“Yes. Thank you, your honor,” I said and was dismissed with a strike of the gavel.
I shook Seth’s hand and we cleared out to make room for the next case. I hugged my dad and Dante and when I saw the scowl on Agent Phillips face, my smile grew even wider.
“Don’t think about leaving town, Dominic,” he said before stalking out of the courtroom with his clone.
I didn’t take his threat lightly because he was still working on a case against me, but at least I was out and could organize. It was time for the cops on our payroll to do some digging of their own. I was quickly processed out and my belongings, minus my gun, were returned to me. Fortunately that was a clean piece and hadn’t been used on anything or anyone. We stepped out into the sunshine and I took a deep breath. After spending the night in jail surrounded by the stench of vomit and piss, the New Jersey air never smelled so sweet.
My clothes were stiff with dried blood and a faint metallic odor clung to the fabric. I didn’t notice this until I was in Dante’s BMW. Cracking the window, I leaned back, enjoying the soft leather seats.
“You need to call Gio. He needs assurances and I figured it’d be better if he heard them from you,” Dante said.
I groaned, but knew he was right. Grabbing my cell phone, I dialed the 310. It was still fairly early on the West coast, but Gio answered on the second ring.
“Dom, I wasn’t sure if you’d be able to call anytime soon.”
“What can I say? I’m a local hero now and the judge had some hero worship going on. All charges are dropped.”
“Good to hear so that shipment is still on?”
“Oh yeah, all systems go.”
“Alright, good. Talk soon.” He hung up and I tossed my phone in the cup holder.
“Thanks for taking care of everything, cuz. You did fucking right, man.” I clapped Dante on the shoulder.
“That’s what we do.” Dante grinned and turned up the radio. There was a news update on the shooting. Now the focus was on the victims of the tragedy. It made me sick to hear that an eight year girl was among the dead. I’m glad I shot the fucker, just wish I’d been able to blow his twisted brains out earlier, before he took the lives of so many innocents.
I tried calling Natalie, but got her voicemail. It was good just hearing her voice and I knew she was preoccupied with Grant, so I hung up without leaving a message.
Dante took me back to the condo and got out with me, letting valet take his car. “Man, I need a shower, a drink, some food and a nap. In that order,” I told him in the elevator.
“I figured. I’ll hang out and make some calls then when you’ve had a chance to rest we’ll go see Grant together.”
“Have you seen him yet?” I asked.
“No, they restricted visitors last night, but I heard his condition has been downgraded from critical to stable.”
I quickly showered and threw on a pair of basketball shorts. Dante had made eggs and bacon while I was in the bathroom. He piled up a plate and handed it to me, followed by a bloody Mary.
“Thanks honey,” I teased.
Dante flipped me off then punched my arm when he sat down next to me at the island counter with his own breakfast. By the time I cleaned my plate and sucked down the bloody Mary, I could barely keep my eyes open.
“Wake me in two hours then we’ll go see Grant,” I told Dante and disappeared into my bedroom, drawing the heavy blinds closed to block out any light. I smoked a bowl and that was it, my body shut down.
***
Dante woke me up and I stumbled into the bathroom. It wasn’t until after I splashed cold water on my face and brushed my teeth that I managed to get my eyes fully open. They felt dry and full of sand. I could easily have slept for over ten hours straight, but that had to come later. One thing I learned quickly about being the boss was that I didn’t get a lot of down time and the sixteen hours I was locked up required some damage control. After throwing on the first clean shirt hanging in my closet and a pair of jeans, I was ready to visit Grant.
We took Dante’s car back over the bridge and I sipped a cup of coffee while filtering through the messages on my phone, deleting the old ones from Gio since I already spoke to him. There was one from my mom; she just wanted to hear my voice. A few others were cryptic messages from Chan, Ji, Egan and Demetrius. They had all been watching the news apparently and had business concerns.
