Complications

Chapter 5

CHAPTER FIVE

Michel

“I need a goddamn explanation and make it fucking quick,” Matteo bit out between clenched teeth.

The air went still, heavy, as we all kept our focus on the task.

The man in front of me moaned low in the back of his throat as I worked to remove the bullet from his shoulder.

He was damn lucky—it had gone through the top of his shoulder.

If it had been an inch in either direction, it would’ve been a very different situation.

To the left was a useless arm, to the right was a burial plot.

“Boss, I’m not sure what’s going on,” Frankie said grudgingly.

I forced my eyes to stay on my work. Matteo’s rage was palpable, but the specifics of it weren’t any of my business.

Whatever I was doing with Elio—and whatever our connection was—it wasn’t grounds to interfere with what was obviously not my business.

My role with Matteo had been defined for years, and I wasn’t looking to rock that particular boat.

“Maybe we can table this discussion for a few minutes,” Frankie offered. I felt all eyes in the room turn to me when he added, “Doc needs to finish patching.”

“Sorry, gentlemen. This is going to take a bit longer. He’s a bleeder.”

Before anyone could answer, shouts from the hallway cut through our polite standoff.

“Get your fucking hands off me, you piece of shit.”

Like a beacon, I locked onto the sound of Elio’s voice. There was anger in it, yes—but under that, I heard fear.

“I’ll take my hands off when your uncle sees what the fuck you’re doing.”

“I don’t give a good goddamn what you tell him—get your fucking hands off me.”

The door crashed open, and Elio was shoved through. He landed hard on the white tile floor with a resounding thud. Joey followed him inside without a sound. Matteo jumped back as Elio landed at his feet on his hands and knees.

It seemed like his usual state lately was beat to hell, and today was no exception. His eye was already swelling shut, and there were smears of blood across his mouth where it looked like he’d been hit. My whole body clenched at the sight of anyone putting their hands on him.

“Stop,” Matteo bellowed. “Nobody is doing one more fucking thing until I get a clear picture of what the fuck is happening in my house.” He took the time to straighten his cuff links and the front of his suit. Elio snapped his mouth shut.

Elio was glaring at him when I risked a quick glance out of the corner of my eye. I didn’t dare move toward him. If I touched him, there’d be no hiding what had happened between us.

My current patient struggled to sit up on the table, which caused a fresh stain of red on the bandage I’d been holding against the wound. He wasn’t going to the ER for a transfusion, so unless he wanted one from questionable sources, I needed the movement to stop.

“I’ll tell you what’s going on. Your nephew is trying to run a racket,” my patient snarled.

Bullshit.

My hand stilled for half a second before I went back to work. I might have been a little less gentle when I resumed. If my patient noticed, he stuck with winces and muttered curses under his breath.

“What?” The shock in Frankie’s voice was obvious. He wouldn’t care who it was—when it came to protecting Matteo, even his own family wasn’t off-limits. “Sam, you better have some fucking proof.”

“Where’s Joey?” Anger rolled off Matteo in waves as the accusation settled over the room.

In all the years I’d known him, I’d never heard that tone before, and it worried me.

I stole another peek at Elio, and our eyes locked.

I understood the evident pleading. I gave a subtle nod and returned to the liar lying on the exam table.

“I’m right here,” Joey answered from the door.

Frankie was Matteo’s bodyguard, but Joey was his right-hand man and knew Matteo’s business from the inside out. If Elio was doing anything, which he fucking wasn’t, he’d be responsible for knowing it and fixing it.

Rather than call attention to myself, I kept my head down and focused on the work at hand. The idea of having to walk out when Elio might need me made my stomach clench in fear. I needed to stay in this room.

“Explain,” Matteo clipped.

“Sam went to collect a rent payment…”

“Regular terms?”

“Yeah, he’s old, and it’s easier on him if we go there.

” Most of Matteo’s business was above board.

He owned commercial properties, a few residential apartment buildings, and made strategic investments.

But what the hell was Elio doing there? “The old guy’s rented that apartment for over forty years.

He used to work for your dad before he switched to the rare book business. ”

“Was he hurt?”

