Page 125 of Vows of a Mobster

Marissa squeezed my hand nervously. “If he is a match, are either of those two procedures dangerous for him?”

Is she really concerned for me?

The doctor stopped abruptly. “If we can take the route of donating stem cells, no. If we need to do the surgical procedure to withdraw liquid from the bone, there is a small risk. We all know that no surgical procedure is completely risk free. The risk is very small but I couldn’t say it is non-existent.”

“Oh.” Marissa didn’t like the surgical option, I could tell. So could the doctor.

“Any questions or possibilities of changing your mind?” His eyes locked on me.

“No,” I told him firmly. “Let’s worry about which option we will take if we get there.”

“Excellent,” he continued walking. “I’ll put a rush on your results.”

Ten minutes later, we were done and on our way out.

“Declan, I’m not sure about the surgery.” Marissa stopped in the middle of the hospital lobby. “You’d be down for at least two days.”

“Worried about me, baby?”

“Maybe we could insist on doing the blood cells?”

“I don’t know much about this shit, but I don’t think it is a choice. It sounded like the tests decide what works for the patient.”

She chewed on her lip and I took her face between my hands. “Don’t worry about it now. Let me know when you hear something.”

Her emerald gaze locked on me. When she looked at me, it was easy to forget she was Mateo’s family. When we were together, nothing and nobody mattered but her.

“Thank you, Declan.” Her voice was a soft caress.

“I have some work to do. I want to see you tonight.”

Her smile lit up her face. “When? Same place as last night?”

I chuckled. “My little voyeur. No, my penthouse. I’ll text you the time and address.”

Her hands wrapped around my waist and she tilted her face up for a kiss. I pressed my mouth against her soft lips, and fuck, I could almost imagine us being a normal couple. Wife saying goodbye to her husband as he goes off to work.

“I’ll see you tonight then,” she murmured, smiling against my lips.

Forty-Six

Mateo

It has been three days since Brianna brought Emma to my place. Marissa and Daphne followed, and everyone was slowly settling in. But I barely even got to see my woman. I’d slide next to her between the sheets late at night and was gone before the sun came up. The situation with the Irish had escalated. With the skull of the cousin that resurfaced, tensions were high. The bullet found in his skull was pinned to one of the guns that belonged to the Agosti family. That didn’t bode well for Giovanni or any of us.

And now, they were snooping and asking questions about Brianna. I wanted to wring Declan’s neck. He was the only one that saw her so I was certain the order came from him. Thank fucking God she and Emma moved in. The day after her treatment, Emma was still weak but the girls slowly started packing, while Emma enjoyed pointing her chubby little finger, showing what she wanted to take along. We spent the entire morning like that, little Emma bossing us all around.

Brianna’s laugh and the way she cared for her daughter warmed my heart. Marissa disappeared in the late morning. When I went after her to question where she was going, Brianna caught up to me and took my hand.

“She’ll be back,” she murmured, pressing a light kiss against my cheek. Her small hands wrapped around my waist, her body pressing against mine. If I had Brianna every single day, all day long, it’d still not be enough. She grounded me so effortlessly and swayed me her way, I should be cautious. Instead, I took it all.

I could hear Antonio, Daphne, and Emma laughing upstairs.

“Where is she going?” I questioned her. “And where was she last night?”

“You noticed that, huh?”

I chuckled. “I notice most things.”