I nodded.
“Darius will be here in five minutes with an Explorer. He’ll take you to the hospital. I’ll follow later,” Luke went on.
I nodded again.
He took the washcloth from me and gave it to Sissy. “Head back, gentle pressure. Ava and I need to talk. You okay with that?”
This time Sissy nodded.
I followed him to the utility recess behind the bathroom and, once there, he turned to me.
“I had a man on her. That man’s off the radar,” he told me.
He was standing close and I had my head tilted back to look at him. I made no sound or other physical reaction to this statement. Internally, however, my lungs forgot how to work.
“Darius will take you to the hospital. He’ll also stick around. Matt’s off duty but he’s right now gettin’ a call. He’ll relieve Darius. We’re going to find Bobby. You don’t leave that hospital unless it’s with me or one of the boys. We can’t get Matt, you’ll get Jack or Ike. Jack’s white, light brown hair, six two, built like a Mack truck. You’re concerned about his identity, you ask him what he saw you doin’ on the monitors Sunday, only you, me and him know about that. Ike’s light-skinned black, bald, about two inches taller than you and has a tattoo up the left side of his neck. You can’t mistake Ike. Darius won’t leave unless he has relief. Anything happens to Darius, you get to a safe place and call the police, got me?”
I nodded but asked, “You had a man on her?”
“Why did you think I let you leave the loft on your own yesterday? I knew you were covered. Bobby followed you two all morning.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You weren’t speakin’ to me, remember?”
Oh yeah. Right. I forgot about that. Moving on.
“Do you think Bobby’s okay?” I asked.
“Gonna find out.”
I nodded.
When he didn’t say more, I asked, “Anything else?”
“Yeah, show me your hands.”
I blinked at him. “What?”
“Babe, lift up your hands.”
I lifted my hands, palms up.
His eyes dropped down to them and he whispered, “Solid.”
“What?”
His hands closed over mine and he gave them a jerk so I fell into him, our hands up between our bodies.
“You’re solid. You aren’t even shakin’.”
I stared at him, not knowing what he was talking about and he took one hand away, wrapped it behind my neck, brought me to him and kissed my nose.
He pulled back and looked me in the eyes. “Proud of you, Ava.” I felt happy heat spread through me at his words before his eyes went ultra warm and he continued. “Not one of those women who can hack this kind of life? Bullshit.”
He said it in his soft, gentle, affectionate voice and I knew I had just screwed myself royally. I couldn’t have exactly run around like a raving lunatic, not with Sissy bleeding and crying. Still, I should have at least affected a minor hissy fit to save my own hide.
Shit.