Page 32 of Embriagado

“Yeah.” I nodded, giving him a slight squeeze. “This whole place is watched 24/7. You’ve got nothing to worry about.”

Closing his eyes, he sighed.

“Thank God.”

Noticing the sweat drenching his shirt and covering his red face, I asked, “You came here on foot?”

“Fuck yeah.” He took a deep breath. “After Tess told me the news, I thought it was better not to call you… you know, in case you did it, and I just ran here.”

“Like I said, I didn’t do shit, but that was a good call.” I ruffled his hair. “So what happened?”

Before Nacio could dive into the details, the guy replacing me showed up, and we quickly changed shifts.

“Come,” I told my brother once I was free to go. “I’ll clock out, then we can head home.”

He still looked shaken, but I got why. If he’d spent the last hour thinking I shot two guys dead, no wonder he was chewing his nails off. I’d be doing the fucking same and a hell of a lot worse if things were reversed.

“So you said they were shot?” I asked as we walked inside the hotel.

“Yeah. Tess says the rumor going around is that it was a drug deal⁠—”

I paused him when two other employees passed us.

“What d’ya say?” I asked after they were gone.

“They’re sayin’ it’s a deal gone bad. But who knows? Those two fuckers were in deep shit; everyone knows it. They had a feud with a few gangs—it’s a known fact.”

Nodding to myself, I rubbed my jaw. It was a good thing people believed that story, because even though I had nothing to do with their deaths, I didn’t need people pointing fingers at me.

“Did Tess say anything about me?”

“No,” he was quick to say. “Your name hasn’t come up so far, but I was still scared⁠—”

“I know, don’t worry.” I squeezed his nape just as we reached the lobby.

“Fuck, this place’s huge.” He whistled while looking around. “How much does a night here cost?”

“I don’t know.”

“Hey!” Nacio shouted at the receptionist, causing the whole room to look at us. “How much is a night here⁠—”

Covering his mouth with my hand, I apologized to Taylor, the receptionist, then turned to scowl at my idiotic brother, who seemed to have recovered quickly.

“Keep your fucking voice down, Nacio.”

He pouted. “What? It was only a question.”

“Doesn’t matter. Just stay here. I’ll go clock out, then we go, okay?”

He nodded.

“And don’t talk to anyone.”

“Just go. I wanna eat breakfast,” he whined.

I rolled my eyes, then quickly went to the employees’ room. After clocking out, I checked my phone for Gabriel’s number. Maybe I’d give him a call to see if he had any more information? With my thumb hovering over his contact info, I lingered for a few moments before deciding not to and pocketed my phone. I could always talk to him if things went south, but for now, it was better to keep my distance.

Ready to beat it, I went back to find Nacio in the lobby, but of course, the idiot wasn’t where I’d left him.