CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

For the first time in nearly a week since he was attacked and stabbed, Gio was fully conscious and stable.

He opened his eyes in his bedroom which now littered with Medicare products and subsequently caused a sharp, sickening smell to fill the room.

It was morning now, and he was alone. For the past few days, he'd had nurses attending to him, cleaning his wounds and changing his bandages, with Sensi, his father and others in the Uomini Marrone coming over to see and check on him. He'd heard chatter about how the stripper from Tequila that his father had been eyeing had finally been brought to the house, and Gio was determined to meet this woman for whom he'd been stabbed and almost killed.

Sitting up on the bed slowly, he could feel a stabbing pain in his rib area, the same area in which he'd been stabbed; then, standing to his feet as carefully as possible, he began to walk towards the door. He was wearing only a pair of shorts and nothing above, but he didn't mind. He wasn't looking