Todd grabs Del and shoves into the wall, his hazel eyes burning with anger. Del grabs Todd's wrists in an attempt to free himself, but it only forces Todd to push him harder against the wall. Todd takes a deep breath, glaring at Del. He finally speaks, in a controlled but angry voice.
"Not now," Todd says, "She's got enough to worry about, she doesn't need this."
Tea, hearing this, relaxes a little...but still...he is so angry.
Del looks at Tea, and back to Todd. "Fine," he says icily.
Todd lets him go and runs his hand through his hair. He looks at Tea, who is still looking a bit apprehensive. He walks over to her...and she doesn't back away.
"Can we go somewhere, just for a minute?" he asks softly, his voice still slightly on edge.
Tea looks at Del. "I'll be right back." She looks back at Todd, who leads her to a close by conference room.
Todd walks quickly into the room, with Tea following slowly behind him. He paces around the room, seeming very agitated.
"Todd?" Tea asks softly, the tone in her voice implying that she was eager to know if the man pacing the room is indeed her husband.
"Yeah, it's me" he replies, looking at Tea in a somewhat annoyed fashion. When he sees the concern on her face, both for her brother and for him, he softens a little. "Sorry, I guess under the circumstances that isn't such a stupid question." He walks over to a chair and sits down. "You thought it was Pete?"
Tea nods, and walks over to sit down in the chair next to him.
"Well, it wasn't, it was me. Does that scare you?"
Tea looks at him, confused. "Why would that scare me?"
"I can still get angry."
Tea pauses, and reaches into her purse to get a tissue. She reaches up and tenderly starts to tend to Todd's bloody lip.
"I know that, Todd, I don't expect you to become a saint."
"Good."
Tea smiles. "And I don't want that."
"Pete's still there, Tea, but maybe I'm starting to control him better. Cause believe me, I wanted to do more than shove Del against a wall."
"Why didn't you?"
He looks into her eyes. "Like I said, you've got enough to worry about."
"Thank you."
Tea finishes cleaning up Todd's lip the best she can.
"How's your brother?"
Tea's eyes fill with tears. "He lost a lot of blood and he's still unconscious...they say he's not out of the woods yet, but he'll probably recover."
"Good," Todd says softly, reaching for her hand, "Any idea who did it?"
"No, Bo and Hank are trying to find that out right now...you know I had my suspicions about that cop, something just didn't seem right."
"Tea, it's not your fault."
"Yeah, well it looks like he'll make it....but it's not a good situation. This may be a whole lot bigger than we originally thought."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, apparently, the man Jose was staking out when he was setup was named Paulo Hesser."
"Hesser?" Todd looks surprised.
"Yeah, seems he was related to Carlo."
Todd looks at her, and suddenly fills with worry. Those guys were big time criminals.....which means the people Jose was involved with were probably just as big. And they would not be the type to let Jose testify...they would do anything to stop him...and they would not be afraid to go after his family to silence him....
***********************************************************************
"Yeah?"
"Umm..Senor Coronado..."
"Is it taken care of?"
The man on the phone was silent for a moment. He spoke hesitantly. "He is still alive, but unconscious."
"I'm very disappointed...you must finish the job..."
"He is under police guard, sir."
"Well, be creative....you think of some way to keep him from testifying."
Miguel slammed down the phone. Incompetents....that's who worked for him....but he was not going to let Jose Delgado bring him down....
********************************************************************
It had been a long day for Tea. Del had finally convinced her to leave the hospital. She had called Viki, trying to find Todd. He had left the hospital after making sure she was okay, and very mysteriously too. Jose was doing slightly better, and he was under constant police protection, which helped reassure Tea somewhat. She is suddenly startled by a knock on the door.
"Who is it?"
"Delgado, open the door."
She smiles, Todd has such a way with words. She opens the door and Todd rushes in.
"Todd where have you been?"
He doesn't answer. He walks into her bedroom and goes to her closet. He opens it, and after searching for a minute, pulls out an overnight bag.
"Todd, what are you doing?"
He still doesn't answer. He walks over to her dresser, and begins randomly pulling out bunches of clothes. He then walks into her bathroom and opens her medicine cabinet, proceeding to dump her makeup and hair stuff into the bag.
"Hello? Mind telling me what you're doing?"
Todd walks toward her and grabs her hand.
"Come on Delgado, I got a surprise for you."
***********************************************************************
Tea is shocked when they pull up to the house.
"Todd, wait, what are we doing here?"
He turns and grins. "Moving in."
To be continued.....
