“Christ. Is he alright?”
“Yeah. Lettie patched him up and sent him home.”
Lettie was the cousin of one of our guys, Michael. She’d dropped out of med school right at the finish line. But eventually decided to start her own sort of underground hospital that served us and other criminals like us, the kind of people who needed hospital care, but didn’t want the questions about what had happened to them.
She had her own actual hospital set up, complete with every device and medicine she could ever need. But she also had an ambulance and a staff to help her in emergent situations.
It had been Lettie who’d saved my life during that whole situation with Josie that made Nino feel forever indebted to her.
She was well used to taking care of all of our various injuries.
“Is the guy being handled?” I asked.
“You think Dante was going to let that shit fly?” he asked. “Even without orders from the boss,” Nino said, shrugging. “He will live on,” he added. “But he’s never going to fuck around like that again.”
“Good.”
“Yeah. He’s getting fussed over by ma as we speak. But I expect she’ll be calling you later.”
“I bet she will,” I agreed, keeping the groan out of my voice because the call would be about Santo, not her nagging me about something.
“I will send you any updates if I figure anything else out,” he told me. “Let me know if you come up with a new plan.”
“Will do,” I agreed, nodding, and watching him leave.
Alone, I did go for that drink. And then another. Before, eventually, grabbing dinner and passing out instead of working on my new plan.
I woke up late and a little disoriented, rushing through a shower, then heading back toward Colin’s neck of the woods. Just barely in time to see something I had yet to see.
Cammie walking out of the house.
I was going to go ahead and let myself believe that the gut-punch sensation I got when I saw her had to do with surprise and not a fucking thing else.
She looked as good as I remembered. Even in the kind of hideous light pink collared shirt she had on.
I watched as she followed a guard and one of her brothers toward a car, climbing in the backseat.
As the car powered up and pulled away, her gaze was focused out the window in my direction, and it looked a lot like triumph on her face.
Had she seen me?
No.
I was too hidden.
So what was she so pleased with then? Her outing, maybe.
Curiosity piqued, I waited a second before pulling out and following them back out of the nicer area and back into the rough one where Colin conducted most of his business.
I parked further back when they seemed to be looking for a spot to park on the street, then watched as the whole crew climbed out of the car, walking down the street a bit, then disappearing inside a building.
Not twenty minutes later, both the guard and Cammie’s brother came back out, climbed in the car, and headed out.
That was… weird as fuck.
Where had they left Cammie?
I waited until they were good and gone before turning the car over again and starting to drive down the street full of partially rundown mom-and-pop shops, desperately trying to hold onto their livelihood in a rough economy where a dollar stretched further at a chain store known for their discounts.