by Sybil Bartel
I rubbed a hand over the back of my neck where that asshole had hit me. I knew he was right, but it didn’t change the fact that she was in a hospital bed. “I’m going back inside. Ty has a gun I got off one of them. Maybe the serial number will turn up something.”
“I’ll run it, but don’t hold your breath.”
“Copy. Any update on the recovery of the vehicle?” I was kicking myself even more now for not letting her retrieve her purse.
“Not yet. I sent the new hire, Preston, to northwest Miami, to the area we last tracked it. Which, now that I know the Tres Angulos are behind this, the location makes sense. Preston will canvas the area, see what he can find out. But if their last known location was actually here at the hospital, they could be anywhere by now.”
“How did they disable the tracking device on the Escalade? I thought you hid them.”
Luna shrugged. “I do, but apparently they figured out where it was. Hell, maybe they simply burned the vehicle by now.”
“You don’t burn an armored Escalade. You sell it.” In parts if you had to.
“Never said criminals were smart.”
“They’re smarter than us right now if we can’t find them.” I turned to go.
“You asked her out,” Luna mused.
Pausing, I glanced over my shoulder at him. “Your point?” I’d been off the clock, and the job had been over. I didn’t break any company rules.
“How long you worked for me?”
It was a rhetorical question. Luna knew every detail about every single one of his employees by heart. He retained information like no one I’d ever met. I didn’t bother answering.
“Been a while, amigo.” He paused. “Never seen you ask a woman out before.”
“I don’t broadcast my personal life.”
Luna chuckled. “No, you sure don’t.” His expression sobered. “According to your paycheck you work sixty-hour weeks, but we both know it’s more than that. Not much room for a personal life in all that.”
I didn’t deny it.
He nodded once. “She must be special.”
She was a walking train wreck. She talked too much, she overshared, and she dropped everything. She didn’t listen to instructions, and her hazel-eyed gaze more often than not looked at me with childlike curiosity instead of womanly seduction. She drove me insane.
Nothing about her was anything I’d ever wanted or needed, but all I could think about was having her thick hair wrapped around my hand as I made her submit.
Except she’d lied to me.
She had a goddamn husband, and that was a line I’d sworn to myself I would never, ever cross. I wasn’t going to be like my asshole father. I swore to myself in high school when I first caught him cheating on my mother that I wasn’t going to ever pull that shit. And I sure as hell wasn’t going to wreck another marriage by taking another man’s wife. My mother put up with my father, and she was still with him, but that didn’t change the fact that I hated him.
“She’s married,” I reminded Luna before shutting down the conversation. “I’m going back inside. I need to get her out of here before the carjackers send someone else after her.”
Luna nodded. “Take her to one of the client apartments. She can stay there until we resolve this bullshit.”
Luna and Associates had a few apartments on the floors above the offices for this exact reason. It was a secure building, and we could control who got in or out. Normally, I wouldn’t have a problem dropping a client in one of them, except she was injured. “She has a grade two concussion.”
Luna read between the lines. “So stay with her.”
I scowled. Staying with her at a company apartment under the microscope of every ex-Marine who worked for Luna was out of the question.
Luna chuckled. “I didn’t say fuck her, amigo. I said stay with her.” He got behind the wheel of the Escalade.
I resisted the urge to flip him off.
He grinned. “I heard that.”
“I didn’t say anything.” Like a fucking fool, I was already contemplating taking her to my place.
“You didn’t have to. Despite you never saying shit, I can read you like a book.” Luna gave me a knowing look then switched gears. “After Preston does his recon, I’ll have him check her apartment and pick up a few of her things while he’s there. He’ll notice if anyone’s sitting on the place.”
I wasn’t sure Preston would notice a damn thing, the guy was seriously off, but I was out of choices for now. Reaching in my pocket and grabbing her keys, I handed them to Luna. Then I sealed my fate. “Have him bring her stuff to my place.”
