White Knight (Dirty Mafia Duet, #2)(46)

Dark enough that it puts Benny off his ice cream? Yep, definitely something there.

“I’ll catch all of you later. This old man needs a nap.” He moves out of the kitchen, and everyone watches him silently.

It takes one round of glances bouncing from person to person in the room for me to make a decision.

“I’m going after him,” I say to no one in particular, or maybe to everyone. Since there are no objections, I rush out of the room to catch Benny on the stairs, heading in a direction I haven’t yet ventured.

“Benny . . .” When I say his name, the old man waves me off.

“Not now. I’m tired.”

He takes another turn, and I stay on his heels down the hallway.

“You’re not tired. You’re dying.” My assumption is out of my mouth before I realize what I’m saying.

Benny spins around to face me, his expression the opposite of friendly. “You think you’re some hotshot detective figuring that out? What the hell do you want, Drew Carson?”

My gut, which has guided me faithfully my entire life, tells me that I have to give him some of the truth if he’s going to trust me with anything.

“I want to find a way to fix this without any more blood being spilled. I didn’t find Cannon now just to lose him to some mob war I don’t understand, and no one knows how it started. I need answers so I can try to save this family, because I desperately want it to be mine too.”

Every word out of my mouth is the absolute truth, and from the way Benny studies me, he sees it too.

“You got it bad, kid. Not that I’m surprised. Cannon’s a good one. Maybe the best of all of them. You’d do right to grab onto him and convince him to get the hell out of this mess before a bullet with his name on it finds its mark.”

“I wish it was that easy. But you know him. Better than me, no doubt. And that means you know that he’s not going to walk away when the people he loves are in danger. Not a chance.”

Benny rocks back on his heels. “Yeah, because he’s got a heart of gold, and not even fool’s gold at that.” As soon as I think he’s being swayed in my favor, Benny turns and continues on down the hallway.

“Dammit,” I whisper to myself, feeling like I’ve lost an important battle, but I’m not even sure why I feel that way.

The events of the past twenty-four hours crash down on me, all the highs and lows and craziness. My lack of proper sleep weighs on my shoulders, causing me to slump against a doorway. But I force my exhaustion down and dig deep for a second wind.

“You coming or what, Drew Carson?” Benny waits at the end of the hallway, his hand resting on a doorway.

“Coming for what?”

“Your answers. I ain’t got all day.”





31





Cannon





“I need to get out of this fucking bed. I got work to do.”

My father is just as stubborn as Enzo, which shouldn’t come as a surprise, although I expected he’d be a little smarter.

“You’re not getting discharged for at least another forty-eight hours. You just had major surgery,” I tell him as he rips one lead from his chest.

“Then I’ll go against medical advice. I don’t fucking care. I’m not going to let them take everything I’ve built. Not now. Not after all these years.”

A nurse comes jogging into the room as soon as she sees what Dom’s doing, and Primo takes a step toward Dom. I raise my hand to indicate the bodyguard needs to stay put.

“Sir, please. You need to stay in bed and leave the monitoring equipment alone. It’s for your own safety,” the nurse says, her calm tone edged with mild authority. No doubt because she knows exactly who this man is.

He’s gotten the royal treatment due to his infamy, much like Creighton has. The hospital staff has gone above and beyond to make sure every need is met before we even have to ask. They’ll definitely be getting a large anonymous donation soon.

“If I want to leave, I’ll leave. No one’s stopping me.”

Instead of shrinking at Dom’s authoritative tone, she lifts her chin and her posture stiffens.

“Sir, with all due respect, the surgeons didn’t just spend hours of their precious time saving your life when they could’ve been working on someone more grateful, just so you could undo all of their work and throw it back in their faces. If you walk out of this hospital, I wouldn’t be surprised if you drop dead on the sidewalk before you make it to your car. And even if you don’t drop dead, but simply pass out or need a second surgery, there’s a chance those same surgeons might not be quite so quick to rush to your rescue.” Her gaze shoots at me, and instead of seeing latent fear pushing its way out, her gray eyes are flinty. “We don’t appreciate people who don’t give a damn about their health and waste our time in the process.”

I don’t know what it is about her or her statement, but Dom’s hand stills and he leaves the other lead on his chest.

“No one talks to me that way. Ever.”

The brazen nurse pins her shoulders back and stares my father down. “Well, you can make a note in your diary that today, Judith Maria Hansen is speaking to you that way, and if you’ve got enough brain cells left in that hard head of yours, you’ll listen to what I’m saying. You need to take it easy and keep your blood pressure down. Now, if you’ll allow me, I’ll reaffix the lead and you can continue your discussion.”