Dion's POV

Fuck.

I watch as my best friend angily leaves my side and storms back into the hospital room Red is currently staying in.

Fuck. Fuck.

"Is he serious about the curfew?" One of the many men who are standing behind me thinks out loud.

I turn around to face the small group, "it would appear so." I answered.

"He just saved a little girl from getting put on the black market last night, now he wants to start slaughtering them?" Fab frowns, if I remember correctly he's been around for about six years now.

I look over at his buddies standing next to him, all with the same confused pensive looks on their faces.

"We're not murdering kids," I say.

"With all do respect, Mr. Ricci," Goldilocks speaks up now. He's much older than Fabian, he's probably been around for about ten years.

It's honestly exhausting having to learn all these men's names, I never had a good memory to begin with so this position here really tests me on a daily.

"A curfew has no limits. No age. No gender. It's kill on sight."

"I know how a curfew fucking works, Goldi."

"Of course sir, I didn't mean-"

"Get the fuck out of here," I snarl, already getting into the same shitty mood Isaac is in. "Round up anyone you can and be in the parking lot in fifteen minutes like he said," I command. "I don't want to deal with his wrath right now. The faster we bring this mother fucked down the faster we get rid of this fucking curfew."

All seven men nod their heads, "yes sir," and take off, leaving me alone in the waiting area.

I inhale a deep breath and pull my phone out of my black jeans, noting that I have two miss calls from my girl and immediately smile at the caller ID. 'Babymama' with a pregnant emoji.

I quickly reply to her before calling Dom, "call you in 10 baby, gotta do some shit for your best friend."

Her reply comes in almost instantly as I dial out Dominic's number and I'm reading the preview message on the top of my screen. "Oh no what happened?"

I smile. She knows. She always knew something was wrong especially when I referred to Isaac as her best friend rather than ours.

"You really love aggravating me, don't you, Ricci?" Dom answers, clearly mad that I've woken him up from his nap.

I ignored his snarky comment, "how do I start a curfew?"

"I'm sorry, a what?" He sounds more alert than he did a second ago. "How long was I out for?!"

"Isaac- he wants to start the curfew, he wants everyone here at the hospital within the next half hour."

Dominic stays quiet but I can clearly hear him shuffling around in the background as he speaks up again, "I'll be there in 10, I'll get it started it"

"You don't even want to know why?"

"It doesn't matter why he wants it," he says. "His reasons will always be his reasons, regardless if he's thinking clearly or not, if he's right or not. As his underboss, his second in command, Ricci, it's your job to fulfill every command he throws at you no matter how ridiculous it may be."

"Yeah, but as his best friend it's also my job to steer him in the right direction, not let him go down the same road his father went."

"You are not his best friend in these types of situations, Dion! You are his right hand man, you stick by him through the good and bad, if he falls you let him fall, you let him learn to be a great leader on his own. You are there to have his back through everything regardless of the outcome."

I feel the vein on the right side of my neck immediately surge as I attempt to keep my anger, annoyance at bay. I'm not Isaac, I don't have a short temper, it takes a lot for someone to push me over the edge and right now Dominic is irking my last nerve.

I turn around behind me to look at the last four men here, two near Ric and Cris' room, and two outside of Red's door. All four of them on Sacramento's team, all four of them highly trained for any type of disaster that can occur should anyone attempt to finish off the guys or even worse- Hailey.

The love that I have grown for that woman is insane. I cherish the little red head as if she were I'm own sister and it kills me every fucking time that she ends up in the hospital, everytime KP is here, they literally can never catch a fucking break.

I inhale a very deep breath attempting to control my temper, hearing my girl's voice at the back of my head on my very first day as underboss.

"Those men will bow down to you just as quickly as they will bow down to KP. Don't you dare let anyone intimidate you. Isaac chose you to be his second in command for a reason, you, he chose you, baby. You answer to nobody but your best friend, everyone else- they're little, everyone else answers to you."

"You know- that may have been how you and Carmelo did things, but he is no longer in charge, you are no longer underboss." I drop my voice an octave. "I am this faction's second in command whether you've accepted it yet or not. You answer to me now, Dominic. You still matter because I need you, because Carmelo forced Isaac to take over so unpreparedly. We're not repeating cycles anymore. Teach me about the curfews."

