Acquainted With the Night (3 page)

CJ watched the slow smile cross Alex’s face.

“That’s true,” Alex murmured. “She is.”

When the time came for Alex to go, she touched CJ’s arm. “I’m going to go change. I’ll come back and say goodbye to you before I leave.”

“See you in a minute,” CJ said.

Alex disposed of her glass and said goodbye to her hostess. CJ watched her walk across to Viv’s townhouse, where she’d stashed her uniform earlier. After a couple of minutes CJ followed, opening and closing the door to Viv’s spare bedroom quietly.

Alex turned around, surprised. “What are you doing here?” Alex asked.

“Thought I’d help you get dressed,” she said in her best sultry tone.

“I’ve been getting dressed all by myself for about forty years,” Alex remarked.

“Hmm. Then maybe I came in to help you get undressed. I’m much better at that anyway.”

Alex deliberately removed her blouse and tossed it onto the bed. “I’d have to agree with that. But I have to go.”

CJ crossed to her, close enough to run one long finger under Alex’s bra strap, easing down to touch the soft skin at the top of her breast. “That’s too bad. I love the black bra.”

CJ smiled as she felt Alex’s breathing speed up.

“Sweetheart, I really can’t be late for this meeting.”

“Oh, I know,” CJ acknowledged. The finger was wandering into the valley between Alex’s breasts. CJ saw her nipples tighten underneath the lace and she grinned again in approval.

“CJ, honey…”

CJ dropped her hand. The look on Alex’s face was mixed relief and disappointment. “I was just making sure,” she said.

“Making sure of what?” Alex demanded. “That I had to go off to a meeting in front of a couple of hundred people with my panties damp?”

CJ leaned in and murmured, “I was making sure you knew it’s always you I want.”

Alex said, “I think all you’ve proven is how much I want you.”

“Good,” CJ said, approvingly. “In that case, I’ll wait up for you to get home.”

Alex ran her nose down CJ’s cheek, nuzzling her softly. “Will you? What will you be doing?”

“Hmm. Let me think. Reading, I suppose. In bed. Naked, of course.”

Alex gave a little groan. “I really, really have to change clothes.”

“Go ahead. I’ll just watch.”

“No, you won’t. If I take off one more stitch with you in here, we both know what will happen.”

“Umm. What was that, again?”

Alex told her in vivid terms. CJ tried to look shocked, but only managed to feel self-satisfied.

“Well, we wouldn’t want that to happen, would we?” she managed after another of Alex’s searing kisses.

Alex muttered, “We might.”

“Now, now. You have to go to your meeting, so I’ll just run along.”

Alex groaned again. “So you really just dropped in here to make me crazy for you?”

“Just a reminder.”

Alex pulled away a little and met her eyes. Every insecurity CJ had ever felt over two failed relationships vanished when Alex looked at her like this. “You don’t have to remind me,” Alex said. “I never ever forget how much I want to be with you. You’re the person I waited for all my life.”

CJ relaxed in her arms a little. “Not the package you expected, though?” she teased.

Alex kissed her a final time. “You’re so much more than I ever thought I could have. Sometimes I can’t believe how beautiful you are. Now, please get your gorgeous self out of here, or I really am not going to make that meeting.”

CJ went to the door, but stopped and turned back with her hand on the knob. “Sure you trust me in the same room with Steph?” she teased again.

“Of course,” Alex replied calmly. “You are carrying your backup weapon, aren’t you, Lieutenant?”

CJ laughed. “Darlin’, you know I never leave home without it.”

“Good. Then remember to always use the force appropriate to the situation.”

“You are such a cop sometimes.”

“Go. I’ll call you on the way home, okay?”

“Okay. Be safe, darlin’.”

“Always. I have a really good reason to come home safely.”

* * *

But she hadn’t gotten home safely, CJ thought miserably, still sitting near the emergency room.

Nicole Ryan Castillo, walking fast, came into the waiting room. Her trench coat was thrown over jeans and a sweatshirt. CJ stood up and Nicole went immediately into her arms for a quick hug.

“What do you know?” she asked, sitting down next to CJ.

“Not much,” CJ admitted. “They haven’t come out yet to tell me anything. She was conscious when they put her in the ambulance, said a couple of words to me. She was in a lot of pain, though. We weren’t exactly having a conversation.”

