I groan as I slide into the leather seats because it pulls at my stitches. I hate being injured. It slows me down, and right now, I need to be quick witted.
At least I hadn’t taken another pain pill before I left. Those things make me tired and loopy.
What if I said something Sophia? She was acting strangely, kind of wired, like she was really worried about me talking to Nico. But she doesn’t know him like I know him. She looks at him and sees a gangster. I look at him and see a snaggle-toothed ten-year-old, grinning up at me, wanting to do everything his big brother does.
He wasn’t behind this attempted assassination. Maybe it was one of his dumbass friends, but it wasn’t him. He wouldn’t order me to be shot.
Diego seems wary, too, but Diego is wary of everyone. His military career hadn’t exactly been smooth sailing. He had his reasons.
But Diego and Sophia don’t know how our family dynamic works. Father bails Nico out. I’m the one who gives him consequences. And maybe it is too little, too late, but I don’t think Nico would have started an uprising.
He doesn’t hate me, he’s just…young and stupid. Like I was once. Well, maybe I wasn’tthatstupid, but…everyone has their vices.
Nico just happens to have a lot of them.
I call my father and Cecilia picks up, her slow tone making me grit my teeth with annoyance.
“Hello? Luca?”
“Yes, Cecilia, it’s me,” I say in a clipped voice. “Is Nico around?’
“We haven’t seen him in days,” she drawls, the words drawing out because she’s fucked up on pills or wine or both.
“I’ll find him,” I promise.
“Oh, Luca,” she says, tone getting wobblier as she speaks. I pinch the bridge of my nose between my fingers. “That would be amazing. You two are still coming to dinner on Sunday, right?”
Dinner. Great.
I forgot entirely that I promised that.
“Yes, yes, of course, give my love to Father,” I say quickly, hanging up even as she starts to drone on again.
Nico has an apartment in the city, and I’ll bet he’s been holed up there since we got in that fight. I should have talked more than throwing my fists, but I was upset.
Nico and Alfonso had neglected a very important shipment, and Nico deserved the bloody nose I gave him. Surely he knows that.
I slide into the parking garage, taking the steps two at a time to Nico’s high-rise apartment. I bang on the door for what seems like half an hour before it creaks open slowly, still latched.
“Whozzit?”
Nico’s slurred words don’t exactly fill me with confidence about this conversation.
“It’s your brother. Let me in.”
He grunts. “Last time I let you in, you nearly broke my nose.”
His words seem a bit clearer now and I groan, pushing at the door.
“Just let me in, Nico. We need to talk.”
“Alright, alright. Hold your horses.”
He shuts the door and unlatches the chain and before he can fully open it, I push my way inside.
Nico squints at me in the dim lighting of his apartment, scratching his bare belly.
“You look like shit,” I say flatly.