Dominic stays completely quiet on the other end of the call for a couple seconds. "I'm on my way," he hisses and is instantly ending our call.

I roll my eyes inhaling another deep breath as I attempt to put my nerves at ease. Talking down on someone like Dominic, someone I always looked up to, respected, definitely ain't easy.

I start to walk over towards the elevator as I dial my girl's number and she's quickly answering my call the second I step into the metal box.

"Hey.." her pure angelic feminine voice is enough to put me at ease, but I'm struggling to find my voice for some reason. "Dion?" I hear the instant frown in her voice as I watch the elevator numbers light up with every floor I go down. "Baby talk to me, what's wrong."

"I'm losing him," I tell her, my hand instantly reaching for the stop button on the elevator, bringing it to a complete stop. "He loses a little part of himself every time Red ends up in the hospital and I don't think I can bring him back from this, babe."

"Everyone's okay though, right? Hailey's okay? The baby's fine?"

I nod although she can't see me, "yeah... but he wants blood, and he's about to get it, he's about to unleash hell on this city and I don't know how to stop him."

"How bad is it?"

"Carmelo bad." Ang stays quiet. "He's putting his dad's curfew back in motion."

"Oh god..."

The last time this city has ever had any type of curfew it was years before Isaac, Ang, Red and I were even born. Before Carmelo even met his wife actually. I only know about it because my dad told me about it a couple times, it was during Carmelo's worst years, right after he lost his parents.

Anyone and everyone who didn't matter to him was instantly killed on sight if they were caught out past curfew. Families were targeted. Women. Men. Kids. According to my dad, that's the year that Carmelo gained all his power and control over the city, over the people, they were absolutely terrified of him.

Most of the men that are out here worked for Carmelo, most of them will kill on sight with no questions asked, they were trained that way, but people like myself, like Ric, Isaac's childhood friends who are now a part of his organization, were not wired that way, I won't take an innocent life, not anymore.

"He's having the faction gather up here at the hospital in the parking lot, he's initiating here," I tell my girl. "He wants Robsciotti dead."

I hear Ang taking in a couple deep breaths, "is Hailey awake yet?"

"No. Not that I knew of."

"He's in his head," she says. "He's anxious. He's letting the anger drive him. He's probably uncomfortable in his own skin right now if he's that upset. He'll bounce back once she wakes up, just stay out of his way until then, babe. Let him see she is okay on his own, let her comfort him when she's up, let Hailey handle him."

"There's innocent families here, what if one of them rubs him the wrong way accidentally and triggers him."

"Then that's on him, Dee. It's his own conscience not yours babe. You know how Isaac can get when he's in his temperamental state. Please don't get in his way, please don't challenge him and jeopardize yourself, your friendship. It's not your job to save him, it's your job to serve him, babe.. You've been a father for months, you were able to hold your daughter when she was born, you got to do everything the right way.. Hailey had to have an emergency C-section in order to save her and the baby's life, don't make him dismiss his feelings just yet, let him run his course, Dee, let him get his point across until he feels content. Put yourself in his shoes baby. You'd do exactly the same if it were Iri and me. He'll never get that moment he missed back."

I inhale a deep breath and nod my head silently to myself as I start the elevator up again, taking me down to the last floor.

"How is she?" I asked, referring to my daughter.

My phone starts ringing making a ringing sound and I'm pulling it away to see that Ang is FaceTiming me now. I answer the call to see my daughter asleep on the couch next to her. "Sleeping her life away."

I smile softly. "She still have a fever?"

Ang shakes her head. "It's gone." I nod silently. "Wipe the long look from your face," she says. "Can't have those men thinking my man's a softie now that he's a dad."

I chuckle softly, playfully rolling my eyes, "I love you, I should be home in a couple hours."

She nods her head, blowing me a kiss, "we love you more, be safe, remember to breathe."

I end the call the second the elevator doors ping open and walk out into another world of chaos.

Not only are there a handful of panicked families here in the main lobby of the hospital but there's also two very angry looking men who are sending dagger looks in my direction as I step out of the metal box.

"Ricci!" Carmelo shouts. I feel my body immediately jerk at the sound of his voice.

Breathe man. He can't intimidate you anymore, you work for his son, not him.

I walk over to where Isaac and Hailey's parents are standing, well Isaac's parents and David and his girlfriend.

