She’s My Queen

11. Like a kitten

11

LIKE A KITTEN

SEVERIO

T he nurses try to make me more comfortable on the couch that serves as my recovery bed. They’re fussing over pillow placement while Dr. Tru calls someone to schedule the care staff for me. But he hangs up and shakes his head. “I’ll find you a nurse from Sicily,” he says. “But if I do that, can she or he stay with you in the spare bedroom?”

Before I answer, one of the nurses, Nedda, I think her name is, volunteers.

“I can come by after my shift,” she says.

Dr. Tru glances at me before approving her request.

I shrug. Normally, I’d request someone from the Order, but seeing as how I’m dealing with a possible traitor in the ranks, I nod, allowing a bird access to me.

“How long will I need care?” I ask.

“Two, possibly four weeks,” he says.

“You have five days.”

“You will need physical therapy,” he says.

“Find me a therapist who’ll show me what to do on a video call.”

“You’ll still need someone to help you.”

Corrado chooses that moment to come out of the bedroom. I glare, letting him know I’m displeased that he was in there in the first place.

He ignores the glare and tells Dr. Tru, “I’ll be here.”

“You have no idea what we’re talking about,” I tell him.

Corrado stands at the foot of the bed/couch, hands on his hips, a mean expression on his face. I’d hate to be the assassin who missed me. Corrado’ll make it his mission to find the person responsible and bring him to me. I look forward to it.

“How is she?” I ask him.

Surprised, he widens his eyes. “She’s not been shot.”

I know my brother better than he knows himself, so I’m sure he’s interrogated her and maybe even threatened her life. She’s innocent, terrified, and if she didn’t despise me before I got shot, she’ll certainly despise me now.

“What’s she doing in there?” I ask.

“I drew her a bath.” Corrado narrows his eyes. He’s testing me, seeing how I’ll react with regards to him and her in the bathroom alone, not to mention alone while she gets into a bath.

Deception is a game at which I am a champion, and my mask doesn’t crack. “Good.”

Corrado snorts, then turns to Dr. Tru. “Thank you. Let yourself out if you’re done.”

Dr. Tru repeats what he told me to Corrado as if I’m a toddler who needs his daddy to care for him, when the truth is I haven’t needed anyone to care for me since my toddler years. Okay, maybe not toddler, but close enough.

My mother died of breast cancer when Paulina and I were eighteen months old. If she hadn’t, she would have left my dad the way all the other women did before and after my mother. He couldn’t keep a woman to save his life.

Once, I asked him why they all abandoned us. He said some of us are meant to walk this life alone. Since I shared a womb with Paulina, she’ll always be the other part of me, but I get what my dad was telling me. He told me that one day, when I inherit the Order from him, it’s for the best I remain single. Alone.

As I grew older, I found I actually prefer solitude to relationships. It’s not the people I dislike. I like people, but I’ve never been interested enough in a woman to want to share my life with her. This life I lead isn’t for everyone. She would have to be carefully selected, be someone I connect with, someone I enjoy spending time with, someone I miss when I travel for work.

The medical staff leaves, and Corrado walks to the bar. He pours himself a whiskey, neat.

I check the clock. “It’s a little early for hard liquor. I’ll have one too.”

“You’re on the meds,” he says.

I extend my hand.

With a heavy sigh, he deposits a scotch onto my palm.

“How did you know I want scotch?” I don’t, but he’s passive-aggressive when he can’t be just aggressive and tell me what to do. I’m the only person in the world Corrado listens to. Correction. I used to be. Now he’s married to a kind woman who asks little of him, thus making him want to give her the whole world.

Secretly, I wish he never married. Now I have all these vulnerabilities I must shield and protect. “Have the women departed yet?”

Corrado nods. “Paulina wouldn’t leave without you. I had to sedate her.”

“You’ll never hear the end of that.”

He shrugs and moves the love seat to face me when he sits, elbows on his knees, gaze on the floor. “She’ll forgive me.”

My brother is a ruthless man. We make a great team, which is why we must split up.

