Cace paced the waiting room while he waited for Frankie to be checked over. He wondered if they would call his name out for an update on her case. He’d only been back five minutes and had already antagonised the local cops. Frankie’s Inspector had come over and introduced himself after he’d spoken to the waiting officers and received an update.
Sully walked over to sit with him and handed him a coffee from the vending machine. “Mate, word of advice, you need to reign in the O’Reilly temper. From what I can gather, Frankie went in headfirst after the two suspects as she knew the park. Markson couldn’t keep up with her and she told him where to go to cut them off. They were on their way back to the station when the call came in and she kept in radio contact the whole time.”
Cace took a sip of his crappy machine coffee and asked. “Why did it take them so long to get to her then, and what did the suspects do?”
Sully took a sip of his drink. “Markson admitted to getting lost in the dark and it was only when the chopper lights flooded the park that he realised he’d gone the wrong way. The kid feels like an idiot. She’d told him to learn the park layout both day and night but he hadn’t done any night runs yet. The two suspects are likely to be charged with robbery of the victim for starters and assaulting an officer, thanks to her body camera footage and hopefully additional DNA once it’s been processed but nothing on the third. Street cameras will be checked, and the investigation is ongoing.”
Cace took another sip of his coffee before throwing the remnants in the bin. “Doesn’t surprise me that she went after them then. Her friend Maria from University was assaulted on a night out, the guy was never caught. Probably why she joined the force and didn’t fucking tell me.”
Sully tried to hide his grin. “Don’t mean to be funny mate, but what did you think your girlfriend had been doing for the last eight years?”
Cace glared at him. “She told me she worked for a law firm whenever I came home. I thought she worked in an office! Then the whole long-distance thing got too much. She broke up with me about five years ago.”
Sully laughed. “Well, if I was you, I’d stay away from that lot. Markson wants to have you arrested for threatening an officer. Did you really threaten to throw him in the canal?”
Cace tried to hide his smile. “Yeah, the fucker tried to stop me from going to her.”
Sully grinned. “Yeah, I heard you Phoenix boys can be a little crazy when you go into protective mode, anyway I’ll stay with you until everyone calms down, and you can all play nice.”
After two hours of waiting for any information he could get, a nurse came through the door into the A&E waiting room. “Mr O’Reilly? Cace O’Reilly.”
The waiting cops turned and Markson glared as Cace nodded. He indicated for Frankie’s inspector to join him. “Yep, that’s me and this is Frankie’s boss, Inspector Johnson. How is she?”
The nurse looked up at Cace. “We’re taking her up to the ward for observation. We want to keep her overnight because of a possible concussion, but other than that, she’s very lucky. Nothing is broken, just a lot of bruising and she’ll need a lot of rest.”
Cace smiled as he took the nurse’s hand. “Thank you so much for looking after her. She doesn’t like hospitals, is there any chance I can stay with her? I promise not to be any trouble.”
Cace amped up the smile and the nurse laughed. “I’m sure something can be arranged. Due to the late hour they’ll probably put her in a side room so as not to wake the other patients. Follow me.”
By the time Frankie was released from hospital eighteen hours later, Cace had already started taking over her life. She had tried to insist she would be ok in her own house, but Cace refused to leave her. She couldn’t have him stay at hers. It was her space and if he left again, she didn’t want to have memories of him in her home. She agreed to stay with him, as his argument for being on one floor being easier on her bruised body made sense. No going up and downstairs. Frankie only agreed to stay with him when he threatened to call her mum and tell her what had happened so she would come to stay with her. She’d packed enough clothes for a few weeks and agreed to move in with him until she could manage on her own.
Frankie fell asleep on the drive back to his place. Exhaustion finally overtook her body. She’d been woken regularly to be checked on by the nursing staff and had only napped at best since the attack the previous night. She’d fallen asleep as soon as she’d settled in the car. She hadn’t even woken when he had called in their dinner order on the way back to his and he’d stopped to pick it up.
Cace pulled the car into his parking spot behind the factory and cut the engine. He leaned over and touched her shoulder. “Frankie, baby we’re home.”
Frankie shifted so her back was at the door and her fingers wrapped around the door handle. She opened her eyes and glanced around to get her bearings. She realised she was safe, as the smell of her favourite food hit her. “Can I smell Chinese food?” she asked as her stomach growled.
He chose to ignore her reaction for the moment and grinned. He knew the only things that mellowed her out other than sex was the three C’s; Chinese food, chocolate and coffee and he had Michael stock up on the other two for her stay. “Yep, got your favourites. I assumed you still eat the same dishes from Yang’s?” Cace reached into the back and passed her the bag of food. “Here, hold dinner and I’ll come round and help you out of the truck.” He stopped on the way round to grab her overnight bag from the back. He’d get her other bag later once he’d got her fed and settled, he thought.
Cace opened the truck’s passenger door and held out his hand for her to take. As she shuffled around on the seat, he pulled her close and lifted her out of the truck. She put one arm around his neck and looked up at him, but her stomach growled again. “Are you going to put me down Cace? I’m starving.”
He gently lowered her to the ground. Her body brushed against his and he smiled down at her. Frankie smacked his arm. “Behave, you can’t do this. We are not doing this!”
She took a step back. “I didn’t lie. When I told you I came back for you, I meant it. I mean no man turned up at the hospital, or is there one I need to call to let know you’re with me?” Frankie scowled at him.
He knew there wasn’t a man. If there had been, she would never have agreed to come and stay with him. He held out his hand to her. “I promise to behave, for now…”
She took his hand and let him pull her under his arm so she was nestled next to him and he placed a kiss on the top of her head. Cace opened the door to the Factory as the automated entry light came on. “Come on in, mind your step as we still have building work going on. It looks a little bad from the outside but inside, although it still needs a lot of work on this floor, the residential area upstairs is nearly finished. Mine and Michael’s apartments are ready, as we are project managing the build. The other apartments should be ready to move into over the next few weeks.”
Cace used the app on his phone to turn on the lights. Frankie looked around in awe as the space lit up. “Wow! I attended a call to a break-in here before the property sold sign went up. It was in bad shape, with holes in the floors, machinery was rusted and left behind and don’t get me started on the rats. How did you get this done so quickly? I kept an eye on this site over the years when I ran in the park. New planning permission was only granted six months ago.”
He looked sheepish. “Well, we may have started work on it before we got the new permissions. Our building contractor and architect managed the work. We were working overseas on a contract with a private security company in the US. The builder was a friend and kept us updated on work and any decisions that needed to be made. We saved every penny we earned, and all our expenses were paid for, so we knew we’d have enough to do what we wanted with the place.”
Cace continued as they walked toward the newly refurbished freight lift at the end of the building. “The factory came with permission for twenty-eight flats and parking underground; sixteen flats upstairs and twelve down here. We would’ve had to turn half of them over to a housing corporation. We didn’t have a problem doing that, but we had another idea. Michael and I wanted to put down roots and become part of a community like we had growing up. So, we worked on what we could do, like structural work and the flats upstairs, on the basis that our preferred plan would be rejected while we submitted an alternative solution for a community space and a gym downstairs. Uncle Liam offered to fund the community space for the first five years with a full-time counsellor and a youth worker.”
She hugged him to her. “Cace, this is going to be amazing. Do you remember going to the Rockwell Estate club when we were kids? It would be great for the kids to have something like that now.”
Cace guided her into the lift and pulled the shutters closed. “Come on, let’s eat and I’ll show you where you’ll be staying while you recuperate.”