Page 88 of Her Dom's Secret Past

It was a statement rather than a question.

“Yeah.”

“That why you wanted a blackout and the smoker?”

I knew what he was thinking. We could have tossed in a few more smoke grenades and maybe got them alive. I shrugged.

“Less chance of one of us being killed. They would have taken down as many as they could. At least between the blackout and the smoke, they couldn’t see where to shoot. I told you they would shoot first.”

“True. That Riley had a couple of machine pistols—Mac.10s. He had us pinned down ’til you took him out. Smithers is still alive and singing like a canary. Said he’d been paid five thou to drive the car and act as lookout. He’s a junkie and wanted money.”

“Thought it might be something like that.”

Clemson looked daggers at me. “Why?”

“Why what?”

“Cooper told me Riley knew you, said you’d killed his brother. Why were they here? This had everything to do with you and nothing to do with Miss Rowley.”

“I knew him.”

“That all you’re going to say?” Clemson glared at me furiously.

I shrugged.

“Does this mean we can expect more,er… visitors to our shores looking to settle old scores?” Clemson asked angrily, and I didn’t blame him one bit. I’d be pissed off big time too.

“No. It was personal with Riley.”

“You’d better be right or I might request you get sent back toBlighty. I expect a full report by noon. I’ll give you a few hours to get it done and spend time with Miss Rowley, but I’ll be here to talk to her tomorrow afternoon.”

“Okay,Chief, you’ll have it.”

He glared at me, his anger radiating off him in bucket loads. Cooper didn’t speak again. I thought he was keeping his head down in case Clemson took his anger out on him.

“Say thanks to Henderson for me, Cooper.”

He nodded as Clemson grunted and the two of them left after the inspector told me again he’d get Anabelle to tell her side tomorrow afternoon. She still wasn’t back from the CT when I rang my old boss.

“So you killed them all.”

No hello, not good.

“No. I killed Riley and Carruthers. The TOU guys put a couple of slugs into Carruthers and also wounded Smithers.”

“I want a report emailed to me by tomorrow lunchtime.”

“Shit, sir, it’s almost one-thirty at night here. I’m at the hospital.”

“I. Don’t. Give. A. Fuck. Midday.”

With that, he hung up. Great. I had no car, I had a cop breathing down my neck for a report, and now the agency wanted a piece of me too. Great.

I heard a rolling noise and looked out to see Anabelle coming back. They parked her bed in the bay and hooked her up again. She was still unconscious, but I could see she was coming around. The same doctor who had spoken with me came over.

“Scans show a broken rib and nose. She also has a fracture of the zygomatic arch.” He pointed to his face around the cheekbone area. “We don’t think there is any problem with her eye. It’s reacting well. There isn’t any sign of displacement and she’ll be monitored over the next few days. We’ll also monitor the bleeding we found in her abdomen.

“The liver appears fine and at this stage we don’t think it’s necessary to operate, but she’ll be observed continuously over the next few hours to see if the bleeding stops. The rib will heal by itself over the next month or two. The nose is back in place and not a bad fracture. We have a cosmetic surgeon coming down to check on her, but I think she’ll heal naturally. There is actually a lot of internal and external bruising. She’s going to be very stiff and extremely sore for a few days.”