Dylan
WHEN I CAME to, I could feel my heartbeat in the side of my head, and it felt like I was moving. Something was wrapped snug around my neck. My head lifted for a moment, and straps came down on the side of my face, holding something in place. My breathing sounded funny. People spoke around me, but their words didn’t make sense. Someone sniffled.
Wondering what the hell was going on, I opened my eyes. Bad idea. Overhead lights blinded me, increasing the pain to a nausea-inducing level. I swallowed back bile and squeezed my eyes shut.
“Just lay back and relax,” someone said… a male, calming voice. I didn’t recognize it.
Broken memories flooded my mind. Fear. A gun pressing into my ribs. The Safeway sign. An elderly couple in front of me at the pharmacy counter. I struggled to make sense of it all.
“Where am I?” I asked. My voice sounded muffled, as if I were talking through a tube. Squinting through the pain I tried to sit up, but straps kept me from moving.
“You fell and hit your head. We’re taking you to the hospital to get checked out. Just relax.”
I fell and hit my head?
My head throbbed, but I couldn’t move my hand to feel for damage. I was jostled forward, down an aisle, then through a doorway until the grey Portland sky was overhead. It hurt too much to keep squinting so I closed my eyes again, suddenly sleepy.
“We need you to stay awake,” the man said.
“I am awake. Just resting my eyes.”
He snickered. “All right. Keep talking to us then. What’s your name?”
It took me a moment to remember. “Dylan. Dylan James.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Dylan. I’m Tony. Liz is also here with me. We’re gonna get you to the hospital.”
A door shut, muffling the sounds of the city. A man had been trying to get me into his car. I suddenly remembered where I knew him from. Panicked, I tried to sit up again. Straps bit into my shoulders, forcing me still. My eyes sprang open again. I needed to talk to the cops. “Where are you taking me?”
It was darker. I blinked, letting my eyes adjust enough to make out an IV bag.
“The hospital,” Tony repeated.
Something pinched my arm.
The next time I opened my eyes, I was in a room. Machines beeped around me. Someone was squeezing my hand. I looked up to see Addison standing guard, concern etched into her face.
She took a deep breath and announced, “She’s awake.”
Asher’s face appeared above Addison’s shoulder. There was fear in his eyes, but he smiled. “Hey.”
“Hi,” I croaked. My throat felt dry. I pulled down the mask covering my mouth and nose so I could talk. “What’s going on?”
“What do you remember?” Asher asked.
“Can I have some water, please?”
Asher nodded and poured me a cup, guiding the straw to my lips. After taking a few precious sips, I told him what I could remember. Everything from my car’s flat tire to the cops showing up. “I... I… He was reaching for his gun, so I shoved him as hard as I could and threw myself down.”
Jake popped up on the other side of Addison. “And hit your head on an endcap, knocking yourself out in the process.” He shook his head, chuckling. “Probably the best thing that could have happened to you.”
It sure as hell didn’t feel like the best thing. “What do you mean?” I asked.
“If you were awake, he probably would have used you as a shield to get out of there. But he couldn’t exactly carry your unconscious body out of the store while fending off the cops. Knocking yourself out probably saved your life,” Jake said.
“I didn’t think about that.”
Addison squeezed my hand again. “I’m so thankful my bestie is a klutz.”
“Now about this money he was looking for…” Jake started.
“She just woke up,” Asher said, circling the bed to take my other hand. “Can’t we give her a few moments?”
“No.” Jake frowned.
Addison started to object, but he held his hands up.
“Look, we want to keep her safe. Her attacker is still out there, and God only knows how many other people he’s working with. If Dylan knows anything about whatever money they’re looking for, coming clean with us is the best chance she has of getting them off her back.”
A memory flitted through my mind. I reached for it, but only found pain. “Ow.”
“What is it?” Addison asked.
“There’s something. I’m trying to think, but it literally hurts right now.”
I closed my eyes and let my mind wander back to the store. The face of my attacker appeared. His familiar voice. The feel of his breath against my neck. The stab of the gun into my ribs. Back to his face. Crooked nose. Razor thin lips. I knew his face.
