“Then uncomplicate it for me,” she snaps.
I remind myself her reaction is one out of love and concern, and try not to react to her tone.
Assuming Hugo hasn’t had a chance to talk to her after my heart-to-heart with him earlier, I fill her in on the information I shared regarding my brother.
“So, either he got sprung and immediately managed to really piss someone off, or this is something that precedes his conviction, and being in jail may have actually kept him safe,” Savvy summarizes.
“I’m not sure what is going on, other than he mentioned he’s in big trouble.”
“And apparently doesn’t think twice about dragging his little sister right smack-dab in the middle of it,” she fumes.
“You think he could be connected to the fire too?”
She scoffs.“Not a doubt in my mind.There are no coincidences,” she states confidently.
Hugo said something similar.
Dammit, I guess I was hoping maybe she’d offer up alternative suggestions, so I could at least pretend my brother hadn’t sold me out.
I lie back on the bed and cover my eyes with my forearm against the glare of the ceiling light.The mattress moves when Savvy flops down beside me.Her hand finds mine and she squeezes my fingers lightly.I turn my head to find her looking back at me.
“I’m sorry I was pissed, but I worry about you.How am I supposed to have your back, when I don’t even know there’s a threat?”
“I know, I just…”
I let the sentence drift off; I don’t really have an answer, only excuses.
“By the way, how are you feeling?”I ask her, eager to change the subject to something other than my pathetic excuse for a life.
“Hell, girl, was that supposed to be a segue?”she comments, chuckling as she pushes herself up to sitting.“I’ve heard smoother attempts from my father, and that’s saying something.The man is as slick as a ball of barbed wire.”
“I am fine.However, talking about slick men,” she adds with an inquisitive raised eyebrow.“You and Hugo?”
Now it’s my turn to snort out a laugh.
“And that was supposed to be smooth?”I accuse her, sitting up as well as I dangle my legs off the side of the mattress.“He is…persistent.”
Never mind that I’m an absolute limp noodle when it comes to willpower around that man, but I’ll keep that to myself.There was nothing limp about the loss of control that somehow propelled me onto his lap.
Nothing limp at all.
“I’d ask you what that shameful blush is about, but I don’t think I wanna know.I have to work with the man, you know?”she jokes, lightly bumping her shoulder against mine.
I’m saved from attempting to make excuses for my cheek’s reactive capillaries when Savvy’s phone rings.
“Let me quickly take this.”
I use the interruption to dart into the bathroom to splash some cold water on my face and use the facilities.When I return, Savvy is off the phone.
“That was Hugo, he wants me to call Tessa Androtti.She was the CID agent on the murder case last year.”
I vaguely remember her.The shock of finding out someone I’d known for many years was in fact a serial killer blurred everything else to do with that scary time.I still get the chills, thinking how close Carson had come to losing his life to that man.Hugo had been beside himself.
But I do recall something about that woman had been a bit intimidating.
“Why?”a hint of green curiosity prompts me to ask.
“Apparently, she’s in the market for a new job.So, I should probably get on the horn before someone else snatches her up.”
