Alejandro
“Igot a lead on something that might pan out,” Cristiano says.
I press the phone to my ear and glance at Lucia as she feeds Mia her soup. She’s been weird since yesterday at the restaurant.
“Gimme a second,” I reply.
“Sure.”
I walk over to Lucia. She stares up at me and gives me a smile, but her worried eyes are a tell she’s not okay. Something is definitely up with her, and I can’t figure out what the hell it is. Yesterday was too weird. If she were as okay, as she claims to be, she wouldn’t still look so shaken.
“I’m going to head out. Are you going to be okay?”
“Of course.”
“Alright, I’ve asked Giselle and Delia to help out with Mia if you need them.” This will be her first day on the job by herself. “Of course, call me if you need me, and I’ll come back.”
“Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. I promise.”
“Okay.”
I dip my head, and she reaches up to kiss me, but even her kiss feels weird. Like she’s trying to absorb me and commit the kiss to memory.
I kiss Mia, too, and head to my car, where I put Cristiano on speaker phone.
“I’m all yours,” I tell him.
“You sound real homely with the nanny there, amigo.” He chuckles.
I roll my eyes at him. I’m sure even though he can’t see me, he can imagine my reaction.
“Cristiano, let’s not stray from the problem at hand.”
“I’m not. Just making an observation, that’s all. It’s a nice observation, and for the record, I think she would be good for you. I’ve seen the way you look at her.”
I release a sigh. “She’s a nice girl.” That’s me trying to close the subject. I’m not ready to talk about it yet, not admit more to myself than what I said to Lucia at the beach. I surprised myself then, too. Truthfully, what I feel scares me. It’s something I’ll think about when I can.
If I get the chance.
“Alright, back to business. I located another storage facility Eduardo has some things stored in.”
I straighten. “There’s another one?”
“Yes. It’s in Perus. I’m sending you the address now.”
That’s about an hour away. “How the hell did you find that out?”
“Told you I’d work my magic. I checked out some old papers from the stuff we looked through last week. I had a hunch, and I was right. He got a container under an alias, so clearly, something is there he didn’t want anyone to find.”
“Jesus.” Why the fuck would Eduardo do that?
My brother told me everything, but this feels like something he purposely hid from me.
“I’m on my way there, so we should get there at the same time. As for Carlos, I’ve arranged the funeral for two weeks’ time and some money to be sent to his family and his girl. She’s pregnant, Alejandro.”
Guilt stabs my heart, along with grief. “There’s always something to make everything worse. Thanks for doing that. If you get a number and an address, I’ll make contact, and I’ll make sure they never have to worry about money or anything ever again.”
Carlos mentioned his woman’s grandfather needing treatment for Alzheimer’s. I’ll make sure they have enough money for that, too.