"What the fuck is the meaning of this?!" Carmelo points to the very large crowd of men that is forming outside.

"Why the fuck won't those idiots," David points back to the two men standing near the elevators. "Let me go up and see my daughter!?"

"It's Isaac," I look up at David, who looks like he's about to hit me any second now.

The man used to never intimidate me. He was just Hailey's dad, that's who he was to me, regardless of his undercover work for Carmelo. I started fearing the man the second I started seeing the men's files in this faction, when I saw his file.

David is exactly like every other one of Carmelo's men. He's lethal. He's dangerous. He's killed multiple people for Carmelo, only he got paid out big time unlike the rest of us and can easily make it disappear.

I wonder if Ana knows who she's really dating.

"He has the entire hospital, her floor on lockdown and will not let anyone in or out," I avert my attention away from Mr. Summers and over at Carmelo.

"That," I pointed to another black SUV dropping more men off in the parking lot. "That's your curfew being put into place. That's your son losing his shit."

"You got to be fucking kidding me," Carmelo speaks in Italian now. "What the fuck is he thinking?! What's going on up there?!"

I shrug my shoulders, "he's not," I reply in Italian. Not that it matters. I've seen David's file. He speaks our foreign language. "He's running on fumes right now."

"He's got another thing coming if he thinks I'm gonna let him go down this road," Carmelo snarls.

David reaches for my arm, pulling me to him, "I want to see my daughter, Ricci, get me up there!"

I remove his hand from my arm and nod my head, "I'm working on it! You out of all people know how he gets when he's in tempermental state!" I wave a finger back and forth from Carmelo and David.

The elevator doors ping open again as someone from the hospital entrance calls my name. "Ricci!" I look in that direction to see Dominic standing outside, calling me over to him, waving an iPad in his hand.

I feel a hand tightly wrap around my left arm, "you can't be fucking serious, Ricci?!" Carmelo seethes. "Placing the damn curfew is my only regret I ever made in this fucking life style."

I quickly wrench my arm from his grip, feeling his son walk in my direction. "It's not my call to make," I tell him, looking back over at David. "Head up stairs while he's outside. It'll be your only chance to get past the guards."

David nods his head as I hear my best friend's voice behind me. "Dion!"

I turn to look behind me to find him walking in our direction, four of Sacramentos guys following by closely.

I turn to the two men beside me, dismissing myself with a single look and head in Isaac's direction.

"You fucking ready?!" He instantly barks the second I'm at his side.

I nod holding up a fist and he's quickly smiling holding up his own fist, bumping the side of it with mine.

The hairs on the back of my neck are immediately going up when I hear Carmelo's panicked voice and Sacramento's men are moving in front of Isaac, shielding them from his own father as he tries to walk with us.

"The hell are you doing, Isaac!? Think about this son! You don't want this kind of blood on your hands, Antonio. There's other ways to go about this kid."

Isaac looks over his shoulder as he steps into the entrance/exit of the hospital, Sacramento's men holding back Carmelo, keeping him in the building.

Isaac smiles, "relax, I got this, pops. I learned from the best," he winks and is stepping outside into the parking lot a second later, leaving Carmelo and everyone else inside of the hospital as we follow closely behind.

Dom doesn't say anything as I walk up to him. He hands me the iPad and is quickly taking off following Isaac's footsteps as he walks deeper into the sea of men out here.

I inhale a deep breath taking in just how big the crowd is as more and more men continue to pile in and start walking in the direction that Dom and Isaac took off to.

I watch my best friend climb into the back of someone's black dodge ram truck. It's semi lifted so he definitely has a good view of his army that's standing in the parking lot.

He stands on top of the bed looking out into the sea of men in front of him, pure anger and hatred written all over his face.

He doesn't say anything, he stands there quietly almost as if he's trying to get his thoughts together.

I turn back to look at the entrance of the hospital to see that Sacramento's men are still holding back an enraged Carmelo inside.

I know for a fact that Isaac doesn't want him anywhere near him because he knows if anyone can defuse him and change his mind on what he's about to do it's his dad.

I watch as the last of Cris' men- well whatever's left of his faction joins the heavy crowd, looking up at Isaac, waiting patiently for him to speak up.

