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I didn’t want that anymore.
“Anyway,” Josh says, his brows raising. His feet move closer to me. “I wanted to come and see how you were doing…”
“I feel ok…” I reply. I do a one-two-check over myself. “I feel a little sore…maybe a little like I’m too old for this shit…”
“She said you could have died.” He gestures to Aria.
“Every day is a maybe,” I laugh. “At least in this business.”
He nods, sadly. It’s the first time I notice, but he’s holding something in his hand. Fiddling with it.
It’s his hat.
I smirk. He has ADHD worse than anyone I’ve ever met. He has to fiddle with something. At all times. But especially when he’s nervous. It’s Josh’s great tell. How I always used to beat him in poker.
“I didn’t have anything to do with it…” he trails, looking at me desperately. “I wouldn’t do that to you.”
It’s hard to trust anyone in this world.
“You knew she had Aria…”
“And I thought it was inevitable and there was no use in you knowing about it because I knew it would hurt you.”
“But she knew I would come for her…” I argue. “She had to… so you weren’t saving me from anything. You were just delaying me saving her.”
“Just so everyone is clear…” Aria chimes in. “I’m pretty pissed it took so long.”
I roll my eyes.
“If Madam Rosa knew you were coming, then why did she die; why did she lose?” He asks. “I feel like she would have had something planned…”
I fall quiet for a moment and my brows twist in confusion. He’s….right…
Me and the merry gang of Morinos and Lorenzos wouldn’t have been enough if she was truly expecting us. So what gives? And with as few casualties as there were…
He clears his throat again. “Anyway, I just wanted to come by and see how you were and give you my condolences.”
I hold my hand up to stop him. “It’s ok…”
“No,” he says sternly. “You loved her…so, I’m sorry, Tony..”
I feel emotion well up all over again as I replay the memory of her death. “Thanks,” I manage. “But I don’t trust her, even now…”
Josh laughs. “Maybe it’s ok not to trust her, but you can still love her…”
I shake my head. “I don’t know if I trust you, either.”
He nods. “I understand why, and maybe that’s ok too.”
I hobble into Aria’s penthouse suite in the hotel. I was discharged and still in a lot more pain than I’d thought I’d be. I guess they say the longer you sit stagnant, the more pain you’re in. You’re not using your muscles. But damn, I thought a little rest would help. Not make it so much worse.
“Rest didn’t make it worse…” she grumbles, after hearing me complain for the tenth time. “Just loosen them up by moving and stop being a baby…”
She’s letting me stay with her temporarily.
She says I can sleep in another suite once I’m feeling better. But who knows when that’ll be.
As soon as I stagger over the threshold of the suite, I feel the warmth envelope me. The hospital had been so cold and dreary. Without Aria there, I wouldn’t have been comfortable in the slightest.
