Page 21 of Rise
11
Antonio
“How is he?”I ask the doctor.
“The alarms that you heard earlier, that was the point where Vincent began to wake from our induced coma. This happens sometimes, but not very often with patients who have such serious head trauma. It’s a promising signthat your friend is healing. His brain swelling has gone down significantly. His vital signs are much stronger. As you might have seen and heard, he was trying to speak, and when he couldn’t, he tugged on the ventilator hose to remove it from his airways. We felt his condition was stable, so we completed the gradual procedure to remove the ventilator from his air passages and monitored his body’sstress levels and response to the extra effort needed. It normally takes days to wean patients off their ventilators, but I’m happy to let you know that your friend is breathing sufficiently on his own. When you go in, you’ll see he now has an oxygen tube instead of the ventilator machine.”
Thank fuck. “That’s great news,” I say.
The young-looking doctor squares his shoulders, notnoticing that the move causes a blond lock of his hair to tumble out from under his surgical head cap. But he sees my gaze on that side of his head and reaches up to tuck the hair back into place. Fuck, these doctors are young. “It is,” he agrees. “Considering the amount of time your friend has been under, this outcome is better than we hoped for. Now, he’ll have to continue receiving an oxygensupply for a while.”
“Can we see him now?” I ask.
“Yes, as soon as the nurse is finished in there. She’ll let you know when. Also, your friend needs rest, and we all should do our best to discourage him from talking. He was trying to speak earlier, but his voice is weak. He has to take some time for his throat to heal. And airways will need time to adjust to the removal of his ventilator.”
“How long?”
“At least a few hours. Possibly a day. Maybe longer. Once he’s stronger, we can give him a whiteboard to communicate with you all.”
“All right,” I say somewhat begrudgingly. I don’t want to wait any longer. I want to see him. To find out what he knows. To hear what he woke up to tell us about Natalia being taken.
I stare into his room and see the second doctorwalking toward us, while the nurse inside pushes the blue privacy curtains along its ceiling tracks until it’s out of the way.
Good going, buddy.
The second he’s strong enough, I’ll put a whiteboard in his hand. He can tell us everything.
Nonna Romano slips her hand up to my elbow from her spot beside me after the doctors leave to attend to other patients. “He’ll be back withus soon.”
“Yes,” I agree.
She makes the sign of the cross over her head and torso, from forehead to chest, and from one shoulder to the next.“This is God’s work. Thank God for His grace.”
Yes. Thank God. Who knows, maybe all those ‘Hail Marys’ she said made a difference for Vinny.
“One of us should be here with him at all times,” she adds. “For when he wakes up.”
“Agreed. I’ll stay until you’re back tomorrow morning. You should rest up, Mrs. Romano.”
“Okay. I’ll go home. If he wakes up tonight, tell him Nonna will see him soon.”
“Will do.” I motion to the guy I assigned to be her bodyguard. “Take her home.”
“Yes, boss,” he answers, coming to her side.
“Have a good night,” she tells me with one last pat on my shoulder asshe starts off to leave.
“Good night.” I follow her down the hall and have a short chat with my guy that’s been watching over Vinny, relaying the doctor’s update and confirming that our twenty-four-seven protection will continue here at the clinic. He confirms that one of the men will arrive to relieve him at the end of his twelve-hour watch, just like normal. Perfect. Feeling more at easethan I’ve been in weeks, I make a brief stop at the nurse’s station and ask for a whiteboard, marker, and dry eraser. Vinny’s definitely gonna need this. When the nurse moves on to tend to her other patients in other rooms in the ward, I return inside and pick up one of the two guest armchairs against the far wall. Carrying it to Vinny’s side, I set it down and take a seat, my eyes glued to hisface, watching him rest as I set down the whiteboard with its marker and eraser clipped onto one side next to Vinny in his bed.
Thank fuck my friend is back with us. I damn well plan to be ready to act on any new information he can give us when he’s strong enough to either write or speak the words.
Wherever Natalia is right now, it’s temporary.
She won’t be beyond my reachfor much longer.
She’s going to be at my side. Under my protection. In my arms. I won’t let my girl out of my sight when I have her back.
That’s a promise I’m going to fucking keep.
