Sal had no idea what else to say. All he knew is he wouldn’t be in there with her long. He was beginning to think this was a mistake. Maybe him coming today would give Melissa the idea that this kind of thing is what she needed to do to bring him to her.

As soon as Kat walked out he decided he knew what he wanted to say. “Listen. I don’t hate you okay? I was mad but I understand now that… you weren’t well. I get it. And I want to make sure you know that. You should just focus on getting well. Don’t worry about anything else.” He squeezed her fingers and for a moment he thought he felt her move them then nothing. “Goodbye, Melissa.” He wanted that to sound as final as possible. “I know you’ll find happiness, but get well first.”

He walked out and an anxious Kat stood outside. “Did she move again?”

Sal shook his head, wanting nothing more than to get out of there as soon as possible. After speaking with Kat for a bit longer he finally said goodbye and left before Jason got back. He’d wanted to wait for him and apologize again for not making it to his wedding. Instead he apologized to Kat and left. He just couldn’t stand being there anymore.

When he got back to the restaurant Sofia was a little too excited to see him. “Where’ve you been we’ve been trying to get a hold of you. How come you’re not answering your phone?”

Sal patted the phone on his holster as he walked to the back room and remembered he’d put it on silent before walking into the ICU. “I forgot to take my phone off silent. Why? What’s up?”

He walked into the back room. Romero and Alex both sat at the desk. “Dude!” Romero said when he saw him. “Where’ve you been?”

“Why? What’s going on?”

“You should have a seat,” Sofia who had followed him to the back room said.

Sal turned to her then back at Alex who shook his head. A feeling of dread began to come over him but when he saw Romero smirk he knew it couldn’t be about Grace.

“What is it?”

Sofia pushed the chair next to Romero in front of the computer. “Romero came through. As always. Have a seat.”

Sal glanced at her then sat and watched as Romero clicked a couple of icons opening up one that started a video.

“I got more than just proof that you didn’t do shit that night. I got proof that she did more than we thought.”

The video started panning out across certain areas of the bar where they’d hung out. There was a shot of a group of girls then Romero slowed it down and froze on a girl—Melissa. She was doing something with a shot glass, her back was turned away from the other girls as if to shield it.

“So lets go to another angle.” Romero typed something in and there was the same shot from a different angle. “You see here?” He stopped it and zoomed in but the picture got blurry. “So we focus this,” he said typing more stuff in and suddenly the picture was clear. Romero slowed it down so you could see exactly what she was doing in slow motion.

Sal sat up when he saw what she was doing. She’d opened a capsule and poured a little of what was in it into the shot glass.

“Okay so we know what she’s doing right?”

Romero fast forwarded the video until they saw a waitress come by. Sal recognized her as one of the waitresses that was bringing over the drinks the girls sent. At first she seemed to shake her head.

“I didn’t even catch this part the first time I saw it. It happens so fast but look here.” He slowed down the video and points at Melissa slipping the girl something in under the tray. “If I zoom in you can see it’s a fifty but I want you to see what happens next.”

Sal watched astonished as the waitress took the shot glass Melissa handed her and placed on her tray. Romero typed in something so they could see from a different angle as she walked away from Melissa to the bar. She picks up more shots but moves the one Melissa gave her to the side then walks over to where he and the guys are.

“And there you have it.” Romero froze the video on the moment she hands Sal the shot glass Melissa obviously paid her to make sure he got.

Sal’s eyes were glued to the screen remembering how odd he’d began to feel after the shot and how he’d thought the waitresses had been flirting with him when she handed him the shot. Even knowing now that Melissa had issues he still couldn’t believe she’d do this.

“But wait,” Romero pointed a finger in the air with a smirk. “There’s more! The bitch wasn’t done yet.

Sal turned to him flabbergasted. “What?”

Romero nodded but said nothing grabbing the mouse. “Watch this.”

After fast forwarding for a while he slows at another image of Melissa spiking yet another shot then she put something away in her purse, picked up the shot glass and walked out of the camera’s view. He typed in something else and a different camera picked up her image. Melissa walked across the bar with the shot glass still in her hand and she went straight to a very wobbly looking Sal and handed it to him.

“I don’t remember that at all.” He thought hard and remembered being handed shots but not who handed them to him. He assumed it had been Jason or the waitress.

“You’re lucky you were so wasted you spilled half that shit or she may’ve killed you!” Alex fumed.

They watched several more videos of Sal walking through the casino and to his room hanging on Melissa the whole way. There was no video of what actually happened in the room. But Sal knew without a doubt nothing had happened, especially not after seeing just how out of it he’d actually been. The only other evidence was that she hadn’t even spent the night. She walked out of his room twenty minutes after walking him there and didn’t return until the following morning.