Chapter 45: Tirone: Chapter 46

“There is a slight damage to the ocular surface of his left eye and mild bleeding that we’ve already stopped, but there’s no nerve or retinal damage,” the doctor said.

I didn’t need a pompous ass medical explanation. “Does that mean he can see? With both eyes?”

“The electro-diagnostic tests confirm he hasn’t lost either eye sight. There are no orbital injuries either. You’ve been very lucky.”

Lucky? My own son scratched his eyeballs until they bled after he’d raped my wife, giving her a nervous breakdown. And it wasn’t the first time.

“However, with self-inflicted eye injuries, the patient must be admitted to a psychiatric hospital,” he added.

“Fuck you. My son won’t be tossed into a loony bin.”

He was taken aback for a second, but then he eyed my cut and swallowed. “It’s for his safety. He needs professional help. This time you managed to bring him to a hospital before the damage is done. Can you guarantee that the next time? And don’t say there won’t be a next time because self-inflicted injury attempts never end unless the psychosis causing them is properly treated.”

Like I hadn’t tried before? He came out worse with a vendetta against the world and me. Tirone’s psychosis was Laius and Jocasta. There ain’t no pill for that. I stared the doctor down. “It wasn’t self-inflicted. It was a fucking accident. You hear, doc? That’s what you gonna put down in your dang report.”

He didn’t argue. He was smart enough to know what he was dealing with. “I’ll see what I can do.”

“Yeah. Now, I wanna see my boy.”

He led me to Tirone’s room and told the nurse to undo the straps holding my son to bed. Then he left with her to give me and Tirone some privacy. My son had bandages and a patch over his left eye and looked like the cheese fell off the cracker.

“I don’t give a shit if you kill me, Furore. I’m already dead. The second you took her from me, I died. The only thing I care about is her. I heard she woke up. I want to see her,” he said.

I never thought a moment would come when my only son became my unholy enemy, when my baby boy was hurt and all I could think of was hurting him some more. I didn’t feel myself until my fingers were wrapped around his throat, and he was gurgling against them. He grabbed my wrist with both hands, pushing my grip off him, but I didn’t move. “You will never see her again.”

“You can’t stop me. I’d rather be dead.”

I lifted my hand off his neck but I gripped the stupid hospital gown he was wearing with two fists bringing him to my face. “No. I ain’t gonna kill you, boy. You’re gonna live, and you’re gonna fucking suffer the fuck away from her.” I pushed him against the back of the bed. “It’s time to swap spit and hit the road, you sick son of a bitch.”

“Kick me out all you want. I’ll still find a way to see her. I have to talk to her. I have to make her understand. She has to forgive me. The only way I’d stop trying is if I stopped breathing.”

“Or if you were locked up in a fucking loony bin. The doctor said it’s what they do to sick fucks like you. But I just told him to say what you did to yourself was an accident. I can change my mind any time, y’all.”

His good eye bulged with rage and hatred. “You think you can put me back in there? I won’t fucking let you.”

“Show me how you can stop me.”

“If you put me back in there, when I come out, I won’t just mess with your fucking brakes, Furore. You’d better end things now if you still want a shot at life because I won’t rest until I bury you myself. I’ve never hated anyone more than I hate you.”

“And I’ve never loved anyone more than I love you.”

He laughed without humor, his breath in flames. “Love? You left me for fifteen years thinking you were a monster that never wanted me, that was set to destroy us, that hit my mother and me almost to death when all this time she was a fucking selfish, lying, backstabbing bitch who raised me up on hate and lies. I’d learned nothing but to feel abandoned and unwanted, to hate and fear my own father. Every time you tried to visit, I wet my bed. I was scared shitless you were gonna take me away from my mom or hurt her again. She made me see a therapist because of it, but all I needed with a father who didn’t scare me to death. You didn’t try to tell me the truth. You didn’t try to show me any kind of love or care.”

“Every time I came to see you, shit hit the fan. You hurt people, Tirone. Your friends at school. Your neighbors. She and your therapist told me I was making whatever you were going through worse. You think I wanted to stay away or leave you? I only kept my distance to save you. I thought you were better off with your mama.”

“I wasn’t better off with her. Shit only became worse because I hated how weak and afraid you made me feel. That’s why I decided to break that fear and protect what was mine no matter what it took. Until it was me you feared. I was barely sixteen when you put me in a nuthouse.”

