Amanda turned to Carter. She wanted to hug him, but it didn’t feel right celebrating Trent in the arms of another man. “He was lucky, wasn’t he?” She knew things could have been far worse.
Malone put a hand on her shoulder.
“I don’t want to leave this hospital until I can see him.”
“You just heard that won’t be until the morning. You should get some rest,” Carter told her.
She couldn’t imagine going home and crawling into bed like nothing happened, like her world hadn’t spun upside down. “There’s no way I can do that. The woman who did this to him is somewhere in this hospital, and I need to talk to her.”
“Just tell me her name, and I’ll track her down.”
“I don’t have her name.” Then it was like her mind cleared. She had the officer’s number, and she called him. He answered on the second ring. “Tell me you haven’t let her out of your sight.”
“I’m looking at her right now through the glass. They’re just wrapping up her surgery.”
“The diagnosis?”
“She’s going to live.”
“Good.”Because I’m going to make her regret it!
FORTY-NINE
Amanda only left the hospital at both Malone’s and Carter’s insistence. Malone told her a search of Sullivan Gabay’s DC rowhouse turned up incriminating evidence. He had a bank account in the Caymans. It was enough to bring him in, but Malone said he could get comfortable in a holding cell overnight.
Carter came home with her and spent the night. Though she felt bad for thinking she was keeping him up with all her tossing and turning. Whenever she drifted off, she had feverish dreams that replayed the hell that had transpired in that bedroom.
She gave up trying to sleep when her eyes opened at six AM, but she lay in bed thinking over everything. They had some answers but not all of them. Such as a solid motive for Sullivan Gabay to want Dominique dead. Then there was Howard Gabay, who alluded to doing something illegal that he thought would be discovered from their digging into Dominique. Whatever the hell that was…
And did any of this have to do with Dominique’s lowball offer to buy Gabay’s firm? If so, wouldn’t Dominiquesuspect he’d want her dead for that alone? Or was there more to this? Howard’s illegal transgression?
Her mind was just spinning, trying to make sense of the bare threads. Dominique’s phone and laptop hadn’t shed any light on things, so where else might she keep sensitive information? Presumably intel that would expose Howard’s wrongdoing.
The answer hit and had Amanda throwing the sheets off herself and getting dressed as quietly as she could manage.
“Amanda, what are you doing? Is it time to get up already? What time is it?” Carter whispered across the room.
“It’s only six. Go back to sleep, but I’ve got to go.”
“They won’t let you see him yet.”
Trent…She felt a jab of guilt that Carter surmised she was running to her partner. “I know, but there’s something else I must do.”
“I’ll come with you.”
“No, you won’t. It’s a police matter. Please, just lock up when you leave. No rush.”
“Of course. Be safe.”
She walked around the bed and kissed him goodbye before setting out into the early morning.
The heat and humidity foretold of another blazing record-breaking day ahead. There was even a haze in the air when Amanda pulled up to Dominique’s house. Officers were still posted outside.
Locked down as a crime scene…A flame lit in the pit of her stomach.Trent…
Amanda shook the thought of him aside, needing to focus on why she was here. She flashed her badge at the officer at the door, not having met him before. “Detective AmandaSteele. I was here last night when everything…”Went down, and I could have lost my partner…
“Yes, Detective? I’m sorry to hear that Detective Stenson was injured. Will he be all right?”
