Trina turned the phone over to Reed, and he read it out loud. I know you’re in the middle of the big party, just dropping a note to say that everything in NY went well. Fedor liked really expensive things. En route to the house so call if you need to talk. Texting and driving in NY is just asking for trouble.
Reed ran a hand through his hair. “Oh, shit.”
“What?”
“We need to find out what she had on her, if anything.”
“I don’t care about the stuff—”
“This is about motive. Someone mugging her for a purse, a wallet, a fifty-thousand-dollar watch . . . that makes sense. Someone beating her up for nothing . . . and then dragging her behind a car so she wasn’t quickly found by the first person to walk by . . . that feels too calculated for me. Or worse, they wanted her dead and were interrupted before finishing the job.”
“You don’t think this was random?” Wade asked.
“I used to be a cop. So no. I never think anything is random. But the motive of a thief is a hell of a lot easier to sleep on than a motive of someone wanting to harm Avery just to see her battered and bruised.”
“Who would want to hurt Avery? She makes friends, not enemies.” Trina looked at Lori.
“Someone wasn’t happy with her.”
The door leading into the patient rooms opened and a nurse peeked into the waiting room. Trina sat taller and gave the woman her full attention.
“Ms. Cumberland?”
Lori and Trina both stood at the same time.
“She’s asking for you.” The nurse looked around the room. “Three visitors at a time,” she said to all of them.
Trina looked over her shoulder at Wade.
“Go, I’ll stay out here.”
Reed, Lori, and Trina followed the nurse back. In complete contrast to the waiting room, the ICU was lit up like it was one in the afternoon and not one in the morning. Nurses walked in different directions, the machines beeped and moaned, and the smell of human suffering oozed from the walls. The scent was unique to a place that saw the body in all stages of decay and trauma but was kept sanitary by antiseptic soaps and cleaning solutions. Trina hated it.
Lori squeezed Trina’s hand. “She looks really bad. Try not to react with her watching.”
The nurse led them into Avery’s room and pulled back the curtain.
Trina bit her lip to keep from crying out.
Avery’s head was completely bandaged, her face covered in gauze with the exception of her eyes, mouth, and chin. All of which were swollen and bruised to the point that Trina wouldn’t have recognized Avery if she didn’t know it was her. Her right arm was in a splint and her right leg was sitting outside the blanket and elevated on a pillow. It, too, was covered in some kind of wrap.
“Hey . . . ,” Lori said softly, and Avery opened her eyes.
Avery licked her lips like it took serious effort to do so.
Trina stood at the end of the bed, not trusting herself to speak.
Lori took the chair on the side and pulled it closer to the bed.
“W-what happened?” Avery asked.
Lori looked at the nurse.
“You don’t remember?”
Avery moaned.
The nurse spoke up. “She’s amnesic to the event. The concussion isn’t letting her remember anything you tell her. She’ll ask the same questions over and over.”
Trina squeezed her hands into fists. “Is that going to go away?”
Reed placed a hand on her shoulder.
“Most of the time it does. It’s early. Try not to worry. Just answer her questions.”
“Trina?” Avery pulled her drugged gaze toward her.
“Hey, honey.”
“Weren’t you gone?” Avery asked slowly.
The fact that she remembered gave Trina hope. “Yes, I was.”
Avery closed her eyes and asked again, “What happened?”
Lori cleared her throat. “You were mugged in the parking garage.”
“I was?”
“Yes.”
“I’m in the hospital?” Avery opened her left eye, which seemed to be the less swollen of the two.
“You are.”
“Avery, do you remember why you were in New York?” Reed asked.
Her gaze floated over to them again. “Hi, Reed.” She moaned. “My head hurts.”
Reed shook his head. “You rest and get better.”
They all stood there staring for five minutes. Avery opened her eyes again. “What happened?”
Wade stood when Trina and her friends returned.
Trina had lost a year off her life in the span of ten minutes. She was white as a sheet and holding back the pain that screamed through her eyes.
Wade opened his arms and she fell into them.
