Mafia Heir Turns Me Gay novel · Chapter 5 of 32

Chapter 5: Forty-One Napkins

Santino took the phone out of Mickey's hand.

"Is my father all right?"

"He's fine," Mandy whispered. "He's still under. The guy never got past the curtain."

"Where was my man?"

"Your big guy in the hallway? Getting a coffee."

Santino closed his eyes for one second.

"We're coming," he said.

The driver did Lake Shore Drive like it was a racetrack.

Northwestern's cardiac ICU was on the eighth floor, behind two sets of locked doors.

The hospital had heard about the badge.

There was a security guard at the second door now, checking names against a list.

"Family only," he told them.

"I'm his son."

The guard checked. Nodded. Looked at Mickey.

"And you?"

Before Mickey could answer, his sister came around the corner in her navy scrubs and her student badge.

"He's with me," Mandy said. "He's bringing me my exam notes."

She shoved a spiral notebook into his hands.

It was her grocery list.

The guard let them through.

"You're a terrible liar," Mickey told her in the hallway.

"I'm an excellent liar. You're just my brother."

The Don lay in a glass room at the end of the unit.

A tube in his mouth. Wires on his chest. A machine breathing for him in slow, patient pushes.

His gold pinky ring was gone.

Somebody had put it in a plastic bag taped to the rail.

Santino stood at the foot of the bed for a long time.

Then he pulled a chair to his father's side and sat.

He took his father's hand in both of his gloved ones.

He didn't say anything.

Mandy pulled Mickey back into the hallway.

"I read his chart," she said. "Don't tell anybody."

"Mandy."

"Digoxin. It's a heart medicine. Somebody put enough in him to stop a horse."

She folded her arms.

"It's bitter, Mick. You couldn't hide it in water."

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