Page 54 of Devil and the Deep Blue Fish

“I can’t,” Cora said, bent over a minifridge of medical supplies. “Retty, you’ve stripped me dry. I have to report where all this medicine went, and I told you—my antibiotics are limited. You will die of sepsis on that table if you don’t go see a doctor.”

“I’ll have this place razed to the ground!” Retty growled. “You fucking drug addicts and perverts—”

“You shut up,” Cora hissed, standing and slamming the fridge door shut. “You know what? I’m going to go to the cops, and I’m going to tell them who you are and what you’re doing.Idon’t careif they shut us down. At least the world will know about your skeezy fucking organization—”

From far away, it seemed, Jackson heard Honey yelling, “You guys can’t just come in here and—Cora!Cora!They’re coming your way!”

Jackson had come fully inside the door as he’d observed Retty and Cora’s interactions, and as he heard the clatter of boots on the stairs and no police identification, his instincts kicked in.

He hauled ass across the room, grabbed Cora’s hand, and yanked her into the white-tiled bathroom at the back of the suite. He’d been in big houses before, and he knew that unless it was a master suite, the bathrooms were often shared by two of the smaller rooms, and he almost wept when he saw the adjoining door.

“Key?” he hissed at Cora, who was staring at him with big eyes.

Cora was small, slender, her wrists bony and eyes made gritty with too much work on coffee and good wishes, but she could obviously think on her feet. She produced the key from a lanyard around her neck and opened the door, then darted into what looked like a darkened supply closet that had probably once been a nursery of some sort.

Jackson glanced around and spotted a stack of cots, turned on their sides and leaned up against filing cabinets in the corner of the room. With a hiss he directed Cora to crawl behind the cots, and then he joined her. She was small enough to wedge herself between the cots, the wall, and the filing cabinet, while he lay on his side and scooched his knees up to his chest, his back to the wall and to her feet.

The room was pitch dark, and Jackson had just enough time to bless that he’d remembered to close the door behind him when he heard noise from the medic’s suite.

Frantically he texted Gabriel while listening to what was going on in the room next door.

“No!” Retty cried. “No, you guys. I had this. I had it covered. No, you don’t need to—” Her next words were muffled as though from behind a gag.

“Was there anyone up here?” graveled a gruff voice.

“I didn’t see anybody.” This voice was younger and, well, dumber. “Should we ask her?”

“No, dumbass. She’ll just lie, like she did about taking care of the kid last night.”

Jackson’s breath caught. Oh shit. Oh shit. Did they know where Cowboy was? Oh hell.

“How do we know she didn’t?” came the dumber voice.

“Fuckin’ Dwayne said she never showed with the package. He was waiting all night since this bitch texted. She and Bertie Dunkel are in some deep shit from what I hear.”

There were two grunts and some moans of pain muffled by cloth or something worse.

“What do we do now?” Dumber asked.

“First we take her to Twitty, I guess. Look out there and see if that twatty little girl at the reception desk called the cops.”

There was a hesitation as Dumber followed directions.

“No,” he whispered. “No, she’s gone down the hallway somewhere.”

“Well, then,” MacGruff decided, “time to go. C’mon, Retty—this timeyou’rethe package.”

And then the men were gone, and Jackson was left texting frantically on his phone.

Are you keeping everybody in the rooms?

I’m not stupid,Cody replied.I got the receptionist too.

Thanks. She’s a sweetheart.

Name’s Honey, I’ve heard.

Jackson listened for a few heartbeats, and far away he heard a door slam.

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