“What the fuck was I supposed to do, huh? Wait until you were serving for life? Your episodes kept getting worse. You’ve been breaking bones right and left. You locked that guy up and sliced the skin off his fingers for days.”

“He touched my bike. He should have known not to touch what wasn’t his.”

“He was gonna put you in jail. McNamara with all his ties couldn’t do shit. I had to do something. I bribed a judge to settle for six months in a private bin, and not just to spare you jail time. I thought they could fucking help you for real.”

“Help? You don’t know the shit they did to me there.” He bared his teeth at me. “God, I was counting the days until I was out just so I could make you pay.”

I’d never told anyone here about the cause of that accident or that my son was that fucked up to try to kill his own dad. I thought we still had a chance to hash it all out and make things right. I thought I still had a son.

“Then I met her. She was more than human to me. She was a faerie, a sylph, I don’t know what she was, anything that no one ever saw, and everything that everybody ever wanted. I was swallowed up in an abyss of love in an instant. There was no pausing on the brink; no looking down, or looking back. She was the only one that smothered my anger and saw through the monster I had to become to beat you. She was a sweet kind of madness that shattered the dark. She was the light and the hope and all the love I’ve ever needed. She was mine.” Tears gushed from his eyes. “And you fucking took her from me.” His fists banged whatever surface they met. “You took everything from me!”

Pain stabbed my heart, and his tears burned my own eyes, as rapid beeps blared from the machines. Nurses rushed inside the room, pushing me out. “No!” I shrugged them off. “Tirone!”

“You have to step outside, sir, and let us do our job!”

There were too many arms—nurses’ and brothers’—dragging me out until I was watching the nurses strapping my boy back down to the bed and pushing a needle in his arm.

“Why don’t you go check on your ol’ lady? I’ll stay here and speak to the doctors. If there’s anything new, I’ll come find you,” Doc said. He was here with Fort and Molar.

My VP patted my shoulder. “We’re all here, Prez. Ain’t going nowhere.”

“Texas and Marshall are running things at the compound,” Fort said.

“Where’s Hook?”

“Guarding Jo’s room.”

I nodded, wiping my eyes with the heel of my palm. “Thank you, brothers.”

“Go see your wife. We’ll handle Rex.”

I went to Jo’s room, but only Hook was inside. “Where is she?”

“They took her to X-ray,” he said.

“Why?”

“She said she was having some pain in her pelvis. The doctor came and ordered some X-ray scans. They took her there a few minutes ago.”

“What the fuck? Why didn’t you tell me?” I headed out of the room. “And why didn’t you go with them?”

He walked with me. “I did, but they said I couldn’t go in with her so I came back to find you. Fort told me you were with Rex. I reckoned I’d better wait for you in her room. I could hear y’all fighting from here.”

“Where’s the fucking scan room?”

He pointed to the elevator. “Third floor.”

When we went up, something was off. People were walking faster than normal, their faces blanching as they met mine. I stopped the first nurse I hit. “Where’s my wife? Jo Lazzarini. She came up for X-ray.”

“She…she asked to go to the bathroom before the scan. But…”

“But what?”

“When she took too long, I went in to see if she needed any help,” she swallowed, “but she wasn’t there.”

“What do you mean she wasn’t there? Where the fuck did she go?”

She shrugged, shrinking in fear. “We looked for her everywhere on this floor with no luck. I called security to look for her on the other floors.”

“The fuck!” I scurried with Hook, searching for her, while I called Molar to check with the security. Did someone take her from right under my nose? The Lanzas? The fucking Larvins?

We combed the hospital inside and out, but she was nowhere to be found. No one saw her leaving or saw anyone taking her.

“Joooo!” I screamed my lungs out in the middle of the street. Where the fuck did she go? All her belongings were still in the hospital. Someone must have taken her.

“We’ll find her, Prez,” Hook said. “She couldn’t have gone far.”

“Stay with Rex,” Molar said as he mounted his bike. “We’ll find Jo.”

“No. I’ll go. Y’all stay with him.” I straddled mine. “If it’s the Lanzas or the Larvins who took Jo, they might snatch Rex, too.”

Unless…

Know this when you call the shots, Prez. I will never side with Michele’s enemies. I’d rather give myself to the Larvins than see that day.

No. No, no, NO! “Fuck!”