“Copy that.” Luna didn’t comment on the change in location, but his expression sobered. “For real, you got this? They already found her once, you want more backup? Ty’s been on all night. He’ll get you two home, but then Preston can sit on your place after he gets her stuff.”
I didn’t think anyone would come back tonight. Then again, I wasn’t expecting them to show up at the hospital either. I didn’t trust Preston as far as I could throw him, the guy was cagey as hell, but Luna had hired him, so for now, I was letting it go. “Fine on Preston.” Even though I knew they were long gone, I scanned the parking lot, looking for any of those carjacking assholes. “You know if they wanted her dead, they would’ve sent one of their own, and they sure as hell wouldn’t have sent a warning.”
“Not many places are harder to get a clean shot at someone than a hospital. There’s security cameras and witnesses everywhere. The warning could’ve been a precursor.” He cranked the engine and threw the SUV into gear. “But that still doesn’t change the fact they found her once already, and that’s too close for my comfort.”
“Agree.” Which was why I wasn’t going to let her go back to her place until we found these assholes. “I need one more favor.” I grabbed my wallet. “Can you get her a new phone and tablet? Set the phone up with her number?” I held out a credit card.
“Done, but put that shit away.”
“Take it out of my pay then.” I didn’t need monetary favors.
“All the overtime I don’t pay you?” Luna scoffed, but then he winked. “Least I can do is hook up your woman.”
I leveled him with a look. “She’s not mine.”
“Maybe not yet.” He grinned. “I give it twenty-four hours at your place.”
I changed the subject before I unleashed my self-hatred on him. “What did the police say?”
Luna sobered. “What could they say? I grew up with the beat officers who showed up. They know who I am. I told them I’d take care of my own business and find my vehicle long before they would.”
Christ. “Is there anyone you don’t know in this town?”
He faked being offended. “You calling my city a town?”
I wasn’t impressed. I grew up hearing my father tell us he owned Miami every time he brokered a new real estate deal. “It’s fifty-six-point-six square miles of backfilled swamp land.” I knew the exact size because my father also told us with every other breath—when he wasn’t cheating on my mother—how much of that square footage he owned. “Call it what you want.” In truth, south Florida didn’t belong to anyone. “It’s one good hurricane away from being swamp land again.”
“Cold-hearted, Savatier.” Smiling, Luna shook his head. “Cold-hearted.”
“The truth hurts.” I wasn’t talking about Miami.
Luna’s smile dropped. “Amen.”
I walked back into the hospital.
THE NURSE PUT ANOTHER STAPLE in and I flinched even though I couldn’t feel anything after she’d given me the shot of Novocain.
“Almost done,” she murmured.
Brian stood by with his hands in his pockets, looking disapproving, and I couldn’t remember why I’d told Sawyer to call him. “Brian, you can leave.”
The scary-looking, impossibly tall bodyguard in all black with a Luna and Associates logo on his shirt smirked. “No, he can’t.”
Brian gla
nced at him with a frown.
“Following orders,” the bodyguard clipped, looking smug.
“You’re not in the military anymore,” Brian shot back. “You can relax with the whole orders thing.”
“What makes you think I was in the military?” the bodyguard asked.
The nurse put in another staple.
“Wild guess,” Brian answered dryly.
“You’re right.” The bodyguard leaned toward Brian and lowered his voice. “Know what that means?”
The nurse wiped the back of my neck with something cold and wet.
“Enlighten me,” Brian stated with zero interest, which was exactly how he spoke to me for most of our marriage.
The bodyguard smiled a smile that was more sneer. “I’ve got good aim.”
Sawyer burst through the doors of the emergency room. With his light blond hair, stark blue eyes and perfectly handsome face, he could’ve been an angel of mercy. But the anger contorting his features eclipsed his beauty, making me shiver.
The nurse’s hand landed on my shoulder. “You’re okay. I’m all done.”
Brian sighed as if put out.
