Alessio:
Disappointment itched at me as I stared at the paperwork on my desk. The day before when Leonardo and I went to get coffee, I had been looking forward to seeing Eliana. It was odd that I had started to look forward to exchanging a few sentences with her, that she was becoming the relaxing break in my day. I knew it wouldn't have been much more than a short conversation, but we had gotten a text pulling us back home.
According to Angelo who had spent most of the day in the basement with our prisoner, the Russians had been watching our moves and thought that we were trading information with someone from a cartel. I reached out to an undercover that we had in their ranks, but he wasn't very high up so he couldn't give me details, only that they thought I was passing information and running a front for cash in a local business.
It was even worse that I hadn't gone back to see Eliana by that night after we ran a risk assessment. We had spent all day trying to figure things out and it had gotten to be too late for me to go, they would have been closed. I just told myself that I could always go in the morning.
As I tiredly scrawled my signature across the bottom of a final page, I sat back in my chair and checked my watch. Apparently it was already morning and I had worked through the whole night without realizing it.
If I wanted to go early and be there when they first opened, maximizing the amount of time that I could see her before a rush of real customers pulled her away, I would need to go shower now. There was something that I liked about seeing Eliana in the morning as I got my coffee that I couldn't explain.
Maybe it was the way that she actually smiled when she saw me, like someone could actually be happy to see me, or maybe the way I could talk about something that wasn't work. A movie, or more likely a book or music, which I had learned she liked. An unspoken doubt rested in the back of my mind, leaving me hoping that she wasn't just being kind and conversing out of obligation to a customer. It had to be her real kindness, I convinced myself. No one would let a customer stay after hours and visit with them and accept a ride home out of obligation, would they?
I shook it all from my mind and got ready habitually, reaching for my normal suit and tie. On my way to the garage I sent a text to Leonardo, telling him that I was stepping out for coffee and lemon cake, and I would get enough for everyone at the Capo meeting since we had to postpone it yesterday after the threat had risen.
The anticipation that I was feeling slowly turned to something else as I drove down the street downtown and saw flashing blue and red lights draw nearer. I parked away from the barricades set up on the ends of the street and got out of the car to get closer on foot. I didn't get worried often or ever feel much fear, but even panic started to make an appearance in my gut as I confirmed my worries. Any hope that it was another storefront was completely gone now.
Crossing the barriers was easy if you just walked with authority, and it was so early that the police weren't yet worried about controlling foot traffic. The details of the scene became clearer and only boosted my worry. EMS was there, caution tape roped off the immediate area, and I could see that the front door and one of the windows were completely shattered. A few policemen still meandered around taking notes or discussing things, but I approached one who was standing on her own with a clipboard.
"What happened here?"
She looked up, surprised to see me so close to the scene but seeming unconcerned since I wasn't passing the tape, "It seems like an attempted robbery."
"Was anyone hurt?"
"Two employees, but I really can't talk about details until we know more officially."
I nodded, trying to play it off as a curious bystander, but her words had sent my heart pounding in worry. "This whole neighborhood is going to hell in a handbasket."
Another nearby officer noticed me standing and gave me a knowing nod, "Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to vacate the immediate vicinity and stand behind the barriers. This is an active crime scene."
"Sorry, officer," I conceded as he pointed a few yards away.
He escorted me away, but once we were out of earshot he dropped the ruse. "Sorry about that, boss."
"What do you know, Luca?" I checked back over my shoulder at the storefront, the warm glow in the darkness seemed out of place now.
The officer, one of my men that I payed well who helped me in return when I needed an inside man on the force, shook his head ruefully, "Sorry sir, I wasn't on shift when this happened so I don't know all of the details. At this point we're just processing the scene. It seems like a standard robbery gone wrong, which isn't surprising for the area. It must have happened around closing time."
"The injured employees, who were they?"
He seemed confused with my urgency, but answered without question nonetheless, "A young woman and the owner, I don't know names. According to the guys at shift change, both were taken immediately to the hospital and one was in pretty bad shape."
"Anything else you can give me?"
He looked over his shoulders, knowing that every time we were seen together in public it was at risk of people noticing. Even if we looked like a pair of strangers rights now, it wouldn't be a good idea to let anyone realize we knew each other, and it became obvious to him that if I was willing to risk exposure like this, there had to be some other important meaning.