“She doesn’t remember anything. I’m not sure she will by morning either,” Reed told him.
“If ever,” Lori said.
“Might be for the best,” Jeb said.
Trina lifted her head from Wade’s shoulder and turned around. “We were keeping a list of contacts on a spreadsheet at the house. She would have written down who she was seeing and where. I should go and get it so we can make calls when everyone opens in the morning.”
Reed nodded. “Good idea, only I’ll go. You stay here for Avery.”
“You shouldn’t go alone,” Lori told him. “We’ve been up for hours. It’s a long drive.”
“I’ll be fine.”
Lori’s stare said Don’t argue.
“I’ll go with you,” Wade said. He glanced over his shoulder. “I’m drawing a little attention.” He’d noticed the stealth selfie followed by two more people that arrived and didn’t stop staring.
“Okay, but someone needs to stay with the girls.”
“Oh, please,” Lori said.
“Not negotiable, Lori. If this wasn’t random . . .”
Lori stopped smiling.
“I’ll stay,” Jeb offered.
Reed sized Jeb up and down. “Okay.” He turned back to Trina. “Where exactly was this spreadsheet?”
“Do you really think Avery was targeted?” Wade asked once they were alone in the rental car.
“I hope I’m wrong about that.”
Wade watched the lights of the opposing cars as they drove by. “According to Trina, Avery’s the flirty, fun girl. In my experience, the only people that have a hard time with that are other women, and only if a man is involved.”
“Avery probably has many of those enemies, but I doubt a woman did that to her.” Reed concentrated on the road.
“How bad is she?”
“Broken wrist due to a size twelve kicking her. It appears that she tried to block multiple blows to her face. She didn’t do a good job, however, as evidenced by the broken nose that they will operate on later, when she’s stable. Sprained ankle from the fall, maybe. The hit to the head left her out of it for hours, and whether the hits to her face continued after she was out, or before, we won’t know unless she tells us. For Avery’s sake, I hope she never remembers it.”
Wade noticed Reed’s knuckles turning white on the steering wheel. “Who does that to a woman?”
“I don’t know. But I will find out.”
“I’m glad we left Jeb behind.”
“Me too.”
They drove in silence for several miles.
Reed glanced over with a slight smile. The only one Wade had seen on the man since they met. “You’re Wade Thomas.”
“Yes sirree.”
“I saw you in concert in Vegas a couple years ago.”
That surprised him. “At Caesars?”
“Yup. That was a fun night.”
“I’m glad you enjoyed it.” Wade had lived with his fame long enough to know how to accept a compliment without getting his ego in his armpits.
“I have a question,” Reed started.
“Shoot.” Wade leaned his head back, thankful he wasn’t driving. The day had wiped him out.
“I’ve always wanted to know if the band makes money on the concessions.”
Wade smiled. “Yeah. We do.”
Reed nodded a couple of times. “Well, then . . . you owe me a beer.”
It felt good to laugh. “You got it.”
Chapter Nineteen
According to the navigation, they were fifteen minutes out from the house Trina had shared with her late husband. The closer they were, the stranger Wade felt about being there. How odd was it for him to be going there at all?
“Did you know Trina’s husband?”
“No. I met the women after his death.”
“The women?”
“Yeah, Lori, Trina, Avery . . . have you met Shannon?”
“Tall, thin, brunette?”
“Yup, that’s her. No. I never met Fedor. I haven’t formally met Fedor’s father either.”
“Why would you?”
Reed stole a glance, then turned back to the road. “Trina hasn’t told you about Ruslan?”
“If that’s the father-in-law, then no. Should she have?”
Reed shrugged. “You guys just started dating, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Then no. I guess she didn’t see the need.”
“Is there an issue with Ruslan?”
“Not lately.”
Wade turned in his seat. “Are you trying to be cryptic? If so, you’re really good at it.”
“None of it is for me to tell.” Apparently that was all Reed was going to say on the subject.
He pulled off the main road and into a neighborhood of big yards and even larger houses. Reed drove up to a gate and put in the code.