Page 51 of Capo
I don’t turn. She should know better by now than to object.
Spending fifteen minutes in the gym, I then shower and make myself ready. Carmen should come with David any minute now and leave him with the maid. I want to get there as fast as possible. He knows the girl, but she isn’t a trained caregiver. I have yet to find someone who really knows what they’re doing.
Chloe sits on the bed, demurely dressed in a white blouse and dark gray slacks. I let my gaze trail along her body until it lands on her feet.
“Can you walk?”
She nods. “Yeah.”
I wave for her to come to me and she darts up. “Do I have to restrain you?”
“No, Salvatore. You don’t,” she whispers and I believe her. She looks as drained as I feel.
Today she doesn’t stare in wonder at my house and my garden. Her gaze is empty and trained straight forward. With a slight pinch in my chest I realize I miss her excitement from yesterday. When she sees the breakfast table and David, today sitting at the table already, she freezes up. Her eyes dart to mine and they’re filled with concern. I take stock of the last twenty-four hours. Do I want a repeat of yesterday, do I benefit at all from lecturing her when she actually does have a way with my kid that I don’t have myself? A small voice inside tells me I could learn from her if I only listen.
“I don’t want any trouble,” she mouths.
The moment stretches between us. I look between her and my son, then I nod, coming to the only sane conclusion. “Neither do I. I want to see what you can do.”
She frowns, her eyes filled with doubt, but sits obediently when I pull out the chair for her and turns to my son with a little wave. “Hi, David.”
I drink my coffee in silence as I watch them interact. “Chloe,” I say, not even thinking about what I’m going to say, “would I get further with gestures?”
She nods. “He never spoke much at the center either. Except for that time when Kerry…” She snaps her mouth shut and looks horrified.
I wave at her to go on. It’s fucking old news. It happened. Shit happened. I spent half the day yesterday trying to track down Christian. I know he finished his job in Winnipeg. After that, I don’t know shit, and apparently no one else does either. Our people have started to fill up the city, arriving from all parts of the country. Our call to action didn’t go unheard. My sister Bianca in Chicago has sent some of her best men, but stays behind herself to watch her business. I’ll be in meetings the rest of the day. I just want a few good moments here and now before all hell breaks loose. I could really use my oldest nephew, one of my best hitmen but it’s as if he’s been swallowed by the earth.
“So it’s not only with you,” she continues. “Yes, I do think you’d get further developing a kind of sign language.”
“An actual sign language?”
“No. Not the sign language. His own. Let him take the lead. Let him teach you. He has a lot to say, but he can only express it in his own way. And… be patient with him. He…” She chews on her lip, her eyes flickering between my hands and my face, then over to David. “He doesn’t respond well to being ordered around. He closes up.”
“I want you to teach me.”
Her mouth falls open. “I… I don’t know if I—”
“It wasn’t a question, Chloe.”
Her lips tighten, then she nods. “Sure. I’ll do what I can.”
I slam my palms together. “Great! Now, tell me about Christine.”
Chloe is already pale, but her features turn ashen.
“That wasn’t a question either.”
“Oh, God,” she moans and buries her head in her hands.
“Have you been a naughty girl?”
She looks up with a wince on her face. “I tried to kill that part of myself.”
“Tell me everything. I’ve had a really hard time finding info on you from before you came to San Francisco except for the very basics.”
“It’s because I erased everything.” She averts her gaze and busies herself with holding up a jar of jam before David. He nods and she starts spreading it over his chunk of bread.
“You did what now?”