4. Bradley
brADLEY
Pain radiates from the middle of my chest and gradually, with each slow breath, spreads through my torso until a burning sensation licks at the back of my throat. My eyes snap open, glimpse a bright light, and immediately screw back up with a hoarse groan.
“Bradley?”
A distant voice drifts from nearby with a note of familiarity, but I can’t quite place it. Try as I might, the connection isn’t there in my mind as the pain in my chest takes up every last thought.
“Bradley!”
I open my eyes again, slower this time, and the previous bright light turns out to be a light that’s not so bright after all. A dull yellow glow drifts down from a fuzzy, glazed bulb, and I swallow hard against the burning threatening to overtake my tongue.
Where am I?
Everything’s familiar but I can’t quite place exactly why, as if I’m staring at a reflection rather than the real thing.
Another blink and a face swims above me.
A woman. Long, auburn hair drapes to one side of her face and a pair of golden-brown eyes narrow to slits as she stares down at me. I know her. I’m certain I do.
“Valentina?” The rough, cracked sound reaching my ears can’t be my voice, can it?
Valentina smiles and her face melts slightly as she nods. “Welcome back, you idiot.”
“Idiot?” With each blink, my world grows clearer, and remembering her name leads me to recognizing the medical wing buried deep within the Suit’s headquarters. How I got here in one piece is a mystery.
“Yeah, idiot.” Valentina pats my cheek lightly and then sits down in the dark chair at my bedside. “I was not looking forward to replacing the King.”
“I’m fine.”
“Barely.” A worried edge slips into her voice. “Do you even remember what happened?”
It comes back in flickers and flashes. The Arlecchino mask staring down at me from a gun wobbling all over the place. A choked voice, tears and then, faintly, long black hair spilling out from under the mask as the woman tore it off to throw up next to me.
“She shot me.”
“Twice,” Valentina corrects. “You got shot twice. I can’t even begin to explain how insanely lucky you are that Frank parked on the other side of the bank and watched the entire thing go down.
If he hadn’t dove in after you—” Her voice catches in her throat and she shakes her head, breathing deeply. “Nearly had to get a new driver too.”
“Frank.” Bracing my hands on the bed, I shift myself upward. “Is he alright?”
“He’s fine. We’ve run every test in the book on him, and you.
Neither of you picked up anything from that filthy water, which is fucking lucky because need I remind you, you got shot.
Twice.” She nods toward me, and I glance down.
My sheets have fallen and pool at my waist, showing my torso patched in two places with thick, white gauze and tape.
One bullet entered near my shoulder and the other on the far side of my abdomen.
“I’m alive.”
“Yeah,” Valentina scoffs. “But barely. One bullet you can walk off, but two? At least they didn’t aim for the heart or your liver.
Three days I’ve been waiting for you to open your damn eyes.
Raven hasn’t slept, Cassian’s been stuck in a meditation loop as if it can help you, and I had to physically stop Ruslan from kicking down every Irish door until he found where Damian had scurried off to.
“You sat by my bedside?” It’s difficult not to tease, especially since every word out of her mouth is a reminder that I’m alive and well. “Thank you.”
The warmth in my rough voice ends her tirade and a hint of exhaustion slips across her features. “I’m really glad you’re okay.”
“Can’t replace me that easily.” After a few deep breaths that don’t feel particularly painful, I move to get out of bed.
Sitting around is not my thing, and if I’m awake, then it’s time to get back to it.
My foot’s barely on the floor, and Valentina’s on her feet with both hands on my shoulders, carving pain into the flesh with her manicure.
“Don’t you fucking dare.”
“I feel fine.”
“You feel fine because you’re doped up. Get back in bed.”
“Valentina, I can’t just lie around.”
“After what happened, yes the fuck you can.”
“Well, I refuse to.”
“You might be taller and 100 pounds heavier, but I will kick your ass back into this bed if I have to,” she threatens, her eyes flashing with the fury that I adore so much.
“And I will use your injuries against you and then I will add one because you’ll get blood all over my dress. So get your ass back in that bed!”
“But I—”
“No.”
“Can I at least—”
“No.”
“Val—”
“One more word and I’ll gag you.”
“Kinky.” With a tired roll of my eyes, I sink back into bed with her help. Nestling back against the pillows, tiredness suddenly weighs down my eyelids and she flashes me an I told you so glance as she brushes imaginary wrinkles out of her dress.
