Chapter Seven
Sailor
It wasn't until the next day that I no longer felt like I’d vomit every time I shifted my head, and then I went to the staff lounge to pull a clean pair of scrubs out of my locker. I wasn't willing to walk around the hospital in an open-backed gown, showing off for my coworkers.
Thankfully, Benito was awake when I knocked on his open door. I wasn’t entirely surprised to see he had a private room; thankfully, the woman I was sharing with mostly slept.
“Ah, cara mio!” he exclaimed when I walked in.
Crossing the room to his bed, I said, “You’ve never spoken Italian to me before.”
“You’re basically a member of the family at this point.” He smiled broadly, and I was relieved to see he looked about the same as yesterday. Though I would have preferred some improvement, it was better than a setback.
Bringing the visitor’s chair over, I sat beside him. “I appreciate that.”
“You’re better, aren’t you?” he asked, tilting his head as he examined me.
“Still tender.” Without conscious thought, I ran my fingertips over the lump on my temple. “But not dizzy or nauseous anymore.”
“That’s so good to hear. Charles has some mild bruising around his ribcage, but they told him nothing was fractured.”
I didn't want to ask, but neither did I want to be rude. “And Noah?”
“His shoulder is sore, and he has a nasty bruise on his arm. Thank God Vicki and Giovanni were out of the house. Bad enough to have as many people there as we did.”
I had to bite my tongue not to ask what had happened. After the news I overheard a few days ago, I wondered if it was something more serious than the plane crash Noah tried to sell me.
“Vicki was beside herself when she heard I was back in the hospital. She visited last night and again this morning. Don't tell my doctor, but she brought me waffles for breakfast.”
Suppressing a smile, I said, “There’s nothing wrong with that.”
He patted my knee. “Have you had any visitors?”
I looked past him to the narrow window. “No.”
“That’s a shame. Does your family live far away?”
Swallowing down the surge of emotions, I replied, “They’re dead.”
“Oh, dear. I had that impression, but I wasn't sure. I’m sorry for bringing it up.”
Looking into his kind eyes, I felt that tightening in my chest again. “It was a long time ago.”
“Surely you have friends who would like to stop by?”
I shook my head, rubbing my fists over my eyes to thwart the stinging tears.
“Don’t fret, Sailor. I’ll be your friend.”
I clutched at his hand. “Thank you.”
Why did he feel so much like a father figure to me when I hardly knew him? Why was a hardened criminal such a kind man? If I was going to continue with my mission, I needed it to make sense, and I needed to harden my affection.
“How do you think two old friends should pass the time?” he asked gently.
“Here, I brought a deck of cards from the nurse’s station.” Pulling them from my pocket, I set them on his rolling table and brought it closer. “What card games do you know?”
“Probably all of them,” he responded with a snicker. “Better question would be which ones do you know?”
“How about gin rummy?”
“You’re on.”
After a few minutes of gameplay, it was obvious he was willing to cheat to win. “You can’t play an ace after a king!”
“Of course I can! Jack, Queen, King, Ace!”
“Aces are low.” Shaking my head, I found myself unable to be mad at him. “You’re such a cheater.”
He tried to look stern, but his smile was infectiously large. “But you ended up with more points than me, so it evens out.”
“That’s because cheaters never win.”
With an exaggerated sigh, he said, “Fine, I’ll concede to your blasted ethics.”
Benito’s playfulness made me laugh, and for a while, I forgot all about not having anyone real in my life. When we’d played to a hundred points and he’d beat me mostly fair and square, we turned on the TV to find 3:10 to Yuma playing.
“Have you seen it?” he asked me.
“No, I haven’t. Westerns aren't usually my thing.”
He settled back against his pillow, and I adjusted the chair so my shoulder was supported by the edge of his bed. It was an interesting movie, but the genre wasn't really my thing, and it didn't take long for my eyelids to droop.
“You let her lay in your bed?”
It was Noah’s low voice, and he sounded annoyed. Embarrassment flooded through me at the thought I’d ended up on Benito’s bed, and my face flushed.
“What should I have done? She fell asleep watching the movie and sort of toppled over from the chair.”
“Whatever.”
Since they thought I was sleeping, I figured it would serve me well to keep up the pretense. I heard the rustle of Noah’s clothing as he passed by the bed.
“You wouldn't believe the state of the house. The entire second floor collapsed on top of the first. Hardly anything is salvageable.”
“I trust you stayed in a hotel last night?” Benito said quietly from beside me.
“Yes, and Vicki is staying at Gio’s.” Noah sighed. “I believe it was a drone I heard at the last minute, and it dropped some sort of missile. They must not have wanted us dead, or they would have simply incinerated us.”
“Have you found any evidence?”
“Barrett and Brennan are doing their thing. They found a few fragments of whatever detonated, but not enough to determine the manufacturer yet.”
I felt Benito lean forward. “Who the fuck is doing this to us?”
“I’d love to know the same. We haven't targeted anyone in years, Dad. We've kept our noses out of everyone else’s business since Mom died and we made our peace pact with the other families.”
“That guard never would tell us who he was working with,” Benito said, and his voice sounded strained. “No matter how hard I tortured him.”
“I suspected the Russos at the time, but I think the Lombardis actually have more of an issue with us.”
“Why would they feel the need to interfere with our arms deals? They have their drug deals going on, and they don’t push their shit to the Chinese. We’re not in competition."
My face burned even hotter, and I realized something that should have been quite obvious sooner.
When you dig through the dark, you’ll only find dark things.
The mob was operating right under our noses and was somehow smart enough not to get caught.
They operated in the shadows, their dealings never being brought to the light.
At least two names—other than the Costas—had been thrown out there in the past minute, and I didn't know what to do with that knowledge.
