get in here within the next five minutes, okay?" he asked, tone heavy with meaning. Or else.
The nurse rushed off, leaving us alone in the stark white room, the sun streaming in through the large windows.
"I need you to talk," I told him, pushing the button to fold my bed up. I hated to admit it, but I was a little light-headed, a little off. "Where is Giana?"
"Look," Emilio said, face grim. "A lot of shit has gone down since you passed out. And I need you to cooperate with these doctors. Because I need to get your ass out of this bed, out of this hospital, in a suit, and in front of the families. As soon as possible."
Emilio was rarely serious, never grave.
But he was both of those things right that moment.
I had no idea what had happened, but I knew I had to trust him, that I had to make sure I was able to function, then get the hell out of there, so he could fill me in.
"Okay," I agreed, nodding.
"He's on his way in," the nurse called, barely pausing in the doorway before rushing off.
"I know. We'll send a basket in apology," Emilio said, shaking his head. "Always such a charmer, Lorenzo," he added, reaching for his phone, blowing off a series of texts.
I wanted to press him, but then the doctor was there, spouting off a bunch of shit about my surgery, about how lucky I was, about possible complications, about therapy should I need it, about follow-up visits with a neurologist as well as my primary care doctor.
I yes'd him to death, then asked for my papers as Emilio ducked downstairs, coming back with a suit in a dry-cleaning bag.
I moved on frustratingly unsteady feet into the bathroom, took a two-minute shower in the minuscule enclosure, brushed my teeth, and shrugged into the suit.
Most of the other injuries from my beating had healed over in the week since I had received them. But the freshly shaved line down the side of my head and the bright red wound there were going to take a while to get used to seeing in the mirror.
It was a small problem, though.
And from the sound of things, I had big issues to deal with.
"Alright. Talk," I demanded as soon as we were half a block down from the hospital.
We should have gotten somewhere more private, but the walking wasn't feeling so great, so I was taking the opportunity to lean back against the wall, take it easy on myself.
"Your father is dead."
"What?" I hissed, feeling like someone kicked me in the chest, all my air was gone. "How?"
"Anaphylactic shock," he told me, shrugging. "His men found him when he was late for a meeting. He'd started his shower, but was on the floor dead beside it."
My father's death meant fucking chaos for the families.
Especially since I wasn't around.
"Who is trying to rise up?" I asked, following him as he led me over toward his car on the side street.
"Espositios and Lombardis are making noise. The D'Onofrios and the Morellis are being patient, waiting to hear about your condition. Like I said, though, it wasn't looking good. So the Morellis, last I heard, were ready to step in. If for no other reason, than to keep the others in place."
"Get me to the brownstone," I demanded as he pulled off into traffic. "Did you already inform everyone I woke up?"
"I got the word around to the D'Onofrios and Morellis, but I was holding off on the others."
Good.
They might have heard that, and come to pick me off on my way out of the hospital.
"My father's men?"
"Anxious, at best. I figure there are more skeletons in the closet than we realized, and everyone is shitting themselves that you will do to them what you did to Paulie."
"How the fuck did that get out?" I snapped, glaring at him.
"Don't look at me. Your father managed to spread that around before he died."
My head was spinning with all this information, with all the possible repercussions to this shift in power, to all the things I needed to do to ensure my position, to keep peace among the Five Families.
But still, it circled back to one thing.
One person.
"I need to know what happened to Giana," I told Emilio as he turned down the street toward my father's—now my—brownstone.
"I don't know," he admitted, shaking his head. "The guards panicked, called the cops. I don't know if she was let go, or if she