The last message was from Natalie and she left it while I had been sleeping. “Hey Dom, it’s Nat, I saw you called and heard you were released. I’m so glad. Anyway, call me back when you get a chance.” She sounded as tired as I felt. I called her right back and again it went to voicemail.
“Hey Nat, I’m on my way to see Grant. Maybe I’ll see you there? Call me.”
Media vans and reporters were camped out front of the hospital leaving enough space for ambulances to get through to the emergency entrance, but that’s about it. Dante drove around to the back by a service entrance where he parked in a loading zone. A security guard was waiting outside and escorted us in through the laundry facilities. I raised my eyebrow at Dante and he rubbed his fingers together, indicating we had lined the guard’s pockets for this special access.
We used the service elevator and took it up to the critical care unit. Uncle Al was in the waiting room reading an issue of People magazine. He was so engrossed he didn’t notice us enter. Dante and I looked at each other and couldn’t hold the laughter in.
“Should I get you a subscription for your birthday, Dad?” Dante asked, snatching the magazine from Al’s hands and turning it over to see what article he was reading. “Really? Weight loss success stories?”
“Hey, the before and after pictures are remarkable!” Uncle Al snapped before grabbing the magazine back. Flipping it closed, he set in on the table then stood up and gave me a hug. “Good to see you, Dom, what a mess, huh?”
“Yeah, you could say that,” I said. “How’s Grant doing?”
“You can go see him. The docs are weaning him off of the drugs that kept him in the coma since he stabilized, but he’s still unconscious. Natalie and Anna are in there with him now.”
I almost asked who Anna was but remembered that was Natalie’s mom’s name. Popping a piece of gum in my mouth to mask the coffee breath, I walked with Dante down the hall to Grant’s room. A nurse intercepted us, instructing us to use the antibacterial hand sanitizer from the dispenser attached to the wall right outside of the door leading to his room. We disinfected as thoroughly as possible before pushing the door open. Natalie looked up in surprise when we walked in. Releasing Grant’s hand, she came over to greet us, giving Dante a quick hug before turning to me. I pulled her into my arms and out of habit, buried my nose in her hair, inhaling her scent. We stayed like that for longer than normal for a casual hug between friends and when we separated Natalie’s eyes glittered with tears.
“I’m so glad they let you out of jail,” she said.
“Me too and I’m sorry it went down that way. Are you okay?” Natalie’s hair was pulled back in a ponytail, but a section of the bangs she was growing out had slipped loose of the band, reaching over, I tucked the stray hairs behind her ear.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Grant on the other hand…” she looked over at her brother who was lying in bed surrounded by multiple machines. He was propped up slightly and I could see his chest rising and falling. He was so pale it made his hair seem so dark, almost black in comparison. I approached his bedside, saying hello to Natalie’s mom. She glanced up at me and nodded before her turning attention back to Grant. Her hand held his and she appeared to just be watching him breathe as if counting the seconds between each inhale and exhale.
Natalie gestured to the chair she had vacated and I sat down, pulling her onto my lap without any objection. Dante stood by my side. We were staring at the harshness of reality and knew it could have been so much worse. I remembered when it was me in the clinic recovering from being shot. Natalie was forced to watch me then and now her brother
was in an equally vulnerable situation.
“The doctors say he should regain consciousness tomorrow and they’ll be able to determine if Grant suffered any brain damage,” Natalie said, her voice breaking the silence.
“Brain damage?” I asked, unconsciously tightening my arms around her waist.
“He suffered a cardiac arrest while on the operating table and it took close to three minutes for them to resuscitate him,” Natalie’s mom answered in a whisper. “Not having oxygen to the brain for that long can cause brain damage.”
“Shit…” I trailed off and looked at Grant with a different perspective. He wasn’t out of the woods yet.
Chapter 20
I couldn’t stay in that room for long, even with Natalie sitting on my lap. Grant needed to come out of this with some new scars and a lease on life, but not brain damaged. The man I chose as one of my Capos, who aided me in taking out Marco, would not tolerate being altered that way. As Dante and I were leaving the room, I spotted Miranda walking toward us.
