Page 30 of Her Protector Daddies

I stepped back and Tyler kicked the door open in one soft move, then we moved into the house with our weapons raised.

“LAPD,” I announced again. “Matt Forster, are you here?”

Further pained moaning acted as our guide, and we cleared each room we passed until we reached the kitchen and the source of the pained noises.

“Clear the rest of the house,” I instructed Tyler, holstering my weapon. Then I approached the man slumped over the table.

“Mr. Forster? Matt? We’re the LAPD. I’d like to ask you a couple of questions. Is there anyone else in the house with you?”

Matt didn’t answer. I grasped his shoulder and pulled him into a seated position and the cause of his pain became abundantly clear.

His entire torso was bruised, with shadows blooming out from the point of impact that was clearly from a seatbelt. Several lacerations across his bare chest and face were consistent with a shattered windshield, and a sluggishly bleeding head wound matched the bloody point of impact we recovered from the dash of the car.

“Well, well,” I chuckled. “Been in any car accidents lately, Matt?”

“Nah,” he grumbled, “just fell down the stairs.”

“And you didn’t go to the hospital because…?” I lifted a brow and ran my eyes down his body, mapping out the injuries. It had been a few days since the accident and if he’d been hiding out here, he’d need medical assistance ASAP.

“Didn’t want to bother the doctors,” Matt mumbled.

“Sure, buddy,” I scoffed.

“House is clear,” Tyler said as he returned, then his eyes widened when he clocked Matt. “Holy shit. I’ll radio for an ambulance.”

Given Matt’s coherency and the clearness in his eyes despite his injuries, I pulled a few wads of gauze from my pocket and started applying pressure to his head wound.

“You want to tell me what really happened?”

“Told you,” Matt snapped, flinching away from my touch but he wasn’t able to get far. “Fell down the stairs.”

“Are you sure about that? Because I have a team working on a mangled car that wrecked itself around a telephone pole. The driver got away pretty unscathed but there was blood all over the inside passenger seat. Is that blood going to match yours?” I asked.

“No,” Matt muttered.

I increased the pressure slightly and forced Matt to look at me. “I’m not in the mood for lies right now, Matt. If you want me to hang the entire robbery and hit and run on you then so be it. You’ll be in prison so long you’ll forget the taste of grass.”

“The taste…?” Tyler piped up from behind me.

“Shut up.”

“Hey, hey hey!” Matt suddenly pulled away from me, and we locked gazes. “You ain’t pinning that shit on me. I didn’t hit nobody!”

“You sure about that? I know you were in that car with Marcus.”

“I don’t know a Marcus,” Matt grumbled and his eyes flickered closed. Given the bruising across his torso, he had some intense internal bleeding and I wasn’t going to risk him dying before I got answers.

“Bullshit,” I snapped. “Marcus Hartley was your first contact out of prison and we can put you in that car with him. So either you tell me what I want to know, or we’ll forget Marcus exists and pin everything on you.”

“Maybe— maybe. You get me an ambulance and protection and maybe…” The fog in Marcus’ eyes was increasing as if holding this conversation was draining his very life energy.

“My partner’s already called an ambulance for you.”

“Three minutes out,” Tyler said.

“Three minutes is a long time. We can have a long chat and become best friends in that time.” Matt’s reluctance to talk was irritating my last nerve. If we waited too long, the ambulance would take him away and then god knows when I’d next have a chance to question him.

Matt remained silent.

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