Sawyer glanced at the bodyguard and tipped his chin toward the exit. A silent communication passed between them, and the bodyguard walked out.
Brian pulled his hands out of his pockets and crossed his arms. “Your watchdog made me stay. She’s all stitched up. I have to be at work in a few hours, can I go now?” he asked, not without a little sarcasm.
His eyes on me, Sawyer issued a single word to Brian. “Leave.”
Wasting no time, Brian spared me half a glance, shook his head, then walked out.
Striding to the side of my bed, Sawyer addressed the nurse across from him. “What’s her status?”
The nurse flushed under his scrutiny. “Well, she has a grade two concussion, and I just finished stapling her wound. We’re waiting on the doctor for the CT scan results.”
Sawyer leveled the nurse with a look. “Her safety is in danger. She’s a witness to a gang-related crime, and I need to get her to a more secure location. I need to speak with the doctor immediately.”
The color drained from the nurse’s face, but she nodded. “I’ll speak to him right away.” She hustled out of the little curtained-off area surrounding my bed.
My mouth dry and my heart suddenly in my throat, I looked up at the man who was too handsome to be standing in a hospital over my bed. “Danger?”
His gaze cut across the emergency room, then landed on me. “You saw the carjacker.”
“I….” Oh God. The memory of the carjacking flashed through my head. “I pulled his mask off,” I blurted.
“Would you recognize him?”
“He’s coming after me?”
“Yes.”
I didn’t hesitate. “I don’t know what he looked like.”
The muscle in his jaw jumped, then he bit out a warning. “Lying won’t change the situation.”
Bits and pieces of the evening rained down on my memory like parade confetti. It took a moment, but then my brain slowly started piecing things together.
Oh God… oh God.
“You’re not talking about the carjacker.” He was mad that I didn’t tell him about Brian.
“I’m expressly speaking about that.”
“You’re lying.” He had to be. Why would he be mad if I said I didn’t remember what the carjacker looked like? That kept me safe.
“I don’t lie,” he snapped.
My mouth opened, and words vomited out. “Brian is divorcing me. We’re separated.”
“That’s of no concern to me,” he clipped, sounding like he meant the exact opposite of what he was saying.
“You asked me out.” I remembered it now. But truth be told, I was being generous in my description. He’d told me I was going to dinner with him.
“Do you remember the carjacker’s face?” he ground out, as if fighting for patience.
I honestly didn’t know if I could pick him out of a lineup. I didn’t trust my memory, my head was pounding in a way that made concentrating difficult, and all I wanted to do was sleep, but none of that mattered. I wasn’t going to risk my life to identify anyone. I’d seen those movies on cable. It never ended well.
“This is nuts,” I muttered.
He didn’t respond. He just stared at me like he was waiting for me to rattle off the carjacker’s height, weight and astrological sign. None of which I knew. But there was one thing I was absolutely certain of, and I didn’t think it was enough to put me in danger, so I told him.
“He had a tattoo,” I stated. “A triangle on his inner wrist.”
Sawyer frowned, but he also did something else I hadn’t seen him do. He nodded in approval. “That’s the mark of a Tres Angulos gang member. They all have that tattoo.”
I felt like a kid showing her parents a straight-A report card. Except I’d never been that kid, with either the A’s or the parents. The closest I’d ever had to anyone who’d ever noticed my grades was a book-nerd kid with a superiority complex—and I’d stupidly married him. Then I put him through college with minimum wage jobs I hated while I worked on my own dream. When he became a financial planner, I quit all three of my jobs and started my own business. Everything in the marriage had gone downhill from there.
Shoving away old memories, I gripped the railing on the side of the bed and made to pull myself up. “If you think those jerks are going to come here, which I don’t know why you would think that when I didn’t even get a good look at his face, but whatever, we should go.” I didn’t want to make it easy for any carjacker or gang member to find me.
