Chapter 3 - The Threat in the Dark
By six o'clock that evening, the entire fourth floor of St. Catherine Medical Center had been converted into an armed fortress.
Twelve of my most trusted men stood watch at every entrance, their concealed weapons ensuring that no unauthorized hospital staff or curious visitors could step within fifty feet of Emily's room.
Lily was sitting in an oversized leather armchair in the corner of Room 414, eating a bowl of chicken noodle soup that my driver had brought from a high-end bistro in Manhattan.
She was coloring a picture of a golden castle with crayons Luca had bought from the hospital gift shop, humming a quiet nursery rhyme under her breath.
I stood beside Emily’s bed, holding her limp, cool fingers between my palms, watching the steady green line on the heart monitor fluctuate in weak, erratic spikes.
"Why didn't you call me, Em?" I whispered into the quiet room. "Six years. You had my private number. You knew I would have given you the world."
The mechanical ventilator hissed softly in response, pushing another breath of oxygen into her fragile lungs.
Suddenly, the glass door clicked open, and Matteo stepped inside, his expression dark and tense.
"Boss, we have a situation downstairs."
I set Emily's hand gently onto the white sheets, stepping into the private vestibule between the double doors.
"Speak," I said.
"Carlo Moretti just pulled three black sedans into the hospital parking garage," Matteo reported, his voice dropping to a low, lethal whisper. "He brought eight hitters from the Bronx."
Carlo Moretti was the acting boss of the northern syndicate—a ruthless, ambitious viper who had spent two years looking for any sign of weakness in the Reign family hierarchy.
My intelligence network had reported for weeks that Carlo was preparing to challenge my control over the New Jersey container terminals.
"How does Carlo know I'm here?" I demanded.
"A nurse on the second floor is married to one of Moretti’s bookmakers," Matteo answered. "She spotted you in the lobby and made the call. Carlo thinks you're cornered in a public building without your primary muscle."
A cold, vicious smirk touched the corner of my lips.
For twelve hours, I had felt completely powerless, trapped in a room watching the woman I loved slip into the grave while medical science stalled.
Now, an enemy had arrived on my doorstep offering violence.
And violence was a language I spoke with absolute, terrifying fluency.
"Is Dante in the garage?" I asked.
"Dante and six operators from the Brooklyn docks are staged near the service ramp," Matteo confirmed.
I turned back toward the room, glancing at Lily, who was still coloring her picture with cheerful concentration.
"Matteo, you stay inside this room with Luca," I commanded, unbuttoning the bottom button of my suit jacket. "Lock the secondary deadbolts. If anyone who doesn't wear our ring touches that glass, execute them on the spot."
"Boss, you shouldn't go down there alone," Matteo warned, stepping forward.
"I won't be alone," I said, checking the custom Kimber .45 resting securely in my leather shoulder holster. "Dante is waiting. And Carlo Moretti needs to be reminded why my father made his family kneel twenty years ago."
I strode out into the corridor, my footsteps echoing against the floor like the drumbeats of an approaching storm.
As I entered the service elevator, I pulled my phone from my pocket and dialed Dr. Vance's private line.
"Did you find a match?" I demanded as soon as the line connected.
"Mr. Reign," Vance answered, his voice breathless and trembling with excitement. "A compatible O-negative heart just became available through an organ procurement organization in Philadelphia. The donor was a thirty-year-old motor vehicle trauma patient."
My heart hammered against my ribs with ferocious hope.
May you like
"Secure it," I ordered.
"There's a massive problem, sir," Vance said, his tone turning grave. "The donor's legal proxy is an attorney named Richard Vance—Carlo Moretti’s personal corporate counsel. And Carlo just placed an injunction hold on the transport authorization."