"Pretty big pool of blood, some broken glass and dishes. The cash was still there, though, so either they got scared off or they heard the police coming and they knew it was better to cut and run than get caught."
"Anything else about the condition of the employees?"
"Sorry, sir. That's all I really know."
I nodded, knowing that him asking too many questions might get suspicious. He couldn't risk drawing attention to himself like that, not if he wanted to continue to be our inside man.
"Nearest hospital is the one on Earhart Avenue, right?"
He nodded, obviously a little confused at my questions and insistent concern, "Yes."
I was about to turn and walk away when he stopped me, "Sir?"
"What, Luca?"
"Could you tell Angleo that if he's going to go for the kill shot at the end and leave the bullet in, that he shouldn't use the stolen cop piece? It's going to draw even more unwanted attention to those cases and it gets harder to write off as a drug connection or gang hit. They'll start investigating that sort of thing, and they'll notice if I keep tampering evidence so obviously."
I nodded, "I'll tell him, but you know Angelo. If he forgets and uses it, he'll have no problem digging it back out."
The officer nodded and tapped his cap, speaking at a normal sound now, "Thank you, you have a good day, too, sir."
I stalked back to my car, already planning my route to the hospital. The worry that simmered in my mind only got worse as I thought about the probabilities. It could have been one of the other female employees, yes, but Eliana seemed to almost be the one closing, and since she seemed to be the one always at the front of the store, a robber would most likely confront her first. And I had a feeling that she wouldn't be the type to back down. The way she nonchalantly had a baseball bat behind the counter told me all that I needed to know.
What were the odds of a robbery actually occurring in the very place I had started to frequent? What was the alternative?
I floored it almost all of the way to the hospital, breaking every single speed limit along the way. This was the same hospital that my men preferred, the same on that we had managed to get Benvolio to when the Russians had shot him. I knew my way around it well, and while no one here explicitly knew what I did for work, they knew the way that the surgeons and doctors treated me, and how often I was here.
When I got to the front desk, they didn't hesitate to tell me which floor I should head to. I just stood there, hands in pockets and glare on full view, "The ambulances brought in a young woman and older man late last night, botched robbery?"
The woman that answered was younger, I had seen her only once or twice so she must have been relatively new, but she still seemed to understand that I was going to get what I wanted. "Last I heard, they were on two for surgery, but unless something went wrong and surgery took much longer than it should have, I would check recovery on three."
I nodded and didn't even wait for the elevators, heading straight for the third floor on the stairs. I didn't even think to ask the nurse about which one had been in surgery, if not both, I had been so focused on seeing it with my own two eyes that my mind wasn't being rational.
The floor was laid out in a circle, with chairs outside of the individual rooms where patients were being treated. As I left the stairwell, my eyes immediately fell on Eliana at the end of the hall. Just seeing her awake and not in a hospital bed was enough to relieve about fifty percent of the tension and anxiety rolling through my body.
She was curled up in a plastic chair that looked extremely uncomfortable, but it didn't seem to faze her in the slightest. Her knees were tucked to her chest and I could see a slight spatter of blood on her dress and tights, but her cardigan was being wrung in her hands, leaving her arms bare and making the stark white color of the bandage against her skin stand out. It was spotted with blood as well, but she wasn't paying attention to it in the slightest.
I took a breath to calm myself. She was alright. Well, at least alright enough to be on her own two feet and not be confined to a heart monitor.
She didn't see me coming, completely preoccupied by her worry and the spot on the wall next to her. I didn't want to scare her out of her reverie, so I said her name quietly, "Eliana?"
She still jumped, then looked even more shocked when she processed who was standing in front of her. "Alessio. What are you doing here?"
"I've got a coworker who's in a room down the hall. I was here visiting him before work when I thought I saw you," I lied easily. Lying was my life, I was good at it and it was a smooth enough explanation that she didn't question it. It helped that Benvolio really was in this very hospital, just on a different floor.
She looked extremely stressed and extremely worried, beyond what I would think since she was outside of a recovery room. I figured that she must be closer to her boss than I had assumed, but every once in a while her eyes would flicker around her setting, looking cautiously and nervously at the hospital walls.