“Dom!” She cried out and gave me a hug, kissing my cheek before moving on to Dante.
“Rand, how are you – how’s the baby?”
“Oh, the bambino has chilled out,” she said while rubbing her belly. “I feel good, much better than yesterday. How’s Grant?”
“He’s doing better than yesterday too, apparently. Nat’s in there. You go see him; we’ll wait for you out here and will fill you in on what’s been going on.”
“Okay.” She slipped inside Grant’s room, the door whispering shut behind her.
Dante and I walked to the waiting room where we sat in an unoccupied corner with Uncle Al. A few people stared and pointed at me, talking low amongst themselves. A slight, balding man with glasses approached.
“Are you Dominic Grabano?” he asked.
“Who wants to know?” I answered cautiously.
“I’m Stan Lowenstein.” The man held his hand out and I shook it. “You saved my daughter’s life. Thank you.” Stan’s eyes misted over and he choked out a sob.
Uncomfortable with the display of emotion and not used to saving lives, I didn’t know how to respond. Dante wasn’t much help either; I glanced over at him and he shrugged. The man cleared his throat and breathed in deeply through his nose, getting control of his emotions. “Sorry about that,” he said.
“No need to apologize, man. We’ve all been through an ordeal. Your daughter, is she on this floor?”
“Yes. We were at the mall shopping for a prom dress,” Stan paused. “I’m a single dad,” he explained. “And she was shot leaving the bathroom. I almost lost her, but she’s going to be okay. I’m so glad you stopped that monster.”
“He needed to be stopped,” I said.
“Yes he did. Who knows how many more people he would have hurt or killed?”
We were both quiet for a few seconds, contemplating the worst case scenario. Stepping forward, I put my hand on Stan’s shoulder. “Mr. Lowenstein, I’m glad your daughter’s going to be okay.”
He thanked me again before shuffling off down the hall. I turned to Dante and he was grinning.
“What?” I asked.
“I was thinking we need to milk the hero angle this will make people doubt any less desirable news that may surface.”
I got tired just thinking about it and didn’t have time to be fucking around with the media. Grant was sidelined, we had a big shipment of heroin coming in and I had a feeling Agent Phillips and his FBI buddies were going to be up my ass, complicating operations. Plus, there was Natalie.
“Bro, public opinion is the least of my worries.”
“Leave it to me, Dom you won’t have to do shit. It’s all marketing,” he said this with a wink.
Dante did marketing well and as long as I didn’t have to do anything, I willingly agreed to let him be the spin doctor.
Miranda came out of Grant’s room several shades paler than when she went in. She leaned against the wall with her head tilted back and an arm cradling her stomach. We walked over to her and as I got closer, saw the tears trailing down the side of her face.
“Hey, are you okay?” I asked and she nodded, but her tears told another story. “Come here, Rand.” Tugging on her other arm, I pulled her against me and wrapped her up in a hug. Muffled sobs were absorbed by my t-shirt as she purged all of the fear and anxiety from the past 24-hours. Miranda was tough as nails, but everyone had their breaking point. She and Grant were supposed to be packing for their honeymoon not visiting the “in sickness and health” part of their vows just days after getting married.
I released her into Dante’s arms and he held her tight as she cried some more. He didn’t seem bothered by the fact that his suit was getting covered in snot and tears. After a few minutes her sobs tapered off and she stepped away, rubbing her eyes. We walked down to the end of the corridor to a window that looked out over part of the parking lot. There were two patient rooms on this end, but they were empty and that meant we had some privacy.
“We need to talk about business. Grant won’t be operational for a while and Miranda I know you’re going to be by his side helping him recover, as you should, I don’t expect anything less. That being said, Dante and I can’t do it all. I propose we bring Joey D. and Uncle Al in temporarily to help cover. What do you guys think?”
