Fatal Secrets - Desiree Holt Page 0,50
to a boat. We had to figure out a way to stop them. That woman doesn’t stop until she finds out what she wants. My business is at stake. I can’t afford for her to keep running loose.”
“How did you set this up today, if I might be so bold as to ask?”
“We did our research on her, discovered she’d done a bunch of interviews with one of your low-level distributors and had testified at his parole hearing. We figured she’d get in touch with him and see if he knew anything. We put trackers on his piece-of-shit car and his girlfriend’s. That’s how we knew where he was going. When we saw our targets there, I figured it would be a good way to handle this. Didn’t you say an auto accident might work well?”
“I did, but that was then. Things have been changing. We needed to find another answer.”
“The answer,” Mac broke in, “is to get rid of her, and anyone else who has the least idea of what happened before and what’s going on now. Get someone to the hospital and find out what’s going on. I want to know ASAP. Somebody better make this mess go away.”
“If you’d listened to me ages ago,” Baron told him, “you might have avoided this whole thing. Fix it now.”
Verne looked at his cell when the call ended. And just how was he supposed to do that?”
Everyone was still in the trauma center when Hank got to the hospital. He found Alex at once, standing impatiently in the waiting area.
“What’s the status?” he demanded.
“Sean has a fractured forearm. Not a full break , so that’s good. Bruises everywhere and a concussion, which means they’re keeping him overnight so he can be awakened and checked every couple of hours. Although they may have to tie him to the bed to do it. His vision is still a little blurry. He can grip a hand okay but his balance is a bit off.”
“And how is she doing?” Hank almost didn’t want to ask the question.
“Broken collarbone. Thought it was the arm at first. Also lots of bruises. A severe concussion. She was still unconscious when they took her into surgery.”
“Surgery for what?” Hank imagined all kinds of dire things.
Alex’s face was very serious. “They’re having to remove her spleen”
“Shit,” Hank spat out. “Just plain shit. How long will she be in surgery?”
“Hard to say. And Sean, as out of it as he is, keeps demanding to see her. This is one huge shitstorm.”
“For which we’d better have some answers.”
At that moment, the doors to the trauma waiting area opened again, and Sadie strode in.
“Where is she, and what’s the status?” She glared at everyone.
“It was close to an hour before everyone was satisfied they had all the information available. Zoe would be going to ICU, and Sean was causing a riot, yelling about Zoe. They finally got it all sorted out and Alex, Hank, and Sadie settled into the big private room Sadie had ordered them to move Sean to. The three of them were standing against the wall, chatting softly, when they heard Sean’s gruff voice.
“I want to see Zoe.” The voice was slightly slurred from all the meds he’d received but there was no mistaking the words.
They all hurried to the side of Sean’s bed.
“And you will as soon as the doctor okays it,” Hank told him.
“I want a status report.”
Hank knew holding back would only make the matter worse, so he gave him a brief rundown.
“She’s in the best place to get the care she needs,” Hank assured him. “I know both the doctor and surgeon taking care of her, and they’re top notch.”
“They’d better be.” He swallowed. “My life was shit before she came into it. I know it’s only been a couple of days, but I’m pretty sure it will go back to shit without her.”
“I promise you’ll get to see her the minute they okay it,” Hank reassured him. “Now, will you please try to calm down? You’ll be no good to her if you make yourself worse.”
“What about the photos I took? Are they any help?”
“ You bet. I had Hank send them to his war room,” Alex explained. “They can do their searches without using public data bases and tipping someone off.”
“Charlie Zero is heading it, and I asked for regular updates,” Hank confirmed. “We’ll get those fuckers.”
“I’m going to stay here with you, Sean.” Sadie sat in the chair Hank pulled up to