She laughs with what looks like relief. “You’re asking me if I’m okay? You’re crazy.” She leans down and kisses me on the cheek. Then she tries to hug me, but I wince at the pain it causes. I hurt all over, but especially on my face.
“Ow.” I reach up and touch my forehead. There’s cloth there where there should be skin. I roll my eyes up to try to see my own face, catching a glimpse of something white. “What’s on my head?”
May takes my hand and pulls it away so that I’ll stop trying to touch my injuries. I notice out of the corner of my eye that there’s an IV stuck in the back of my hand.
“You were in a car accident. You hit your head on the steering wheel. The airbag failed to deploy.”
I frown. “Well. That sucks. Not part of my plan.”
Dev smiles. “You got lucky. You escaped with just a concussion, some bruised ribs, and a broken nose. Your passenger didn’t do so well.”
I search my memory for a passenger, but I’m coming up blank. I almost ask if my kids were passengers, but I know that’s not right. I wasn’t with my kids in the car when this happened. So, who was I with?
“Passenger?”
Dev and May exchange glances. The silence between us stretches.
Then a flash of memory hits me. This has something to do with Little Miss Kickass. “Is Toni okay?”
“Why do you ask?” May says.
My memory is full of holes, but I remember a few things. I frown, trying to bring the details in stronger. “There was a man . . . he was asking about Toni.”
My sister looks at Dev. “I think she deserves to know what happened.”
“I agree,” he says, shrugging. “Do you want to tell her or should I?”
May looks down at me with her most tender expression. “Do you remember coming to work on Monday?”
“Monday? Yeah, sure. Today is Monday, isn’t it?”
“No,” she shakes her head, “it’s Wednesday. You’ve been kind of out of it for a couple of days.”
“Coma?” I say with hushed awe. I am so in a movie right now.
She smiles. “No. Drugs.”
I don’t know why that disappoints me. Maybe because telling a story about falling into a coma is a lot more interesting than telling a story about being so drugged up on pharmaceuticals you can’t remember anything for two whole days. I went from hero to zero, just like that. Boo.
“What happened?” I ask, not even sure I want to hear the story now.
“You came to work early on Monday, and there was a not-very-nice guy waiting there for Toni. But when he saw you, I guess he decided he was going to try to get some information out of you to help him find her.”
“Why was he waiting for Toni?”
May’s mouth twists up for a couple seconds before she finally answers. “He’s the brother of a man she killed. In self-defense. Mostly self-defense, anyway. He was out for revenge.”
My eyes nearly fall out of my head. “Killed? Seriously?” I look at Dev for confirmation. He nods and then leans in.
“He’s the same person who put a big dent in the door on your first day. Do you remember that?”
I look at him and smile. “How could I forget? You falsely imprisoned me in your lame-ass, Hotel California panic room for, like, hours and hours.”
He glances up at May. “I don’t think she’s remembering things correctly. I think that head injury has done some permanent damage.”
I try to reach up to poke him, but my vision isn’t the greatest right now. His beautiful face blurs and dances away.
He takes my hand and kisses my fingers, bringing his face back into focus. “No hitting,” he says. “There’ll be no more violence in your life. I’m putting an end to it today.”
I pull my hand away. “What does that mean?”
May steps into the conversation. “We can talk about it later.”
Dev shakes his head. “No. It’s already decided. She’s not coming back.”
I glare at him. “Are you trying to tell me I’m not working at Bourbon Street Boys anymore?” I look over at my sister. “Can he do that? Can he fire me?” Panic starts to grow. Fired? Again? But what about the team? And Ozzie? And Little Miss Kickass who needs to tell me the story about how she killed someone? And Thibault and Lucky and his goldfish, Sunny? I feel like I’m losing my whole family in one fell swoop.
She shakes her head. “No, he can’t fire you, and I don’t think that’s what he’s trying to do anyway.” She glares at Dev and then raises her eyebrows and nods. She’s encouraging him to do something, but I don’t know what.