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“She’s fine. She doesn’t want to see anyone.”
“You’re not leaving her alone, are you?”
“No, I’m not leaving her alone! And you’d damn well better start apologizing or there’s a good possibility I’ll never speak to you again.”
Molly crossed her arms. “She asked me not to call you. What was I supposed to do?”
His throat burned with remembered panic. “Call me.”
“I wanted to, Quinn. I swear I wanted to. But she said you were on your way out of town and…Well, you’re not really her boyfriend, are you?”
“Yeah, thanks. I’ve heard that a little too often in the past few days. I’m just an emotionless sex worker. I get the message.”
“I’m sorry!” She reached for his arm again, but Quinn shook her off.
“If you want to make it up to me, send your boyfriend over here. I want to know what the hell is really going on.”
Molly, regret seemingly forgotten, rolled her eyes. “He’s not going to reveal any ‘official police business,’ not even to you.”
“We’ll see.”
“Ooo, tough guy,” she muttered, then quick-stepped backward when she caught his glare. “Fine, I’ll send Ben over. Tell Lori I’ll come by later.”
Quinn nodded, but he was already heading toward the back. The police couldn’t be here all the time, and Lori Love needed his protection, whether she wanted it or not.
* * *
AFULL TEN HOURSafter she’d fallen asleep, Lori woke up, still groggy. Her heart had traveled to her broken hand while she was unconscious, and it beat there, larger and stronger than it had been when it lived in her chest.
Reaching blindly for the bottle of pills she’d set on her bedside table, Lori fumbled until her fingers closed around it. “Thank God,” she breathed, gripping it so tightly that it bent inward. She was still chasing the pill down with water when the phone rang. Not her cell phone. That had been ruined in the oil. She grabbed the cordless phone from its base with an infuriated growl.
“Yeah?”
“Lori Love?” a woman’s voice asked in a very professional tone. A lawyer who’d heard rumors of a work-place accident, perhaps?
“Yeah.”
“Lori, are you all right? Mr. Jennings said you’d been injured in an accident.”
“Oh, hey, Jane. I’m okay. I broke my hand, but I’m fine.” She lay back down on the bed to wait for the painkiller to kick in. She’d timed it at seventeen minutes the night before. Amazing that only two bones had fractured; it felt more like twenty.
Jane was saying something, but Lori had zoned out. “I’m sorry, Jane, what did you say?”
“I said maybe I should call you back tomorrow.”
“No, I’m good. I haven’t had any coffee, but I should be okay.”
“All right, well, I wanted to tell you that I remembered what I’d overheard. About highway nineteen?”
Lori’s eyes blinked open. “Seriously?”
“It’s not much, but…Have you ever met Harry Bliss?”
“He actually goes byHarryBliss?”
Jane snorted. “Yeah. Anyway, maybe because of his name, he’s a bit of a blowhard. He talks too loud and likes to look important. He’s always on his cell phone. A couple of months ago, he was in the office waiting for Mr. Jennings to show up for a meeting and he got a phone call. If Mr. Bliss doesn’t want people to eavesdrop, he shouldn’t leave the volume turned up to walkie-talkie levels.”
Lori nodded, as if that would encourage Jane.
