we thought we were losing you all over again.”
I could see the way thinking about that was haunting him and I cleared my throat, realising how close I must have been to death for it to have affected them like this.
“It’d take more than a spiked glass of scotch to kill me,” I joked, though the way my body was aching said that had been dangerously close to a lie. Neither of them replied and the doctor muttered something which sounded like ‘lucky son of a bitch’.
“What happened to the hooker?” I asked, anger rising in me at the thought of that bitch doing this. She’d clearly been paid off, but she’d also had no issue with it either.
Rocco glanced at the doctor and nurses to make sure they weren’t looking his way then ran a finger over his throat.
“Papa questioned her,” he said slowly. “But she didn’t know anything about the people who had paid her to do it. Just that they’d given her five grand and she’d never seen them before that night. She’s a dead end.”
“The police want to question you,” the doctor said as he finished checking me over. “I can tell them you’re fit now, if you’re ready? I’d prefer it if you would stay in another night, but I’m guessing you want to be discharged right away?”
“You guessed right,” I said, trying to stop myself from snarling at the guy who’d saved my damn life. But I really wanted to get the fuck out of here and start up the hunt for Winter again.
“We’ve still been looking for your girl,” Enzo said, seeming to guess where my mind had gone. “Frankie is following up on a lead right now. Otherwise he’d be here too. And Papa’s been sleeping here, he only left an hour ago because we insisted.”
My throat tightened as he said that but I just nodded, not having words to express what that meant to me. I really did have a family, didn’t I?
The doctor hesitantly took the restraints from my wrists and I shook my hands out, rearranging myself so I was sitting up in the bed. A wave of dizziness and nausea passed through me and I grimaced at the movement.
“I’ll get your discharge papers organised while you speak to the police,” the doctor said and I called out a thanks to him as he headed out of the room. He had stopped me from dying after all, so I didn’t have to be a complete asshole.
“We’ll go find you some breakfast,” Rocco added as the two officers walked through the door before it had even closed. “Don’t try to get out of that bed until we get back.“
I clucked my tongue at him for fussing, but I had to admit it felt good to have someone who gave a shit about me like that. A whole family of someones actually.
“I’m Officer Hoskins and this is Officer Barlow. How are you feeling, Mr Romero?” the first cop asked. She was petite with her dark hair braided down her back and if it wasn’t for the savage look in her eyes I’d have totally underestimated her. But on closer inspection I’d prefer her odds in a fight over the giant guy looming behind her.
“Like I got fucked in the ass by a dinosaur and he didn’t even buy me flowers after. What difference does it make to you?”
Hoskins laughed before she could help herself and Barlow raised his eyebrows in surprise.
“And you’re familiar with that feeling, are you?” she asked, biting on her lip like she was picturing it.
I shrugged. “I’ll try anything once. But that doesn’t help me with understanding why you’re here.”
“We heard that you were in the hospital and the doctors said that no one knew what you’d taken. We’ve got no record or even rumours of you being a recreational drug taker and there’s a tale going around that someone tried to assassinate you,” Hoskins said, clearly fishing without any bait on her hook.
“You heard wrong. I like to party like that. I just took too much is all,” I said with a shrug. This issue wasn’t going to be a police matter. It had already been handled anyway.
“We also wanted to ask if you know Maria Pembroke?” Barlow asked, pulling out an iPad and showing me a photograph of the hooker who’d fucked me over.
“Can’t say I do.”
“We have footage of her with you the night you overdosed,” he pushed.
“I can’t remember shit from that night.”
They