Dangerous Conceit by Ali Lee
Chapter 25
On the way to the warehouse, Lexi rubbed her hands together and shifted in her seat as she listened to Angelo talk business on his phone. Her attention moved to the front. The top of Dylan’s short brown hair kept swaying in the rear view mirror, but nothing was said between him and Luis from the passenger seat. Lexi waited out the ride in silence.
The Escalade parked outside of a warehouse down a long dirt road. Angelo stepped out of the vehicle behind Luis and Dylan, but Lexi stopped at seeing the secluded metal building. It was not until he waved her to get out that she opened the door of the car. She remembered what Rafa had said. He told her to listen to Angelo, so she hoped that Angelo was as trustworthy as Rafa wanted her to believe.
Inside, Lexi gaped at the vast amount of space with empty chairs lined in rows. They must have held their meetings there. An office set to the left with several other doors leading to places she held no interest in seeing. She only wanted to see Rafa. She walked with Angelo who led her by the arm to one of the rooms on the far end.
“Rafa’s already been patched, but he's going to need to stay here for a couple of days in case anything goes wrong. You can sit with him until it gets dark; then I'm taking you back home.”
Lexi said nothing. She simply breathed when Angelo opened the door. The room looked like it belonged in a hospital, but she guessed it would be too risky to take wounded members to an actual hospital. Medical staff would report such injuries, so the setup made sense.
Lexi’s stomach felt tight as she gazed at Rafa sleeping. The doctor cleaned him of blood and wrapped a large bandage below his shoulder and another over his ribs. Rafa seemed peaceful, but it was probably because of the pain medications flowing through his veins with the IV protruding from his arm.
Angelo inspected. His eyes looked distressed by Rafa's pale color as he pointed to a chair next to the bed. “You can sit there. Time will tell how he recovers now.”
Lexi sat down as Angelo closed the door, leaving her in the illuminated room with nothing but the beeping sound of monitors and two breathing bodies. She sighed, scooting the chair closer to the bed and resting her head on her arms near its edge. Then she watched the clock and waited, counting down the minutes until he gave any response.
Interrupting her thoughts, an older man wearing slacks and a short-sleeved shirt with a stethoscope around his neck entered from the other side of the bed. He checked the readings on the screens, nodding with understanding at whatever the information told him before looking at Lexi.
“You must be important to this one.” He gestured toward Rafa. “I've seen one other woman in this building—ever. You must have struck Angelo's approval.”
“Is Rafa going to be all right?” she asked, ignoring what he had said about Angelo.
The doctor rubbed his chin and looked at Rafa on the bed. “He lost a lot of blood and his blood pressure dropped much lower than it should be. When they got him here, he needed a transfusion to stabilize him. I took out the bullets, stitched up his injuries so now we wait.”
Lexi nodded her appreciation for the information. “Thank you.”
“I'm Dr. Stefano, by the way.” He started for the door. “If you need anything, let me know when I come back in here. I seriously doubt Angelo will tell you anything useful about Rafa's condition.” Lexi nodded again, earning a smile from the doctor before he left.
For the second time, Lexi sat alone in the room; her thoughts dwelled on Rafa's health. She resumed her earlier position, this time placing her hand on his. She closed her eyes with the soothing warmth that she felt.
Some time passed and Rafa stirred, groaning at the sight of his bandages. As he attempted to move his arms, he noticed Lexi's face on the mattress near his waist. He could not believe Angelo let her come to this particular warehouse, the warehouse where his more private dealings took place. Not even all members knew of the place.
Lexi's sleep seemed interrupted and her eyes twitched, appearing to endure some sort of nightmare. Rafa removed his fingers from underneath her light grasp and gently placed them on her head. He tried to stay awake but could not keep his eyes open for more than ten minutes and slipped back to darkness.
It was not until evening when Lexi came to, feeling Rafa's hand against her cheek. She was mad at herself for not staying awake. He slept soundly now and she could not disturb his recovery, so she leaned back in the chair and waited for him to wake up again.
A few minutes later, Angelo walked through the door and looked down at them both. Rafa did not look any better and the wait was killing her. Angelo decided to cut her visit short. “Come on. There's nothing you can do here, and it's time you got back home. Brett and Vin are going to take you, and the brothers are going to keep you and Maura safe while Rafa recovers.”
Lexi kept her eyes fixed on the bed but stood, nodding with acknowledgement. She leaned over Rafa, moving her fingers gently across his cheek and looking at his ashen body one more time before walking toward the door. Then she stopped beside Angelo, never looking his way but spoke to him nonetheless. “Thank you for letting me stay with him. I'm glad he's at least stable.”
