“You better be decent.” I rapped lightly on the door before pushing my way in. Even though I had my game face on, I couldn’t help grimacing when I saw Matt who was battered and bruised. Not to mentioned bandaged and bored. I could tell he was bored by the way he was flipping through the television channels, much to the chagrin of his roommate who appeared to be trying to rest.
“Hey, it’s my best girl,” Matt said, setting down the remote. I noticed his roommate, a young guy in his early twenties, perked up as well at my appearance. “Did you get Danny?”
“Yeah, we got him,” I said, sitting in the chair by Matt’s bed. I patted his hand, afraid to touch him for fear of breaking something. “He stayed the night with me, and he’s with my parents right now.”
“I told my parents about him,” Matt said, grimacing as he spoke. His mother was deeply religious, so I could only guess what she’d said to that bit of information. “They want to see him.”
“Sure, if it’s ok with you,” I said cautiously. “Do you think it’s a good idea?”
“Yeah. After my mother calmed down, she was dying to see him. I think she thinks this might be the only chance she’ll have to have a grandchild.” Matt smiled, but it held little mirth. “So, fill me in. Did we get the bad guys? Is Kayla back?”
“We got Digger and Brenda. We don’t have Kayla yet, but the cops are working on it.” I didn’t tell him that they were at a dead end because I didn’t want to cause him any grief. “What did the doctors say?”
Turned out that because Matt was in such great shape, most of the wounds were superficial. Only the one across his abdomen had done serious damage. Oh, there was another semi-serious one on his left bicep, but it wasn’t as bad as the one on his stomach. The doctors wanted to keep him for a few more days, but they were optimistic that he’d regain full mobility if he followed his physical therapy plan to the letter. Knowing Matt, he’d do as much and more than they planned. They would have to stop him from doing twice as much as they wanted because he’d be determined to get out of the hospital as soon as possible.
“Don’t you ever do that to me again,” I said, punching him lightly in the arm. “Do you know—I thought…” I let my voice trail off because there wasn’t any reason to say what I’d thought now that Matt was going to be ok.
“Shit,” Martinez said, glancing at the screen. “It’s Rogers. I bet he broke one of them. Come on.” He waved to Daily who looked pissed. I was torn between going and staying with Matt. Martinez must have sensed my ambivalence because he told me Matt was going to be in surgery for awhile, and we would be back before he woke up. That decided it for me, and the three of us were off.
“Ok, Scarlett. I have one question for you—what exactly is your relationship with Mr. Reynolds?” His question caught me off-guard.
We migrated to the living room where we hashed out everything we knew. We both thought that the club should be the center of our focus, but we differed on the most likely candidate. Matt insisted that Digger was involved, but that was his prejudice talking. I thought we needed to talk to the girls in depth because who knew Kayla better than her coworkers? Besides, with the way she was blackmailing some of them, more than one stripper had a reason for wanting to do her harm. Then, of course, there was the drug dealer. He had my money for being the one who’d taken Kayla and killed the other woman. From Kayla’s description of him, he sounded like the most ruthless of the bunch. If it was him, he wanted his coke back. Where the fuck we’d find that, I didn’t know. I mean, if Kayla hadn’t blown through it all. It must be somewhere in her house, but wouldn’t the cops have found it? Not if she hadn’t wanted it to be found. I started when the doorbell rang, but I got up to let Martinez in. To my dismay, Daily trailed behind him.
I suggested coffee and moving to the living room. Martinez must have had similar thoughts to mine because he agreed with alacrity. I went into the kitchen to brew the coffee, insisting that he leave the dishes for later. I’d make Matt do them when he got home if I had to, but I wasn’t going to waste a minute more than I had to in the meantime. I waited for the coffee to perk, using the time to center my thoughts. My hormones were raging out of control, and I didn’t want to come across as a slut. Oh, I was one, but I didn’t want it to appear that I was too easy. As soon as the coffee was ready, I brought it to the living room, where Martinez sprang up from the futon upon my entry.
“First time I’ve been called ‘God’,” Martinez said, his eyes amused. I opened my mouth to make a ribald comment before clamping it shut again. I had the sneaking suspicion that Martinez knew what I was about to say because he was openly smirking. His voice was all business, however, when he asked if I’d spotted anything yet.