nothing.
“Then who’s out there?”
“His boss.”
Was I finally going to get to meet this mystery man? “I’d like to talk to him.”
“I think he’d like to talk to you as well.”
“What were you arguing about just now?”
She ignored me and walked back to the door. “It’s time.”
“Sandra.”
“I mean it, X.”
I recognized the man’s voice, but I couldn’t place it. Giorgio had said I’d probably met his boss before, but I wasn’t prepared to recognize him so easily when he stepped into the room. I had met him, but even if I hadn’t, I’d recognize him, most anyone in Boston would.
“You’re—”
“Your father,” the man said.
I stared at him. “What?” I couldn’t have heard him right. Was I still fucked up from whatever Alan had given me?
“I’m your father, Lane.”
I looked at my mom, and she nodded. How the hell could this be true, and why hadn’t they told me sooner? A whole slew of emotions ran through me, anger, disbelief, sadness.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
The man looked at my mother as if to say he’d warned her. “And what do you mean you’re Giorgio’s boss? You’re—”
“My public life is not all there is to me,” he said. “You may or may not know I was in the military for years before my parents and older brother died.”
They’d been in a terrible car accident. I’d seen clips of the funeral on TV, and I did vaguely remember that he’d left the army soon after that.
“I was special forces, and the man I was during those years is far more the real me than my public persona. I run Vigilance now, but I