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Sabrina’s captured the nurses’ hearts in the two days that she’s been here. As we move down the hallway, they come to wish her well, many dropping a kiss on her cheek and reminding her she promised to call. She’s easy to like, and for me, very easy to love.
While Damian and Chloe load the trunk with flowers and stuffed bears and balloons, I gently lift Sabrina out of the chair and settle her into the passenger seat. Everyone has been generous. Caleb, Zeke, her coworkers, Dr. Nestor and his wife. They even dropped in to visit and bring her homemade soup. Chloe and Damian were in and out, Chloe remaining as a fixture in the room most times.
“I can walk to the truck on my own,” Sabrina says. Her voice is much stronger, but still not back to normal.
“Not today.” I give her a smile and snap the seat belt in place. She looks around and sees Chloe walking away hand in hand with Damian.
“They didn’t say goodbye.” Her expression saddens.
“That’s ’cause they’re meeting us back at our place.” I turn on the engine, and it hums to life.
“Pardon?” Her brows go up quizzically.
“Sorry, buttercup, you’re stuck with me. I’m taking you back to my place. You’re staying with me.” I pull out onto the main road and head toward home.
“You need to work,” she says.
“I’m taking a few days off. Then we’ll figure it out.”
“You don’t have to.”
I glance over and tell her straight. “If you think I’m going to let the girl I love, who just told me she loves me back, go home alone to recover from something she never should have been exposed to, then you’re nutty.”
Without saying a word, she says it all by resting her hand on my thigh. She tips her head back against the headrest and closes her eyes.
SEVEN
Alejandro
ALEX
Sabrina didn’t say a word when I took her bag into the main bedroom. She’s being thoroughly entertained by Zeke and his laid-back personality. He’s cracking jokes and just being his own loveable self. Chloe’s being a mother hen, constantly fluffing and arranging pillows around Sabrina like she wants to wrap her in cotton to keep her safe.
Caleb and I step out on the back porch to talk. Damian and Zeke join us. We’ve been trying to put all the clues together and still haven’t come up with the identity of the men who attacked Sabrina or what House 24 means.
To say that I’m perturbed about the lack of forward movement on this case is an understatement.
“I’ve done every search imaginable on every combination of House 24. I’ve got nothing that links Tursk,” Zeke says in frustration.
“His sister gave us an open invitation to take whatever we needed from his stuff. So far, we’ve come up empty,” Damian says. He too is upset with the stalemate.
Caleb sighs. “When we get stuck, we go back to the beginning.”
“The beginning starts with Sabrina,” I say. I’m not too thrilled about letting the episode resurface. Damian was protective as fuck when shit was going down with Chloe. I get it now! I understand the need to shield the woman you love from the ugly part of the world.
“Forensics first,” Caleb states. “I’ll head over there first thing in the morning. Maybe they missed something.”
“They’re pretty thorough,” Zeke replies. He’s not wrong. The guy in charge is a stickler for detail.
“True. But we’ll look at this through a fresh lens. We’re not the only ones looking for answers. Until we’re done, a lot of people are in the line of fire. Sabrina, Ruby, maybe her kid.” Caleb shrugs and blows out a heavy breath.
“We need Sammas. There’s a connection we’re missing,” I tell them. “I don’t want Bri left here on her own, and I want to be in on the discussion with Sammas.”
“No worries. I can set up my shit here. She won’t be alone,” Zeke says. “If you want to set up a kick-ass alarm system, I know where to get one, and I can hook it up while I’m here.”
“Yeah, let’s do it.”
“We got a plan, then? Caleb goes to the morgue.” Damian points to me and says, “We’ll hit up Sammas again, and Zeke is on security detail.” He rakes a hand through his thick sandy brown hair.
