“It went well, they love her. She was nervous, to begin with, but once she realized how down to earth they were, she got over it.”
There was a moment’s silence as DB handed me my cup, and then Hurst blew my mind. “How are you gonna help Tamsin with her shit?”
The mug had almost been at my mouth, so I almost tipped it over when he basically said point-blank that he knew her story. Glaring at DB, I saw him hold his hands up in the air and shake his head rapidly.
Scowling at Hurst, I bit out, “How do you know?”
“Alex told me when it all happened. I was going to meet her instead of DB and Tabby ‘cos we didn’t think either of them would be able to keep the story quiet, but then Lindee had a scare when she went for her titty exam at the hospital, and we couldn’t do it.”
DB and I glanced at each other again. “Linda had a scare? She’s good, though, right?”
Blowing out a breath, he pushed his hand through his hair and stared into his coffee. “Yeah, there was a lump under her arm, and when they did the titty exam and an ultrasound on it, they decided to take a biopsy of it. Came back okay, but scared the shit out of me.”
I was fairly sure that Hurst wouldn’t survive without Linda and vice versa. They were the kind of couple who were so perfect for each other that their hearts beat for the other person. If one stopped, the other would stop.
For all of her joking and pranks when he had heart surgery two years ago, something changed in Linda the day Hurst collapsed and almost died. The color drained from her face, and what was left behind was a pale woman putting on a smile for her loved ones and the rest of the world.
She didn’t get her color back for months after it, and even now she seemed to be slightly more fragile than before—like she’d lost the ability to be truly carefree.
“Fuck, Hurst,” DB rasped, moving to stand in front of him with his own cup of coffee. “I had no idea.”
“She didn’t want anyone to know. Jose had her stuff going on, and our family always has shit going on… There’s never a good time to share news like that, you know? So she said we wouldn’t unless we had to.”
I could appreciate that hugely. Why worry people if you didn’t know you had something to worry about or not?
Shaking it off, Hurst smiled up at us. “But her boobies are clear, so that’s what matters. Now, what are you going to do to help Tamsin?”
“We’ve been told just to watch and be aware. Her name change wasn’t based on a family name in any way, so she won’t be found that way. She literally went online, typed in random girls' names, and chose Zuri, and she got her last name from a magazine that was on the table in the station it was all decided in,” DB informed us.
I’d been meaning to ask her about it, hoping it wasn’t one associated with a grandmother or something, so this was a relief.
Still, that didn’t mean she didn’t have to use her real social security number. “What about her qualifications and identity?”
“Tamsin majored in psychology. All of the shit with Gjorka went down a couple of days after she graduated from NYU and was deciding what to do with it all. She’d taken an accredited phlebotomy program while she was at college and had been working as a phlebotomist, so she had money to live on. So, when she moved here, we discussed her doing it at the hospital, and I spoke to them about it all, and she got a job because they were short-staffed. So long as she maintains her certification annually, she’s fine.”
I knew all of this, but it still didn’t answer the last bit of my question.
“And her identity—how does she have the relevant paperwork for it?”
“Her dad’s been in the NYPD for thirty-one years, man. He’s owed favors everywhere and knows everyone. What do you think?”
I thought that was great for him, but it didn’t mean her identity would stay hidden. “And how trustworthy are these people he knows? Is there a chance anything will come out by accident or be bought from them?”
Rubbing his chin with his hand, he didn’t say it, but I knew he was thinking it—they could be bought.
Cracking his knuckles, Hurst twisted his neck from side to side. “Just as well she came to the right town then, hey, boys?”
Rapping his knuckles on his desk, DB started laying out a plan. “I’ll distribute photos of Gjorka and anyone associated with him to us all. Dad has a way to contact her father, Wilton Waite, so we’ll get an up to date list from him. Anyone who’s unknown in town will be flagged and followed.”