The way she seemed to curl in on her self and hide was creating the inexplicable urge to comfort her, whether it be by holding her hand or wrapping her in my arms completely and whispering to her that everything would be alright. Instead, I opted to crouch in front of her slightly, "Are you alright?"
She nodded wordlessly, but I could see that she must have been crying because her eyes were still rimmed with red. When I looked pointedly at her arm and the bandage on it, she glanced at it, almost surprised, like she had forgotten it was there.
"Oh, that. There was a robbery or something, I got a bullet wound, really just some stitches and a concussion, but Ezrah...." She choked on her words. "Ezrah got the worst of it."
I stood up to settle into the chair next to her. She didn't seem to acknowledge my presence much, but she moved to mirror my posture, uncurling and placing her feet on the floor. Eliana braced her elbows against her knees and buried her face in her hands. "What did the doctors say?"
"They.... They said that they got all of the internal bleeding for now, but they're afraid of hemorrhaging or something else showing up so they're going to have to keep him under observation for a while. They took X-rays, they said they'll tell me when they figure out more."
"Have you gotten to see him at all yet?"
"No, he's resting. They gave him a sedative during surgery and he hasn't woken up yet."
Eliana rubbed her forearms and looked around guardedly, she didn't even seem to want to make eye contact with me. She seemed nervous, not just worried. I had never seen her so agitated and she started pulling on a pendant around her neck. "What else is bothering you?"
She looked like a deer in the headlights, caught in a lie or unwilling to answer the question. She seemed to hedge at the question entirely. "No- Well, I mean.... I just really hate hospitals."
"I've never been too fond of them either," I confessed, hoping that it might ease her mind.
I didn't know too many people other than doctors that actively enjoyed them, but she shook her head like I was missing something, "No, I really, just really hate hospitals."
Her breathing was shallow and she seemed twitchy, her eyes flickering around the room like she wasn't just anxious about the results of her boss' tests, but like she was looking for someone or something.
It was clear to me that she would rather be anywhere else, but she wasn't going to make that choice on her own. "Eliana, why don't you let me take you home?".
"I'm.... I'm his emergency contact, I can't leave right now," She shook slightly. "I want to be here when he wakes up, I'm all that he has."
I called out to a nurse as she walked by, "Ma'am, how long does a post surgery sedative last?"
"It depends. For him," She gestured to the door behind us, "He'll probably wake up in 5-6 hours."
"Thank you," I nodded and she went on her way. "Eliana, he won't be awake for a while. There's more than enough time for me to drive you home so that you can shower and change clothes. I'll bring you right back afterwards."
"What if he wakes up early?"
"He won't, but if he does, I'll take you back immediately."
"Don't you have work today?" She worried.
I lied easily, "No, I was taking the day off."
"I don't want to ruin your plans for your free-"
"Eliana," I insisted, setting my hand on her spine between her shoulders. "It's going to be alright, let me take you home."
She bit her lips and chewed her cheek in worry, but she eventually nodded. Keeping my hand on her upper back, I walked alongside her to the exit and then my car. It was obvious that she was wrapped up in her thoughts, even as I pulled open the door and she half collapsed into the passenger seat.
As I started the engine, I noticed that she was more at ease, just by leaving the hospital and its scrubbed white walls. She was obviously still worried, but she wasn't anxious.
Eliana looked at me, "Do you remember how to....."
She trailed off, but I knew what she meant and I nodded, "5th street."
The car was filled with silence, but that wasn't anything that made me uncomfortable. I was used to that pensive and quiet solitude where you were in your own mind, but still around other people, it was what filled my work most of the time. It did make me feel a little bit more at ease that at least Eliana was sitting in her silence with someone else, not alone in a hospital in the early hours of the morning.
It wasn't a terribly long distance to her apartment, but I knew she had to be exhausted and emotionally worn out, because multiple times I saw her suppress a yawn or rub at her eyes. She had to be fighting to stay awake, but it was obvious she wasn't going to give in.
When I got to the street, she seemed to come out of her stupor, "Actually, um, my apartment is around back."
I didn't question it or why she had me drop her off there before, because I was almost positive that it was her attempt to be cautious when we didn't know each other at first. Eliana wasn't stupid, and I needed to give her more credit. She was street smart and cautious.