“I recognized the gunman,” I announced.
Jake’s eyebrows rose. “You did?”
“Yes. I don’t know his name, but he worked with me. He’s one of the security guards. He was there the day I got fired.”
“All right,” Jake said, typing something into his phone. “I’ll have Pike pull the security personnel records and we’ll get you some pictures to look through.”
“Also, I’m pretty sure his voice was one of the ones that Addison recorded in my apartment.”
“Good.” Jake nodded.
“I have no clue what money he was talking about though,” I said. “I only told him I did to buy time. I’m guessing it has something to do with the spreadsheet, though.”
“The spreadsheet you no longer have?” Jake asked.
I looked to Addison for help.
“Not exactly,” she said.
Jake’s expression hardened. “What?” he asked.
This time Addison looked to me. This is not how we planned the information exchange to go down, but based on my current situation, I was guessing we didn’t have much choice in the matter. I shrugged. “We might as well tell them everything.”
Wearing a stern, angry expression, Jake closed the door to my hospital room and got out his recorder. “Why don’t we start from the beginning?” he said. “And I need to remind you both that you can be charged with obstruction of justice for withholding information.”
I gulped and looked up at Asher, but he didn’t look too pleased with us either.
Jake set the recorder on my bed and clicked it on.
Since Addison was a lot more coherent than me, she began. Although she glossed over how we got the spreadsheet (making it sound like we found it in my backup files), she did hand the flash drive over to Jake.
“What else is on here?” Jake asked.
Addison glanced at me. When I didn’t talk, she said, “During Kirk’s funeral, Dylan recorded a conversation in the restroom.”
“You went to Kirk’s funeral?” Asher asked... now he sounded pissed. “What if the guys from Dylan’s apartment had been there? Do you have any idea how reckless that was?”
I winced at his tone.
“It wasn’t reckless,” Addison defended. “We wore disguises. Nobody would have known who we were.”
“I knew them the second I saw them,” Jake said, not helping our case at all.
“Yeah, but you’re a detective,” I pointed out. “I would’ve been concerned if you hadn’t recognized us.”
He nodded. “Nice cover. Now tell me about the conversation you overheard.”
“Our costumes had cameras hidden on them.” I squeezed Addison’s hand. “Addie’s idea. Although there’s no video—since I was hiding in the bathroom stall—it did catch the conversation. Kirk’s wife and his assistant were talking about some sort of deal.”
“His assistant?” Jakes eyes widened. “What sort of deal?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know, but it sounded like Bonnie was paying Michelle off for something.”
Jake asked a few more questions before clicking the recorder off and pocketing both it and the flash drive. Then Addison turned on him and said, “We told you everything we know. Now it’s your turn.”
Jake’s mouth became a hard line. “It doesn’t work like that, Addison.”
“It should,” she replied. “We’re all supposed to be working together to keep Dylan out of jail.”
“I don’t work with civilians,” Jake replied, looking pointedly at my hospital bed. “Civilians who stick their noses in police business end up hurt.”
“That’s not fair,” I objected. “They think I know something I don’t know. The attack had nothing to do with our investigation.”
A vein popped out along Jake’s hairline, and his face took on a red tinge. “It’s not our investigation. It’s my investigation. And you two need to stay out of it before you get killed. Or before I have to arrest you both for obstructing justice.”
“We got you two really great leads,” Addison said, facing him. “Between them and the woman who was having drinks with Kirk, you should have—”
Jake’s expression hardened. “How do you know about that?”
Addison looked away.
“You don’t have to answer that, Addie,” Asher suggested. “At least not right now. You will need to explain yourself to me later.”
Jake ran a hand through his hair. “You listened in, didn’t you? At the funeral.” He shook his head. “I can’t believe this.”
“She’s my best friend and she’s innocent,” Addison replied, releasing my hand to grip the railing on my bed. “I’m going to do whatever I have to do to keep her out of jail.”
“Of course you are.” He stepped back, paced to the door, then turned around and paced back. “Is that why you keep asking me out? You want to use your charm in order to get information to help your friend?”
