From Scapegoat to Donna novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: The Second Port

The monitor shrieked, and the pressure number fell again.

Ninety. Eighty-four. Seventy-one.

"Out," I said. "Everyone out of this room except the family."

Nobody moved, so I took the nearest arm, which was Bianca's, and put her aside.

I clamped the IV line above the port with my fingers and unhooked it.

The Don's eyes rolled toward me.

"Stay awake, Don Ettore. Look at me."

"I'm looking," he said faintly.

"Marta!" I shouted at the door. "Marta, I need you now!"

She had been sitting in the corridor since the morning with her knitting bag on her knee, because she would not go home while I was still in the building.

She came through the door at a run.

"Protamine," I said. "Fifty milligrams, slow push. And a new line, a fresh bag, and a new port."

"Heparin?" she said.

"That's my guess."

"Is it from the bag?"

"Not this time. This one went in with a syringe."

I looked at the Don's arm. A single drop of clear fluid beaded on the port cap, and there was a tiny red mark beside it where somebody had pushed through the rubber.

Marta pushed the drug.

I counted the seconds under my breath and watched the number.

Seventy-five. Eighty. Ninety-two.

The Don took a long breath.

"There," I said. "There. You're all right."

"Never doubted it," he whispered.

The room had started breathing again.

I turned around.

Ignazio stood by the foot of the bed with his hands in his coat pockets.

Bianca was beside the door with her hand on her chest.

A guard in the family's black suit stood behind them, blocking the way out.

Tancredi was already crossing the room.

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