He walks up towards the edge of the truck bed he's standing on. "Guess it's time that we spill some blood, ain't it?" He smiles his voice booming throughout the parking area, his dad's features written all over his face.

Vinny and Albert make their way through the crowd standing next to me, greeting me silently with a head nod.

It seems like we were just in high school a couple weeks ago, getting drunk, enjoying life, not having to worry about anything other than Carmelo finding out that we were up to no good, disrupting his city, Isaac's city now.

The sea of men instantly start to get hyped up, some of them shouting in agreement with Isaac already, already not needing a reason to kill on sight.

"Last I heard, three families were attempting to take over this city, your fucking city!" KP shouts. The men immediately get riled up. "Last I heard, two of those three families are no longer standing.. What makes this last fucking family different?! What makes Robsciotti so fucking different?!"

"Nothing!" The crowd answers, fueling KP's anger.

"Then why the fuck does it still exist!? Why the fuck is it still standing?!"

The crowd stays quiet for about a second or so when a loud commotion begins to break towards the back of the parking lot.

I turn to look in that same direction to see that a local news van is attempting to hide in the trees and a handful of men have left the crowd to go handle the situation, the van.

Isaac sticks his fingers into his mouth and is whistling loudly, gaining the small group of men's attention. "Leave it," he smiles. "They're gonna wanna see this."

The six men are back in the large crowd a couple seconds later, devoting their attention to their leader, my best friend.

"Consider this fucking city on lockdown until I have Robsciotti's head in my hands!" Isaac pulls his right hand out in front of him, looking down at his watch. "Seven," he says looking up from his wrist. "Make it five actually.. The entire city has a new order now, a curfew to abide with. I don't care who you are, what your reason is, if you catch anyone, and I do mean anyone, out past curfew instant green light. Let's give Robsciotti a real reason to fucking hide. A real reason to be scared."

"Yes sir."

"As a matter of fact- I want double payment on local shops when collecting insurance rates, biweekly starting today. If there's a shop running without my permission, without payment, use your imagination, you know what to do. Don't come bothering me, don't come knocking on my fucking door unless you have that mother fuckers head in your hands, understood?!"

"Yes sir."

"Your boss, my brother," Isaac points down to a small group of Cris' men. "Is in there fighting for his life," KP points back to the hospital. "Are you just gonna let that go unnoticed?"

I watch the small group of men hesitatingly shake their heads.

"You damn fucking right no. You are now a part of this fucking family, and what the fuck do with do here?!" Isaac shouts out loud.

"Look out for each other," the men answered.

"We look out for each other!" Isaac begins to chuckle softly. "You know- I've been trying so hard- so hard to prove that I was nothing like my father, but I think it's time to show this city, these people just how much like my father I am!" He inclines his head to the back of the crowd. "Now you can take care of the van."

The six men from before quickly begin to make their way back towards the tree, towards the news van, instantly opening fire on it as the new cast people try and run for coverage, for their life's.

I look away from the scene until the shooting dies down.

"I don't like this," Vin whispered from beside me, keeping his eyes on the scenery in front of him. "I don't like this version of KP."

"Neither do I," I confess. "You still have your connects in the west end?" He nods. "Al in the North?" He nods again.

I lean into him, dropping my voice. "I don't care what you and Albert have to do, Vin, get me some fucking intell on Robsciotti. I don't want this curfew to last longer than a couple days."

Vinny and Albert both nod their heads.

I incline my head to the side, "get it going, get out of here."

Vin nods his head one more time before he's smacking the back of his hand on his cousin's arms and they're quickly sneaking off a second later and Dominic's taking their spot as Isaac continues to hype up his crowd.

"I apologize for my behavior on the phone," he says, crossing his arms along his chest, his attention and focus on Isaac in front of us.

I turn back to look at my best friend.

"I never defused Carmelo when it came to these types of situations because I was always afraid of him, of what he would do. I was afraid of getting casted out and becoming nothing. I was the highest rank and I didn't want to be debunked."

I turn back to Dom.

"You and the kid have a friendship I envy, Ricci, a friendship I've always wanted with Carmelo. A friendship that was strictly one sided on my end," he continues. "I don't want to see Isaac go down that same road. He may be his fathers son but he's so much different than Carmelo. He's only painting himself out to be the bad guy because that's what people are saying he is, he's not running on anger, he's running on fear, the exact same way his father did years ago."