“Whatever you need to do, I can do it. So tell me.”
“Fine. The four robbers were wearing carnival masks that we already knew from the other robberies, but one of them was a weak link. A woman. She wore the Arlecchino mask for that robbery and she seemed… unsettled. She was crying and didn’t seem to want to shoot me, but she did it anyway.”
“You thinking blackmail?”
“What else would make someone do that?”
“What did she look like?”
“I only got a glimpse. Shorter than me.”
“Everyone is shorter than you.”
“True, but she was by only a couple of inches. Black hair, straight, down to her shoulders. She protected one of the workers at the store, so she might know them.”
“An inside job?” Valentina’s lips purse. “Hmm. Any other details?”
“Other than she had tawny skin, that’s all I saw.”
“Alright. I’ll look into it. You.” She points at me with one long finger. “If I hear you got up while I was away, I’ll come back and break your kneecap, understand?”
Lifting my hand, I gently salute her. “Understood, Ma’am.”
Valentina leans over me and presses a quick, chaste kiss to my forehead and then vanishes from the room, giving me space and time to reorient myself.
Silence falls. Without Valentina to distract me, the girl from before pops back into my mind.
It was only a glimpse before darkness took me, but the sight of her long black hair spilling out of that mask remains fixed in my mind.
She was scared, that much was true. Her trembling hands and the quavering of her voice told me more about her than any word she could have given me in that moment.
If Valentina is right and this is blackmail, there might be more to this than just a random gang stumbling onto the Mafia’s doorstep.
Is it really my place to get involved? The ins and outs of a backwater gang silly enough to stumble onto Damian’s business hardly deserve my help, but after getting shot twice in the chest, I definitely deserve some answers.
Sleep comes not long after Valentina leaves, and I dream of nothing but rushing water, darkness, and occasionally, glimpses of that mysterious woman. Something about her sticks in my mind. Is it her genuine distress over taking my life?
Uncertainty invades my dreams and I’m woken by the sound of the door closing gently behind Frank, who enters the room on tiptoe so as not to disturb me.
“Frank?” I say, rubbing my eye. “What are you doing here?”
Frank looks a little worse for wear, as if the stress has aged him a few years. He flashes me a brief, apologetic smile and moves closer to the chair beside my bed. “Valentina told me you were awake. I had to come and see for myself.”
“I’m glad you came, Frank. Valentina told me everything. Did you really dive into the water after me?”
Frank’s tired face melts with a warm smile. “Well,” he says with teasing in his tone, “you have been paying my gym membership, so it’s only fair that I put it to good use.”
A small rumble of laughter echoes in my chest. “Money well spent, I see. Thank you, Frank. You saved my life.”
Frank brushes me off with a wave of his hand. “I did what anyone would do. I’m just glad you’re okay.”
“Mostly okay,” I reply. “Bored out of my mind. Valentina won’t let me up. She’s threatened to remove my kneecaps if she sees me anywhere outside this room.”
“Can’t say I blame her,” Frank replies, “given your inability to remain resting.”
“Recovery is boring and long and painful,” I reply with a deep sigh. “I’d rather distract myself by getting back on my feet. Especially when the person who shot me is still out there. Do we have any information on the robbers?”
Frank runs his hands across his thighs while nodding.
“Actually, that’s also what I came to tell you.
Given the CCTV footage from the jewelry store, we were finally able to get clear pictures of the masks and with your confirmation that they were carnival masks, it wasn’t hard to start tracking them down.
The Bauta Mask is pretty unique. The others likely come from the same set, but the Bauta mask itself isn’t like what you would get at a regular store. ”
I snort softly. “Given what I saw of the man behind the mask, I’m not surprised he had to get something to match his ego.”
Frank grunts and leans back slowly in the chair until he’s relaxed. “We have a lead on the creator of the masks, at the very least, since it’s clear the twists on the Bauta mask suggest it’s custom-made. From that, we should be able to track down who made the purchase.”
It’s a start, but it’s not enough. I need more. Two bullet wounds’ worth of more.
Frank glances at his watch and then back at me. “Just so you know, I was under strict orders to only give you that information once you get the all-clear from the doc.”
I mask my pain with a small smile. “I won’t tell her if you don’t.”
Frank’s already getting to his feet when the door behind him opens. “I wasn’t lying,” Frank says. “You really do need to get the all-clear.”