Page 65 of Smooth Sailing

He asked because he wanted to know where that was and break into it to see if they might find some answers.

Regrettably, she shook her head. “She called from the hospital and took me up on my offer. Told me to meet her at a QuikTrip. I did. She had a bag with her, got in Baby Shark, and we came here. That’s it.”

“Baby shark?”

“My car.”

Christ.

This fucking woman.

“She’s got a phone?” he asked.

She nodded.

“She call anyone? Talk to anyone?”

“I don’t keep an eye on her all the time, but no. Not that I’ve seen. As far as I can tell, she doesn’t have anyone. When you guys aren’t here, and I’m home, she comes out of her room and hangs with me. I’ve tried to get in there. All I know is, she got really upset when I asked about her parents, so I backed off fast on that one. But she just says she’s not got many close friends. She’s so…you’ve seen her, Hugger. She doesn’t invite pushing. She’s so fragile, I’m afraid I’ll break her if I push too hard.”

He got that.

And it sucked, but they were going to have to start pushing.

“Called the president of my Club last night, babe,” he told her. “His name is Rush. He’s sending down another brother, Dutch. Resurrection is sending down two of theirs, Core and Linus. We’re gonna add on our list of things to do making sure your dad is good.”

The softness came back, but it didn’t fully push out the alarm.

“And we need a meet with that detective,” he went on. “Because there’s shit we don’t know that we need to know to keep all of you safe.”

“I’ll get my phone,” she whispered, and hauled her ass out of the couch to do that.

Hugger pulled his own out of his back pocket and shot a text to Eight and Big Petey.

Just learned the FBI wants to talk to Suzette. Diana’s dad told her yesterday. Looking at getting more info on that. Hold tight.

Diana came back, and as she made her way to the couch, she asked, “Is it cool to call him on a Saturday?”

“Let’s chance it,” Hugger replied, holding out his hand.

She looked to his hand, then his face, and asked, “Wait, are you going to talk to him?”

“Queue him up and hand it to me, ’cause, yeah, I’m gonna talk to him.”

It took her a beat, then she did what he asked and handed him the phone.

He kept his eyes on her, and his mind went to Nicole saying she knew Diana was an excellent judge of character.

So he asked, “You trust this guy?”

“He seems solid to me, but what do I know? I’d guess a cop who was dirty wouldn’t expose it to anyone, much less someone like me.”

“Gut, though. Solid?” he pushed.

She nodded.

“Any of the other cops you dealt with on this give you a hinky feel?”

“There weren’t many, but I’ll say, all of them seemed more focused on justice for Suzette than serving justice to Babic because it would be an awesome collar. I mean, it isn’t like they’re not all about taking him down, but she was…” She lifted her shoulders. “You know how she was, Hugger.”

---