Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 77344 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77344 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
“Megs,” she said, looking up at me with wide, panicked eyes.
“Megs should be almost to her inn by now.”
“But what if…”
“Max, baby, focus, okay? If he was here, he can’t catch up to Megs and Nicole. If you want, I can make my brother hang in town, watch them from a distance. But I genuinely think they are safe where they are.”
“Okay. Right. Yeah, you’re right,” she said, and I watched as she started to compartmentalize her emotions, making them more manageable. “Let’s just hope Zeno can figure out who this asshole is, so this stops once and for all.”
“Did he say anything? Anything that might help us narrow him down?”
“No. He mostly said he should have killed me the last time. Then it was just a lot of cursing and fighting.”
We worked for another two hours before we had the place straightened. Not knowing where to put anything, we just left everything on the tables, so when Lil was well enough, she could organize how she wanted.
By the time we had cleaned up the blood, Salvatore had shot me a text, telling me we could come to his office to see Lil.
“Ready to hopefully get some answers?” I asked, offering Max my hand.
She glanced at it for a second but surprised me by reaching to take it, her fingers slipping between mine.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Max
Salvatore’s office, from the outside, looked abandoned. There was paper on the filthy, barred windows, so no one could see inside.
But on the inside, the place had been completely redone, from the dark tile floors to the freshly painted walls. There was even an actual sitting room, but it was set up with long, comfortable couches, a huge TV, gaming consoles, and a snack and coffee station.
I guess even a mafia’s doctor office needed a place for loved ones to sit, wait, worry, and convene with one another.
“Sal?” Miko called.
Not a moment later, Salvatore made his way down the hall.
“How is she?” I asked, my tone just shy of desperate.
“She’s alright. She was really lucky, actually. The head wound looked a lot worse than it was. She’s got two broken ribs. A lot of bruises and swelling.”
“What about her knee?”
“That was where she was the luckiest,” Salvatore said. “Swollen like that, I was worried it was an ACL or meniscus tear. She ended up dislocating her patella—kneecap. It needs to be immobilized. And there’s gonna be a fair amount of physical therapy in her future, but she’s not going to need surgery.”
“Thank God. Is she alright? In pain?”
“She refused pain meds until she got to talk to you guys. But she needs it,” he said, giving Miko a look that said So make this quick.
“Got it,” Miko agreed.
Sal waved us toward a room, and we moved in to find Lil sitting on one of those chairs like the dentists had. She was reclined back. There were bulges in her midsection, like maybe her ribs were wrapped, and there was a bulky brace on her knee.
In the hours since the attack, the bruises had really started to settle in, mottling her face in shades of purple and blue so dark they almost appeared black.
“Oh, Lil,” I said, wincing.
“Yeah,” she agreed, trying to sigh, only to wince and fold forward, her hand pressing into her ribs.
“Why are you being a hero about the pain medicine?”
“I don’t want to be fuzzy about the details until I give them to you.”
“Okay. Let’s get that over with then,” Miko said. “We want you comfortable.”
“There was a knock at my door. I was expecting a delivery. So I didn’t have my guard up,” she admitted, launching right into it.
“But the second I opened the door, he pushed it wide and moved inside, blocking my exit.”
“Did you know who it was?”
“Not exactly. Not until he started talking about diamonds. I mean, he had the piercing blue eyes you mentioned. But so does the guy at the bagel shop I go to every week. But once he started talking about how many diamonds he had, how he wanted to move them, I immediately figured this had to be the same guy.
“I had been in contact with someone earlier this morning who works at a jewelry store. He said there was someone in claiming he had ‘family’ diamonds to sell. But given that they were all loose, the store got squirrelly and asked him to leave.
“I should have been expecting him. Been ready for him.”
“Hey, no,” Miko said, shaking his head. “What you’re not gonna do is blame yourself for what that fuck did.”
“I was careless,” Lil said, shrugging. I understood why she was being so hard on herself. I had impossible standards for myself too. It was hard not to when you were a woman working alone in a potentially very dangerous field. You only had yourself to rely on. You couldn’t afford not to be on guard at all times.