Back in Black (McGinnis Investigations #1) - Rhys Ford Page 0,29
cut when the heart is involved. “I talked to Stevens. I couldn’t get a good read on him.”
“I think Montoya would need proof Stevens was out there pulling jobs, but no, he wouldn’t be there unless Stevens was riding the straight-and-narrow line.” Bobby frowned at his tumbler, then fit it back into the cup holder between us. “Let’s assume you’re not going to get paid for this. And I know money isn’t a problem, but you’re going to need some kind of legal standing to get your foot into a lot of doors, especially since you and I both know you’re going to have to shove that foot in between a few cracks to get inside what’s going on.
“You feel responsible for her being dead. Don’t deny it. And I know it doesn’t make any sense, but that’s just how you think. You found her body, and now you need to find her murderer, even though O’Byrne will be working it on her end.” He glanced up at the hospital, peering at it through the somewhat bug-speckled windshield. “And up there is a man whose heart is broken because somebody took away the love of his life. You know how that feels, and you know what it’s like to live without answers to the questions that keep you up at night. So yeah, I don’t expect you to do anything but chase this down, Cole. I’m just going to have to be right beside you in case that dragon is too big.”
“I appreciate that, Bobby.” I patted his shoulder, lightly squeezing it before letting go. “Thank you.”
“You act like I have a choice,” he grumbled at me, opening the door. “Don’t forget, Princess, I married your baby brother. I come home without you and there’s not going to be enough left of me to sleep in a dog bed, much less a couch.”
ARTHUR BRINKERHOFF was asleep, hooked up to what looked and sounded like a DJ mixing board more than any medical device I’d ever seen, but it had been a while since I’d been lying in a hospital bed, waking up to a new litany of pains and bruises. He was frail, his nearly translucent skin draped over his bones like tissue paper dampened by ugly blotches of purpling watercolor splashes. His eyes were practically slits in his face, and his upper lip swollen to a plumpness big enough to touch the tip of his hooked nose. His chest rattled beneath the hospital gown decorated with thin yellow stripes—probably meant to be a cheerful touch of color, but it only served to highlight the sallowness of his skin. Dried blood flecks dappled his forehead—dribbles from a cut closed with a butterfly adhesive—but there were stitches along his jaw and neck, clear-cut evidence of deeper wounds.
He looked exactly as I thought he would, so I wasn’t surprised when I came into the room and found him lying in the hospital bed looking like a Ramses the Second cosplayer who’d gone too far.
The drop-dead gorgeous blond sitting in the chair beside the bed definitely was a shock, though.
She was everything a detective novel needed to ratchet up the suspense—icy golden hair, long legs, and a face gorgeous enough to launch a thousand ships, be they Viking or gondola. I was used to beautiful. I spent most of my days around Jae, Scarlet, and Claudia, so while I wasn’t immune to beauty, it took a lot to steal my breath away.
This woman certainly had that a lot.
If I were straight, I would’ve been in trouble. When she glanced up at me with her wide baby blues and gave me a small shy smile just a hair short of sexy and a finger breadth away from wicked, that look told me all I needed to know about her. I wouldn’t be able to trust her as far as I could throw her… well, if she was carrying something heavy, because she didn’t look like she weighed that much.
She was dressed to kill, a pair of red stiletto heels giving a splash of color to her black pencil skirt and dove-gray blouse. But then, for all I knew, the tucked-in, fitted boyfriend shirt was actually some shade of pink I couldn’t see. I still wasn’t buying the whole “there were colors I couldn’t see quite right,” but I was reluctantly being drawn over the line of accepting a reality outside of my control.
Much like this case.
“Cole McGinnis. I’m a private investigator hired by Mister