Enzo tips his chin in his associate's direction. “Nathaniel’s dripping blood by the front door. Got anything for me to clean it with?”
“Don’t worry about it. Tell me what happened,” I say, unlocking the door.
Once inside, I shrug into a scrub shirt and wash my hands before putting on sterile gloves and gesturing for Nathaniel to sit.
Expecting to find a bullet hole or a deep stab wound, I remove the rag and toss it into the open trash can to assess the injury. What I find beneath the rag immediately irritates me.
“This is hardly an emergency,” I bark over my shoulder at Lorenzo, who’s leaning with his arms crossed against the wall behind me.
Grasping Nathaniel’s bicep tightly, I look over the gunshot wound, turning his arm so I can see it in all directions. “It’s hardly a graze.”
“I wasshot,” Nathaniel stresses.
Enzo pushes off the wall and comes to look at it. Our eyes meet, words silently exchanged so we don’t have to speak them aloud.
It could have been worse.
It shouldn’t have happenedat all.
It’s already stopped bleeding since we’ve come inside, which is a good sign. “What happened?” I ask again, walking to my cabinet to grab supplies.
“Intel gone wrong,” Enzo says, his tone clipped.
“Intel on what?”
“Just a business situation,” he snaps, and I take note of his annoyance.
“Don’t be so casual about it, man,” Nathaniel interjects. “Fuckin’ Paladino assholes shot at us!”
My head snaps over to Enzo. “Paladino? Enzo, what are you doing starting a war with the Paladinos?”
“I’m not startinganything, cousin. I’m just gathering information. Seeing what they’re up to.”
“If Papà finds out?—”
“He won’t.”
“But he will, and when he does?—”
“He won’t find out, Sly. I have it handled.”
“Theyshotat you.”
“It’s fine, we were just spotted this time and?—”
“IT COULD BE YOU ON MY TABLE RIGHT NOW,” I scream, losing all control, my sense of level-headedness completely gone. “Or worse, Lorenzo. You could be dead. And for what?Information?”
“I’m going to bring them down, Sly. If it's the last thing I do, the Paladinos will get what's coming to them. Maurizio will pay for what he did to my father.”
“Then do it right. Talk to my father, come up with a plan together. Take them down therightway.”
“Where’s the fun in that?” Nathaniel chimes in.
Glaring at him, I squeeze the tape on his dressing unnecessarily hard as I adhere it to his skin. “Says the man on my table whose skin looks green from the mere sight of blood. I’d choose your next words carefully, amico mio, or next time I might not be as generous with my time and resources.”
He swallows, recognizing the look in my eye. Nodding once, he hops off my table since we’re finished. “Thank you. I appreciate it, man.”
Ignoring him, my eyes connect with my cousin’s. “Do things the right way, Lorenzo. Tell him of your plans, or I will. He will help. Healwayshelps.”
