My phone ringing woke me up. I quickly answered, it was from the hospital.

"Hello? Is this Mr Russo?" asked the person on the other side of the phone.

"This is he," I replied.

"Can you please come into the hospital; we have some things to discuss." Fuck.

"Is everything okay?" I asked, worried.

"Just come in when you can."

"Yeah of course."

"See you soon."

"Bye." I hung up. I looked around the room I was in, and realised, somehow, I had taken myself off to sleep in Sav's bed. God, I'm such a creep, but it reminds me of her, and her pillows smell like her and... Fuck. I need to get to the hospital. I quickly ran to my room and got changed, then hurried downstairs. I got the chauffeur to drive me, because I was probably way over the limit, and I told him to put the pedal to the metal. It didn't take us long to get there, and I practically half ran to go and see the doctor.

"Dr. Medzeldino," I said rushing over to her, catching my breath, "what is going on?"

"Ah, Mr Russo, come this way," she gestured, leading me into her office. I sat in one of the armchairs, and she sat beside me. "We have eased the drugs we are giving her, which are keeping her in the coma, and she is not responding." I nodded at what she was saying, "we have two options now, and it is up to you what we do next. The first option is to stay at this level, and hope that she will show some signs of response, however, if her brain isn't fully healed yet, this could be detrimental. The second option is to increase the amount of drug again, putting her fully back into the induced coma, however, with every day she stays in the induced coma, it will affect her brain too, for example she may not be able to write the same, or walk, and it may affect her speech, but we do not know exactly as people respond differently. I know neither option is an easy one, and I am sorry about that," she looked at me with sorrow in her eyes.

I didn't know what to think, how to react... I don't know what option to choose, it was all just too much. I hated myself for actually going to bed that evening of our dinner, thinking she had just gone on a drive, and for not searching for her. If I searched for her, I would've found her earlier and she wouldn't have had all the injuries, she would be laughing with us all back at home, she would be planning our war, she would be by my side...

"Option one," I stated.

"You are sure?" asked the doctor.

"Shouldn't I be?"

"They are both hard options, but I just want to make sure you know exactly what each entails before making a decision," she said warmly.

"Option one, I've thought about it."

"Okay, I will call you this afternoon, or earlier if there has been any development, but if not, we will discuss this afternoon what next."

We said our goodbyes, and I went over to Sav.

"Please, Sav, I am begging you, please, let your wonderful brain respond, please," I was begging with her motionless body, but I didn't know what else to do... I was completely helpless. I squeezed her hand, and kissed her on the forehead. I had a bit of time before Aleksander landed, so I sat by her side, holding her hand, praying to God, even though I didn't believe, I prayed and prayed, and I prayed some more that she would wake up.

"I promise, God, if you are up there, I promise, if you save her, I will go to church at Christmas and Easter, I won't push it, but I promise you that... just please save her."

After a about twenty minutes of sitting by her bedside, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned to look, and it was Nadia, dressed again head to toe in high-end brands, looking very well put together.

"You care for her a lot, I can see. I am glad has someone like you," spoke Nadia, softly, "option one was the right decision, in the circumstances," she reassured me. "Savannah... she finds feelings hard. I have feelings, but I just put them in a box, and access them if I need to, but she... her father always told her feelings were for the weak and she has suppressed every single one since, you will just have to bear with her."

"You speak as if it matters, as if she is going to wake up," I mumbled.

"Savannah is a strong girl; I know she can push through this."

After a while of sitting in silence, one of us on either side of her, holding her hand, we knew we had to go back to business.

We met Aleksander on the airstrip, greeting him as he got off his private jet. Behind the jet was a medium-sized passenger plane, filled with his men, and I shook as many hands as I could. We escorted them to the hotel, and Aleksander came with his close associates to my home. I introduced him to everyone, and everyone to him, and we continued talking and planning the attack, for the entire day.

At mid-afternoon I got a call from the doctor, saying there had been no change and if I wanted to continue trying option one, or go back to option two. I said to continue trying with option one, and she agreed.

Half an hour after this call, Nadia came into my office.

"Sandrino, I found Domenico!" she exclaimed, causing me to stand up so quickly from my chair it fell backwards and crashed against the floor.

"Where is he?" I growled, not angry at her obviously, it was just my animal instincts coming out as a piece of prey I really wanted to kill was dangling just in front of me.

"I think he is here, in this safehouse," she spun her computer round and pointed out to it on the map, "about twenty-three kilometres from here."

"Come downstairs," I said, and she followed me. We went into the meeting room, where Dimitri, my capos, Haris, Nasir, Aleksander, and their high up officers were all gathered round the table, planning.

"Nadia found Domenico, he is twenty-three kilometres from here. We should attack now, I don't want him to slip out of my grip, and if we kill Domenico but do not attack the warehouses, the other men will slip away," I explained.

"Agreed," said Dimitri, "I like this plan, what does everyone else think?"

"My men are rested, well, and ready for blood," answered Nasir.

"Yes, my men are ready too," chimed in Haris.

"We flew in today, and although we could do with a sleep, my men are always ready," added Aleksander.

I grabbed the map from the table, with the various bases of Domenico's highlighted.

"As you all know, these eight purple circles are the drugs warehouses, the five yellow ones are the weapons warehouses, and the three red circles are the ones for people trafficking. As well as this, these five blue squares are the houses of Domenico's right-hand men." I grabbed an orange pen, and circled the safe house that Domenico was supposedly in, "and this is the safehouse." I turned to Haris and Nadia, "I need a group of your best assassins to come with me to the safehouse, this is an assassination after all, then other groups of your people to go to each of the five blue squares, and wait for my command to strike, any left-over will join other groups attacking the warehouses." I turned to Nasir, "I need groups of your men to go with my men to the drugs warehouses, Dimitri, you lead a group here," I pointed at one of the purple circles, and then pointed at them in turn "Nasir you lead a group here, Dino you go here, Lazarro take this one, Zaccaria that one, Stefan this one, Eros this one, and the twins, you take the last one."

I turned to Aleksander, "do you have enough men to take out the five weapons warehouses and the three people trafficking ones?"

"Yes, we have plenty," he turned to look at his generals, as he called them, and calling out each of their names he told them which warehouse to attack.

"I'll send some of my men with you too. These warehouses will be filled to the brim with armed guards, and if we attack them one at a time, they will know we are coming. We all have to strike at exactly the same time. Every mission leader, take one of these," I handed out a blue phone to everyone, "When you are all ready and in your positions text me from this phone, once everyone has texted and it is time to attack, I will send a group text, which will come on this phone, and you attack, until then, wait in the shadows, gather intel if it helps. When it is time for the attack, I want you to rain hell on them, and once you have taken control, text me informing me of this. Wait in the warehouse until my command, and once everyone has fallen, we can start thinking about how we structurally organise our mafia, and come to business agreements with you all, but believe me, it will be fair."

I looked around at the faces watching my every word intently, "are we ready?"

"Yes," stated everyone.

"Let's go."

=================