I frown not following.

Dom inhales a deep breath as he watches Isaac climb off of the truck, the large crowd of men breaking apart as everyone begins to go their own ways.

"Melo was all alone after his parents died. He genuinely had no one left after the accident and he kept it that same way for years. He isolated himself and only kept to himself, to the family, afraid of letting someone in and going through the same type of pain he went through with losing his mom all over again. They don't run on anger, Ricci, they run on fear. They don't know comfort and that's what he needs. He needs his wife's comfort. He needs to see that she's okay in order to put a stop to his madness."

I feel my lips instantly tug to the side, "Angela said the same thing."

"As spoiled as that woman is, she is wise, look at who her father is. You did good tying your best friend down.. How's the daughter by the way?"

"Good. Growing up too fucking quick."

Dom smiles, "they always do," and smacks the back of his hand on the side of my arm, pointing at Isaac walking in our direction.

"Isaac will be fine. He's endured more than anyone can handle, his dad built him for this lifestyle." He drops his voice. "If I heard correctly, little Hailey didn't just take one life last night, she took two. She's who you should be worried about. Let Isaac run his course, comfort her, be there for her. Don't let a little spilled blood change the person she is," he smacks the back of my shoulder blade with his hand, and is taking off the second Isaac reaches me although he doesn't stop.

He points a finger in my direction and I walk along beside him as he heads back towards the hospital.

"Finish setting up my curfew. You have Robsciotti's nephew coordinates, send him a fucking message and get Cris and Ric out of this fucking hospital, Dee."

I stop dead in my tracks, "I'm checking in on Ric and Roxwell and then I'm going home to my sick daughter, Isaac."

He comes to a quick halt. He stays standing in front of me for a second or so. Never looking back once he nods his head and is then taking off for the entrance of the hospital again, leaving me alone.

I inhale a deep breath mentally yelling in my head, wanting to pull my hair out. Swear to God my best friend stresses me out more than my own girl and baby do.

I stand outside of the hospital for a few minute waiting until the entire parking lot is cleared out of Isaac's army, going over the notes Dominic has left me about the damn curfew.

Apparently I have to make new teams to be on curfews duty, patrolling the fucking city from curfew hour till dawn.

I head into the building after every single man is gone, handing the iPad to one of the guys in the lobby, instructing him to hang onto it until I come down.

Surprisingly the lobby is cleared out. Mr. and Mrs. Matteo isn't in here, David and his girl aren't down here, the only handful of people are the scared nurses behind their desk at the check in area.

I head over towards the elevator and step inside riding up to the third floor where Ric, Cris, and Hailey are at.

I step out of the elevator and walk in the opposite direction of where Red is at and head into the guys room, the guards KP appointed immediately stepping out of the way.

Cris is awake and watching tv when I step into the room. Both him and Ric were sleeping pretty heavily when I was in here almost an hour ago.

He greets me silently with a head nod and I'm waving two fingers in his direction walking towards the back of the room, to Ric's bed, stepping on the left side of the bed.

"He's awake," Cris says softly from his side of the room, his eyes still trained on the tv in front of him.

"Yeah cause your heavy breathing doesn't let me rest," Ric mumbles, a smile growing on his face as he opens his eyes.

"Fuck you," Cris bites back, dragging out the you. "You took a bullet to the chest, I took two in the side pussy."

"Aye, Dee, did KP run out of money that you guys roommed me with this idiot?"

"How the fuck are you still this annoying after getting shot? You know what silence is, Amatto?"

"Both of you shut up!" I point over to Cris. "You, watch your tv and just pretend like he's not in here."

Cris snorts, "cause that's fucking easy, have you met him?"

"Stop it," I groan, pinching the bridge of my nose. "I'm not in the mood to deal with the banter right now."

"You okay?" Ric's voice has dropped down to a whisper almost.

"I should be asking you that."

Ric shrugs his shoulders, "I've been worst."

"How can anything be remotely worse than this, Ric?"

He shrugs again. "What's up? How's Red? What are you doing here? Isn't your daughter sick?"

I nod. "Reds fine. She had to have an emergency C-section but she and the baby are fine."

"Hailey's here?" Cris frowns. "She had the baby? What the hell happened?!"

