The Underbosses Chef [M/M]

04 - Four - Matteo Concetta's Point Of View.

I could hear people talking, and I wanted to focus on the conversation, but I couldn't. All I could focus on was the pain in my foot again. Stretching out, I was in the spare bedroom, my foot propped up with several pillows. But only one of them was off this bed, the other one was under my head. The rest, they had to have been from Caio.

I lifted my arm to check the time, but realized my watch screen was shattered and refused to turn on when I tapped the screen. Sitting up, I moved to set my feet on the ground. Standing up on both feet was an immediate mistake.

"Fuck!" I hissed, yanking my foot off the ground. The pain was making my head spin. I managed to find a way to make walking work. If I used the heel of the boot and some caution, I could move with minimal pain. The sound of the boot on the hard wood of the floor was aggravating though.

Opening the bedroom door, Caio was at the table, Andrei with him. Caio was the first one to see me, and he got up.

"Sit. I got it." I said, rougher than I intended it to be.

Caio didn't sit back down, though. He walked over and reached out for me.

"Excuse my touch for a minute or so." He said, as he wrapped his arm around my back, and my arm around his shoulders. He helped me to the table and then stopped touching me. He put me in the chair where he was sitting and set the pill bottle on the table.

"I left these in my pocket after we got back here from the medical wing and I forgot all about them. But saw you managed to find something for the pain this morning. You left the bottle on the counter, and lid off."

"I was in pain." I muttered.

"Are you in pain now?" Andrei asked, concern on his face.

"Yes, but I'm figuring that to be much worse, I jam this grey boot with my foot in it, so far up the rear side of your son." I hissed, my toes throbbing again.

"I'm afraid you will have to wait until later for that. Alessio is speaking with Dr Martin at the medical building. Lev asked him to see Dr Martin this morning. He wouldn't share with me why, but I figure his actions from the day before have caught up with him and he is feeling guilty." Andrei said.

"Caio?" I said.

"Yes, Matteo?"

"Two sugar and one cream?" I said, pointing to his coffee, as I grabbed the pill bottle and opened the lid.

"Yes."

"Still the same." I muttered. Popping two pills in my mouth and using his coffee to wash down to pills.

"I could have got you a cup of coffee, Matteo." Caio said, before he looked at the table. "But then, unless you've changed, you don't drink coffee."

"I do, but rarely." I said, looking at Andrei. "Lukas is to blame for that, though. When I missed everyone, I would buy an iced coffee with a vanilla shot, and it reminded me of here." I muttered. Remembering the first time that Lukas bought it for me, even though Andrei told him I was too young for caffeine.

"Matteo. You could have called, or texted, more than the few times you did." Andrei said, reaching out and setting his hand on mine.

"I couldn't have. I would have just come back, and by the time I realized I made a mistake, I was already working, in college and up to my neck in Alessio's work for Emilio in Italy. Every time I wanted to call, I wanted to come back, and I wasn't finished with what I needed to get done there. No contact was the easiest thing for me to do. Then there was the fact that Alessio would have forced me to come back, and I wasn't ready too."

"What changed?" Caio asked.

"I woke up. The escape I built around me wasn't enough to keep me from missing here, missing my family. I knew Alessio was going to be mad, but threatening me, and then actually hitting me, I didn't see that coming."