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“What are you doing here?” he asks.
“I wanted to see you. You’re in the hospital.”
He looks around. “Well, that explains why the Four Seasons looked so drab.”
My laugh almost turns into a sob of relief. This is definitely my brother.
“What happened?” he asks me.
“Do you remember anything?”
He knits his brows. “Not really. Just a lot of people talking to me in Spanish.”
“That’s because you’re in Costa Rica. You don’t remember you’re on vacation?”
He tries to process the information. The nurse says something to Chung, who tells me, “We have to go. She has to prepare for a shift change.”
“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” I assure my brother.
“When will that be?”
“I don’t know, maybe eight in the morning, if visitor hours start that early.”
He winces. Although he and I are similar in many, many ways, we have a definite difference in sleep patterns. I like to get up early. He’s more of a night owl.
After asking Chung, who asks the nurse, I find out that I can come back at nine in the morning. I decide that’s what I want to do, even if Peter isn’t up yet. I’ll just sit and watch him sleep if that’s the case.
Outside the hospital, I ask Rafe if I can come back in the morning. If he says no, I’ll just have to find some other way to get myself here.
But he says yes.
I throw my arms around him. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
He doesn’t hug me back, maybe because his driver and Chung are watching, but I don’t care. I’m giddy with relief. And gratitude.
“Sorry,” I say after backing off. “I just really appreciate all this.”
He only nods and holds the car door open for me to get in.
Our accommodation is a gorgeous six-bedroom house outside Quepos with beachfront access. I’m in awe of the lush greenery and what I’m able to make out of the sand and waves beneath the moonlight. I don’t hang out in beautiful places like this, though I walk around Land’s End in San Francisco, but the city doesn’t have a beach like this. It’s breathtaking. Now that I know that Peter’s okay, I can fully appreciate the beauty before me.
After I’ve seen the vista from the deck that stretches across the back of the house, Rafe shows me to my room. Like the rest of my surroundings, the bedroom is impressive. A queen-size bed sits beneath gauze drapes. The floor-to-ceiling doors lead out to the deck. Chung, Baldy, and Vladimir each have their own rooms, too.
I know that these accommodations were not chosen for my sake, but I appreciate the luxury anyway. Most of all, I appreciate that Rafe flew me down to Costa Rica so that I could see my brother, because he didn’t have to. He didn’t have to say that he would give us Alessandro’s share of the payment, either. At this point, I don’t care an ounce about the money. I’m just glad that Peter, Gigi, and I are alive.
Suddenly, I have to fight back tears. I think it’s the release of all the stress from today, the end of the crazy roller coaster I’ve been on—from the moment I thought I would be free, to the mortification I felt seeing the counterfeit Morelli, to the panic when Rafe revealed that he knew I had deceived him, to the intense physical euphoria brought on by Rafe mixing pleasure with pain, to the anxiety of finding out what happened to Peter. And finally, to the relief of seeing my brother okay.
“What’s the matter?” Rafe asks.
“I just—thank you. Thank you for bringing me here,” I stammer as I try not to break down.
“You’ve had a long day. It’s late. You should turn in.”
I nod, but don’t meet his gaze. I get the feeling he might put his arms around me, and if he did, I would definitely start crying. But after a moment’s hesitation, he puts a hand on my arm, kisses me on the brow, and turns to leave.
Part of me wanted him to comfort me, part of me is glad that he won’t see me crying. I don’t want a gangster thinking I’m weak.
After he leaves, I have my cry. For the last few days, I’ve managed to hold it together, even as death dangled over my head. And today was a roller coaster I never want to ride again, though it looks to have a decent ending.
