“Yeah. Doug’s about to come to the hospital to check on Rodney and Lee.”
“Rodney and Lee are sharing a room.”
“Oh. Doug will sort it out. He’ll be there soon.”
Nhiari hung up.
“What’s going on?” Rodney demanded.
Still an arsehole even though he was lying in hospital with a gunshot wound. “Doug is on his way over.” At Lee’s questioning look, she added, “One of the Organised Crime team.”
He nodded his thanks.
She studied him. She couldn’t quite believe he’d leapt in front of a knife for her. Especially as she’d been wearing her bullet-proof vest. She wanted to hold his hand and tell him how foolish it was, to ask what the doctor had said and what happened to them from here.
But anything personal would have to wait until she had him alone.
Which might never happen if Organised Crime took over.
Perhaps Doug could organise it for her.
“About time,” Rodney said. “What took them so long?”
Nhiari didn’t answer. This man deserved none of her time. He’d betrayed his role as a police officer by working with Stonefish, and he’d almost destroyed her chance of becoming a police officer at the academy.
A nurse walked in. “Good morning!” She went over to Lee and did his observations before asking, “How’s your pain?”
“Manageable.”
She nodded and turned to Rodney to do the same. Nhiari brushed her hand over Lee’s foot while Rodney was distracted and Lee smiled.
When the nurse was done, Doug walked in with another plain clothes detective who he introduced as Karen.
“Did you get things sorted out there?”
He nodded. “I still need to ask the two who were with you some questions.”
“I sent Sam and Sherlock home to bed, but they’ll be available when you want them.”
“Great.” He turned to the nurse. “Do you have a spare room so we can separate these two?”
She shook her head. “We’re full, but the doctor was talking about discharging Mr Kwong this morning.”
“We can talk in front of Lee,” Rodney said. “The man’s been working against Stonefish from the beginning.”
Nhiari jolted. “What? You believe him?” She pinched herself to make sure she hadn’t drifted into a daydream.
Rodney directed his answer at Doug. “Lee’s highly competent. He could have taken over the operations here when they were failing and fixed everything without breaking a sweat. Instead he helped it crumble.”
She gaped at him, trying to reconcile this man speaking calmly in front of her with the arsehole she knew him to be. Was this his personality with Organised Crime? “Why didn’t you tell Lucas?”
“Because it suited me. I was working undercover at Stonefish. I’ve been building a case against them for years.”
She raised her eyebrows. “You weren’t crooked?” She shouldn’t feel so disappointed.
“No.”
Nhiari glanced at Doug. “Can you confirm?”
