Page 87 of Lorenzo & Lily

Chapter Fourteen

Lorenzo layon his back in the hospital bed, which was reclined into a semi-sitting position. His eyes were staring at the ceiling. He wondered why hospital ceilings weren’t painted or given proper attention. Patients certainly spent enough time looking up. Since he’d spent his fair share of time in hospitals during his life, he decided this was going to be another project he embarked on, beginning at the MARC: ceilings covered with murals. Maybe Carolina could help.

He crossed his arms over his bare chest, fighting the wince of pain from his wound. He’d been hit in the arm, but would recover.

Physical healing was the easy part.

After he’d woken in the hospital, he’d been disoriented. It had taken a few moments to realize he wasn’t in a chopper heading out of the jungle.

He was safe. He was in Valleria.

He was home.

As soon as the doctor had patched him up, he’d called his therapist. He’d spent an hour talking to him, would spend an hour more the next day.

He turned at the racket outside his door and sighed. His family had descended upon the hospital – or most of them had. They hadn’t been pleased they’d had to wait so long to see him, but he didn’t give them a choice.

Staying healthy, mentally and physically, had to be his number one goal.

Now all he wanted was to see his Lily and Liliana.

Alex knocked and entered without waiting for him to respond. He scanned Lorenzo’s shirtless body before his gaze settled on his bandaged arm.

Alex frowned, then shut the door and walked to the bed. “Are you in pain?”

Gunshot wounds felt like shit, but he wasn’t going to tell Alex that. “I’m fine. The bullet went straight through. Just sutures. Nothing major. I’m fine.”

“You were shot taking a bullet for me.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. They could have been shooting at me. Maybe it was someone who wants the strike to move forward.”

“You could be right,” Marcello said as he entered, followed by Nate and Ethan. “You all right?”

“Yeah. Why do you think the shots were related to the strike?”

Ethan gave his bandage a doctor’s look-over. “Agents got the shooter. It was Gaston.”

Fucking hell. “Gaston? Shit. I knew he wanted the strike, but I didn’t think he’d take me out for it.”

Marcello took a seat on the bed near Lorenzo’s legs. “Agents interrogated him while the doc was looking you over. Peter was the mastermind here.”

Lorenzo shot up and ignored Ethan’s protest to take it easy. “Are you fucking kidding me? Peter? Fucking Peter?”

Nate gently pushed Lorenzo back towards bed. “He fooled everyone, apparently.”

“Though he claimed to side with us on the strike, he wanted the strike to happen,” Marcello said. “We ran his financials, and he’s been receiving regular payments from some corporate shell company. It took some doing in a couple hours, but we traced that company to Field.”

Lorenzo’s mind whirled. “Field’s been paying him off? Did you check with the other union officers?”

“We are now. I don’t think we’ll be surprised if we learn they’ve been paid off, too. Some of them were recently fired as well. They may have turned down the payoff and been fired for it.”

“Fucking hell.”

“You said it.”

Lorenzo rubbed a hand over his face. He could hardly believe how things had turned. It was a simple union election. How had it resorted to such violence? “Are you taking Field down? Bribery, blackmail – surely we have enough evidence for it now?”

“We have him in holding on suspicion at the moment,” Marcello said. “We’re waiting to confirm if he’s done anything to the other union leaders. If he has, that would significantly bolster the case against him.”

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