I had no doubt the feds already knew who else ran the city, but I was still expected to divulge any information I overheard while on my search.
And then I suddenly realized the Costas were speaking candidly without worrying about whether I was in the room.
Sure, they thought I was asleep, but they hadn't bothered to check. No way they thought they could trust me enough to speak openly about what they actually did for a living, but they’d relaxed around me. Noah no longer hated my guts.
One thing was for certain: I couldn't turn them in after this. I couldn't metaphorically blow up what was left of their lives after they’d been literally blown up twice.
I simply couldn't.
“I don’t know, Dad,” Noah said, and he sounded as frustrated as I would expect. “At least you’re here where I know you’re safe.”
“This one has made sure I’m not being mistreated by Dr. Webster. I confirmed she’s an orphan, by the way.”
The sound of Noah pacing stopped. “What bearing does that have on us?”
“None, except to tell you I was right. Each time I’d try to ask about her family, she’d grow awkward and start to deflect. You know I’m sympathetic to someone who lost a family member.”
“I know,” Noah whispered. “It was awful when Mom died, especially knowing it was my fault it happened.”
“That shame lies on my head, son, not yours.”
“I was the one who did it. They wanted revenge against me.”
“At my orders,” Benito snapped, then lowered his voice. “The onus is on me.”
“Regardless of where we put the blame, she’s still gone.”
“And we know what it feels like to have someone we love taken from us. I’m just saying we have more in common with the good doctor than you might think.”
Noah sighed, and I pictured him running his hands through his hair. “I will admit I was wrong about her. She’s done an excellent job with you, and she’s gone to bat with her coworkers to ensure you have the best doctors while you’re here under someone else’s care.”
“See, was that so hard?”
Noah scoffed. “Not only does she not have family, but the nurses here talk shit about her. They don’t even try to hide their dislike.”
The bed shifted under Benito’s weight. “That’s just cruel.”
I figured that was my cue to ‘wake up.’ I didn't want them to continue talking about me; it was too embarrassing. Yawning, I stretched and sat up, blinking for real in the bright lights and avoiding Noah’s sharp gaze. “Did I fall asleep?”
Benito patted my shoulder. “It’s alright, dear, you’ve been through an ordeal.”
“I didn't mean to end up on your bed.”
“I know.” He chuckled. “You went over like a house of cards, and I didn't have the heart to disturb you.”
I rotated my neck to get the kinks out. “Sorry, I guess the movie wasn't as interesting as I thought.”
“Do you know when they’ll discharge you?” Noah asked.
He was probably hoping to get a break from me. Folding my hands together in my lap, I lifted my chin to look into his eyes. “As long as my scans come back clear today, then most likely they'll release me in the morning after rounds.”
“My father will be staying at the Ritz-Carlton once he’s discharged. I’ve booked you an adjoining suite.”
My jaw dropped open, and I shook my head vigorously until it hurt enough that I had to stop. “No, absolutely not.”
“Cara—”
“No!” I yelled, interrupting Benito and standing abruptly. “I have an apartment in the city, and I’ll be happy to continue looking in on him every day as I’ve been doing.”
“It’s no hardship on me to do something nice—”
“Money is no object for you, I get it.” Tears threatened to drown me, and I couldn't catch my breath. “But you won’t be spending a dime of it on me.”
Blindly stumbling for the door, I heard both men calling my name from behind me. I couldn't turn back; my betrayal went too deep. They’d never forgive me if they knew the deal I’d made. If they knew what I planned to do to them.
They certainly wouldn't be using terms of endearment on me and dropping a wad of cash on one of the most expensive hotels in the city for me. It wasn’t my home that was bombed, and I wasn't the one who’d been displaced.
I was a traitor. A snitch. The very person they’d find a cruelly constructive way to kill if they ever found out the truth.
And I would deserve it one thousand percent.
I felt his hand on my arm seconds before I heard my name coming out of Noah's mouth. He sounded confused.
“Please drop it, Noah.”
He followed me down the hall, and heads turned to watch us go. “What did I do wrong?”
“It’s too generous,” I whispered, hoping my stupid fucking coworkers would all fall into a giant crater that would spontaneously open up in the earth. I wasn't trying to make more of a spectacle of myself.
“I only meant it as a kind gesture, sort of like an apology for you coming so close to dying in my house.”
We neared my room, and I had to stop short. Once again, the nurses were in there talking shit about me.
“—seen them? They cover most of her stomach.”
I burst into the room, fed up with them and Noah and the entire world. “I get that I’m a bitch 9/10ths of the time, especially when I think you’ve made a mistake, but just for once, can you stop talking about me like I don't have any feelings?”
The two women had jumped when I came in, and they stood there with clean linens in their hands and stunned expressions on their faces.
The other patient was out of the room, and they'd used the opportunity to make the beds. Always, always, I’d ignored them and not given them the satisfaction of knowing they got under my skin.
Not today.
“Dr. Wentworth,” one of them began.
But Noah cut her off. “Names, now.”
“Excuse me,” the other nurse said. “That’s none of your business.”
“It is now. I’ll be speaking with Dr. Hogan before I leave here today.”
The stammering began, but I was over it. They didn't care about me; they cared about being reprimanded by our Chief Medical Officer.
“Don’t worry, I can give that information to you,” I told him.
“Out.” Noah jerked his head toward the door, and the women dropped the pillow cases on my bed before scurrying out.
“You can leave too.” Feeling unbearably weary, I sank onto the partially made bed. “I’ll make sure to check in with Benito before we’re both discharged.”
“Sailor.”
His voice was warm, kind. I didn't deserve it.
“Please, Noah, just leave.”
I couldn't withstand one more second of the look of pity in his eyes.