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“Where’s Bruno?” he asked, trying to sit up on the gurney. He was going in and out of consciousness and all Gino could remember was that one minute, Bruno was facing down Victor and Gene, and the next, two guys were dragging him out of the building.
“He’s still in there. I don’t know if you remember me, but I’m Damion Pride,” the guy said. “And this is Finn Envy.”
“Hey, man,” Finn said. “You look like shit. You should let the EMTs work on you and let us worry about where Bruno is.”
“Thanks, but I’m the only person who needs to worry about Bruno,” Gino said. “Those assholes kept me in that fucking building for days torturing me, and I’m not going to lay here and let them do the same to my guy.” He had so much that he needed to say to Bruno and while he was being held, he thought for sure that he’d never be able to say it. Every blow they landed made him worry that he wasn’t going to live to see Bruno again—and he’d never be able to tell him how much he loved him. He did and Gino wanted to build a life with him—whatever that might look like for the two of them. He could see himself wanting a family that he never thought he did with Bruno—kids, a house, the white picket fence. The whole nine yards. And now, he was going to be able to tell Bruno that as long as he got him out of that fucking building alive.
“We get it,” Finn said, “but we promised Bruno to get you out of there and sit on you if necessary to keep you from going back into that building. We have a plan, let us do our job.”
“And it’s my job to have Bruno’s back. I’m going in there with you,” he demanded. Gino tried to stand from the gurney and nearly fell on his ass. “Shit,” he grumbled.
“Yeah, you’re not going anywhere,” Damion said. He seemed almost pleased that he was getting his way. All Gino wanted to do was beat the hell out of anyone trying to get to Bruno, but he was no good to anyone in his current condition.
“So, you’re going to stay here and let these nice guys work on you, and Damion and I will go in to make sure that Bruno is good,” Finn said. “You don’t have to worry about him, man. He can take care of himself.” Gino knew that, but he was also going up against his father, and on a regular day, that was tough to do. Now, Mr. Gluttony would be feeling cornered—trapped and there was no telling what he’d do to stay alive. Gino knew for sure that he had no problem taking out his own son. He had ordered hits on both of his children before and he’d do it again to save his own ass.
“Just bring him out of there—alive,” Gino shouted after the two of them. He watched as Damion and Finn disappeared into the building and worried that he had just sent the two of them back to their deaths. There was no way that he’d be able to live with himself if that happened. One thing he was sure of—losing Bruno would break him.
* * *
He tried being patient, but that was never one of his strong suits. He hated that the EMTs were taking so long to pump some fluids into him and take his vitals. They told him that his nose was broken, not that it surprised him at all, and that he was lucky that his jaw wasn’t broken as well. He didn’t feel very lucky. In fact, he felt like he had been run over by a truck and left for dead. Still, there was no way that he was going to be able to sit on the gurney much longer.
“We really need to take you to the hospital to be checked,” one of the EMTs said. There was no way that he was going to willingly let them take him to the hospital without seeing his guy first. In fact, he was going to make them wait for him when he went into the building to get Bruno out of there himself.
“How much longer until this bag of fluids is done?” he asked, looking up at the IV bag hanging over his head.
“About ten minutes, but we can hook you up to another one, if that’s what you’re worried about,” the second EMT said.
“That is not what I’m worried about,” Gino said. “I’m worried about when I can get this fucking thing out of my arm so that I can get back in there.”
“Um, that’s not going to happen, sir,” the first guy said. It looked like it was going to be hard to persuade him to let him go, but when it came to helping Bruno, Gino didn’t plan on asking permission.
“This is going to upset you, but I really don’t give a fuck. The man I love is in that building and if I don’t get in there to help him, he’s going to die. I can’t let that happen,” Gino said.
“I can appreciate that,” the second EMT assured. “If it was my boyfriend in trouble, I’d go crazy trying to get to him. But you are in no shape to go running into a building to save anyone’s life. If you try to, you’ll be the one who ends up dead. How do you think that will make your guy feel?” Damn it—this one was smarter than the other one and Gino was left wondering what his next argument should be. He had nothing, really. Bruno would kill him if he ended up getting hurt going back in for him.
“Besides,” the guy went on, “I’m pretty sure that you have a few broken ribs and that could mean internal bleeding. If we let you go back in there, you could bleed out before you even hit the front door.”