I followed her instructions before parking, at which point I looked over at her. She didn't have her backpack that she almost always carried, it was probably still at the coffee shop, forgotten in all of the haste. She merely gripped her cardigan, clutching it like a lifeline even though is was ripped and stained beyond repair.
I raised an eyebrow, not wanting to frighten her or cross a boundary, but also not really wanting to leave her alone in such a fragile state. I had promised to take her back as well, so I decided to leave it up to her, "Would you like some company?"
Eliana didn't really hesitate as she nodded, "If you don't mind... after last night I would prefer not to be alone.... My apartment is sort of a mess, though. I'm going to apologize in advance."
She gave me a semblance of a smile, the first I had seen since I had found her this morning, and it was surprisingly comforting to know that she was still herself, just tense. It was a relief to see her smile, a huge weight off my shoulders. "It's fine, I'm not the most organized person all of the time, either."
It didn't take me long to realize what Eliana meant. Once we had climbed the stairs up to her apartment, past doors that seemed to hide barking dogs and yelling voices, it became clear that this wasn't the safest or fanciest place. It was downtown in a not so great part of the city, so I didn't know what I expected, but I knew from our conversations that she was in school and working, so it was probably what she could afford. The lock didn't even seem to be secure, which was a good thing in this instance since she didn't have her keys or backpack, and she was able to jiggle the deadbolt with a hair pin. Once I followed her through the front door, stepping inside, I understood her statement.
It wasn't messy at all- in fact it was immaculately clean, there just wasn't a lot there. Frankly, it seemed like someone living on an extremely tight budget who didn't have the time or money to personalize it much, but what she did have, she kept clean and organized. A couple pieces of furniture, some textbooks stacked on what looked to be repurposed shipping pallets. When she had warned me, I had expected food out and things scattered everywhere, but it was clean and well kept, unlike the outside. She must have put some effort into repairs and upkeep. It even smelled like her, something slightly floral mixed with chocolate.
"Sorry, it's not the nicest...." She apologized again, but I gave her a grin as I caught sight of her makeshift bookshelf and what sat on the top.
For someone who didn't have money to decorate, she seemed to have made do with little things she could get her hands on. In this case, small origami animals that she had set in a row. Some of them were complex or made with colorful paper, others looked simple and made out of boredom with receipt paper. It was surprisingly reflective of her personality, she seemed like the type of person who was resourceful and made something out of whatever she could. She was adaptable.
I couldn't help but chuckle at them, "This is great."
I caught a small smile from her in return. She stepped towards the countertop that made up most of her kitchen, holding up her sweater and examining it. She sighed, seeming to realize that she couldn't salvage it, and threw it into the trashcan.
She gave me another apologetic look, "Do you mind if I take a shower real fast? I've still got some blood and stuff on me."
"Not at all." I noticed the kettle sitting by the stove, "Would you like me to heat you some water for tea or something like that?"
Eliana nodded as her stomach growled, "That would be great, thank you. Feel free to make some for yourself, too."
As she walked towards her bathroom, grabbing a change of clothes as she went, I called after her, "Don't forget to keep the stitches as dry as possible."
She held up a washcloth with a knowing smirk, "Got it covered."
Eliana closed the door behind her and I put the kettle on. I felt a little odd rummaging through her cabinets, but I eventually found the bags of tea tucked in a corner. As it heated and I heard the water running, I leaned against the counter and took in more of the apartment. A couple walls had drawings or paintings on them, they looked done by hand so I could only assume that she had done them. Remembering that she had to mess with the lock on the front door to get it to close completely, I went back to take a closer look.
It inspired more worry than I thought it would to notice that the deadbolt was very loose, and it could easily be jimmied. I frowned. I didn't have the tools to fix it, but I needed to remember to offer. She was probably capable on her own, but hadn't found the time. I skipped looking in her room, not wanting to invade her personal space, and wound up back in the kitchen. With the water still running, I took the chance to pull my phone from my pocket and text Leonardo that I wouldn't be at work for at least the morning, if not more of the day. He replied immediately, letting me know that he understood. He didn't ask any questions, but I knew he was curious as to why I, after not taking a day off for years, was doing so without a warning on the day of an important meeting.
