He had a point. Their description wouldn’t get him very far. But Bryce still didn’t appreciate the smart-ass tone. Maybe Sylvie’s suspicions were rubbing off on him, but even he was beginning to wonder about Perreth’s agenda regarding this case.
But then, maybe the detective was just an ass.
“We told you someone was after Sylvie. How about getting her some real protection this time?”
Sylvie turned to look at him, but she didn’t protest. Apparently she was a realist when she had to be.
The detective looked at him as if he’d just been jolted from a faraway dream. “Police protection?”
“What other kind?”
“Maybe a little common sense? Starting with not wandering around in the dark. Alone. I had officers driving by the hotel. If she’d just stayed inside…”
“Sylvie wouldn’t have gone out alone without good reason.” Bryce turned to her. Waiting to hear it himself.
“I got a call from a doctor. He said Bobby was awake and wanted to see me. Have you talked to him yet, Detective?”
Perreth narrowed his eyes on her. “When did you get this call?”
“Right before I left the hotel. Around four this morning.”
“And it was a doctor, you say?”
“A resident.”
Perreth pulled out a pad and pen. “And this resident, did he give a name?”
“Charles Rowe.”
He made another note. A nurse emerged from the swinging door and looked down at her clipboard. “Sylvie Hayes?”
Sylvie reluctantly lifted herself out of the chair. With one last pointed glance in Bryce’s direction, she hobbled to the nurse’s side and disappeared through the swinging doors.
“So how did you stumble upon this scene?”
“I was there. At the hotel. Sylvie texted me.”
Perreth frowned. “If you were there, why did you let her go off alone?”
Bryce knew what the detective was thinking, that he’d stayed with Sylvie last night. Of course, Bryce could only wish that had been true.
He rubbed his forehead, trying to forget the torn look in Sylvie’s eyes when he’d kissed her. He shouldn’t have done it. Not when there was so much he still hadn’t told her. The problem was, even knowing the kiss was a mistake, Bryce still wanted to do it again. “I wasn’t staying with her.”
“You were just wandering the hotel?”
Did the detective want him to paint a picture?
Bryce blew a frustrated breath through tight lips. He'd had enough of answering Perreth’s questions. He needed to ask a few of his own. “Why were you so interested in the call Sylvie got from the resident?”
“Just covering all the bases.”
“Right. And that’s why you wrote down his name?”
Perreth gave him his trademark bored look and didn’t answer.
“I suppose I could ask about the guy around the ICU,” Bryce finally said.
“Fine. There is no resident named Rowe caring for Bobby Vaughan.”
“What do you mean?”
Perreth looked at him as if he were a bit slow on the uptake. “Exactly what I said. There is no Charles Rowe. Vaughan is under protection. Not everyone in a white coat can just waltz in to examine him.”
“So you are going to give Sylvie full time police protection, right? Now that you know this guy lured her out of the hotel to kidnap her?”
“I can’t give guarantees.”
Bryce slapped his hands on his thighs in frustration. The pain made him regret it immediately. “You can’t be serious.”
“The city budget is serious.”
“What more reason do you need? Her dead body?”
“Like I said last night, if she agrees to stay in her hotel, I can send a uniform over to check on her every couple of hours. But that’s as much as I can promise.”
“What’s to keep this guy from attacking her between visits?”
Perreth shrugged. “You seem to be around her a lot.”
True. But after last night, that had become a problem.
“In fact, I have to wonder why you’re suddenly around her so much.”
“That’s none of your business.”
“None of my business? I thought you were her lawyer. That seems to be connected to my business.”
Damn. Bryce had forgotten that he was supposed to be acting as Sylvie’s lawyer. The kiss last night, the attack this morning, all of it had thrown him so far off his game, he could no longer keep track of his own rules. “And I have to insist you give my client police protection.”
Perreth gave him a knowing smile. “You have some other interesting clients too.”
“You’ve been wasting your time investigating me?”
“Just checking your credentials. I’ll bet it was interesting, representing a serial killer.”
Bryce felt cold. He’d known it was only a matter of time before someone would look up his history, but still, he wasn’t ready. Not for Perreth to throw it in his face, and especially not to have Sylvie find out.
“Lot of publicity in that prison lawsuit. Sylvie see your name on the news? Is that how she decided to hire you?”
“Something like that. None of this is relevant.”
“Maybe not. But there are a lot of strange things going on around here. Thought you might like to straighten things out.”
“There’s nothing to straighten.”
“If you say so. Far be it from me to tell a lady how she should pay her legal bills.”
“It’s not like that.”
“Whatever you say. Drive-by checks are all I can offer. Just keep her from sneaking out of bed on ya next time, and she’ll be plenty safe. If you can’t handle it, let me know.”
Bryce caught himself before he let out a big sigh of relief. As long as Perreth was focused on who Sylvie was sleeping with, he wasn’t telling her about Bryce’s tie to Dryden. And that would give Bryce a little more time to figure out how to tell her himself.
Sylvie
Sylvie looked at Bryce’s left hand and winced. Bruises mottled the swollen skin. “Are you sure they’re not broken?”
Bryce wiggled his fingers. “See? Not broken.”
“How about your nose? That’s got to be painful.”
Coordinating colors stretched over his puffy nose and darkened the skin under his eyes. “Nothing a few ibuprofen won’t fix.”
“Didn’t they give you anything stronger than that?”
“Didn’t need anything stronger.” He gave her a reassuring smile. “How about you? Shouldn’t they be keeping you here for observation or something?”
She might have a headache sharp enough to split wood, but she wasn’t about to fall for his attempt at distraction. She had the feeling his refusal of medication had more to do with the need for a clear head than lack of pain. “I’m fine. That is, I will be when you tell me what happened with Perreth.”
“Or maybe you won’t be.” Bryce glanced toward the door. “Let’s get out of here, go back to the hotel. Perreth agreed to send an officer by to check on you every few hours. I’ll tell you what else we talked about when we get there.”
“Not until I see Bobby.”
His lips pinched together in a pale line. “He’s still unconscious, Sylvie.”
“The doctor called me. He told me…” The tremor inside turned cold. She pulled her jacket tighter around her shoulders and clutched the fabric together at her neck. “The call was a fake.”
Bryce nodded.
Of course, it was. Hadn’t she thought the call was strange? Why hadn’t she put the pieces together? Was she so eager to talk to Bobby that she would believe anything without question?