Chapter 10 - Toby and the "Scary Uncle": The Melting of an Iron Boss
The black Maybach tore through the rain-slicked city streets at ninety miles an hour, escorted by four armored SUVs running silent emergency strobes.
Dominic sat in the back with Josie, his arm wrapped firmly around her trembling shoulders, pulling her against his chest. For all his ruthless power, his touch was impossibly tender, his thumb gently caressing her temple to soothe her terror.
"My personal elite security team is stationed on Toby’s floor," Dominic reassured her softly. "Ross is the best tactical commander on the East Coast. Nothing will happen to your boy, Josephine. I swear it on my mother’s soul."
When they arrived at St. Jude’s, the hospital perimeter was already secured by Relli operatives in tactical gear.
Josie and Dominic took the private express lift straight to the tenth-floor pediatric penthouse.
The moment the doors opened, Josie sprinted down the corridor into Toby’s room.
"Toby!"
Toby was sitting up in his large hospital bed, wearing dinosaur pajamas, happily playing a handheld video game console. Mrs. Hattie was sitting in an armchair beside him, calmly sipping a cup of chamomile tea while two heavily armed Relli guards stood like stone statues at the room's entrance.
"Mom!" Toby beamed, looking up from his game. "Look! The scary-looking guys in suits brought me the double-flavor ice cream with the fudge swirls! And they showed me their walkie-talkies!"
Josie fell onto the edge of the bed, wrapping her arms around Toby and burying her face in his neck, weeping tears of pure, unadulterated relief. "Oh God... baby... you're okay."
"Of course I'm okay," Toby giggled. "Mrs. Hattie told the guards that if they made any noise while I was napping, she'd hit them with her umbrella."
Mrs. Hattie gave a smug, satisfied nod from her chair. "And I meant every word of it."
Dominic walked slowly into the room. The terrifying mafia boss—the man who had just nearly crushed a CFO's windpipe with one hand—stood awkwardly near the foot of the bed, suddenly looking uncertain and out of his element.
Toby tilted his head, his oversized glasses sliding down his nose as he studied the towering billionaire.
"Are you Mr. Dominic?" Toby asked.
Dominic cleared his throat, softening his posture. "I am. It's an honor to meet you, Toby."
"Mom said you're the one who bought the good medicine for my heart valve," Toby said solemnly. "And the ice cream."
"I did," Dominic said, stepping closer and resting a large hand gently on the bedpost. "How does the ice cream taste?"
"It tastes like winning," Toby announced with absolute authority. Then he held up his extra game controller. "Do you know how to play Mario Kart, Mr. Dominic? The scary guard with the beard said he only knows how to drive real tanks."
A rare, genuine, boyish laugh escaped Dominic Relli’s chest—a sound that made Josie’s heart skip a beat.
Dominic removed his tuxedo jacket, draped it over the chair, unbuttoned his collar, and pulled up a stool beside Toby’s bed.
"Young man," Dominic said with a competitive smirk, taking the controller into his massive, scarred hands, "I have never lost a race in my entire life. Prepare to be defeated."
For the next two hours, Josie sat quietly on the sofa beside Mrs. Hattie, watching the most feared man in the American underworld lean over a hospital bed, shouting in mock frustration as an eight-year-old boy beat him with a digital blue turtle shell.
May you like
Mrs. Hattie leaned over and nudged Josie’s arm. "That man," Mrs. Hattie whispered with a knowing smile, "would tear down the entire world just to keep you and that boy smiling."
Josie looked at Dominic’s face—softened by laughter, his eyes glowing with warmth—and realized with profound certainty that she had fallen completely, irreversibly in love with him.
Related Stories
