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“That might not be a bad idea. Did you ask Ayala about him? If she’d seen him?” He joined her on the next step, and his clean, masculine scent invaded her senses.
She bobbed her head up and down. “As a matter of fact, I did. She hasn’t seen him around.”
“Put it on your list for Porter.” He nudged her up the stairs.
She opened the door, stepped aside to let Joe through and then immediately armed the alarm system.
The peephole in the center of the door caught her eye, and she peered through it. “It’s just a peephole.”
“That’s good news.” Pinching his shoulder, he rolled it back. “I could use a beer, if you’re offering.”
“You and me both.” She pointed to the kitchen. “You know the way. I’m going to call the hospital again to check on Ayala.”
While Joe strolled into the kitchen, looking more at home than she felt here, Hailey placed a call to the hospital. She got a different nurse this time, but the word must’ve gotten around, because this one reported Ayala’s progress without hesitation.
Hailey unzipped her boots and padded into the kitchen, where Joe had parked himself at the center island, sipping his beer.
“Ayala’s doing fine, resting and will be able to check out tomorrow. I tried calling her cell, but it’s dead or she turned it off.”
Joe slid a beer toward her on the granite counter. “Did they confirm the poisoning?”
“The nurse was willing to tell me how Ayala was doing, but she didn’t give me any details like that. We’ll have to ask her tomorrow when we pick her up.”
“You’re bringing her back here?”
Was that disappointment in Joe’s voice?
“Of course. I’m not sending her to a hotel after what she just went through.”
“Yeah, yeah, of course not.” Joe took a gulp of beer. “What did she just go through? What was all that about? Someone followed us to the restaurant? Knew we were going to be there? Slipped something into that martini?”
“I don’t know.” She tilted her head and wrapped her hair around one hand. “What are you saying?”
“Why was Ayala so quick to yell poison? Didn’t she just get through telling us she couldn’t hold her booze? I imagine a martini in San Francisco is a powerful thing.”
“You saw her.” Hailey ran a fingernail down the damp label on her bottle. “She was passed out on the bathroom floor. Did that look like a woman who’d imbibed two appletinis to you?”
Joe lifted his shoulders. “I don’t understand how someone could’ve poisoned her at that restaurant.”
“The same way someone replaced a peephole in a hotel door with a mini camera.”
“But they knew Marten was staying at that hotel. Who knew we were going to that restaurant, and why hit Ayala only? Why not spike your wine or even my beer?”
“For someone who’s spent the better part of two days telling me my life was in danger because of that kidnapping, you’re doing an about-face.”
“Not at all. Your life is in danger...and so is Ayala’s. I’m just not sure how this all went down.”
“Maybe we’ll have a better idea after talking to Ayala tomorrow.”
Hailey took a sip of her beer and rolled her shoulders back, loosening up a few muscles...and a few inhibitions. “So, do you still live in Boston when you’re not deployed?”
He put his beer on the counter and caught a bead of moisture with his thumb on the outside of the bottle.
The pause lasted so long, Hailey had a chance to gulp down another mouthful of beer.
“I don’t live in Boston anymore. I have a place in Colorado—fresh air and a view ringed by mountains.”
Warming to the subject, Hailey asked, “Is your family still there? Your mother?”
“My mom will never leave South Boston, but at least we got her settled in a nicer place.”
Hailey’s heart skipped a beat. “We?”
“My siblings and I—my two brothers and one of my sisters.”
“One of your sisters? How many do you have? How many in your family?”
“Five of us—I have two younger brothers and two younger sisters. My youngest sister is still living with Mom, and she...has issues.”
