But he was taking it well.
As the nurse pulled another wet bandage off, this time from the side of Giuseppe’s face that had suffered burns, he cursed a blue streak, every muscle in his body protesting as he damn near lifted himself from the bed.
Mac thought the man would have, had he actually had the strength for it.
“That’s your three, sweetheart,” Giuseppe told the nurse once she had replaced the bandage with a fresh one.
“Mr.—”
Giuseppe barked out a weak laugh, eyeing the pretty, young nurse who was working on his burns. “You’re a cute thing—give me a break, huh? Give me five.”
The nurse passed Mac a look in the corner, then nodded her head and scurried out with her head down, muttering something about getting more supplies. The room was stocked—she didn’t need more, as far as that went. But if the excuse worked to get her out of the room without guilt, Mac didn’t blame her.
Being on a burn unit couldn’t be an easy job.
“Spit it out,” Giuseppe mumbled, turning away from Mac.
Ah.
So that was it.
Giuseppe thought his Capo was angry with him, that perhaps Mac felt as though his man’s decisions had been the catalyst to the bomb and Melina being hurt.
Mac had news for the guy. “Thank you.”
Giuseppe turned back slowly, blinking though it seemed painful for him to do so. “Pardon, Skip?”
“Quit bugging that nurse for morphine—you’re going to overdose.”
“The pain is going to give me a fucking heart attack.”
“Better your heart stop than to be a made man with ‘overdose’ stamped on the coroner’s report,” Mac shot back.
Giuseppe only nodded once, his silent agreement. “You shouldn’t thank me. I did my job, and here we are.”
“Yes,” Mac murmured, “here we are. And this could have been my wife, but it isn’t. I think that deserves much more than a thank you, but that will have to do.”
“You and I have different ideas of what doing my job means then, Skip.”
“Melina’s alive. The job is good.”
Whether Giuseppe was too exhausted to argue, or he didn’t care to, the man said nothing.
“Tell me,” Mac started to say, “Did you see anything going on or someone unusual around last night?”
“Everything was good. It was on the up. Melina had a guest or two she wanted an eye kept on, but she was also ready to go. I’d been checking the alley and the lot on and off, plus keeping an eye on her. I don’t know when it happened. It shouldn’t have happened.”
“Maybe it wasn’t set in the parking lot,” Mac suggested, “or in the alley.”
“Where else?” Giuseppe groaned, looking like he was about to throw up as he shifted in the bed, his broken body seeping and bleeding. It was a terrible sight, and Mac could only begin to imagine how the man must feel. “It’s not like those bombs are the type to just sit idle.”
“Some can, if set right. Do you remember what happened leading up to it?”
“Melina passed me the keys, she’d had a drink or two in the club. She seems like a smart woman, I wouldn’t take her to drink and drive. I didn’t ask, though, she just gave them to me.”
Mac smiled absently. “She wouldn’t, no. Then what?”
Giuseppe struggled for a good thirty seconds, rambling about things he couldn’t remember and his foggy brain. Finally, he said something that might have been important. “I hit the unlock button on the fob, and then boom.”
For some, details were unimportant.
For Mac, details were everything.
He was the kind of man that could put a lot together about a person or a situation just by a few choice details.
For now, however, his conversation with Giuseppe was finished, as he could see the young nurse making her way back with arms full of clean towels and a cup of some kind of juice in her hand.
“Stop asking for morphine,” Mac reminded Giuseppe. “Because even if it doesn’t overdose you, I won’t have any guy of mine coming out of the hospital a junkie. I’d put a fucking bullet in your head before I’d let you ruin your name like that.”
Giuseppe didn’t argue. “Got it, Skip.”
Mac found Enric posted outside of Melina’s hospital room door. The young man rested in his chair, his gaze focused on the car magazine in his hand. Mac didn’t have a lot of men to be passing around and using them for guards when they had other fucking jobs to be doing, too. Unfortunate as it was, and given how very directed the attacks seemed to be on Mac and his wife, he’d wisely chosen to move Enric from his mother and sister, to his wife for a while.
At least until Melina was out of the hospital and home.
She wasn’t going to like it, but Mac was locking her down after this.
Until this shit was figured out—until whoever it was could be put in the ground like the dog they were—his wife was going to be safe, first and foremost.
Mac was still prepping for the battle that was sure to be.
Melina didn’t frighten easily.