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Doc comes out of the washing area, suited up and ready to put Rocco back together. “Okay, time to get out of here and let me work on these two. Argue in the waiting room.”
Max leads the way out of Shaye’s room, and I’m on his heels, anxious to put as much distance between me and Tony as possible.
Tony wants exactly the opposite. He grabs my wrist and pushes me into a corner. “Do you know how wrong things could have gone tonight? You had no idea who you were dealing with, and you went in there guns blazing. Tell me how the hell you managed to come out alive!”
Dad muscles his way between us and places his hands on Tony’s chest to hold him back. “Stop browbeating him. Shaye is alive. Rocco is right. That’s the most important thing.”
Tony glares at my dad. “You knew this was happening, didn’t you? And you also know this won’t be the end of them.” He turns back to me. “But you didn’t consider that, did you, Nico? You and the other two clowns just figured you could take them all out in one shot, right? Always got something to prove. This time you messed up big. Because Cap ain’t going to lie still in his fucking grave. He’s too busy directing his fucking minions from the afterlife. He’ll be back, and when he shows up, trust me, you’ll be wishing for a replay of this night.”
“What the hell were we supposed to do, let them kill her?” Max raises his voice and barrels into the conversation. “We did what we had to do, Dad. For fuck’s sake, how can you say we messed up?”
Tony clenches his fists. “You didn’t call us, goddammit! This was a time when you needed us in your corner to handle things with Cappodamo the right way, but you didn’t abide by the rules. You made ’em up as you went, and now we’re all gonna pay. It didn’t have to come to this!”
I rake a hand through my hair. Popping a cap between the boss’s eyes showed strength and resolve, and that was one of my goals. I needed to get my guys to trust me. Without trust, there’s no respect. Without respect, there’s no loyalty. But that’s not the only reason why I went in there, and I can’t hide the truth from him any longer.
“He wanted me,” I say quietly, and Tony’s head snaps in my direction.
“What do you mean, he wanted you?”
I let out a deep sigh, avoiding my dad’s pleading eyes. Like I said, everything comes out sooner or later. “Cap knew I was with Shaye tonight. I was on the phone with her when they grabbed her. She was leaving my house.”
Tony moves Max out of the way using only his shoulder and he closes the gap between us. “You’d better tell me everything, Nico,” he hisses. “Fucking everything, starting right now.”
“Shaye and I—”
“Daddy!” Shaye’s weak voice stops me mid-confession. “Please come in here.”
Tony leaves me with another death glare and stomps into the exam room, slamming the door behind him.
“Are you insane?” Max exclaims in a loud whisper. “You were gonna tell him about you and Shaye?”
I nod. “Max, I know you’re angry about what you saw, but it’s not what you think. I’m in love with her. I have been for as long as I could remember. And I almost lost her. Three times now. I won’t risk losing her again. And I’ll blow away anyone who dares touch her again.”
“Aren’t you a big man riding high on your first kill?” Max’s jaw twitches. “I can’t get that shit out of my head, Nico. Knowing the way you are with chicks, and now you’re with my baby sister…it had better be for real, bro. I’ll fuck you up if you hurt her.” He peeks his head around mine and points to my dad. “I’m serious. I’ll pop a cap in his ass if he missteps. And I think Grandpa Vito would be okay with that.”
Dad cracks a smile. “I think so, too. And can we please not go into any more detail about this?”
I snicker. “Yeah, I’m good with that.”
Tony pushes open the exam room and walks back over to us. “She said she loves you.”
“I love her, too.”
“She said that also,” he grumbles. “But I’m glad to hear it from you.”
“Look, I know there’s a lot between our families — a lot of bad blood, but a lot of history, too. I’m not saying we have to put it all behind us, but you’re all going to have to be okay with this thing between me and Shaye. I’d give my life for her without a thought. That’s why things happened the way they did tonight. She was in trouble, and I did what I had to do to protect her. To protect all of us.”
“I get why you did it, Nico.” Tony leans back against the wall outside the exam room. “You just don’t know what you started. You think you ended things, but you couldn’t be more wrong. It’s nothing you could have anticipated.” He nods toward my dad. “Hell, you probably didn’t even know anything about it.”
Dad shakes his head. “I told him to handle it his way. He needed to command the situation, and he did.”
Tony pushes back his hair and grunts. “Yeah, but at what cost?”
“Negotiating with him wouldn’t have gotten us anywhere. You know that. They got your daughter out of there and in one piece. We can deal with everything else.”
“Even you don’t understand—"
“Okay, Rocco is about ready to go in for repair. I just finished prepping him. He’s close to drifting off.” Doc appears from the other exam room. “Anyone want to leave him with a few final words while he’s still lucid enough to understand them?”