There was no way that she had eaten since the incident and I knew she was hungry, so I opened her fridge to see if there was something that I could fix her. I was shocked to see only a couple pieces of fruit and a carton of eggs, did Eliana not ever eat? There wasn't a pantry either, and from my searching for the tea I knew that she didn't have much other than bread in the cabinets either.
I settled on slicing up an apple, frying an egg, and making her some toast. It wasn't a grand breakfast that she deserved after her ordeal, but it was what I could find. I heard the water shut off as I poured the hot water into mugs for us. It was only a moment until she stepped into the kitchen, clad in leggings, fuzzy socks, and a loose tank top that assumed she chose because it wouldn't bother her stitches. It was getting to be too cold to wear that out with the recent freezing temperatures, she would need a sweatshirt when I took her back.
Now that Eliana had showered, I could see that there was a bruise forming on her forehead, which must have been the source of her concussion. Her wet hair and casual clothes gave her an entirely different look than I had ever seen, but it wasn't bad, it was just more at ease.
I pushed the plate towards her, "You need to eat. Your tea will be done steeping in a moment."
She looked surprised, but took a small bite out of the toast nonetheless. "Thank you very much. Would you like some?"
I shook my head, knowing that she needed to eat plenty of calories if she was going to keep up her energy. She took part of the apple in her shay fingers next, then looked up at me, curious, "So, football or hockey?"
"What's that now?" I stared at her, surprised by the unexpected question.
"Your comment earlier about stitches and not getting them wet sounds like you have a lot of first hand experience. I figured it must have been a pretty full contact sport, so I guessed."
I chuckled at her logic. It was my job that taught me so much about stitches, the amount of time that I had acquired wounds that deep and bullets in my body had exceeded my ability to count. I wasn't about to explain that, however, and I lied instead, "Basketball, actually. I was just a very aggressive player."
Eliana raised an eyebrow, "You're definitely tall enough for it."
I was over six feet, which I must have gotten from my father's side, because my mother was slight. Without her shoes on, Eliana came to a little above my chin, and she usually seemed to be wearing something with a slight heel on it.
"What about you?" I raised my tea to my own lips, gulping down the warmth as I realized that I had indeed become cold. The heating in her apartment was obviously not working as well as it should have been, and I hoped that she was being smart about bundling up at night when the temperatures dropped even further. "Any sports in your younger years?"
Eliana took her final bite of toast and looked down, but I caught a slight frown that surprised me. "A couple here and there, for a while I was with.... Um, you know how it is, parents always want you to try different things."
I nodded, understanding what it was like to have high expectations from parental figures. For some reason, something else seemed to be bothering her and I doubted it was that simple, but I decided to let it pass. Now was not the time to pry.
"Would you like to take a nap and get some rest before you head back?"
She shook her head, "I don't think I want to be away much longer."
"Eliana, you've still got a couple hours before waking up is even a possibility for Ezrah. I highly doubt that you've gotten any sleep since last night, have you? Did you rest at all at the hospital?"
"No, I didn't really have time. The cops came to get my statement and then I had to sit with a sketch artist to describe the guys who broke in."
"It was multiple?"
"Yeah," A shiver ran down her spine. "Two blonde guys. Weird accents."
I stared at her, trying to calm my nerves. That was an all too familiar description to me, but I didn't want to jump to conclusions until I had more information. As she leaned against the counter, obviously exhausted, I inched closer, trying to provide some comfort. "Would you like to talk about it?"
She shrugged, but she continued like she just wanted to say it and get it out. "I was in Ezrah's office and I heard something break, I thought he had just dropped something, you know? When I went out there, they had already broken in through the front door and Ezrah.... I should have been up there with him, you know? I know I had to close up at some point, but if I had just been there, maybe they wouldn't have tried if they saw two of us?"
Eliana shook her head as if to clear it and push back the tears in her eyes, "It didn't make sense anyways, they didn't even ask for money, they wanted our computers and records, I don't understand any of it."
Her words only made me think that my suspicions were right. The Russians had thought we were laundering money through a storefront, they may have assumed it was Eliana's because I had been stopping by consistently. I didn't want to stop going, but if it meant they wouldn't attack there again, it might be worth it. I shoved that thought from my mind until later. At that moment, all I had was anger. I wanted to get back home immediately, to have Leonardo help me look through the whole thing and see if I was right.
