While Alec was handcuffing him, the man said something Aiden took offense to. Aiden tried to grab him, but Alec blocked him with his shoulder.
“Go ahead. Call her a bitch again. See what happens,” Aiden taunted, his voice deceptively calm. When he tried again to push Alec out of his way, Jack moved in front of him—no small trick, to be sure—and began to pat down the man while Alec recited his rights.
“What’s your name?” Jack asked. The man shrugged and didn’t answer.
“He’s one of the men who was with Simone,” Cordie said. “His name is . . .”
Alec finished her sentence. “Arnold Jenkins.”
“How did you know—” Cordie began.
“Liam,” Alec answered.
Cordie was too shaken to think it through. Everything was happening so fast.
“Is your buddy Charles Kendrick with you?” Alec asked.
Jenkins’s response was obscene. Alec had had enough of his filthy mouth and slammed him into the wall. “Stop talking,” he ordered.
Jack searched Jenkins and found no identification, just a hotel key card in his back pocket. He pulled a fierce-looking knife out of his left boot. There was a small pistol tucked in the other. As soon as he held up the weapons for Alec to see, Jenkins demanded a lawyer.
“Who do you want to call first?” Jack asked. “A lawyer or Simone?”
Jenkins looked at him blankly for a second and then grinned up at him with an arrogant smirk. The action was not lost on Jack and Alec, who exchanged a what-was-that-all-about glance.
Aiden went to Cordie and put his arm around her. She could feel him shaking when he gently pulled her down to sit on the sofa.
“Did he hurt you?” he asked her. “We should get a doctor here to look at you.”
“I’m fine,” she insisted. “He just choked me a little.”
“Choked you a little?” Aiden was so inflamed he could barely get the words out.
Jack crossed to the sofa and squatted down to look at Cordie’s neck. “It’s not bad,” he said. “His neck looks worse than yours.”
“I hit him in his Adam’s apple with my fist,” she explained.
“Good girl.”
Alec had pushed Jenkins into a chair by the door and was on the phone. He finished the call and said, “Jack, five, maybe ten, minutes away.”
Jack explained. “Alec has a couple of agents swinging by to get Jenkins. We’ll instruct them to lock him in isolation until we get around to interrogating him and letting him call a lawyer.”
“Is that legal? Putting him in isolation?” Cordie whispered so Jenkins wouldn’t hear.
“Processing a suspect takes time,” he replied. “And Alec and I don’t like it when someone hurts one of our own.”
They considered her one of their own. She was touched and suddenly feeling very emotional. She wiped a tear from her eye. “Make him sweat,” she said.
Jack laughed. “That’s a given.” He patted her hand, then walked over to Alec and said, “You’ve got this. I’m thinking I’ll go ahead and ride with Jenkins, make sure he’s put where I want him.”
“When you interrogate him, I want to be there,” Aiden said.
Alec shook his head. “Sorry, but no.”
An argument started and didn’t end until Jack left with Jenkins in tow. As he was walking out the door, he told Aiden, “You better figure out how he got up here.”
“I’m going to do that right now,” Aiden assured him. “Alec, are you staying here?”
“For a little while. Then I’m heading over to Jenkins’s hotel room with Jack. The crew should already be on their way.”
“Wait until I get back,” Aiden told him. “Walker and his nurse must have heard Cordelia. I want to tell them she’s okay.” His voice turned hard. “And I want to find that guard.” He paused at the door to smile at Cordie. “You’ve got a wicked scream.”
After the door closed behind him, she asked Alec, “Was that a compliment?”
“I think so.”
“Will you excuse me a moment?” She didn’t wait for permission but went into her bathroom to splash cold water on her face. When she looked in the mirror, she was pleasantly surprised. The skin on her neck was red, but she didn’t think there would be much of a bruise. Her sling was torn. She couldn’t remember that happening. Jenkins must have grabbed it when he tried to drag her up to her feet. The memory was way too fresh. She pressed her back against the wall and took several deep breaths. She was her father’s daughter, she reminded herself. No time for tears or tantrums. She needed to stay tough, to keep it together. She could break down tonight when she was alone.
She took a few minutes to clean up. After tossing the sling into the trash, she changed into a new blouse, combed her hair, and applied a little lip gloss. At the moment, that was the best she could do. She sat on her bed for a while, willing her heart to stop racing, and when at last she felt composed, she took a notepad and pen from the nightstand drawer and returned to the living room.
Aiden was already back and standing at the bar talking to Alec. She went to the dining table, pulled out a chair, and sat down.
“Cordie, would you like something to drink?” Aiden asked.
“Diet Coke, please.” Her voice was still raspy, and her throat was sore from the man’s hands squeezing it closed.
“Are you sure you don’t want something stronger?” Alec asked.
Aiden filled a glass with ice and poured the drink for her. He put it on the table and pulled out the chair adjacent to her while Alec took the seat across from him. Both men were studying her. Cordie was acting as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened, and Alec was impressed by how she was able to hold it all together. Aiden, on the other hand, was worried. He knew she needed to let out her feelings, not squelch them.
“What’s the paper and pen for?” Aiden asked.
“I thought I’d make notes and write down Liam’s phone number. I want to call him.” She picked up the pen and looked at Alec. “May I have his phone number?”
He had the number memorized and rattled it off to her. It was only when she started to write the numbers that she realized her predicament. She was left-handed, and unfortunately her left arm was in a cast. She wasn’t ambidextrous, but she tried to write Liam’s name with her right hand, giving up after three letters. The scribbles looked like a preschooler’s work.
She pushed the paper and pen to Alec, who said, “Where’s your phone? I’ll program Liam’s information in.”
“I don’t know. I had it when he—” She stopped suddenly, took a breath, and asked Aiden to call her cell phone.
They found it under a chair. After adding Liam’s contact information, Alec handed the phone to her. “I want to know why you want to call him,” he said, “but you can explain later. Right now I want to hear what happened. Did you let Jenkins in? Did you open the door for him?”
“No. He was walking into the suite when I came out of the bedroom. I saw the flowers . . . then him.” Frowning, she looked around the room. “What happened to the flowers?”
Alec pointed to the foyer. The flowers were strewn all over the marble floor, and the vase was in scattered shards. She thought it odd that she hadn’t noticed the mess until now. Had he thrown them? She couldn’t remember. She’d been busy at the time trying to keep the maniac from choking her to death.