Chapter 230: We Knew To Come
(TYLER)
Upstairs, the hospital is operating with a skeleton staff as the threat level has still not been officially cleared. Three heavily-armed cops are waiting in the reception area, but Darla hides us away in a disused staffroom while Sasha is looked over by one of the doctors from the ER.
We make a strange group waiting there: Marco and me, Santino and Giovanni, and Detective Burgess in the corner staring intently at all of us. Burgess had her chance to contact the cops to call out for their help in arresting Santino and Giovanni, or even to just make herself known to them as a fellow law enforcement officer...and she didn’t.
Her drive to take down the Adonis Family seems to override both her instincts for self-preservation and her obedience to police protocols. She wants personal credit for any scalps claimed today. Her mistake, of course, is thinking that things will go her way.
Giovanni, who’s sitting close to Santino on the tiny, coffee-stained lounge, puts his hand on his thigh and leans in to murmur something in his ear. Santino gives an answering chuckle. Burgess’ eyes go wide.
"You’re—" she starts, and breaks off with a look of contempt. "So what they say back at the precinct was really true."
Giovanni gives a tight smile. "Anything Stefano said to you was designed to manipulate, Gina. But we’ll have that conversation, like I said." It’s interesting to me to see how close he and Santino are now, moving in synchronicity.
Once Sasha and I go on the run—once I persuade him, because I will, after today’s bullshit—I wonder how much closer we’ll end up. It’s already scary, sometimes, how well we know each other. How easily we can read each other.
Burgess walks away from us all to another corner of the room, this one further away.