“I guess she was bleeding pretty bad,” Joey explains. “The bullet didn’t come out, so they had to go in and get it. I guess… I guess she’s pregnant.”
My stomach turns over at that piece of news, especially in light of him just telling me she was shot in the stomach. “Still?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t got an update yet today. Vince and Mia are heading up there to check in, so I’ll hear more then.”
I get the information from him, and even though the thought of going makes me feel like a lost, vulnerable eight-year-old again, I grab my keys and head for the hospital.
—
I’m glad I wore the suit today.
I didn’t expect to offer to come back when I walked into the hospital, but seeing him there, looking so lost as he waited by Meg’s bedside, I knew I had to.
This all happened on my watch, after all. Maybe it came to a head when I left, but it was all building under my fucking nose when I was preparing to leave.
I pay the cop a visit first, since that’s the more immediate danger.
Then I stop by the bakery to grab security tapes.
Finally, I head to Mateo’s house.
Maria comes to the door, but she doesn’t even look surprised to see me. She glances past me to see if I’m alone, then she lets me in and closes the door, walking away without so much as a throwaway greeting.
I wonder if she’s happy here, like Elise was. I didn’t think about it too much when I lived here, I just assumed none of them wanted to be here, but now that Elise has yelled at me for rescuing her when apparently she wasn’t in distress, I wonder.
Maria’s pretty brusque, though, so I don’t follow her to ask.
I also have a lot of shit to do, and I need to get started.
Once I’m in Mateo’s security room, the first thing I do is text Colin McGregor.
“Don’t go to Boston yet. I might have something for you.”
He doesn’t respond right away, so I pop in the tapes from the bakery and start looking into what Francesca’s been up to. Going over security footage is one the most boring, tedious jobs in the world, but if you know what you’re looking for, it can be useful. I’m not sure exactly what I’m looking for. If Francesca really was the leak, there’s no way after growing up with Mateo she would allow anyone connected to Castellanos to walk into his family’s bakery. I need to check her phone records. She was probably too smart to use her regular phone, but it’s worth a quick perusal.
Time slips away from me and before I know it, Elise is texting me, asking if she should make dinner. Colin responded, too, asking “what kind of something?” so I answer him first, telling him to meet me where we met last night around 9pm.
Exiting the surveillance room, I stop at Mateo’s desk. I know he keeps some petty cash here, and I blew most of mine at the bar last night. Peeling off $100, I shove it in my pocket and text Elise to tell her to go ahead and make dinner.
To be honest, I’d rather just grab something to take home, but I assume she wants to cook.
I stop to buy her a dress on the way home. I don’t know exactly what she likes, but I grab one that’s navy blue with lace and sequins—looks like something Mia would wear to dinner. Everything in me revolts as I take it to the register, in my damn suit, prepared to do what I can to emulate the one man I don’t want to be anything like. I can’t even recreate a shadow of Morelli family dinners, because we don’t have a table. We usually just eat on the couch, but I’m gonna have to get one. There’s a little space between the kitchen and the door for one, I just didn’t have the extra money and it didn’t seem essential.
I’ll have to get her one, though. Maybe some decorative shit to put on it—a tablecloth, some kind of centerpiece.
Now that I’m actually working for Mateo for a little while, I’ll have more money to work with. His lucrative offer to come work for him comes to mind, but I shove it away.
No. I’m not getting sucked back into Mateo’s bullshit. I’ll never get out again if I do. This is just temporary, I’m just going to help him get shit settled with Castellanos and make sure he’s reasonably safe, then I’ll find a normal job, like I intended.
Elise is in the kitchen when I get back home, but when she turns to greet me, a series of progressively happier expressions play out across her face as she notices first, I’m wearing a suit, and second, I brought her something pretty.