She took her cheek from my chest and nodded, but she didn’t let me go.
Eddie watched her a beat and then said, “I’l cal Marcus.”
Something changed in the air. I saw it in Daisy’s face and in Jet’s but I didn’t know what it was. Then Eddie looked at me. “You know those guys?”
I shook my head but said, “They took Bil y.”
“Bil y isn’t with them now,” he noted.
I just stared at him.
“Fuck,” Eddie finished.
He could say that again.
* * * * *
I was sitting on a couch in the room where I gave my statement to Detective Marker. Daisy was by the door, being held by a good-looking, dark-haired man that I knew had to be her husband, Marcus. He was ignoring some very weird looks he was getting from al the cops in the room.
Indy was six feet away, talking to some handsome black man in uniform. Jason was standing with them, his face stil had not morphed back to the good-natured Jason I knew.
Jet was sitting on one side of me, Annette on the other and we were al holding hands.
Eddie was talking on the phone.
Then, some guy who was on another phone said, “Yo, Eddie!”
Eddie put his hand over the receiver and lifted his chin.
“Hank got ‘em,” the guy said.
Eddie’s eyes slid to me.
“Thank the goddess,” Annette breathed.
I stared at Eddie and felt my chest squeeze.
Before, I thought I was leaving town to guard my heart.
Now, I had to leave town to guard my friends.
* * * * *
What seemed like forever later, Hank and Al y walked into the room. Al y had been in the 4Runner with Hank and he’d taken her with him, hel bent on going after the bad guys. This was talked about by the cops like it wasn’t a big deal and I got the impression they al knew Al y was the kind of girl who could handle herself in a crisis.
I could tel from across the room that Hank’s body was taut, he was wired and he was seriously and completely pissed off.
He scanned the room until his eyes fel on me and then he came straight to me.
I got up from the couch.
He stopped in front of me, toe-to-toe, total y in my space.
He tilted his head down and looked me directly in the eye.
“You’re stayin’,” he declared in his authoritative voice.
Shit.