There was an edging sense of peace sliding over me and I wanted it. Peace was good. Peace was great. I liked peace. Who didn’t like peace?

“No really,” I whispered, letting the sweet, peaceful feeling steal over me. “It only matters if there’s someone to care if you don’t wake up. It’s okay if I don’t wake up because there’s no one to care.”

After I said that, with tremendous gratitude, I welcomed the peace.

* * * * *

Lee

Lee held the phone to his ear, listening to it ring but kept his eyes on Hector and Luke.

“Yeah?” he heard Eddie say in his ear.

Eddie Chavez was Lee Nightingale’s best friend. He was Hector’s brother. Lastly, he was a cop.

“I’m at Denver Health. Hector and Luke just brought in Sadie Townsend,” Lee told Eddie.

“Fuck. What happened?” Eddie asked and Lee could tell by his voice that Eddie was up and on the move.

“Don’t know. Jack called me in. She drove into the parking garage under the offices. Jack showed me her tape. He recorded her driving into the garage and getting out of her car. Maybe five minutes he got before he left the surveillance room to get to her so he didn’t switch to the camera on the stairs. She was in bad shape, covered in blood.”

“Luke and Hector brought her in?”

“Luke says Hector wouldn’t wait for an ambulance.”

They both knew what that meant. They also both knew what Sadie meant. They’d been through this a number of times before.

So far they’d been lucky but luck had a way of running out. It had, in the past, gotten pretty f**king ugly.

But never this ugly.

“I’ll be there in ten,” Eddie said.

Lee moved several steps away from Luke and Hector.

“Something else,” he said to Eddie.

Silence then, “Shit.”

“Jack says she was in her nightgown and wasn’t wearing any underwear. She was bleeding between her legs.”

More silence then some cursing in Spanish then, “You called the boys?”

“Jack’s on it.”

“You better call Shirleen, there’s the chance Vance, Mace and Luke’ll lose it too.”

Lee thought there was a chance, if this woman meant what Lee thought she meant to Hector, that Eddie might lose it too.

“Jack’s on it,” was all Lee said.

“You got any idea who did it to her?”

Lee closed his eyes and clenched his jaw. It took an effort but he got control.

“She came in this afternoon, asking for protection. There’s rumors she’s having troubles with the Balduccis but she didn’t confirm and she didn’t explain. I sent her to Dick Anderson.”

“Anderson is in Alaska, visiting his son.”

“Fuck!” Lee exploded and Luke and Hector’s eyes sliced to him.

Hector didn’t look good; Hector looked about ready to blow.

Lee watched as Luke closed in on Hector, not enough to be predatory but enough to offer containment then Lee turned his back and walked several more feet away.

Lee did not have a good feeling about this and Lee’s feelings were normally right on target.

“Eddie, it had to take everything she had to come to us with Hector there.”

“You’re blaming yourself, amigo. You didn’t beat her up and rape her.”

“She asked me for protection. I sent her away. Told her we had a full caseload.”

“Do you have a full caseload?”

“Yeah. But my caseload lightens when a five foot five, one hundred pound woman needs protection from someone who’d beat her close to death and rape her.”

“Lee, you need to keep your shit together. This is Sadie Townsend. We know –”

“We know,” Lee interrupted.

“Then you gotta keep cool because Hector is gonna lose it.”

Lee glanced at Hector. He was surprised Hector hadn’t thrown a chair through the window by now. Hector was a very edgy guy.

Lee pulled in a breath. “Hector’s gonna lose it.”

“I’ll be there in ten.”

* * * * *

Eddie

Eddie turned to Jet.

His fiancée was already out of bed and getting dressed.

“Lee needs Indy,” he said.

Jet nodded then pulled a t-shirt over her head.

“Sadie’s gonna need –”

Jet yanked the t-shirt down and walked to Eddie, leaned in, put her hand on his stomach, got up on her tiptoes and kissed him lightly on the mouth.

“I’ll take care of it, get to Hector,” she said.

When she moved away, Eddie grabbed her by the neck and pulled her to him.

His kiss wasn’t light.

Then he was gone.

* * * * *

Lee

By the time the doctor came to the waiting room, Luke, Hector and Lee had been joined by Eddie, Lee’s brother Hank (also a cop) and four men that worked for Lee: Vance, Darius, Mace and Bobby.

Lee had pulled in the boys because if Hector (or Luke, for that matter) went gonzo at whatever news they were going to get, they were going to need manpower to lock them down.

Lee had recruited men who, it turned out, had a strong ethic about women and how to treat them and an even stronger ethic about how they felt about men who didn’t treat them right. This wasn’t on the job application but, bottom line, it was the only kind of man Lee would have in his employ.

This was a situation that could blow his men apart. It had happened before and they knew the drill but it had never been this bad.

What he wasn’t prepared to see was Jet walking in with Indy, Roxie, Ava and Stella. He wasn’t prepared for it but when Jet smiled at Eddie and he realized Eddie had arranged it, he was glad for it. Nothing soothed the savage beast like a woman’s touch. His wife Indy’s crew (known as the Rock Chicks) would likely be busy that night.

Indy walked straight to him, put her arms around his waist and kissed the underside of his jaw. Usually this worked like magic but Lee didn’t feel soothed.

She tipped her head back to look up at him and whispered. “It’ll be okay.”

“Yeah,” he said but he didn’t agree. She hadn’t seen the tape. Fuck, but he’d never forget what he saw on that tape.

“It’s always okay,” she said, breaking into his thoughts.

“You don’t know who this is,” Lee replied.

“Yes I do, but Lee…” She hesitated because she didn’t want to say what she was going to say next then she continued, “You have to know, Daisy doesn’t think much of –”