Chapter Sixteen #3
“No. Call Detective Lopes. Or Carter if you can’t get ahold of Lopes.” He hated the idea of Carter being around, but right now they needed help. The right kind of help. Like extra security on the floor, or a more secure room for his mother. Drea made a move to speak just as his dad answered.
“Dad, hey. You need to come to the hospital.” He quickly filled Alec in on the details and asked him to call Connor and Devon, suggested Connor sit tight until they’d spoken to the police.
While nothing had changed with his mom’s physical health, much had changed about her circumstances.
No point in him driving all the way over until they knew more.
He ended the call and waited for Drea to finish hers. When his family arrived, they could sit down and decide how best to tell Evelyn. They’d need to speak to his mom’s doctor, too.
Drea ended her call and sat down next to him again. Thank God she was here, and had been able to identify his mom. One of these days they were going to catch a break from the craziness that seemed to be happening all around them.
“What did Lopes say?” he asked, sliding the phone back into his pocket. It all made sense, the awful gray pallor Drea had worn when she realized. He felt like someone had taken off his skin and turned him inside out.
“I didn’t call Lopes, I called Don.”
Seriously? Was doing what he asked this one time so hard to understand? “Drea. I said don’t call Don. I wanted the police to handle it. If this Don knows what she was involved in, then I want the police to question him.”
“I’m sorry, Cujo, but listen, please. You heard what Don told me. Other people could be hurt. Wouldn’t it be better to find out from him what your mom is involved in and help her that way?”
“I don’t give a shit about other people. I care about my mom’s safety. Whoever the fuck Don is, he’s not going to put a police officer outside her door.”
“You don’t know that. He said he was working with the appropriate authorities.” Drea bit the skin at the side of her thumb, and instead of finding her nervous tell endearing, he was pissed because of it.
“And what if the guy is some controlling asshole leader of a group she can’t escape, or the actual perpetrator of the crime and he just wanted you to stop digging? Seriously, Drea, you can’t just plough into this like you have all the answers.”
“I wasn’t trying to … I wanted to help, to—”
“To what? Do it your way? That’s nothing new, is it?”
Her eyes filled with the bright sheen of tears. No. Don’t bring out the fucking waterworks.
Drea stood and walked over to the window.
Cujo pulled out his phone and placed another call, jabbing the dial icon angrily.
“Detective Lopes, please.” Perhaps he said that louder than was necessary, but he needed to make the point.
He waited a moment for the desk to transfer him.
“Lopes.” From the background noise, it sounded like he was driving.
“Hey, Detective, it’s Brody Matthews.”
“Mr. Matthews. What can I do for you?”
Where to even begin? He was flat out of small talk.
“I think I know what happened to my mom,” he answered. He looked over at Drea, who met his gaze. Jesus Christ, why couldn’t she have just called Lopes like he asked? Or even Ryan-fucking-Carter? He’d come hurrying in a heartbeat if she called him.
“Has she regained her memory?”
“No,” Cujo replied. If only it were so simple. “I’m with Drea Caron, and she was involved in a situation where a woman was abducted from the place she works. Because of where the café is, and where my mom was found, it was handled by a different police station.”
“Where are you now?”
“I am at the hospital. We literally just walked into the room and Drea recognized my mom as that woman.”
“Okay, sit tight, I’m on my way.”
Cujo hung up and clutched his phone between both hands. What would they say to Evelyn? Now all he could do is wait for everyone to arrive.
Drea waited by a large window, her back turned away from him. Whatever drove her need to find the woman was over. Now she had to step back and let him and his family make the decisions.
A middle-aged couple walked by, the woman in tears, the man with his arms wrapped tightly around her shoulders. Fucking hospitals. Nothing good ever happened in them.
Cujo joined Drea. “What did Don say?” he asked. Whether she liked it or not, he was going to tell the police about him, and that Drea knew how to contact him.
“He said he’d be on the first flight in the morning.” There was a long pause. “I was trying to help, Brody.”
He got that, but he didn’t have it in him to be compassionate right now. He made a mental note to inform the hospital to allow only his immediate family access to his mom’s room. “I didn’t want you to call him.”
“I thought it was best.” She grabbed his forearm but he pulled it away.
“Best for who? You? You’re too involved with all this, Drea. It wasn’t your decision to make. It was mine.”
The double doors swung open and Alec walked in with Devon. He didn’t want to deal with this right now. What his mom needed and deserved was his full attention.
Cujo took his key ring out of his pocket and spun the truck key off it.
“Here,” he said, placing it in Drea’s hand. “Drive my truck to work and I’ll get it from you tomorrow.”
“Don’t push me away, Brody. I want to be here for you.” The crack in her voice almost made him reconsider.
“I need to focus on my mom right now. And you have work. Go, please. Tonight isn’t the night for big introductions.”
Drea looked over her shoulder and saw the two men walking toward them.
“Keep your key,” she snapped, and he did his best ignore the hurt radiating for her. “I’ll grab a cab.”
“Drea. It’s not safe, please—”
She turned on her heel and marched straight along the corridor, passing his family with her head down. Almost immediately, he wanted to call her back, but he couldn’t. He had other things he needed to focus on.
So why did the idea of her alone in the dark scare him just as much as finding out the truth of who is mom actually was?