Lexi finished her thanks and strolled through the open door, leaving Angelo speechless as she looked at nobody, walking directly through the warehouse to the main exit. People rarely thanked him for anything, and he considered keeping Lexi updated on Rafa's condition. Maybe she earned that right.
***
When they returned to Rafa's house, Brett opened the gate from his phone; then he parked and Lexi stepped out. Brett followed her to make sure there was no trouble, but Lexi did not anticipate any problems. If anyone were capable of deactivating the high voltage electricity running through Rafa's metal fence, that person still would have to unlock the thick steel bars.
Brett typed in a code to the front door and tilted his head, looking inside and then signaling for Lexi to enter. As soon as she did, he walked behind and locked the door after them. Lexi thought about the other man in the car, wondering why he did not follow. “Isn't Vin coming?”
Brett’s lips knitted together as he thought about her question. Lexi found it interesting that he had to think about his answer first. “No, he doesn't have permission to come inside, so he’ll keep watch out in the car.”
“Oh,” her brows rose, questioning the tone of Brett’s voice, “it sounds like there’s a reason for that.”
Brett smiled a cheerful smile and forgot to consider the question before answering. “Well, Vin knows better than to cross Rafa again. Last year, before the explosion blew up Rafa's car, Vin thought it would be funny to pull all of the spark plugs and drain the oil. It didn't work out so well. Rafa had this important meeting come up and he was pissed about missing it. Vin's lucky Rafa only broke his le—”
“Brett,” Jim thumped him on the neck, “keep your mouth shut.”
“What? I didn't say anything about the group.”
“Consider the source, Brett.” Jim glared but Lexi's eyes widened.
“What do you mean before his car exploded? Are we talking about the silver Lexus?”
“You’ll have to ask Rafa,” Jim said and sat on the sofa, looking at whatever show played on the television.
“But that means they tried to kill Rafa that night at the restaurant, not Angelo—maybe both.” Lexi looked at Brett who did not bother moving further inside. Since he was not going to talk anymore, she might as well leave him to wait. “I'll go get Abby for you.”
Lexi sprinted upstairs. She hoped Abby would know more about the situation but could not make Brett wait too long since she lived with him. Once Lexi reached the top step, she saw a light on in a room she had not been in yet.
“Wow.” she glanced at Abby and Maura who sat at a table made of the finest Cherry wood. Along three walls, matching shelves were lined with books on top. “Rafa spares no expense on anything,” she muttered, but his name once again triggered her questions. “Hey, I'm supposed to send you down, but do you know anything about Rafa's car exploding at the restaurant?”
“Well, I couldn't talk to you earlier with all the men around, but yeah. I didn't figure you knew it was actually Rafa's car that exploded that night. I've traced it back to the Homestead PD…even have some names. Jason was listed, but I'm guessing he's no longer on that list?” Lexi agreed with a nod. “Okay, but your stepfather is a raging madman. I'm thinking Moretti's men are the ones who attacked you earlier. You are going to want to hear this police audio I pulled up…it’s from here in Miami. They aren't as saintly as we thought. Don't know why they would record something like this…maybe to hold against the Homestead PD and your stepfather when they all turn against each other?”
“We both know he's an angry asshole…” Lexi flinched at her language in front of Maura. “Hey sweetie, will you go play with your doll. Abby and Mommy need to talk for a minute.” Maura smiled and dashed out of the room when Lexi continued. “How is his temper out of the ordinary? We both know how he is.”
Abby shook her head. “No, this isn't the same, Alexis. All those years he mistreated you…all that had to do with your brother and your stepfather being pissed off about him.”
“Excuse me?” Lexi slid to the seat in front of her; she and Abby stared at one another for seconds. “I have a brother?” Lexi asked confused.
“Not sure, Lex. I know what the recording said. I wanted you to know about it first. But that's what your stepfather said…something about your stupid fucking brother—his words, not mine. He mentioned your mother's name too.”
Lexi took a deep breath and processed the news in her mind. “Will you tell me when you find out something more? I mean, if I really do have a brother, I would hate to think the bastard would treat him the same way that he treated me.”
“Don't worry,” Abby stood up, “you’ll be the first to know.”
They both hugged; then Abby skipped down stairs in a rush. Lexi hoped that Brett or the others would not notice the time lapse. Brett probably would not care, but there was also Jim and Ray who seemed much more alert to the happenings around. Lexi could see the brothers talking quietly as the front door shut.