Nicole gripped her hand tightly. CJ saw that she was close to panic, and it frightened her. Alex’s younger sister was typically calm in a crisis, using her lawyer’s logic to handle her emotions. At this moment she looked tightly wound, jaw clenched, the tiny muscles around her eyes tensed. Despite the five-year gap in age and the extra ten pounds or so that Nicole carried, CJ thought again how much she looked like Alex.

“Was she moving? Could you tell anything?” Nicole asked.

“She squeezed my hand as they took her in. They had her on a backboard, in a brace, but that’s usual until they can eliminate spinal injuries. She…” CJ stumbled a little then went on, “She had some blood on her face, a cut or something, so I’m sure they’re looking at her for head injuries, too.”

“God damn it!” Nicole let go of CJ’s hand to drop her head into her palms. CJ could see her shoulders shaking beneath the coat.

It tore at CJ’s heart to see Nicole like this. She slipped her arm around her, rubbing her hand across her back, brushing away the tiny droplets of rain beaded on the waterproof material.

Nicole sat up, wiping tears away with trembling fingers. “I’m sorry,” she muttered. “I should be comforting you.”

“She’ll be all right,” CJ said, both giving and receiving the mindless comfort of ignorance.

“I just…” Nicole took a deep breath.

“It’s okay, darlin’.”

She took another breath and said, “I just keep thinking about Dad. I was sitting here in a room like this, with Alex, when they came out and told us he was dead.”

CJ hugged her tighter. She knew the story: their father, a patrol sergeant, had been killed in a hit-and-run accident when Alex was nineteen and Nicole only fourteen. Their mother was already nine years gone from cancer, so it left just the two sisters, who were as close as two women with different lives could be. CJ envied Alex the relationship sometimes, her own family long estranged from her because of their disapproval of her.

“We should call Paul,” Nicole said suddenly, referring to Deputy Chief Paul Duncan, their godfather.

CJ said gently, “He and Betty are out of the country on a cruise, remember? That’s why Alex had to cover this meeting tonight for the chief. He’s got a real backlog with Paul away.”

Nicole nodded unhappily. “I remember now. CJ, what happened? Alex is the best driver I know.”

CJ bit her lip. “I’m not sure. She was on the phone with me, and told me someone was driving recklessly, too fast, coming up behind her. That may have had something to do with it. She didn’t say she was particularly tired, I know she hadn’t had anything to drink at the party we went to earlier, so it’s hard for me to believe she just drove off the road. Maybe there was something on the pavement. The road was wet. Accidents happen, even to the best drivers.”

Nicole shrugged out of her coat. CJ could see her trying to regain her composure, smoothing her hair and getting out a tissue to wipe the remnants of tears from her cheeks.

“I always hated that she was a police officer,” she said suddenly. “I knew how dangerous it was, especially after Dad died. Alex was so determined to make a home for us, let me stay here with my friends to finish high school, but I really hated that she joined the department. It was worse when she was in uniform. The more she got promoted, the better I felt about it, knowing she wasn’t on the street, you know?”

“Yes.” It was all CJ said, letting Nicole talk.

“Then later I used to worry about her being, I guess, unhappy is the word,” Nicole continued aimlessly. “Her relationship with Tony was never very good for her, and she just seemed to be lost. Personally, I mean. Her career was important to her, but she didn’t really seem to have anything else.”

“I know,” CJ said.

Nicole turned to her and gave her a sad little smile. “Then you came along and changed everything. Why am I telling you all this? It’s not like you don’t know pretty much everything about Alex already.”

CJ answered gently, “It’s what we do when we’re scared or stressed. We work out what we remember, what we fear, what we want, trying to make sense of what doesn’t make sense. Life can be pretty random sometimes.”

Nicole fixed her with an intense look that reminded her forcefully of Alex. “I know you’re scared, CJ,” Nicole said.

“I’m terrified,” CJ said softly. “She’s my whole life.”

They sat together quietly for a long time.

* * *

Alex was half-propped up on the exam table, looking a little better than when CJ last saw her. The blood was gone from her face, and a small gauze pad was taped just above her left eyebrow. She wore a faded hospital gown, her right arm inside the sleeve but her left shoulder out, the ugly deep purple bruise exposed. There was a pillow propped between the arm and her body. Farther down on her bare arm her wrist was also carefully propped up, and it looked badly swollen.

