Cold Brew and Bullets (Part 1 of the Syndicate Series)

Chapter 15- Medication

I looked up at my audience, but their expressions did not disappoint. Leonardo seemed shocked, Angelo seemed slightly skeptical but almost impressed, and Alessio's expression gave me a warm feeling, but took me a moment to decipher. It was pride.

Another man that I had yet to meet stepped into the kitchen and nodded at Alessio, "Sir, there is a meeting with some of the capos in your office, would you like to postpone?"

Alessio glanced at me with hesitation, but I nodded with a tired grin, "Dont' worry about me, that sounds much more important."

"I'll make sure that she gets back to her room alright," Angelo stated, leaving little room for discussion. "This meeting can't be put off again, go ahead and I'll join later once I make sure she's had enough to eat."

Leonardo seemed unsure, but it was clear that this meeting was important and shouldn't be put off again, so I nodded encouragingly. The two hurried out of the room in response, leaving me alone with arguably the most terrifying man I had ever seen. I doubted that Angelo ever smiled at all, but I still didn't get a gut feeling of danger from him.

"You know, I'm not terribly hungry. If you wouldn't mind just pointing me in the right direction, I could find my way back to the room and you could join your meeting. I'd hate for you to miss it on my account."

He looked at me skeptically, "Alessio would be very upset if I didn't ensure that you made it there comfortably.... Or that I left you alone so that you could make a run for it."

"There's no worry of that," laughed, slowly putting pressure on my feet so that I could stand from the chair. "I can barely walk as it is, I couldn't even if I wanted to."

He stared at me for a moment, making up his mind, but eventually it seemed as though he settled on believing me. "Should I get the doctor to check in?"

"No, I'm fine. I've had worse than this before."

Angelo chuckled at first, then seemed to catch the hint of truth in my tone. His brow furrowed but I didn't give him the chance to say anything more, as I started shuffling towards the hallway. It took me a moment, but the pain was flaring up and I needed to take a moment and pause. I leaned against the wall, glancing up at Alessio, "I really don't want you to feel like you have to wait for me, this may take me a few more minutes than I expected and you're missing your meeting."

"I'd rather make sure that you get there comfortably."

He tentatively set a hand on my elbow, obviously trying to supply some sort of support so that I didn't keep stumbling, but also attempting to be respectful and keep his distance. It was almost laughable how he seemed so out of his comfort zone, but I had to internally applaud his effort. I knew how much courage it took to do something like that.

I leaned into his strong but gentle grip, thankful that it took some of the pressure off my feet but trying to keep my mind off of the pain that was starting to make itself known. "May I ask why you're doing this for me?"

I wasn't sure that he was going to answer the question at all, but eventually he spoke. "You bore torture for Alessio. I'm sure that you understood who they were asking about relatively early, and I'm sure that they wanted you to give up our whereabouts and compromise information that would give us up, yet you didn't give in. They could've killed you just for an extremely loose connection to us, and you held out against them even though you owe us nothing. I know what they do to people to get information from them, because I've done it as well."

He hesitated, trying to see if I would react or become scared at his confession, but I was careful not to let anything appear on my face as I stared forward and focused on not letting my legs give out. "That's how I also know that you lied about not remembering what they did to you, and how bad it was. You couldn't have blocked it all out completely, but you've been either downplaying it or directly lying. I think that if any of us could see more skin than you're showing right now, there would be a lot more bruises and stitches and scars than you're letting on. Leonardo may not suspect anything, and Alessio might have an inkling that you're underplaying it, but I can tell just from your gait."