“YOU!” I nearly jumped out of my seat. “You were at the bank!”
“Nice to meet you Val, officially.” She put her hands on her hips. “The names Emiliana, but you can call me Mil. I’m Chase’s wife.”
One of the girls made the sign of the cross over her chest next to me as if to say good luck with that.
“I don’t…” I took a deep breath. “I don’t understand, what were you doing at the bank? And who was that other guy?”
“Robbing it?” Mil offered with a sly smirk. “I’m good with my hands.”
“Stop, you’ll give her weird Chase sex nightmares.” One of the girls to my right started rubbing my back, her smile was captivating, trusting. “I’m Trace by the way, Nixon’s better half.”
“Hear, hear!” Mo laughed, while the rest of the girls lifted their glasses in the air, the pregnant one held a water bottle to her lips and winked at me.
“Mo, which one are you married to?”
“The tall ugly one,” she said in a completely serious voice. “Really loud, yells a lot, often has dreams about using Sergio as target practice.”
“Tex?” I guessed. “Th-the Cappo?”
Mo snickered. “Please don’t stutter his name around him, he’ll be impossible to live with, already is.”
The girl with the water bottle sat near my feet. “I’m Bee.”
“You’re due soon?” I was glad that the conversation wasn’t about me anymore, because I knew if I talked about me, about my situation, I’d feel sorry for myself, and I’d probably cry again, and the last thing I wanted to do was cry in front of new friends, new family.
She nodded. “Yeah, any day now. I can’t wait to get this little monster out of me. Phoenix is stressing the life out of me as it is. If he was here he’d probably send me to bed.”
Phoenix seemed the darkest to me, but something fit about their situation, he would be protective about his pregnant wife, because without even knowing me, he’d acted that way toward me, as if I was important, even though I was a complete stranger.
“So.” Mil sat cross legged in front of me, bringing her wine to her lips. “Did you find what you were looking for?”
“Huh?”
“With the key you had, did you find what you were looking for?”
“Did you…?” I tried to piece the timing together. “How did you know I would be there that day?”
“We have our ways.” She didn’t say anything else, just drank more wine as her eyes locked on mine over her glass. When she set it down, she raised her eyebrows. “Well? Did you?”
I wasn’t sure how to answer. “Yes and no.”
The girls got quiet.
A loud knock sounded on the door. “Son of a bitch, Mo! How many clothes did you buy?”
“You can afford it, you jackass!” she yelled back.
“You demo’d the entire room!”
“It needed it!”
The girls all fell into fits of laughter as he stomped off swearing.
I made a face. “What did you guys do?”
“Eh.” Trace waved me off. “You needed a room that was close to Sergio’s but didn’t have ghosts of the past, so we basically remodeled one of the bathrooms and upstairs living areas into a giant master suite. It’s gorgeous and there’s a connecting door to his room just in case.”
Hah, just in case.
I looked down at my hands and mumbled, “Thank you. I don’t know how to repay you guys.”
“Give him hell,” Mo said as my head jerked up. “That’s how you repay us, Nicolasi, give him hell.”
“I’m an Abandonato now,” I said in a defeated voice. “I was a Nicolasi all my life and didn’t know, and now I have a new name, one that doesn’t even—”
“—fit.” Trace grabbed my hand. “I would say to give him time, but, he’s had it. And Andi wouldn’t want him to be this way. In fact, she’d probably kick his ass if she could. Wouldn’t surprise me at all if she found out a way to haunt him.”
The girls laughed.
“What was she like?” I asked. “He doesn’t talk about her much.”
Trace exchanged a glance with Mil who shook her head slowly and said, “Not yet.”
“Huh?” I frowned. “Am I missing something?”
“Wait until you read the last note. And then we’ll show you the room.”
“My room?”
It was silent and then Bee whispered, “Hers.”
Later that night, when I was settled into bed with the same glass of wine on my night stand, I realized.
They had known about the notes.
All of them had.
What game were they playing?
Were they the ones writing them?
Not that it mattered, since the notes were long gone by now. I shivered under the blankets, then finally tossed them over and went to the suitcase that had been packed for me.
I unzipped it and started rummaging for something warmer when my hand touched paper.
Frowning, I gave a little tug.
Every single note was wrapped in a little package, including the last two.
I dropped the package like it was fire.
Phoenix had packed my bags.
Was it him all along?
Mil was his sister. Was that how he knew?