his life was on the line if anyone, besides the doctor, entered the room. We’ve been here an hour, and Robbie’s been asleep the entire time.
When we had first walked in, Frankie had rushed the bed and started weeping at the broken sight. Nix had looked over at me with identical thoughts running through his head.
Robbie hadn’t been mugged.
I knew work when I saw it, and Robbie had been worked over. I thought back to the night we found her with Frankie, and I knew what she endured had been ten times worse because she hadn’t fully healed. The pain would have been excruciating. She would have suffered terribly and, suddenly, I knew the madness Phoenix had agonized through when we had found Frankie and Robbie at Randy’s.
As a man, if you couldn’t do the basic requirement of protecting your woman, you were worthless.
“We can’t leave her here, Phoenix,” Frankie tearfully whispered. “I’m not going to let them kill her.” When I had told Frankie everything, I had included everything I knew about Gary and Merrick.
After Robbie had kicked me out of her house, I had come home to Sal’s completed report on Gary Spencer and Merrick O’Malley. They were mid-level thugs who dealt with mostly drugs and money laundering. It was an educated guess that the box they were looking for was probably filled with drugs. Money wasn’t handed off for safe keeping. Drugs were.
I had also had Sal run a search on Randy, and the report confirmed Randy as a low-level grunt. He liked to drink, do drugs, and the only redeeming thing that could be said about the asshole was that it appeared he had been faithful to Robbie while they dated.
My guess was Gary and Merrick had given Randy some drugs to sell, and either Randy used it for his own personal reasons, or we had gotten to him before he could sell it. Now they needed their product back or their boss would get the estimated profit from them.
“Frankie, we’re not going to let anyt-”
“Do not tell me we aren’t going to let anything happen to her,” she snapped. “Look at her, Phoenix. We’ve let plenty happen to her.”
“Baby, we didn’t know-”
“Stop it, Phoenix,” she hissed. “We walked out of that house and left her in Cedar Creek to go it alone. I let you decide my life for me, and I left her here to heal alone. I left her here to cope alone. I failed her because I chose you assholes.”
“That’s enough, Frankie,” I growled, trying not to wake Robbie up. “Rehashing our mistakes is not going to help Robbie right now.”
Her sunlit eyes were glowing with shimmering wetness. “I’m not letting them come after her, Ciro,” she whispered-yelled. “I’m not going back to Morgan City without her.” Before I could tell Nix to get his wife under control, Robbie started stirring and Frankie’s raged morphed into frantic concern. She jumped out of her chair and grabbed Robbie’s hand as she stood over the bed. “Robbie?” Only one eye opened and I had to hold myself back from ripping the place apart.
“Fr…Frankie?” she rasped out in a voice damaged by strangulation. I watched as her good eye flew around the room. I saw her recognize Phoenix and then her gaze landed on me. She immediately averted her eye and focused on Frankie. “What…what are you doing here?”
“Mona called me,” Frankie explained. “One of the nurses recognized you from Brighton, and she called to inform someone since you didn’t have your purse or phone on you.”
I watched her good eye lowered as she lied to Frankie. “I was mugged.”
Frankie didn’t comment immediately, but when she did, she said, “Robbie, we know you weren’t mugged.”
Still avoiding eye contact, Robbie muttered, “Yes, I was.”
I couldn’t take it anymore.
I walked over to the other side of the bed, gripped the bars, and snarled, “You think we don’t know work when we see it, Robbie?” She kept her eyes down. “Because I guarantee you, even if Frankie can’t recognize it, Phoenix and I know it when we see it.” I leaned down into her space. “We ought to, since we’re experts at it.”
Robbie looked up at me and gone was the guilt for Frankie. Her good eye sparkled with anger. “I got mugged,” she repeated. “And, even if I didn’t, I don’t see how it’s any fucking business of yours.”
I straightened, all fiery rage morphing into cold fury. “You dare to say that to me after last night?”