"Are you sure that you really want to go back, then? You could rest here, I'll take you back later."
"I'd really like to go now. I've always had a knack for being able to sleep anywhere, I can rest there if I really need to. I'm just going to throw a change of clothes into a bag to take with me just in case. Is that alright?"
"Of course, take your time. I'm in no rush."
She knocked back the rest of her tea almost like it was a shot, then hurried back to her room. Based on her behavior so far I could tell that she was the type of person who was always worried about inconveniencing others, it was interesting to me to learn that about her. She seemed so fiercely independent and stubborn that I hadn't expected it, but maybe it was all tied together.
It didn't take her more than a couple of minutes to throw clothes and her overnight things into an old and slightly torn backpack along with her laptop, but she stepped back into the kitchen with a hoodie in her hands, "I'm sorry to ask, Alessio, but could you help me get this on? It's freezing out there and it hurts to pull my stitches that way."
I chuckled, setting down my now empty mug and helping her tug the fabric over her head. "You know, they should be able to give you some painkillers at the hospital if you ask."
She averted her eyes again as she reached for her backpack with her good arm, "I try not to take a lot of medicine or drugs usually."
I frowned and helped her untangled her still damp hair from the collar of her jacket, "You might want to make an exception this time."
She nodded but said nothing, and I had the feeling that there was something more there to dissect. The more that I learned about this girl, the less I felt that I knew about her. I tugged the bag from her grip and pulled it over my shoulder, giving her a look that said not to protest.
Eliana locked the weak bolt behind us and tugged her hands into her sleeves as we headed back to my car. As I started to drive, she saw the sunrise in full effect, smiled slightly, then swore. "Alessio, would you be bothered if I made a phone call really fast?"
"Of course not. Would you like to borrow my phone, or-"
"Oh no, nothing like that, I just didn't want to be rude or make you think I was ignoring you," She explained as she pulled out her phone.
While I drove, she called a couple of people, from what I gathered they were employees that she was telling not to come into work that day. She explained the basics, that there had been an accident and they wouldn't be open, but not much more than that. It took most of the ride there, but when we arrived she just gripped her backpack, "Thank you for the ride. If you want to just drop me off, you can."
I shook my head decisively. "I'll walk you back up, it's not far."
"You really don't have to."
"I can stop by and see that friend on my way out again, it's no bother."
She nodded, already seeming more fidgety just from being in the vicinity of the hospital. As we walked back in together I could tell it was getting worse, she had pulled her hands back into her sleeves once again and was wringing the fabric. I could only conclude that she had to love Ezrah very much for her desire to be there when he woke up to override her hatred of this place.
I made sure that she was situated back in her chair before I even thought about leaving her there on her own. Ignoring the desire to stay and keep her company, I knew that she just wanted space to think and process what had happened. Instead, I stole a post-it from the nurses station, scribbled my personal cell phone number on it, and folded the paper in half.
I crouched in front of Eliana again, offering it to her. "This is my number. If you need anything at all, a ride home or someone to talk to, literally anything at all, give me a call."
Her nod and smile were refreshing and brilliant enough to make me want to stay there with her all day, but the gratefulness in her voice at her next words was disarming. "Thank you, Alessio. Thank you so much. I will."
Tearing myself away from her was a challenge. I wanted to know that she would be alright, both mentally and physically. If I was right about the Russians and they still had her in their sights, I would find a way to make sure that they didn't get to her again.
I left the hospital with anger slowly becoming dominant again. When I was around Eliana, it took a backseat to my concern for her, but now it was appearing untamed. As soon as I got back to the house, I was going to figure out exactly what was going on.
Hello everyone! I hope that you've all had a great week! I tried to make this chapter extra long for y'all, and I'm going to try to update in a week's time, but just in case I can't get to it, I wanted to leave you a nice long one to tide you over. I'm taking the GRE (a pretty big test needed for grad school) this week and I may run low on time. I should have been studying a lot more over the past month..... but you know, distractions. Anyways, please vote or comment, I'd love to hear from you, and if you know people with like-minded taste in reading, please recommend this to them!
Thank you all-
Elizabeth