* * * * *
Darius was a quiet, handsome, black guy with twists in his hair.
I figured the Nightingale Investigations job application form had the question “Are you hot? Yes. No. If you answered no, please exit the building.”
He took us to Presbyterian/St. Luke’s and we found out Sissy didn’t have a broken nose.
Darius had been relieved by Matt by the time Sissy was done. Luke had not arrived and I had not had word from him. Matt ushered us to another Black Explorer and we belted in, me in the back.
Matt turned to Sissy. “Where do you want to go?”
I leaned forward and gave her an around-the-seat hug. “You want to go back to your Dad’s?” I asked softly. “I’ll give him a call at work.”
I saw her head shake. “I need coffee.”
I was thinking more along the vein of cookies but I had no say. I wasn’t the one who got punched in the nose by a huge stranger.
I let Sissy go and turned to Matt. “Fortnum’s.”
He grinned. “Gotcha.”
Matt took us to Fortnum’s and stuck around. I figured he did this because he was told to. He seemed wired though, like he needed to do something. I didn’t ask but I guessed he was anxious to find out about Bobby. Then again, I didn’t even know who Bobby was and I was anxious to find out about him.
When we walked in, Tex took one look at Sissy and his eyes didn’t leave her.
Then he said to the two customers in line, “Stand back. VIPs comin’ in.” When they didn’t move fast enough (even though they moved), he pointed the espresso filter at them and boomed, “Back!”
They jumped out of the way and Sissy and I went to the front of the line. We got our coffees, sat on the couch in front of the store window and the Rock Chicks crowded around, Indy, Ally, Daisy, Jet and Roxie were all there.
“What on earth happened, Sugar?” Daisy asked, taking in Sissy’s swollen nose and blackening eyes.
“I’m so stupid,” Sissy whispered.
I was sitting next to her on the couch and I slid my arm around her shoulders and pulled her into me.
“Tell us,” I urged.
She looked at me and then at the girls. Then she took a deep breath and said, “My day’s Wednesday.”
Everyone looked at each other. Then our eyes went to Sissy.
“What, honey?” I asked.
She looked at me. “In the Ava and Luke do the business pool. My day’s tomorrow. I knew you didn’t do it yesterday. But men like morning nookie. I thought I’d come by early, before anything could happen, take you to the gym. Keep you busy all day. I was protecting my fifty bucks.”
Oh, for God’s sake.
I just stopped myself from doing an eye roll when she continued. “I was trying to be funny. I was going to tease you about it,” she whispered to me. “I didn’t mean anything –”
I interrupted her softly. “I know.”
She nodded and went on, glancing around the Rock Chicks. “I was buzzing up when some big guy came up to me, saw which buzzer I was pressing and asked if I was you. I said no, I was Sissy Vincetti.” She shook her head and looked like she was going to cry again as her eyes moved back to me. “I’m so stupid. I shouldn’t have told him my name. Why did I do that?”
I shook my head too, mainly because I didn’t know why she did that and squeezed her shoulder as she took a calming breath.
Then she carried on. “The minute I said my name, he grabbed me. Didn’t say a word, just grabbed me. I started struggling. He pulled me out of Luke’s building and I saw he was taking me to the SUV from Sunday. That’s when I screamed and he punched me in the nose. Then I called your name. He almost had me in the car when Luke got there. He took one look at Luke and ran, leaving his car and everything. Luke told me to wait in the building and took off after him. A few minutes later, Luke came back and we went up to the loft. You know the rest.”
All the Rock Chicks looked at one another.