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Five
Elias drove the short distance to the hospital in silence while Bianca got ahold of herself. It wasn’t his fault her family had put a tail on her. Or that her brothers treated her like a dangerous child, toddling around with a bazooka that could, at any second, blow up her family’s sparkling reputation. She’d done that all by herself.
She looked around the inside of Elias’ car. It was a beautiful muscle car with black leather seats with red trim, and a cobra emblem tastefully repeated in several places.
“This isn’t a standard police car, is it?” she asked.
Elias chuckled. “Nope.”
“Looks fast,” she observed.
“It’s a Shelby Cobra. And yes, it’s very fast,” he said, apparently amused by the understatement.
She nodded, deciding something. “We never would have outrun you.”
He looked over at her, his eyes wide. “When I pulled you over?” he asked. She nodded. “Was trying to outrun me discussed?” he continued.
“Not by me,” Bianca said defensively.
“If I may offer just one piece of advice. You never,everflee the scene—”
“I know that!” she said, laughing. “I made her stop. Obviously.”
For a moment they shared a smile, but a troubled look crossed his face as his eyes darted down to her mouth. Bianca knew he was remembering what they had done, and she didn’t want to see how much he regretted it. She turned her head and looked out the window.
They pulled up to the hospital and Elias drove around to the secondary lot where there was reserved parking. Elias led Bianca to a door in the back, her driver shadowing them the whole time. A uniformed security guard was waiting with the door slightly ajar.
Elias pulled his identification out and showed the black leather wallet to the guard, who immediately stiffened into attention and said, “Agent Copeland. I’ll take you up.”
Bianca stared at Elias.Agent?
They went to a double-wide service elevator with a metal gate that needed to be drawn across the door before it would ascend. When they got off the elevator, it was into an administrative hallway. There were no doctors or nurses anywhere, and it almost didn’t seem as if they were in a hospital at all, at least to Bianca, who was only acquainted with the emergency and treatment areas of hospitals.
An attractive woman in her forties wearing a lean pantsuit on her fit body and a lariat with her credentials around her neck came forward as soon as she saw Elias get off the elevator. Her lariat was flipped over, showing the blank back, and Bianca had no idea who she was.
The woman looked Bianca up and down, her eyes catching everything. She wasn’t being judgmental, just astute. It gave Bianca a moment to look her over, as well. The woman was shorter than Bianca by a few inches, had auburn hair, and she was covered in cute freckles. She had light brown eyes that were almost golden and a mischievous look to her.
“Is this your witness?” the auburn-haired woman asked.
“She might be able to identify the person in the video,” Elias replied. “If you’ll follow us, Miss Loring?
Bianca didn’t know what they meant bywitnessand suddenly felt like she didn’t know what was going on. As far as she knew she hadn’t witnessed a crime. She warily followed them down the hallway to a darkened room full of monitors and computer screens. They sat her down in front of one of them.
“This is security footage taken at the admitting desk yesterday evening at this hospital,” Elias said in a formal way, almost as if he were talking to a small group of strangers and not her.
Elias gestured for her to look down at the screen and not at him. She saw an older man wearing a baseball hat from behind.
“Oh! That’s Mr. Ronson,” Bianca said immediately. “That’s Eden’s dad.”
Elias and the woman looked at each other. “Are you sure that’s not Maxwell Ronson, her brother?” the woman asked.
Bianca laughed nervously, wondering how anyone could confuse them. Even accounting for their age difference, physically, they were nothing alike. Rick had a bloated face and belly from too much whiskey, and Maxwell took care of his body. He was in excellent shape. Sure, there were many similarities between them—they were father and son—but to her, the differences between them were glaring.
“Ah, yeah, I’m sure,” she said. “I’ve known all of them pretty much my whole life, and that’s Rick Ronson, not House. Sorry, Maxwell.” She frowned, shaking her head. “So, Rick knows where Eden is?” she asked.
Elias and the woman exchanged another speaking look and the woman said. “Thank you so much, Miss Loring.”
“I think we’re done here,” Elias said, taking Bianca by the arm and moving her out of the chair.
