Page 69 of Volatile Vice

The doctor turns and glares at me. “Get him out of here!”

A large man in scrubs grabs my arms. “I’m sorry, sir. You can’t be in here.”

“That’s my mother.”

He guides me toward the doors back to the waiting room. “I assure you that we’re doing everything we can for her.”

“I want answers.” I grab him by the shoulders and shake him. “What the hell happened? Is she going to be all right?”

“The doctor will come talk to you as soon as he can.” The man wriggles out of my grasp. “But we can only do that if the area is clear. For now, we need you to wait out here.” He pushes me through the double doors.

I shrug free. “Keep your hands off me.”

He raises his eyebrows, taken aback.

Damned right. I know what kind of presence I look like. I know my effect on people when I’m angry, determined.

“Sir…”

“Don’t ‘sir’ me. I want some information on my mother.”

“I’ll see what I can find out. We’re doing everything we can. But please…have a seat.” He leans down. “I understand that you are upset, but it is an issue of safety for non-staff to be in the treatment area. If you come back there again, we’ll have no choice but to call the police.”

I don’t fucking care. They can throw me in jail if they want. My asshole grandfather will just bail me out. He’s going to force me to do his bidding until his dying gasp.

But the guy in scrubs was right about one thing. My getting in the doctors’ way isn’t going to help my mother. I finally let out a breath and move a few seats down in the waiting room, getting as close to the double doors as I can. The magazines on the table next to me are wrinkled and outdated.

Doesn’t anyone ever think to update the magazines in a hospital waiting room?

It’s always like this. Always.

Five minutes go by.

Then ten.

And all I can think about is my mother lying dead on the table. Without Dad. Without me. Without Savannah. Without anyone to hold her hand and give her comfort. Tell her that she’s loved.

I stand, pace around the waiting room, running my fingers through my hair.

Please.

I can’t lose my mother.

Then I laugh at myself. Hell, I went seventeen years without seeing her. Without seeing my father. Without having any contact with either of them.

I walked away from all of this. Perhaps this is my punishment now.

But if there’s a God in heaven, He ought to know I’m trying to do the right thing. Sure, I arranged Puzo’s death, but he was a derelict, a guy who deserved to die. I have to look at the bigger picture here.

The bigger picture of…

Shit. Puzo had kids.

Maybe he was a bad man, but he had two kids. Raven’s friend was their nanny.

And I took their father away from them.

And now maybe it’s only fair formeto lose a parent as well.