But CJ really looked only at her eyes. They were a stormy dark blue-gray and CJ could see how much pain she was still in.

“Hi,” Alex said.

CJ went to her, not touching anything that looked hurt. She brushed fingertips up Alex’s right arm and tried to sound calm. She said, “Hey, darlin’.”

There were people moving around behind her getting ready for the next procedures. CJ leaned in and kissed her very gently. Alex’s mouth crooked up. She said, “Thanks, I feel better already.”

“Nicole is here. She sends her love and told me to tell you thank you for wearing your seat belt.”

“Tell her she’s very welcome. It could have been a whole lot worse. And you tell her I’m fine.”

“The doctor told me you’re being a bad patient and refusing pain meds. Honey, they have to reduce the shoulder dislocation. You need to do what they tell you, and take the medicine.”

“I will,” Alex said. “But I have to tell you something first and I didn’t want to be on drugs when I did.”

“Then tell me quickly so you can get what you need.”

Alex shifted slightly and winced. “The car ran me off the road.”

“What?” CJ asked, in shock.

“It was light-colored, silver, gray, maybe beige. A Toyota Corolla, I think, a couple of years old or so. Partial plate is King Adam X-ray, I couldn’t get the numbers.”

She’d had two seconds, at the most, and she had a description and part of the license plate. CJ shook her head in wonder. Her partner really was always on duty.

“Okay, I promise I’ll get it out right away. Do you think it was accidental?”

Alex looked at her hard. She said, “He clipped me on my left front bumper. Make sure they do a forensics check, there may be paint. He pulled just ahead of me at high speed, slowed to match my pace, then cut in front of me. It sure as hell didn’t feel like an accident.”

Was she being paranoid? CJ wondered for a moment, but doubted it. Alex didn’t think that way.

“I’m on it,” she said, partly because that was what Alex needed to hear to let go and let the doctors treat her injuries. “Now take the pain medicine, darlin’.”

Suddenly Alex looked exhausted. She sagged back, closing her eyes. “Okay,” she said with uncharacteristic acquiescence. The sound of it broke CJ’s heart, but she hadn’t forgotten to be grateful that Alex hadn’t been hurt much worse. A young woman in scrubs stepped up and injected something into the IV line in Alex’s right hand.

CJ turned back to the nearest doctor and asked, “You’ll be a while, I guess?”

“Yes, we need to get a CAT scan, but it looks like only a mild concussion. We’re getting a resident from plastics down here to stitch the cut on her face, to minimize the scarring, as soon as we get the shoulder taken care of, and her wrist in a cast.”

CJ dropped her eyes to the injured hand. “Broken?”

“Yes, a small chip of the hamate bone, not too bad.”

From the table, Alex said, “CJ?”

“Yes, darlin’?”

“My service weapon is around here somewhere. Will you secure it?”

CJ turned back to her and leaned close to her ear. “I have an idea. Why don’t you let me take care of everything? Do what the doctors say, and let someone else be in control for a bit, all right? They’re going to keep you overnight because you lost consciousness a couple of minutes. I’ll be in your room when they take you up, and I’ll stay with you tonight. You’re going to be fine, so just let it go.”

Alex’s eyelids fluttered, the medication already taking effect. “I’m not good at that,” she muttered.

“I know,” CJ said, kissing her softly again. “Now behave.”

“Sweetheart.”

“Hmmm?”

“I am sorry. I know you were scared for me.”

CJ blinked hard a couple of times, and said, “Worrying about you is just part of the deal we made. I’ll see you soon.”

She stepped outside the treatment room, knowing Alex would be out very soon—or at least she hoped so, praying for unconsciousness while they put her dislocated shoulder back into place and set her broken wrist.

Nicole was waiting for her on the edge of her chair. “How is she?”

CJ managed a bright smile and said, “She’s okay, Nicole. We talked, she’s clear-headed, and now that she let them give her something for the pain, she’ll be fine.”

Nicole frowned. “Why the hell didn’t they give her something before?”

“She refused.” CJ sighed. “She had information to give me about what happened, and she didn’t want the evidence to be compromised because she was on meds when she told me. Your sister is a very stubborn woman.”

“Welcome to the world of the Ryan family. Dad was just as bad.”

“The important thing is that she’s getting help now and she’ll be fine. Do you want to wait until you can see her? It’s probably going to be an hour or two before they move her upstairs.”