“No. Sam arrived, but Elio was already there. According to Sam, your nephew was demanding payment and tempers flared…” Joey’s voice trailed off in disgust. “Elio wrestled away Sam’s gun and shot him.”

“Sam, that right?” Matteo asked. It took a second to answer since my finger was currently inside the bullet hole in his shoulder.

“What Joey said,” he panted. “I went in to collect the rent, and Elio was already there. I heard him say the rent needed to include extra payments, and if he didn’t pay, he was out.”

Matteo remained silent while the tension in the room increased tenfold.

“Anything else?”

“The old man said he was going to call you, but Elio threatened him. And his grandkid he was babysitting.”

“There was a goddamn kid there?”

“Well, yeah, a baby.”

What had been anger in Matteo morphed into pure rage. I gave up any pretense of working on my patient.

He’d previously stepped back from Elio but now stalked forward again. Before anyone could pull another breath, Matteo reached down and twisted his fist into Elio’s shirt front. He reared his fist back with every intention of it smashing into Elio’s face.

“No!”

The surprise of my interference stopped everyone in their tracks.

“Don’t…” Elio gasped.

Before anyone could interfere, I abandoned Sam and yanked Elio free. Whatever happened next, nothing was more important than protecting the man I loved.

“Doc, what the fuck are you doing?” Joey shouted.

He moved toward us, and I scrambled to shove Elio between me and the wall. It was more difficult than it should’ve been because Elio wouldn’t stay where I was trying to keep him.

“Michel, you want to tell me something?” Matteo drawled.

“Elio and I are in love.”

I ignored the strangled sound that came from behind me. We could address my less-than-romantic method of declaration at some other time. Right now, I was focused on keeping him alive and, if we were both lucky, in one piece.

“Christ, Michel, don’t say that. No one will believe that,” Elio murmured into my ear.

The rest of the room faded away as the implication of what he’d said, and meant, hit me in the sternum. Matteo and the rest of his crew no longer mattered.

“Why the hell not?” I demanded before turning around to face him.

“You’re you. I’m me. And we both know it’s not love,” Elio muttered.

The pain in his voice took my breath away because I knew it didn’t have anything to do with me and everything to do with how he felt about his place in this family—his family.

“You don’t get to tell me who I love.”

“I do if it’s about me.”

“No, you fucking don’t. I decide that. You don’t have to agree, you don’t have to love me back, but you don’t get to fucking tell me who I get to love.

And if I want to fall in love with a man who never gives up, who always does what he thinks is right, no matter the fallout, who protects the people around him even when he knows he’s likely to be punished for it?

Then I get to fucking love that man if I fucking want to. ”

“Yeah, see, I’m gonna interrupt this lovefest real quick,” Matteo said with a smirk. “There’s still a man bleeding on my floor, and I would very much like to know what the fuck is happening in my business.”

“He’s a—”

“Shut up, Sam. I want to hear from Elio,” Matteo snapped.

“What do you want to know?” The flippancy in Elio’s tone was guaranteed to annoy the hell out of Matteo.

“For starters, dial down the attitude. Why were you at the apartment?”

Rather than answer, Elio stood silent, his chin thrust in the air and his eyes flashing with defiance. Matteo responded to none of it. He just stared at him—no expression, just the penetrating eyes of a man used to getting his own way, no matter how long it took.

I’d known him long enough to know that look. He wasn’t moving on without an answer.

“Elio, whatever it is, tell him,” I said gently.

I needed to give him an out because if I knew anything about these men, it was that their pride mattered above everything—and right now, Elio was hanging in the balance, and Matteo would never give. One of them had to budge.

No matter what, I needed to keep Elio in one piece because if he went down, I was going with him.

“Please. Tell him. For me.” This time it was a plea.

He glanced at me, then at Matteo, before returning his gaze to mine. I stayed quiet, but I made the plea in my eyes obvious. I wasn’t about to pretend neutrality when it came to him.

“I was there to buy a book. Sam showed up while I was in the back, flipping through it to make sure it was what I wanted. When I came out, Sam was demanding money, and the old man was saying he was about to call you,” Elio explained.

