“He… he punched me, Ava. Right in the nose,” Sissy told me

“Who, honey?” I asked, wiping.

“I don’t know. I don’t know. I’ve never seen him before. He wa… was so big.”

My eyes slid to Luke. He had a fist to his hip, head bowed and he was listening to the phone at his ear.

“Do you think it’s broken?” she asked.

My eyes came back to Sissy. “I don’t know, Sis. Wait until Luke gets off the phone, he’ll look at it.”

Hearing his name, Luke’s head swung around and his eyes came to me.

“Right. Out,” he said. He beeped the phone off and walked to us, the whole time his eyes on me.

“Can you look at her nose?” I asked, shocked to find my voice sounded normal, not shaky and hysterical like I felt inside. “She’s worried it’s broken.”

Luke’s eyes stayed on me a beat, they were intense, partly angry, partly hyper-alert and partly something else. Then they turned to Sissy and I watched his always-hard face grow slightly soft. I was holding the washcloth to her nose but pulled it away as Luke put his hand to her forehead, gently pressing it back. He looked at Sissy’s nose and then turned back to me.

“She’s okay. We’ll take her to the hospital to make sure.”

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.

* * * * *

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.