Page 43 of Heart Me Up
After I’d given the vet tech what little information I had about Bruno’s medical history, I settled into a chair in the lobby and pulled up contact info for Bruno’s owners from our online software system. They were on a trip to Spain, and by my calculations it was the middle of the night there. I took a deep breath and pressed the button to call.
It was going to be a long day.
Chapter19
Foster
I pulledthe phone away from my ear and stared at it. I’d been sleeping when Craig called. Hearing him yell had woken me right up though.
I dropped the phone and put my hands over my face. I was such a fucking asshole. How could I have thought Craig would’ve…. I cringed when I remembered Amy cautioning me against making assumptions when I was exhausted.
Shit, I had some groveling to do. My gut clenched at the possibility I’d fucked up my chances with Craig permanently. Nope, can’t think that way. I’d have to make a convincing case for him to give me another chance.
And in the meantime, Craig had brought up a good point about Malcolm. Now that I had my head on straight, I needed to find out why he’d gone to stay at Craig’s house.
I rolled the question over in my mind while I showered and got dressed. I didn’t come up with any answers, but at least it prevented me from stressing about how badly I’d screwed up with Craig.
I figured Craig was at work, so when I knocked on his front door, I’d expected Malcolm to answer it. But the Malcolm I’d pictured, my friend as I’d known him for years, wasn’t the Malcolm I got.
“Malcolm?” I couldn’t help asking. He’d probably lost about twenty pounds, and he had a cast on his right leg. Hisentireright leg. His color was ashen and his eyes were sunken in. “Holy crap, what happened?”
He grimaced and said, “Hey. Come on in.” He turned around and swung on his crutches into Craig’s living room. I followed, shutting the front door behind me.
“Why didn’t you tell me you’d been injured? I would’ve come to stay with you in the hospital. Or at least brought you home.” To my house where the guest bedroom was upstairs. Shit.
Malcolm settled on the couch, arranging his leg across the cushions without looking at me. Mariposa appeared from somewhere and twined around my ankles in greeting. I bent to pick her up.
“Well? What happened?” I gestured at Mal’s leg.
He glared at me. “Sit down. I’m not going to talk to you while you’re looming over me like some morgue attendant.”
Huffing loudly, I sat across from him in one of Craig’s armchairs and arranged Mariposa on my lap.
Mal rubbed his hand over the back of his neck. “Hey, I’m sorry about those text messages. I thought you two were solid and you’d know it was a joke.”
I scratched Mariposa behind the ears and gave him a half-shrug. “It was my fault. I was tired and jumped to conclusions. Amy told me to read them again after I’d had some sleep, but I didn’t, and I was a complete ass to Craig.”
“Did you get things sorted out with him?”
I grimaced. “He told me I was an idiot and hung up on me.”
Mal smirked and folded his hands across his sunken stomach. “Don’t tell him I said this, but I like him.”
I sighed, stroking Mariposa. “Yeah, me too.”
“He’ll forgive you.”
“I hope so,” I said fervently. I fixed my eyes on Mal’s. “Okay, enough about me and Craig. Spill.”
Mal’s face went blank, and he looked down at his cast. “I can’t tell you too many details about the op. There was this…organizationthat will have to remain nameless. One of their bookkeepers was getting on in years and wanted out. He contacted the Bureau and asked for immunity and Witness Protection in exchange for information. He had it all: names, dates, bank accounts, the works. But what healsohad was a nephew who was an accountant too. And who could pass for my brother.”
“Oh. Wow.” Getting someone inside a cartel or a mob family would be huge to the FBI.
“Yep. They put the nephew in a safe house and put me in the nephew’s house. The bookkeeper guy told theorganizationthat he wanted to retire, but his nephew would take his place.” Mal rubbed his leg above the cast. “It worked, and I got enough intel to take down the entire organization in the first few weeks.”
“But they wanted more.”
He nodded, gazing down at his leg again. “The organization had ties to another, larger organization. The Bureau wanted to see if I could get an in with them.”
