Like a baby bird.
Only the black mass is moving, getting closer now, coalescing into—oh, shit.
“Luca,” I say hoarsely. “What are you…” I devolve into silence. It’sexhaustingtrying to talk. How have I not noticed this before? I’m never gonna talk again.
Luca comes right up, leaning over me. “You stupid little shit,” he says, gripping my hands tight. “Do you know how goddamn worried I’ve been?”
I look up at him, trying to make out his face, only the room is really too dark. “Where’s Mikey?” I ask. “It wasn’t his fault.”
Luca’s mouth goes into a thin white line, his lips pressed together as tight as they’ll go. “Mikey and I will be having a conversation later.”
“Not his fault,” I say again, and it’s such an effort to say anything right now. Ugh. I want to sleep. But I won’t have poor Mikey’s blood on my hands, so I force myself awake. “Don’t…don’t be mean to him.”
Luca gives an incredulous, quiet laugh. “How the hell did you get hold of the drugs, anyway?” he asks.
I have to think that one over. “Mm. Not Mikey.”
“No, I know that. Mikey wouldn’t be that dumb.”
“Mm. I had them…from before.”
“No, you didn’t,” Luca says calmly. “I searched your bags myself after we got into my place, and there wasn’t anything in there. I even found the ones you stashed in the lining of your bag, and flushed them myself.”
Shit. I don’t want him to know about Celia. He’ll cut off my only supplier. “Thatsa…’vasion of privacy…”
“Was it Celia?” he asks patiently, only there’s something running under that patient voice.
“Noooo,” I say, shaking my head on the pillow.
He lets out an angry breath. “So itwasCelia. ItoldFrank to make sure—”
“Don’t kill Celia,” I say sadly. “She’s a nice girl. She does keto and she likes my clothes. And she’s my only friend.”
“I’m not going to kill Celia,” Luca tells me, pulling out his phone and calling someone. “I’m going to kill Frank.”
I doze in and out of sleep, but I’m woken a while later by Luca, shouting in the hallway outside my room. I’ve never heard him shout like this before. I can only make out a few words. “…you tocontrolyour goddamnwife, Frank!”
And I hear Brother Frank’s baritone, low and conciliatory. I wonder if security might come and throw Luca out if he keeps making a scene. There’s something I never thought I’d be hearing: my controlled, cold husband losing his temper so completely. And with his own brother, too.
The door to my room bursts open and I watch between half-closed eyes as Luca stalks in, rubbing the back of his neck like there’s a pain there. Frank comes in after him, and he’s followed by a nurse, only Frank shuffles her back out again, saying, “He’s fine, it’s fine, we’re fine, he won’t shout no more,” and the nurse looks skeptical, but she goes.
Luca is looking out the window. “Where’s Mikey?” he asks at last, glaring out the glass pane. I can see lights reflecting outside, blue and red. I guess it must be another guy being brought into the hospital to die.
“I told him to lay low for a few days,” Frank says, in what passes for a quiet voice for Frank. “Bro, I neverseenyou like this before. Celia never meant no harm; you know she needs those pills for her anxiety.”
Between my eyelashes, I see Luca whirl around on him and take a deep breath to keep yelling, but he glances at me and remembers I’m asleep. Only I’m not. I listen with the greatest interest as he whisper-shouts, “Itoldyou not to let Celia near him if she had anything on her. Notonlybecause he’s a fucking addict, Frank, but because I knew he’d try to off himself.”
“You really think I was trying to die?” I ask, and they both freeze and stare at the bed, at me. “Hi, Brother Frank.”
Frank comes over smiling and friendly, lays a hand on my shoulder. “Hey there,principessa, how you doing? Feeling any better?”
“Get out of the way,” Luca snaps, pushing his brother aside. He lays a hand on my forehead. “He’s still clammy. Go get that useless nurse; she can actually work for her living tonight.”
“I’m fine,” I protest, trying to bat away his hand. “And don’t be an asshole to the nurse, Luca. She gets paid shit money to do a shit job. Anyway, I just need to sleep,” I add.
Luca brushes my hair off my forehead in a strangely motherly gesture. “Of course,” he says softly. “Frank, get out. Go and get Mikey from wherever you stashed him. You can tell him hisCaporegimewants to see him.”
“His—hiswhat? Hey, Georgie, does that mean Tino bumped you up?” Frank booms.
