“I have to make a quick phone call, Mina.”
“But you’ll come back?”
“Yeah,” I said with a sigh. “I’ll come back.”
Bellamy gave me a cheeky Cheshire grin which pissed me off, but I couldn’t do anything about it, lest I scare Mina.
“Jekyll will go with you for the x-rays, okay?” Bellamy offered, and I scowled at her.
“’K,” Mina whispered, squeezing my hand.
I pulled out my phone and called Needles, then Stoney, and hoped to hell they could work their magic so we could keep everything on the inside.
Hearing the sound of curtain rings sliding over metal, I turned to find a portly older woman frowning up at the privacy drape that was now half-hanging off the rod. “They need to look at that,” she mused, then focused on me.
The woman’s eyes widened, and she let out a quiet gasp. “Who are you?”
“Drea Housen, is that really you?” Bellamy crooned, making it so I didn’t have to answer the woman’s question, and Mina virtually crawled under my cut. I chalked it up to her being afraid of her shadow right now.
“Bellamy?”
“Hi,” Bellamy said, pulling her in for a hug. “How are you?”
“Well, I’m doing pretty good for an old lady. How about you?”
“Great.” Bellamy smiled. “Are you helping to sort out the girls rescued tonight?”
“I am.”
“Well, this is Jekyll. He’s the one who got them out.”
Drea’s lips puckered like she’d just sucked on a lemon, but she worked diligently to wipe the disgust off her face as she forced a smile. “Mr. Jekyll. Thank you.”
“Just Jekyll,” I said.
She turned back to Bellamy. “I’m going to have to find temporary hous—”
“About that,” Bellamy interrupted. “Indigo and I were wondering if we could take the girls to Walker House.”
“And why would you be discussing them at all?”
“Because Jekyll is a good friend of Indigo’s, and she would rather not separate the girls. They’ve been through a lot, and we would love to keep them together if possible.”
“Where is Indigo?” she asked.
“She’s actually upstairs right now.”
“Well, have her come down and speak with me.”
“She can’t,” Bellamy grumbled.
“And why is that?”
Bellamy widened her eyes in my direction, panicking. “Because she’s—”
“Sitting with a sick relative,” I lied. If CPS knew Indigo was beat to shit, they may be less inclined to release the girls to Bellamy. We also needed to get things sorted before Drea discovered about the damage at Walker House, so doing this quickly was crucial.
“Right,” Bellamy tacked on. “He’s in critical condition, so she won’t leave his side. She asked me to make the arrangements.”