“Sounds good. Dad’s been helping out a lot already and Joey D. knows what’s up,” Dante said and Miranda agreed.
“Alright, good. Dante you go talk to your dad right now since he’s here and I’ll talk to Joey D. Miranda, is there anyone who can fill in for him at Crimson?”
“Yeah, Anthony will be good. He’s covered for Joey D. in the past.”
Anthony “The Giant” Fassulo was one of our enforcers who had worked up through the ranks like Joey D. and never started any drama. “Great. Let Joey know what’s going on and have him call me. It’s important we let our business partners know that nothing has changed and that we’re solid. We also need to be careful since the Feds are going to be watching.”
We wrapped up our meeting and walked back towards Grant’s room. Dante broke off to talk to his dad while Miranda and l went inside where she immediately went to be by her husband’s side. Natalie vacated her seat and gave Miranda a hug before coming over.
“Hey, can I talk to you?” I asked in a low voice, not wanting to disturb the peaceful sanctity of the hospital room.
“Yeah, sure,” she turned to leave and I walked next to her, keeping my hand on the small of her back; not to guide her or act possessive, but just as an excuse to touch her.
Once out of Grant’s room, we walked back down to the end of the hall. “What’s up?” Natalie asked, stepping away and turning to face me with her arms crossed over her chest.
“I just wanted you to know that Grant will be taken care of – whatever he needs for his recovery will be covered. I don’t want you to worry once you’re back in California.”
Natalie uncrossed her arms and sat down on the window sill. Sun spilled in behind her, bathing her in a soft glow. “Thanks Dom, that means a lot, but I’m not going back to L.A. right away.”
“You’re not?”
She shook her head. “No, it’s my turn to help Grant after all of the times he has helped me.”
“What about your job and your apartment?”
“I’m a waitress at a bar. It’s not like I’m leaving a career behind. If I lose my apartment, so be it.” She looked up at me and I saw the firm set of her jaw. “I’m needed here, Dom. My brother needs me. Nothing else matters.”
“I’m not going to try to change your mind. I want you to stay, but I just wish it wasn’t under these circumstances.”
“Yeah, me too,” she answered.
“Where are you planning on staying? You can stay with me, you know.”
“Dom, I don’t think –“
I cut her off. “No pressure, Nat. You can stay in the guest room if that makes you more comfortable.” At least she’d be under my
roof and my protection. Plus, that would limit Special Agent Phillip’s and his colleagues’ access.
“I’ll think about it.”
“Good. I’m glad you’re staying Nat. You let me know if you need anything. Anything. Okay?”
She stood up and stepped away from the window, moving closer to me. “Thanks, Dom.” Before I knew it, her arms were wrapped around my waist and her face pressed against my chest as she hugged me tight. “Thanks for taking that guy out before he could hurt anyone else.” I felt her body trembling and pulled her close, turning us so she was between me and the window, away from curious eyes. We stayed like that for a few minutes before she stopped shaking. She slowly pulled away, tucking her long bangs behind her ear.
“I need to go take care of some business. Are you going to be okay?” I asked.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine and will be here until visiting hours are over. If there’s any change with Grant, I’ll call you.”
“Okay, good. He’s a tough bastard and will pull through.”
Natalie laughed at that and agreed. I walked her back to Grant’s room and gave her one more hug before I left. Dante and Al were in the waiting room and got up to meet me when they saw me in the doorway. I noticed the magazine Al set down was Sports Illustrated this time, not People.
“Come on, let’s go make some calls,” I said. We went back down through the service elevator and left undetected through the back of the hospital. I thought the media attention on the shooting and interest in me would die down after a few days but, unfortunately, I assumed wrong.
When I got back to my condo building, Felicia at the concierge desk flagged me down.
“Mr. Grabano, these are for you,” she handed me a stack of message slips. “They keep calling and I tell them that I’m not your answering service.”
Endings & Beginnings: Book Three of The New Mafia Trilogy Page 14