“You mean, besides the creep driving it?” Robin pointed out, fiercely protective.
I had to think. Focus. I’d been in this position before, unfortunately. I should’ve been getting better at it. “No. In fact, it was conspicuously free of markings. I don’t think there was a front license plate. It was very plain, dark, almost somber. Then I fell, so I didn’t see a back license plate when it took off.”
“Okay, that’s good.”
Good? How was that good?
A dim lightbulb in my brain flickered on. “It was like one of the cars they use at the hotel to chauffeur people around.” Like the one Kyle had described when he was almost run down. My shoulders bunched up as I shivered. “I’m cold.”
“Can we get you up off the walk, then?” he asked, again wedging his hand under my neck to support my head.
“Um, ow, not just yet,” I said, trying not to groan as my lower back sent a spasm of pain up my spine.
“Jeez, Brooklyn,” Robin said, leaning over me. “Should we call an ambulance?”
“No, I just need a minute.” And a pillow. And an aspirin. Or twenty.
“Take your time, Brooklyn, love.”
“Robin,” I said feebly, trying to make conversation, “Tommy was one of the men I was telling you about in the cab this afternoon.”
“Ah, you’re a Freemason,” she said, and demurely touched his shoulder. “I’d love to discuss some of your secret handshakes sometime. I find them oddly arousing.”
Ah, jeez. Was there anyone she wouldn’t flirt with?
Tommy whipped his head around to assure himself that no one had overheard her utter the name of the esoteric society. Then he frowned down at me. “Did you tell her, then?”
“She’s my friend,” I explained, giving Robin a warning glance. “She won’t say a word.”
“I swear I won’t,” Robin said, holding up her gloved hand in promise. “Although I don’t see why we can’t-”
Heavy footsteps pounded across the intersection.
“Oh, look, it’s Derek,” Robin announced gaily.
I groaned again. Of course it was Derek. Didn’t he always show up when I looked my absolute worst? I wondered idly if the cobblestones couldn’t just swallow me whole.
“What the hell happened?” Derek said, and quickly knelt down on my other side and grabbed my hand. “Are you hurt, darling?”
I smiled. It was hard not to when looking at Derek. “I’ll be fine, just a little tumble.”
“I’m handling things here,” Tommy said gruffly as he moved to kneel on my other side.
Derek cast a suspicious glower at Tommy, then looked at me. “Who is this guy?”
“A car almost ran her down, mate,” Tommy said, his tone defensive. “Damn good thing I was here to take care of matters.”
“Derek, meet Tommy,” I said, fluttering my hand in the air again. “Tommy, Derek.”
“Pleasure,” Tommy muttered.
I stared up at Derek. “What are you doing here?”
He continued eyeing Tommy as he said, “I got a phone call.”
“A phone call?” I was confused for a second; then it sank in. “You had me followed?”
“Of course I had you followed,” he said, also striking a defensive chord. “Someone already tried once to-”
More footsteps approached and Robin laughed. “It’s Angus! Whoa, he’s wearing a kilt.”
“A kilt?” I said, and struggled to sit up and see him.
“I think my heart just stopped,” Robin said, pounding her chest as she watched Angus’s kilt swing in the wind. “Medic!”
“You’re partial to a man in a kilt then, darling?” Tommy asked as he stood and brushed the sidewalk grit off his pants.
“What’s not to like?” Robin said, her voice breathy.
“Are you after wondering what a man wears underneath?” Tommy asked, grinning.
“Who the hell is this guy?” Derek asked me.
Oh, sweet baby James. What next? I fell back against the cobblestones, closed my eyes and prayed for divine intervention. And that aspirin.
“Figures it would be her,” some woman whined as she stopped to watch the activity. “What a drama queen.”
I stiffened in revulsion.
Shit. All this and Minka, too?
I finally forced myself to stand. My lower back ached, but I managed to keep from complaining as long as Derek kept his arm securely around me the entire two blocks back to the hotel.
Tommy refused to leave the party despite Derek’s best attempts to get rid of him, so we were quite the jolly crowd as we pulled several small tables together in the hotel pub, where I’d insisted we go for a nightcap, rather than heading straight to my room. For all I knew, I’d be attacked again. Best to be prepared. And I figured a wee dram was as good a remedy as a couple of ibuprofen any day.