Page 34 of Bad Medicine

“Francesca?” Lexi asked, sounding like she was hauling herself up from wherever she had been sleeping. “Why would I have? She’s in New York, sorting out her family shit.” Lexi hadn’t been there when we learned that it was Francesca’s uncle who was trying to kill her, but she’d for sure heard all about it.

Pretty sure half of Clark County could have heard Frankie hollerin’ about.

“Hang on,” Lexi said with a groan, setting the phone down. A few seconds and a ton of keystrokes later, Lexi was back.

“What the shit? This makes no sense.”

I waited, but she didn’t elaborate.

“Hey, Lex. You wanna fill me in?”

“I tried to track Frankie’s phone, make sure she landed in New York, but it shows she’s still here in Las Vegas.”

That was strange.

“Did she leave the phone at the house?”

“I can’t tell yet. I’ll have to do some digging.” Again, I heard the rapid fire clicking of her keyboard. “Leave this with me, and I’ll let you know as soon as I have something.” She disconnected without another word.

“Nice talkin’ to you, too,” I muttered to the dead air.

Whatever.

Enzo would have called me if something was wrong; there was no sense worrying yet. Forcing myself to accept that bullshit line, I tossed the phone on the bench seat beside me and tipped my head back, trying to catch some sleep.

Some time later, I was awakened by a sharp knock on the window. One hand reaching for my gun, I twisted in the seat, freezing when I saw the confused face of Mia staring at me. Relaxing, I tossed her a lazy smile, rubbed one hand over my face, and got out of the car.

“What are you still doing here?” she asked, although with much less venom than the previous times she had asked me.

“We had plans,” I said simply.

“Hours ago.” She sounded distressed. “It’s nearly midnight. Why are you still here?”

I looked at her then—really looked at her—and I could see the worry and fear she tried to hide behind her tough exterior.

Mia Carmichael was afraid of me.

Not that I would harm her; I didn’t think she believed that I would ever lay a hand on her or anything. But she still thought she’d be hurt.

That wasn’t normally something I worried about; the women I was with, they all knew the score. One and done. No hurt feelings, no expectations.

My earlier assessment had been right; I needed to remind her—remind both of us—what this was.

I wasn’t about to be making this woman any promises. We both just needed to get laid.

“Look, Doc. Don’t overthink this, alright? We had plans, you were delayed. It’s no big deal.”

“What about the food? That was you, right? Why did you have pizza and coffees delivered for the entire emergency room staff?”

“You said you needed a coffee, and I wanted you to have enough energy for the rest of our evening.” I tossed her a suggestive smirk, wincing inside when that gorgeous frown crossed her face.

I didn’t like it when she frowned at me.

“Listen, Rocco,” Mia started, but stopped when my phone started ringing. Reaching for it, I was instantly on alert when I saw the number for Sin City on the screen.

“Yeah?” I answered hesitantly.

“Rocco.” Enzo’s voice was hard and tight.