“Help’s coming,” he says.
“Who ...” Dom opens his eyes, and Cannon cradles him in his lap. “Did you see who ...”
Benny drops to his knees beside Cannon. “It was that fucking bastard GTR. We’re gonna kill the Rossettis. Every single damn one of them. Put them in the fucking ground.”
“Damn ... right ... we are.” Dom meets Cannon’s gaze, and I’m terrified he won’t be able to hold on long enough for the ambulance to arrive.
“I’m gonna kill ’em all.” Enzo stumbles to a stop near Benny, his shirt stained with blood, one hand pressed to his side and the other holding a gun. “Then you’ll know I’m worthy.”
“Save your declarations of war for when you don’t have a cop standing right in front of you, assholes,” Cole says as Enzo tilts to one side and clutches at Cole to stay up.
Eden rushes toward us and throws herself into Cannon’s arms. “Greer and Crey both got hit. We need help. Now!”
25
Cannon
Ihate hospitals. Everything about them. From the white walls, to the industrial floors, to the scent of disinfectant. Most of all, I hate that you walk inside with a sense of hope, only to get robbed of it later when the doctor comes out to give you the bad news.
It isn’t the same hospital I sat in, waiting for news about my mother in surgery, but it might as well be.
Dom didn’t get capped, but his heart couldn’t handle the stress. Creighton, Enzo, and four others were shot. Greer caught some flying glass, but thankfully not a bullet. How the rest of us survived unscathed while the Rossettis were shooting at us like fish in a barrel, I’ll never understand.
Grace of God, I guess.
The entire waiting room is packed with people I’ve known my entire life, or most of it, waiting on the same news.
Will the king survive?
Memphis gets up to go to the restroom with Holly, who’s barely holding it together, and Benny sits down beside me.
“You know he’s been having heart problems, right?” he asks.
“What?” I whip my head to the side. “No. He never said anything.”
With a nod, Benny dangles his paper coffee cup from one hand. “He’s been seeing a doctor regularly for it over the last year. Been too stubborn to take the doc’s advice. Couldn’t wrap his head around the downtime. Didn’t want to show weakness at such a sensitive time.”
“And he told you all this? Shit, I can’t believe he told anyone.”Show no weaknessmight as well be the creed that Dominic Casso lives by. And possibly dies by, coincidentally.
“He only told me because, well, he knows I’m not gonna be here long enough to tell anyone else. But you deserve to know too, kid,” Benny says.
“What do you mean?”
His gaze dips to the floor before coming up to meet mine. “You don’t live like I did and get to have a happily-ever-after. Karma’s a bitch, and she always takes her due. I’ve got lung cancer. Terminal. Maybe six or eight months, if I’m lucky.”
“Jesus, Benny. Why didn’t you say anything?”
He shrugs, his shoulders appearing bonier than ever under the blue Hawaiian shirt, now that I’m really looking. “Not shit anyone can do. I’m not fighting it. I deserve it. Hell, I deserve worse for all the terrible things I’ve done.”
Never once have I heard Benny speak about the lives he ended on Dom’s orders. Never have I heard regret from him. He doesn’t seem to need an answer from me, because he keeps going.
“Dom’s gonna pull through this, and once he does, you need to tell him you’re out. You’re better than this, kid. You don’t need this life. It’s not for you.”
“Then who the hell is it for?” I ask, because I sure as shit don’t know.
“Punks like Enzo who don’t have anything to lose. You got that woman of yours, and no matter who she really is, she’s worth so much more than this.”
I cut my gaze to his. “What do you mean,no matter who she really is?”