“I’m not sure how effective I’d be.”
“Because you’d be too worried about protecting me?”
“Hey, you got those bandages changed yet?” said Decker, pounding on the bedroom door.
“Give us another few minutes,” I hollered back.
“Jesus Christ, we’ve got a damn…” muttered Decker, his voice trailing off.
I shifted out from under Smoke, stood, and picked up the medical supplies the hospital gave us when he was discharged.
“You sure you’re up for this?” he asked.
“I can assure you, I’ve seen far worse.”
“That’s what I thought when the nurse in England warned me about how you’d look after your surgery.”
“And?”
“It nearly broke my heart to see you lying in that bed with bandages on your head and monitors hooked up everywhere. The worst part was that they had you restrained. As soon as she left the room, I untied you.”
“See, Smoke, you loved me then.”
He nodded and then grimaced when I removed the bandages from his back.
31
Smoke
The obvious answer to what was in the safe was it contained evidence that would prove Byrne, and perhaps the other two men who worked for Interpol, was connected to the murder of agents around the globe. Either that or evidence of some other crime he’d committed. Why else would he or someone who worked for him kill Jimmy Mallory?
Siren still hadn’t told me what she learned about her father or of the strange coincidence that he was friends with Jimmy’s dad.
As hard as I tried not to move, when the cold analgesic on the replacement bandages hit my back, I flinched.
“Sorry,” she mumbled.
“Siren, what about your father?”
She sat down on the bed, beside me. “Turns out I followed in his footsteps.”
I couldn’t hide the fact her news stunned me. “He’s with IMI?”
“Was.”
“What happened?”
“He lost his life while on an op searching for Veronica Guerin’s killer.”
“You were a baby.”
“Not yet born is my understanding.”
“That’s why your mother didn’t list him on your birth certificate.”
“She feared some kind of retaliation.”
“Do you remember her ever talking about him?”