His hand landed on my shoulder, and without being forceful, but not at all gentle, he pushed me back down. “We’re waiting for the doctor to release you.”
As if on cue, the nurse drew the curtain aside and stepped in with an ice pack. “Here.” She gently placed it under my head. “This will help with the swelling.” She glanced at Sawyer. “The doctor is on his way, right after he finishes with his current patient.”
“Thank you,” he quietly replied, giving her a note of civility he hadn’t extended to me.
I was ashamed to admit, I hated her for it. But the pain in my head outweighing my want of having her gone, I asked for relief. “Can I take something for the headache? Advil? Tylenol?”
She smiled sympathetically at me. “The doctor will give you a prescription for when you’re released.”
The curtain pulled back again and an older doctor stepped in. “Mrs. Jenkins, I’m Dr. Michaels. How are you feeling?” He moved to the side of my bed and gently turned my head to look at the wound.
“Well, my head hurts,” I admitted.
“I’m giving you a prescription for a mild painkiller for that. An ice pack a few times a day will also help with the swelling.” The doctor stepped back to the end of the bed. “Your CT scan looked good. We didn’t see any bleeding on the brain or anything else to be concerned about, so I’m going to release you. Your staples will stay in for five to seven days. You can shower after twenty-four hours, but be careful of the wound. Do you have any questions?”
I started to shake my head, but even that hurt. “No, thank you.”
The doctor looked at Sawyer. “Monitor her for any decreases in her mental state, or seizures, or a secondary loss of consciousness. With a grade two concussion, you can expect some repetitive questioning, mild confusion, or lapse in memory surrounding the event that caused the injury. It should dissipate quickly. If it doesn’t, or if any of the other symptoms occur, bring her back to the emergency room immediately.”
Sawyer nodded. “Understood. Can you release her now?”
“Yes, the nurse will handle the paperwork and she has her prescription. Considering the situation, I’m sending her home with a couple pain pills until you have time to fill the prescription.” He held his hand out to Sawyer, then to me. “Take care of yourself, Mrs. Jenkins.”
“Thank you,” I said, wonde
ring how I was going to watch myself for the things the doctor mentioned as he walked out.
“Okay.” The nurse smiled. “Here is the pain medication. As the doctor explained, it’s just a couple pills to hold you over until you can get your prescription filled, which I’ll give you with your paperwork.” She handed me a small bottle.
Without a word, Sawyer took the pills and pocketed them.
The nurse watched the interaction, then cleared her throat. “Okay, I got most of your information earlier before I put your staples in, but I just have some paperwork left to take care of, then we can get you out of here. Do you have your license and insurance information?”
It hit me all at once.
Oh my God.
Oh my God.
I looked up at Sawyer in a sheer panic. “My purse, my tablet, my wallet, they were all in the SUV when it was stolen.” I tried to swallow down the anxiety threatening to come up. “They stole everything.” I choked on a sob.
Sawyer already had his wallet out. Handing a credit card to the nurse, he kept his eyes on me, but spoke to her. “I need to get her out of here, now.”
THE NURSE WALKED OUT, AND Genevieve started to hyperventilate.
Careful not to touch the back of her head, I took her face in my hands. “Genevieve, look at me.”
She did, but she wasn’t seeing me. “My life, my whole life, everything was in my purse. My wallet, my cell phone—oh my God,” she cried. “That’s my entire business. Everything is on that tablet.”
Goddamn it. “Do you back up regularly?”
Her breath hitched, but her eyes focused. “Back up?”
“Your tablet, your cell, do you use the cloud, something else?” She seemed more disorganized than anyone I’d ever met, but the party she’d organized had run smoothly. I was hoping that was an indication of some level of organization.
“Okay, okay.” She nodded. “I do that.”
She looked so damn vulnerable, for a beat I forgot how pissed I was at her. Swiping at the tears on her soft cheek with my thumb, I stupidly made her a promise. “We’ll get it sorted.”