would be prudent for everyone close to us to have it. So now my question is, where are your bodyguards?”
I shrugged. “How the hell am I supposed to know? They’d been at the hospital, but I left this morning after I heard the news about Scottie. No one was around then.”
Cruze fished his phone out of his pocket, and moments later was talking to Drex. “I don’t know where they are. Raiden said they weren’t there when he left the hospital.”
Cruze’s questioning glance had me nodding. “No one was around when I left. I assumed they’d gone home.”
Drex must’ve heard me because I heard him shout, “Fuck.” And then he followed it with, “We need to put a search team out on them. I’m hiring more men.”
Cruze answered, “Do what you have to do and send us the bill.”
Cruze ended the call and asked, “So you left without speaking to the doctor?”
“Yeah. He told me last night he’d release me today.”
Cruze grabbed my arm. “Let’s go.”
“Where?”
“Back to the hospital. You’re not leaving without your doctor’s approval.”
His bodyguards drove us, and we went back to my room. We all stayed put, waiting for the doctor to arrive. A nurse came in and gave me a dressing down.
“Mr. Kent, we looked all over for you.”
“I had to leave for a while.”
“Next time, please let us know,” she huffed. “We searched everywhere for you.”
The doctor took his sweet time in getting here. When he did, it was to write me two prescriptions and orders for occupational therapy.
“You’re on the schedule for tomorrow. They’ll expect you at ten a.m.”
“I’ll be there.”
“Call if things aren’t going as we discussed and I’ll see you in my office in one week.”
“Got it, doc, and thanks.”
Cruze had stuffed my things into the bag he’d packed for me and we left. On the way to work, he asked again about my office.
“I want it like it was before. It was perfect that way.”
“Fine, I’ll take care of it. Why don’t you go home and rest?”
Giving him the stink eye, I said, “I’ve had enough rest to last me a lifetime. I’m ready to work. We have databases and software to develop and a killer to hunt down.”
“Slow your roll, bro. We have Wolfe’s team to find the killer. Let’s just focus on what we do best.”
I thrummed my bandaged fingers on my leg. The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. “I think we all need to stay together, as in one house.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You, Acer, Isla, the baby, Isla’s mom, and our parents. I don’t like the fact that we’re so spread out. That would allow us to have more men too.”
Cruze didn’t respond.
“We all enjoy our privacy, but maybe it’s time to give something up. Both of us have houses large enough. It makes sense, Cruze.”
He rubbed his eyes and agreed. “Yeah, you’re right. Now we have to sell Little Guy and his wife on the idea. Isla thinks she can take care of them.”
“That’s how we sell it. Isla can be in charge of it.”
“I like the way you think, bro.”
Later, after lunch, we called the family into Kent Enterprises. Everyone was there, except for Isla’s mother. We explained what our plans were.
Cruze put me in charge of presenting the idea to them. “We face a dangerous threat, which is why we have bodyguards. We’d like to take it a step further and have everyone move in together until this is over. Cruze and I both have immense houses that can fit everyone. Isla, we’d love for you to be in charge of Operation Safe Kent. You have the most experience, but seeing as we all have bodyguards assigned to us, we figured we could double up on the manpower at the house, making us all safer. Having us together would help us monitor each other.”
If I thought Isla would immediately jump in, I was wrong. She frowned, then began, “One thing that makes sense is the manpower. One thing that doesn’t is having us all in one place. I think we should split up between your place and Cruze’s. Here’s why. Having everyone in one place makes it too easy for them. One target. Two targets are more difficult.”
“Good point,” Cruze said.
“That would still allow us to have more men at each place and keep a better handle on things. But if O’Brien tried to hit one place, it would be more difficult to hit all of us that way.”
Acer