Page 32 of Amadeo
He looked over at me and his expression showed his worry. “No, I’m not.”
I wasn't surprised when he told me the cold, hard truth. That was the way he and I were, as friends and as cousins. Truth all the way. It had been like that ever since his dad died and I braved the wild trail to go and talk to him at the lake. “This is all very rough,” I told him. “How about you take a couple of hours and like…take your girl somewhere to talk?”
Tito stared at me. “I have a shift—”
I raised my hand up at him. “Dude, you also have a woman who is really upset. You need to take care of that. I on the other hand…” I paused to look directly over at the doctor. “Don’t have a woman, so I am free to take at least half your shift.”
“Danm, cuz.” He chuckled. “You are always such a nice guy.”
I laughed and again glanced over at the doctor. “Not according to some.”
He followed my gaze and said, “I know and I don’t understand it. Why does she…” He shook his head and didn’t finish his sentence.
“Why does she hate me?” I filled in the blank. “I’m still trying to find that out. Seems I did something so terrible in the past that she won’t even be nice to me, let alone, date me.”
He tucked his head back. “The fuck?” he exclaimed in total surprise. “You, doing something terrible? The Boy Scout, Mr. Nice Guy and possibly the most polite motherfucker of all time?”
I laughed. “Hell, I’m not sure those are compliments, cousin.”
“To me, they are all true. Grazzi for the break.” He smiled then turned to go over to Valencia. Speaking in low tones to her, he then waited.
Pausing, she looked at her sleeping brother then back over at me. Finally, she stood from the chair and allowed Tito to take her to the door. Stopping at my chair, she said to me, “I-I’m sorry.”
I looked down at her and asked, “For what, Valen?”
“Yelling at you and acting…” Her voice fell away.
I took her hand in mine and told her, “This is not easy. I get it. But I do want you to know something. I won’t be hurting him. Only if he gives me no choice and he is not in the shape to even do that. Try to get some rest and I will be watching over him.”
Tears filled her eyes as she nodded and went out the door with Tito.
“He’s leaving?”
I looked over to see Gia standing close by. “Yes, I told him to take a couple of hours and talk to her. Or whatever he needs to do to make her feel better.”
“That would take getting Deacon out of here. He would need to be far, far away,” Gia stated firmly. “Otherwise, she is not going to be feeling better. I saw the look in your father’s eyes. He doesn’t intend to just let him leave here.”
I knew she was right, but the situation was beyond me. “I know that. But I can’t change any of this.”
“Look, I’ve had many cases before this and it's not likely that Deacon will regain all of his memory.”
“Ok, why are you telling me this…” I paused as it came to me.
Nodding, she added, “Now you are getting it. Your dad will kill him for something he probably won’t ever remember doing. He won’t care about Deacon having no memory of his crimes, he will just have him summarily executed.”
I tilted my head at her and my question came out on its own, “If you know that, why do you work for the Mafia?”
She froze and stared at me. Raising her hand, she slapped my cheek.
My head snapped to the side from the force of it and I then looked back at her. “The hell?”
Her dark eyes glittered with those gold flakes and blazed to almost fully gold now. “Why do you work for them?” She seethed.
As my cheek stung, my heart did too. I replied, “I cannot help being born into it.”
This answer made her halt as if she never considered this.
“You weren’t born into it, were you?” I asked her.