Since beating around the bush and avoiding conflict isn’t my style, I ask him, “When is your flight?”

He lifts his head. “We’re leaving together.”

“You know we can’t stay at the same place. Not after the attempt on my life.” Paulina, Corrado, and I make up the Head of the Serpentine Order. I don’t want us all in the same place at the same time after what happened this morning.

“You can’t think I’d leave you here.”

“Yet, that’s what you’ll do.”

Corrado chuckles and changes the subject. “Who did it?”

I scrub my face. “Someone who wanted Gio dead.”

“Gio plus you.”

I sip the scotch. “When we came, we disrupted the flow of trafficking. I’d look there first.” Before I arrived, my people had already gone through all of Gio’s files and finances. There’s nothing there that would’ve told us about this attempt. “Gio was supposed to skip town last night.”

Corrado tilts his head. “How do you know this?”

I jerk my head toward the bedroom. “Cristina told me.”

“It’s a little unusual that she’s so open with you about Gio, don’t you think?”

“It’s the fear. She wants to prove she’s innocent of any wrongdoing.”

“I don’t believe her,” Corrado says, ever the skeptic.

“Then you’ve learned nothing from your benevolent wife.”

“My wife is an angel.” He smiles, all full of himself for snatching a trophy wife. She’s pretty, I’ll give him that.

Speaking of angels (or devils), the door opens, and Cristina walks out, wearing another one of my shirts. Since she’s five and a few inches to my six foot five, the shirt looks like a dress on her. Barefoot, she lingers by the door. “Sorry, didn’t mean to disturb.”

“It’s good timing,” Corrado says. “Come here.”

My instincts prickle at how he’s commanding her.

When she approaches, she looks around for a place to sit. I open my mouth to tell her she can sit at the foot of my bed, but Corrado scoots over on the love seat. He taps the empty space next to him while watching me.

My mask holds as Cristina, reluctantly, sits down.

“Do you want some coffee?” he asks her, a picture of politeness.

She shakes her head. “I don’t think I should have caffeine.”

“Water?” he probes.

I suppress an eye roll.

“No, thank you.” She sits as far away as possible from Corrado and scratches the fresh dressing over her tattoo. I’m happy to see she’s listening to Gordon and is taking care of her Order marking.

Corrado’s gaze follows her movement. “You could’ve shown me the tattoo before covering it.”

“I was naked in the bathroom, suffering from the aftershocks of being shot at, so excuse me for not thinking about the stupid tattoo.”

I smile wide.

Corrado narrows his eyes. “Listen here, little girl. You’ll show?—”

“Corrado,” I interrupt him. “Who are you talking to?”

Corrado leans back, smirking. He downs his whiskey. He got me. I couldn’t stand how he spoke to her. If she was nobody to me, I wouldn’t give her the time of day.

My brother senses something about me is different when it comes to her, but I don’t want him or anyone else ever knowing what. The game of deception is more challenging to play with Corrado, who knows most of my moves. Hence, he dangled the bait, bringing her near him after a bath and provoking me by being rude. I took his bait.

Before I get a chance to circle around this conversation, Cristina answers. “I can handle rude men. I don’t need a babysitter.”

Corrado chuckles. “You’re feisty. Like a kitten.”

I need him gone. “When is your flight?” I ask again.

“I’ll make arrangements as soon as you recover.”

“You will leave…” I give myself a minute to think when I want him to leave. “Tomorrow. At dawn.”

“I also don’t need a babysitter,” he says, parroting her words.

It’s becoming more difficult to suppress my eye rolls. I might pop a vessel from the strain.

“The Order has a protocol for an event like this,” I remind him. “If there’s more than one person who makes up the Head, they must move apart until the perpetrator is found.”

“The protocol was written in the Middle Ages.”

“You will obey me, Corrado,” I say, sounding a little tired. My eyes start to droop.

“He should rest,” Cristina says to my brother as if I’m not here.

Wait a minute… I look down at my drink. I sedated her.

Corrado winks at me.

He sedated me too.