Addison froze. Her nostrils flared and little sparks of anger ignited in her eyes. “Are you asking me if I’m whoring myself out for my friend’s case?” she asked.
He held his hands in the air. “You’re the one who said you’d do whatever you had to do.”
“And you thought that meant…” She snapped her mouth shut and lowered her head. Tears filled her eyes. Uh-oh, she was taking this too far in her head and Jake was going to get the brunt of her drama.
“Blowfish, Addie,” Asher said.
In an attempt to minimize the collateral damage, I said, “I think you need to go, Jake,”
“Yeah, I think that’s a really good idea,” Addison said quietly. Lethally.
He reached out to her. “Addison, I—”
She turned her back to him and gave me a bolstering smile while smoke drifted out of her ears. “How are you feeling, honey? Can I get you anything?”
“No, Addie, I’m okay,” I said. Jake needed to get the hell out before she blew and rained fiery death down on the room.
“Addison,” Jake started again.
She opened her mouth and lava spewed forth. “I think it would be a good idea for you to leave now. I’d rather not say anything I might regret... plus, you apparently can’t pay my exorbitant rates, so I’ll find another schmuck.” She faced him again. “Besides, I get the impression you wouldn’t be that great in bed. If I’m going to whore myself out to get information from you about my friend’s case, I’d like to at least enjoy it.”
It might have been the drugs, or maybe the shocked look on Jake’s face, but I couldn’t stop a surprised giggle. “Addie!” I admonished. So much for her not wanting to say something she’d regret.
Asher released my hand and stepped to the foot of the bed. “I think we’re done here, Jake.” He gestured toward the door. “Come on. I’ll walk you out.”
The two of them left, and as soon as the door shut, Addison broke down. I scooted over to make room for her on my bed, and she sat beside me. Ignoring the stars dancing behind my eyes when I sat up, I wrapped her in a hug and let her cry on my shoulder.
“What a dick,” she said.
I just hummed my agreement in order to calm her. What could I say? Addison was like the sun. You come into her orbit and you’re warmed and loaded up with vitamin D... but sometimes, if you get too close, you’re burnt to ash. She’s easy to look at, easy to like, funny, and men flock to her, but she doesn’t suffer fools. She just doesn’t have the time.
In my opinion, Jake was her match. He was strong enough to handle her and didn’t let her push him around, so she respected him. But I couldn’t imagine it was easy for him... a working class man on a cop’s salary getting noticed by one of the richest women in the world. Of course he’d be questioning her motives. What the hell could he possibly offer her?
I got it, because I’d asked myself the same question years ago when she’d befriended me. My dad only made it worse when he took one look at Addison and called me her “project.” He never could believe that Addison didn’t play games. She liked people for who they were, regardless of their tax bracket or whatever image they could give her.
When she was done raging, she pulled away to wipe mascara from her cheeks and wash her hands.
“I’m sure Jake didn’t mean it,” I said.
She frowned. “He said it.”
“Yeah, but we’re all a little… emotional. On edge. Juiced on adrenaline. It’s been a rough day.”
Addison tossed a paper towel in the trash and turned on me, fresh tears welling in her eyes. “You could have been killed today.”
“Yeah, but I wasn’t. And on the bright side, now we know why those guys are after me. Jake is going to track down whatever money they’re after and clear my name. And that’s awesome.”
She sighed. “You’re not allowed to go anywhere alone, ever again.”
“Ever again” was stretching it, but I’d been shaken up by today’s events enough to agree to buddy shopping for the foreseeable future.
“Deal,” I said. But my friend needed some serious cheering up, so I added, “But only if you promise to stop whoring yourself out for me.”
She looked sideways at me before shaking her head and cracking a smile. “That man. Can you believe he asked me that? I’m probably going to have to kill him.”
I nodded. The pain medicine they were feeding me through my IV was making me a little loopy, so I gave her what felt like a goofy grin, and sang, “Do you wanna hide a body?”
She giggled. “If you ever scare me like that again, I’ll be hiding your body.”
I gave her a mock salute. “Ten four, boss.”