“Where’d the gun— where’d the shot come from?”

“Sam was waving his gun. The baby was in the corner, in the crib, sleeping. I told him to put it away. He turned it on me, took off the safety, and started waving it around like a goddamn flag. I shoved him out of the room to get him away from the baby. We wrestled for the gun, and it went off.”

“Cops?”

“Sam’s gun had a silencer on it. The bullet went through Sam and into the floorboards—empty basement,” Elio shrugged.

“The old man?” Matteo asked.

“He’s in the study with the baby and a book,” Joey interjected. “Connor and one of my guys are in there too.”

“Let’s go see what he has to say then.”

“Michel, I need an explanation.”

Matteo summoning me from my patient was high-handed. Naturally, I’d made him wait an extra ten minutes.

“I need a little bit more to go on.”

After the explosion in the medical room, Matteo had asked—more like ordered—me to his study. It had been vacated by the older man, but Elio was left with Frankie and Joey. I kissed him before I left the room. They needed to understand exactly who Elio was to me.

“So you’re pretending that you didn’t announce that you were in love with my nephew?”

“You’ve never actually told me how he’s related to you. Elio explained it, but I’d like to hear it from you,” I mused absentmindedly.

“You want to talk about it right now? Because I’d like to talk about what the fuck you said back there.”

“Elio isn’t stealing from you.”

“You can’t know that.”

“Yeah, I fucking do. He wants to prove his worth to you.”

Elio wasn’t going to betray Matteo. I didn’t need the particulars to know that. I took the time to look around the room instead of at him. It was as neat and tidy as ever, now overstuffed with plants and pictures of Connor. It was lived-in and comfortable, but today it felt confining.

“What did the old man say?”

“You already know.” Matteo let the words hang in the air before he finally answered with a sigh. “Sam pulled the gun.”

“Is he still in need of my services?”

“No.” Matteo paused before he added, “Yeah, turns out that shoulder shot was fatal.”

“That’s a real shame.” So why the hell was Matteo still questioning when he already had confirmation? “But where does that leave Elio with you?”

“Goddamn it, I’m just trying to keep my promise. That’s it,” Matteo ground out.

After twenty years, I knew when Matteo was on the edge of a breaking point. Tonight, he was. I’d been in this room dozens of times—maybe more—but today my entire world was centered in it.

“What was the promise?”

“Elio’s dad never wanted to be in the business in the first place.

It was just bad luck and circumstances that he married into the business.

He was desperate to keep his son out of it.

I promised I would. Neither of us knew how much Elio would end up wanting it, and I’ve been working for years to keep my word. ”

“How’s that working out?”

“Given how many times you’ve patched his ass up, I’d say it’s working out exactly how you think it is.” Matteo laughed harshly.

He threw himself back in his chair before leaning forward so he could look me directly in the eyes. I didn’t look away. It was too important to blink first.

“Elio isn’t his dad. He has the right to his own place within your family.”

“I don’t fucking appreciate you making that much goddamn sense,” Matteo muttered.

“Can’t say that I really give a shit about that.”

“What do you give a shit about?”

“Elio.”

“Of course.”

“Just admit defeat. It’ll be easier on everyone.”

Matteo’s immediate response involved a single finger. He rolled his eyes at my less-than-intimidated guffaws. In the study, we were on equal footing.

“Isn’t he kind of young for you?” I saw the glint in Matteo’s eyes at the bullshit question.

“Like you and Connor?”

“Fuck you. That’s different,” Matteo said before rolling his eyes again. “Connor has an old soul. And he didn’t have anyone else to depend on.”

“Who does Elio have?”

“He’s family.”

“The same family that shoves him aside?”

Matteo templed his fingers under his chin and let my words land. He’d come around as soon as he figured out I wasn’t budging. Elio was mine, and I wasn’t leaving this house without him. Giving him a proper position in the family was a separate issue.

“Fuck.”

“What’s wrong now?”

“I’m going to have to find him a place.”

“He’s damn good at taking care of the little guy, if that helps.”

Matteo grumbled. I laughed. Elio was leaving with me.