AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I stepped over to where Cook’s mom was sitting, offering her a hand to help her up from the plastic chair. Peering up at the doctor, I said, “This is Vivian Cook. Morris’s mom.”
“Ma’am.” The doctor turned to her. “We were able to stop the bleeding, and your son’s condition is stable. He is being moved into recovery, and you can see him in a few minutes. The surgery went well.” That was all the doctor said.
Vivi looked up at me, her brows drawn together and tears glossing over the brown in her eyes. The same brown as Cook’s. I pulled her into my arms and squeezed her tightly until her hands wrapped around mywaist.
The doctor’s words were all I needed to hear, but I whispered to both myself and her, “He’s going to be okay.”
Chapter 30
Cook
The world was white andsterile, but something seared me from the inside out. The pain throbbed in my side and down my body before it turned to a cool numbness. A siren swam in the depths, calling my name. I tried to claw through the haze until I opened my eyes. The bright white burned my eyes, and I blinked. Dots danced in my vision before they faded away, a woman appearing through it all.
“Cook?” asked Maddie, staring at me with wet eyes.
A groan escaped my hoarse throat. I had fucked up. How many more times was I going to do that?
I tried to sit up but then hissed. Pain stabbed me again, and I glanced down. I wasn’t even wearing a hospital gown, revealing the bandages on my gut. My muscles were taut, skin red. Sweat beaded across my tattoos.
“Cook,” repeated Maddie, holding my hand.
I pulled my gaze up to her, trying to focus. With all the beeping and slurping of the machines, I could barely hear her over the chaos and pain. Where the fuck was the morphine or something? Anything! I needed something to take the pressure off my gunshot wound.
Memories fluttered back to me. I honestly thought my daddy had risen from the dead just to beat me again, but then I remembered the Mafia shoot out. Massimo, Enzo, all their fucking capos. I craned myneck around the hospital room for my brothers.
“Only me?” I rasped.
“What?” asked Maddie.
“Anyone else . . . shot?”
“No,” she answered.
“Mom? Where’s—”
“Shhh, Cook,” said Maddie. “Vivi’s here, just eating now. You need to rest. Heal.”
I finally looked at her again, listening to the high-pitched machines. Fuck, it was annoying. This whole place was annoying. I wanted to get out. I reached for a needle hooked into my arm, but Maddie slapped her hand down on my hand, locking me in place.
“Maddie, let go,” I said over the air bursting into my nostrils. That tube was the next thing to go.
Her maple eyes and the set of her jaw gave away the turmoil inside her, but there was strength staring back at me too. She wanted to obey, but something held her back.
“No, Cook, you need these things.” She flashed her eyes around the room like we were being watched.
We were alone. “Where are my brothers?”
“Outside. Everyone’s here.”
“How’d you—” I gasped as my side pulled again.
“I came with Bou and Mel and Roni. You need to worry about healing now,” she said, then added in a quieter tone, “Daddy. Promise me you won’t try to pull that out.”
“Promise,” I rasped, a little stronger now.
Withdrawing her hand, she trembled, curling slowly in on herself. I grabbed her hand before she completely withdrew.
“Get on my bed,” I ordered.
