Straight Flushed (Hot Pursuit #1)(15)

I stewed on his words for a beat then exhaled a deep breath. “Yeah, I got you.” I closed my eyes. He’d failed to bite on my bait, and the sorrow inside me that I’d tried to drown in anger rose back to the top.

“What’s gotten into you?”

“Nothing,” I sighed and bit the inside of my cheek. “Do you think I’ve gotten sloppy lately?”

“You sure you didn’t hit your head? If you keep talking like this I’m going to call someone in here to and get you a CAT scan.” I glared at him, not entertained by his quips. “No, Diana Cain, I don’t think you’ve gotten sloppy. I trust you with my life and that’s not something I say lightly.”

“You sure?”

“Positive. Where the hell is this coming from?”

“Nowhere. Never mind.”

“All right.” He rubbed my arm. “How’re the ribs? They fix you up yet?”

“No, I’m still waiting for them to come back. They need to do something else—I don’t know what— and write me a prescription for pain medicine.”

As if on cue the doctor came through the curtain, and Vance excused himself. He said he wanted to give me some privacy while the doctor looked me over, but I think it bothered him seeing me hurt as well.

The doctor went through the details of my recovery. The bad news was there was no treatment for broken ribs other than time. I needed to rest, and the thought of sitting around and doing nothing made my skin itch. I’d figure out a way to deal with it.

With prescriptions for Percocet and a strong anti-inflammatory in my pocket, I emerged from behind my curtain, holding my arm tightly at my side. I found Vance in the waiting room talking to a couple B&B Specialists, agents Andrews and Capinski. They ran the Isolated Protection Division.

“What’s up?” I asked, joining the conversation.

“Hey, Di,” Andrews said. He was dressed in a crisp suit. “How they hangin’?”

I laughed gently, conscious that any emotion too intense would spark more pain. “Low and to the left?”

“Seriously,” he said through a laugh. “How long till you’re like new again?”

“A couple weeks then I’ll be back in business,” I said. “Where’d they pull you from tonight? Hot date?”

“Yeah, me and Missy were trying to celebrate our second anniversary early because she’s going to be out of town on the actual day. Oh well, it’s a good thing she loves me so much since I had to bail out in the middle of our date.”

“It sure is.” I winked. “So, what’s up? I can kind of guess since you guys are here, but…”

“Avery is spooked and wants to lay low for a bit until things settle down,” Capinski chimed in. He swiped his fingers through his ash blond hair. “A couple guys took him to his house to gather his things. Then, we’re going to do what we do.”

“Was he okay?” I asked. The picture of blood dripping off the tip of Avery’s nose was fresh in my mind.

“He’s totally fine. He didn’t even need stitches. They glued the wound together and he was all set.”

“That’s a relief.” I nodded. “Well, take care of him. He had a hell of a ride today.”

“Will do,” Capinski said with a curt nod. “Take care of you.”

Outside of the hospital, Vance hailed us a cab. We slid across the backseat. The interior smelled heavily of vanilla air freshener and Black and Mild cigarillos.

“We can go to your place first. I assume that’s what you want to do?” Vance asked.

“Can I come over to your place for a little while? I need a drink.”

The thought of going back to my empty apartment was enough to put me on a couch in the land of sorrow and tears. I hoped some time with Vance would buffer that inevitable moment when it did come.

“Do you now? Interesting.”

“And I was thinking about a round of cards maybe? I can take another cab home later.”

Vance clapped his hands together and rubbed his palms. “Oh, look out! Somebody has got a fire in her belly.”

Years ago, Vance invited me over to his place after one of our training classes and educated me on playing cards, as well as the fine art of bluffing. I thought I did all right, but he was still better. It was a great way for us to blow off steam and had turned into a semi-regular occurrence. One day I hoped to surpass him with my skills.

“What happened with Gabe? Another blowout?” he said quietly enough so the driver didn’t hear.

“Yeah, only worse. I’m pretty sure we just broke up.” My voice broke a little, and I swallowed the lump in my throat. “But I don’t want to talk about it.”

“You broke up? Over what?”

I huffed and pursed my lips. “You don’t want to know.”

The last thing I needed was to feed Vance’s ego over Gabe’s inexplicable jealousy, not to mention, Gabe’s sudden doubt over my profession.

“That’s where you’re wrong. I do want to know. Talk to me.”

“Well, like I said.” I glanced down at my lap. “I don’t want to.”

“Fair enough.” He laid his hand gently on my knee and squeezed. “You’ll be okay. I’ll help you through this.”