“I do. My job is to help them get better,” she said.
“I have some work to do, so I’ll set up my laptop out here,” he said.
“What are you working on?” she asked.
“Trying to see if Fern’s tattoo is a known brand. One of the officers I’ve been speaking to said he noticed a tattoo on a girl they picked up for solicitation. It was like a brand. Sometimes gangs mark their women. Was just following up on a line of inquiry.”
“Do you think that’s why she was kidnapped, for sex work?” Ava asked him.
“Really, I have no clue. I’m trying to find something that makes sense,” he said.
“Well, so far I haven’t seen anything. But she’s pretty heavily bandaged thanks to her wounds and the state she was found in,” Ava said. “You could check with one of the nurses.”
“Thanks. I’ll make a note to do that,” he said, and taking the mug of coffee that Ava had made him, he got to work answering emails and sending out inquiries. He could the sound of her voice in his bedroom and he realized that he could very easily get used to having her here.
He liked it. A lot.
Ava finished her session and then went to check on Gracie. It was such an ordinary day in spite of the storm raging outside. When she got back to the living room, Chay stood by the door where they had been last night.
“All good?” he asked.
“Yes. My other client postponed until next week, so that’s it. How about you?”
“I’m monitoring the radio and if there’s an emergency I might be called out, but the chief said I was good until the storm passed.”
“Nice. What do you usually do during snowstorms?” she asked as he draped his arm over her shoulder.
“Watch movies, I guess. I don’t have a routine,” he said.
“What? That’s not good. We always played rummy until a definitive winner was found,” Ava said.
“Definitive? Like some kind of championship?”
“Yes. When we were little, Dad would fill up a coffee mug with snow and that was the trophy.”
“Sounds prestigious.”
“It really was. So I haven’t been champ in a few years. How’s your rummy?”
“Never played.”
“What? You have been seriously deprived. It’s a fun game.”
“Says the woman who was a champion.”
“Only against my parents and brother. And I’m pretty sure Mom and Dad rigged it so Ryan and I each won at least one championship.”
“I play to win,” he warned her. “Still want to do this?”
“Oh, hell yes. Do you have a deck of cards?” she asked.
“What would you do if I said no?”
“Get the emergency deck from my glove box.” The grin on his face told her he was enjoying this.
Chay didn’t often let his guard down, and she liked it.
“Lucky for you I have one deck. They are from the Universal Studios in California. My boss got them for me when he went there on a trip.”
