Sharon at reception had met my brothers before. It was the only reason she hadn’t called the damn cops!
“Because I only got it today.”
“You mean to tell us,” Lucas exclaimed, “that you went on a job interview looking like death warmed over?”
I slammed my fist into his headrest then regretted the vibrations that juddered through me. “Raisin sent you, didn’t she?”
“Raisin didn’t do shit. She told us you were at the hospital when we asked.”
Because I knew my brothers, I also knew to read between the lines. It spoke of my exhaustion that today my dipshit translator had blown a fuse. Likely, Star Sullivan had tattled, and in a lose-lose situation, keeping my mouth shut was in my best interest.
At my continued silence, Lucas ground his teeth. “At least tell us what happened to you?”
Talk about leading the witness.
It wasn’t the first time they’d asked, but it was the first time the temptation to answer stirred in me.
This was one of those ‘you dig your own grave’ types of questions, though.
So I stayed quiet.
Mulish.
Lucas wasn’t the only one of us to inherit Ma’s stubborn streak.
That he’d stolen my new purse before Cade had fireman-lifted me out of the hospital infuriated me the most. Said purse was currently perched on the floorboard beside my brother’s expensively shod foot so I couldn’t warn Stan or explain my disappearance—that I’d be worrying him made me want to cry.
By the time we reached our building, Cade must have texted the family because they waited on the curb for us.
As did Luigi. Thank god.
When Ma pulled open the door, she gasped at the sight of me. “Catriona Caitlin Frasier!” she wailed, using my rarely spoken full name. “What happened to you?”
Okay, so Ma didn’t know.
I cut looks at my sisters, who appeared equally as stunned.
Cade might have updated them that I was incoming but hadn’t looped them in with the details.
Even as I contemplated the many and various curses I intended on hurling at Star Sullivan when we were next at church together, Conor O’Donnelly’s fiancée be damned, I sighed. “I got into a fight with a brick wall.”
Sobbing, Ma levered me out of the car.
As the years had passed without Da coming back to her bruised, and with Lucas and Cade dealing with their injuries in the privacy of their own homes, she didn’t handle this type of thing well anymore.
“I’m fine, Ma,” I assured her, but it was a lie.
“Let me,” Lucas broke in, carefully dislodging our mother from where she hovered, swooping in to lift me against his chest.
To Luigi, I directed, “I’m fine. Tell Stan what’s going on?” The guard retreated a step with a polite nod. To Lucas, I hissed in his ear, “You asshole. I wanted to spare her this!”
“Liar. You wanted to spare yourself,” he growled, utterly unapologetic. “You think we don’t know what went down because you?—”
“What? Thought you didn’t know,” I mocked.
His eyes narrowed at me.
“Anyway, what was I doing? The Valentinis are allies!”