“Well, fuck,” Gino grumbled. If he was bleeding internally, that would certainly change his plans to rescue Bruno. “I can’t leave him.”
“We can’t let you go in there,” the first guy said. “We are here to help you and that’s what we plan on doing.” Before Gino knew what was happening, one of the EMTs stuck a needle in his arm.
“What was that?” he mumbled. He could already feel his eyes getting heavy. In fact, his whole body felt that way. “What did you give me?” he slurred.
“Something to help you sleep,” the second guy said. “You’ll thank us for this someday.” Gino honestly doubted that he’d thank them for drugging him to keep him away from Bruno. “It’s for your own good.” Gino wanted to protest—to tell them both that they were making a horrible mistake, but the more he tried to speak, the more his body shut down. He couldn’t control the dire need to sleep or the fact that he was completely immobile and unable to do anything but what he was told.
“Just sleep now,” the first guy said. “When you wake up, you’ll be fixed up, good as new.” He didn’t want to be good as new. He wanted to find Bruno and make sure that he was safe, but his eyes closed, and the hope of getting off that gurney and going back into the building after his guy quickly faded. He was going to sleep now, whether he wanted to or not, and there was nothing that he could do about it. Gino just hoped like hell that Damion and Finn were true to their word and would bring Bruno back to him. They were his only hope now of finding any happiness with Bruno.
Bruno
Bruno wasn’t about to walk back out of that building without knowing that his father was dead. Hell, he’d be the one to pull the trigger if it meant getting rid of the tyrannical head of his family. That was all that his father was to him now—a tyrant. He was never really much of a father figure to him or Trisha. The crazy thing was that Bruno used to want to be just like his old man. When he was just a boy, he used to fantasize about being just like his father when he got his chance to run the family. He had been programmed that way—to love the old ways and want the same things as his dear old dad, but those days were over. The only thing Bruno wanted right now was to know that his guy was safe and was going to be okay.
They had agreed not to make their relationship into a pile of mush—talking about feelings and all that crap, but Bruno wanted to tell Gino that he loved him now more than ever. He wanted to tell his guy that he had fallen for him a while back and that he couldn’t imagine his life without him. Bruno wanted a family with Gino, and he knew that wouldn’t be possible while they were all living under his father’s rule.
He decided to skip the elevator, even though he knew that climbing ten floors was probably not a great idea given that he was going to have an army waiting for him at the top of the building. He should take the elevator and conserve his energy, but he needed the element of surprise when it came to sneaking up on his father.
He got to the tenth floor and pulled the door open wide enough to peek out into the hallway. He was right about his father having about half a dozen guards waiting for him. Bruno could read his old man like a book, and that thought made him sad and amused all at the same time. It reminded him of when he was a kid, and his father would insist that he come to work with him. Bruno remembered the fight that it would cause between his old man and his mother who said that he was too young to go in and learn the ropes. She was right. He was only about five when his father started to insist that he go to the office with him. By the time he was twelve, Bruno had witnessed his first murder, and by fifteen, he had already committed one.
He remembered it like it was yesterday. His father was testing him to see if he had the guts to take over as the Gluttony family’s head of household someday. Bruno knew it and the two guys that his father sent out with him knew it too. He hated that he had to make his way up through the ranks like the rest of his father’s men, but that was his father’s way. He used to like to tell Bruno that was how his grandfather did it and the way it was done by Gluttony men for generations. Who was he to argue with generations of Gluttony men before him? He was no one and his father liked to remind him of that fact daily. He used to tell Bruno that he was no one until he made him into someone. When he was really little, he used to wonder what his father meant by that, but growing up, he figured it out pretty quickly. His father wasn’t going to just hand him the head of household title. Hell, he didn’t plan on giving it to him at all. The only way that Bruno would ever become the head of the Gluttony Syndicate was when his father died. He used to think that he was just fine waiting for that day to come, but now, he was going to have to help it along. His father couldn’t stay alive and in power—Bruno knew that. The rest of the families had suffered by his father’s reign of terror and now, it was time to end it all and take his rightful place as the head of the Gluttony family. Bruno just hated that meant that he’d have to kill his father to make that happen.
