A couple of minutes later, Nix had returned, walked up to Luca, whispered in his ear, and when Luca’s eyes flashed to mine, I knew it was bad. Luca gave Nix a quick nod and then Nix looked over at me and jerked his head towards the door. I got up, no questions asked, and followed him.
What he told me next had me ready to burn the entire world down.
A nurse at London Medical Center in Cedar Creek who worked on Robbie had recognized her from Brighton Steakhouse. Robbie had been her waitress a few times, so she had called the restaurant in hopes of finding someone to notify. A waitress named Mona had called Frankie and told her Robbie had been mugged and was in the hospital. In turn, Frankie had called Nix and told him she was going to Cedar Creek with or without him and, if he was going, he had five minutes to get home and go with her. He had told his wife that if she left without him, he’d fucking kill her.
Needless, to say, my sister had waited for us.
The drive to Cedar Creek had taken me back to the night we had to go get Frankie. It was filled with tension and fear of the unknown. Legally the nurse couldn’t give Mona any information over the phone, and when Frankie had called, they had given her the same legal bullshit. So, driving to Cedar Creek we hadn’t known shit about Robbie’s condition.
Once we got to the hospital, it had been a different story. We entered the hospital and it had been a kick watching Frankie throw her weight around for the first time. She had stormed up to the counter and asked for Robert Regal. The nurse had confirmed that Robbie had been admitted, but she had made the mistake of telling Frankie that we couldn’t see her.
With me and Nix at her back, Frankie had stretched all her five-foot-three-inch frame over the counter and told the woman, “I’m only going to say this once, ma’am. I am Francesca Fiore, and I am Roberta’s emergency contact. If I have to prove who I am, I will. But you won’t like the way I do it.” The woman had paled at the mention of Frankie’s last name and had rolled over immediately.
Now, we were in Robbie’s hospital room with a hospital guard standing outside, knowing his life was on the line if anyone, besides the doctor, entered the room. We’ve been here an hour, and Robbie’s been asleep the entire time.
When we had first walked in, Frankie had rushed the bed and started weeping at the broken sight. Nix had looked over at me with identical thoughts running through his head.
Robbie hadn’t been mugged.
I knew work when I saw it, and Robbie had been worked over. I thought back to the night we found her with Frankie, and I knew what she endured had been ten times worse because she hadn’t fully healed. The pain would have been excruciating. She would have suffered terribly and, suddenly, I knew the madness Phoenix had agonized through when we had found Frankie and Robbie at Randy’s.
As a man, if you couldn’t do the basic requirement of protecting your woman, you were worthless.
“We can’t leave her here, Phoenix,” Frankie tearfully whispered. “I’m not going to let them kill her.” When I had told Frankie everything, I had included everything I knew about Gary and Merrick.
After Robbie had kicked me out of her house, I had come home to Sal’s completed report on Gary Spencer and Merrick O’Malley. They were mid-level thugs who dealt with mostly drugs and money laundering. It was an educated guess that the box they were looking for was probably filled with drugs. Money wasn’t handed off for safe keeping. Drugs were.
I had also had Sal run a search on Randy, and the report confirmed Randy as a low-level grunt. He liked to drink, do drugs, and the only redeeming thing that could be said about the asshole was that it appeared he had been faithful to Robbie while they dated.
My guess was Gary and Merrick had given Randy some drugs to sell, and either Randy used it for his own personal reasons, or we had gotten to him before he could sell it. Now they needed their product back or their boss would get the estimated profit from them.
“Frankie, we’re not going to let anyt-”
“Do not tell me we aren’t going to let anything happen to her,” she snapped. “Look at her, Phoenix. We’ve let plenty happen to her.”
“Baby, we didn’t know-”
“Stop it, Phoenix,” she hissed. “We walked out of that house and left her in Cedar Creek to go it alone. I let you decide my life for me, and I left her here to heal alone. I left her here to cope alone. I failed her because I chose you assholes.”
“That’s enough, Frankie,” I growled, trying not to wake Robbie up. “Rehashing our mistakes is not going to help Robbie right now.”
Her sunlit eyes were glowing with shimmering wetness. “I’m not letting them come after her, Ciro,” she whispered-yelled. “I’m not going back to Morgan City without her.” Before I could tell Nix to get his wife under control, Robbie started stirring and Frankie’s raged morphed into frantic concern. She jumped out of her chair and grabbed Robbie’s hand as she stood over the bed. “Robbie?” Only one eye opened and I had to hold myself back from ripping the place apart.
“Fr…Frankie?” she rasped out in a voice damaged by