"I'll have Isaac come talk to you later if he has time." I look back down at Ric. "I gotta talk to you about Aj. KP is supposed to come in here but he's so far up his ass right now, I don't know when he'll make time to clear things up."

Ric immediately begins to shake his head, "don't, I can't handle that right now, I can't handle knowing he's gone."

I frown, "gone? Ric.. Aj's very much alive.. I mean barely, but he's hanging on."

There's instant relief in his eyes as he frowns confused. "Wh- how?"

I shrug my shoulders, "I don't know, he's in pretty bad shape and is refusing to speak to anyone, including the hospital staff."

"Let me see him. I can talk to him."

I shake my head, "you can't see him just yet, Ric."

"Why the hell not?" He sits up straight. "I'm fine, Dee, my legs work perfectly fine, let me talk to him."

"Ric- He's in the burn unit.. He has second and third degree burns on his entire left side of his body, starting from his collar bone down to his thigh. KP isn't letting anyone in, I just didn't want you sulking in here thinking he was dead."

I see the immediate shock in his eyes as he stays speechless, slowly shaking his head. He looks back at me, "I want to see him," he says softly. "Please, Dee." "Ric-"

"I need to see him, Dion. Please."

I nod sticking my hand out in front of me and help him sit up. I grab the wheel chair from behind me and push it close enough to the bed and try to help Ric off the bed and into the chair.

He's immediately shaking his head now that he can do it on his own, it's a genuine struggle seeing how it's only been a few hours since his surgery but he manages to do it on his own.

I push him out of the room and into the elevator until we're going to the burn unit, stopping in front of a door where some of my men are standing close by, guarding the area.

They instantly step out of the way when they spot us just like they did a bit ago, but not before reaching for the door first.

Ric manages to sit forward and push the door open and I'm wheeling him in a second later, the warm atmosphere in the room immediately hitting me. I watch Ric instantly go tense at the sight of his friend lying in front of him, covered in bandages, with more than a handful of machines in the room.

I push him closer towards the bed, placing him right next to it. The heart monitor beeps softly, in rhythm. I place my hand on Ric's good shoulder, tapping it, "I'll give you some privacy, I'll be right outside if you need me."

Ric's hands quickly latched onto my wrist. He shakes his head, "don't go please."

I nod.

Ric then inhales a deep breath and is leaning forward in the wheelchair placing his hand on top of Aj's arm, squeezing it.

It takes a couple seconds but Aj's slowly starts to crack his eyes open, his labored breathing getting heavier. "P-pa-tricio?" He wheezed.

He smiles and nods, "yeah man." Aj stays quiet staring in Ric's direction. "How the hell are you alive right now, Bejarano?!"

Aj attempts to smile, "as-asth-ma."

"Asthma?" Ric frowns. "That's usually the thing trying to take you out," he tesses.

Aj soft chuckle turns into a low groan, "d-don't make me l-laugh."

Ric's voice is quickly losing its playfulness a second later. "I saw you at the truck," he says quietly. "I saw it explode man... H-how are you still here?"

He inhales a deep uneven breath, "my ch-est- felt tight, like w-when I get a-attacks. I d-dropped my inhaler wh-while r-reaching f-for it and it w-went under the t-truck. I s-saw it, I s-saw t-the tim-mer. F-fi-teen s-seconds. M-my heart f-fucking d-dropped so quick but I w-wa-wasn't fast enough, f-fa-far enough."

Ric quickly begins to shake his head, his hand back on Aj's good arm. "You're alive man, it was enough to keep you alive."

Adolfo frowns, noting that Ric is wearing a hospital gown he shifts his gaze to the sling around his neck and back up to his friend, "w-what h-happened? M-Mrs. M-m-atteo-"

"Is fine," I answered. "Her and the baby are fine. Ric is fine," I place my hand back on his shoulder. "You know Ric, he can't let anyone have the spotlight, he needs to be the center of attention."

Aj begins to smile, slowly attempting to stretch his neck, "t-typical, Patricio."

Ric snorts softly and nods his head. He turns to look back at me. "Can Metcalf come in?"

I nod. "Yeah. I'll see if he's still around. Stay put, I'll be back."

"Thanks, Dee."

I nod one last time before taking off to find Ian. Isaac's definitely going to lose his shit when he finds out that I gave Ian and Ric access to Bejarano.