Page 129 of Contempt

Had he said that out loud?

Renzo didn’t know.

“Lucia?” he asked.

Lucian sighed. “She’ll come in on the last day with your sister and brother. The team has a way they like to introduce people or things that they know are going to … cause you emotional upset. That’s all.”

He still didn’t like it.

“The doctors say you don’t remember a lot about what happened,” Lucian said after a moment.

Renzo passed the man a look, but said nothing. What could he say?

Lucian nodded. “Once the police have been around, they do their thing, and we believe they are satisfied in what they’ve gotten—or not gotten, in your case—from you, then everything will be explained. I’m not purposely keeping it from you because I think you’ll tell something that you shouldn’t, but rather, you might not be able to control it, Ren. Okay?”

“Okay.”

Lucian lifted the folder he’d been holding for Renzo to see. He waved it a bit, and smiled. “Now this … you should understand very well what it means once I tell you what it is. Your contract with me and The League. You were in a coma for a little over a month, and that means during that time, your contract ran out.”

The man put the folder on Renzo’s lap in the bed. He couldn’t pick it up—his arms were tired from the exercises from earlier, and he still didn’t trust his brain to tell his limbs to do the right thing. He just looked down at the folder instead of reaching for it.

“You are a free agent,” Lucian said. “You can go or do whatever you want, Ren. You’ve paid your debt. Is that congratulations worthy, do you think?”

Huh.

“Yeah,” Renzo mumbled.

“Congrats, then. You earned it.”

TWENTY-TWO

“You okay?”

Lucia looked up from her jittery hands to find her mother standing in front of her with a to-go coffee in each hand. “Uh, yeah, I think.”

Jordyn nodded, and then gave a little laugh. “You know, with the way you’re shaking … I’m not sure that I should give you this cup of coffee.”

She had to give her mom credit. There was something to be said about a person who could call you out on your shit without saying it directly. That was Jordyn Marcello in a nutshell. She was too polite to say something that someone might feel was rude, but she wouldn’t hesitate to still call you out in her own way.

Lucia had been acting like everything was fine leading up to this day. Every time someone asked her if she was okay with how everything was shaking out, she would nod and agree because she didn’t want them to know how nervous she was.

This wasn’t about her.

This was all about Ren.

His recovery.

His health.

Just him.

Today was the first day she was going to be allowed in to visit with him since he woke up almost an entire week ago. She’d spent day after day next to his bed wearing his sweater he’d left at her hotel room, and begging him to wake up. Because then, they didn’t know if he would. And if he did wake up, they didn’t know if he was going to be the same.

He’d looked like hell.

Like death in a bed.

Battered, bruised, and fragmented.