Not a minute later, the locked door to the hallway was bursting open, and there was Gabe.
He was a pretty-boy type with blond hair and a tall, sturdy frame.
“I had to fucking bleach my eyes after walking into that hotel room,” he said, giving me a smirk.
“Yeah, not one of my finest moments,” I said, thinking back to calling his ass because he was the only person in that damn city that I knew when I found myself chained to a bed naked save for the fucking pillow over my junk after getting robbed by a chick I’d taken back to my room after all that drinking I’d done with Gabe.
“The fuck are you doing in my neck of the woods?”
“I have a case,” I told him.
“That brings you into the city? Must have deep pockets.”
“She does. And I have a favor to ask if you still have contacts on the force.”
“Yeah, of course,” he said, nodding. “Let’s take a walk,” he offered, leading me outside. “So, what do you have going on?”
“A rich businesswoman—“
“Christ, don’t fuck her,” Gabe said, making a snort escape me.
“I’ve had that lecture already. Anyway, she woke up in a hospital with her wrist slit, was forcibly put on a 5150, and has no fucking idea what happened.”
“No shit. That’s an interesting one.”
“Yeah. The problem is, none of the neighbors remember seeing cops or ambulances. Neither do some kids who were scouting on the street that night either.”
“Yeah, that’s weird,” Gabe said. “Did she not remember any of that?”
“Not a fucking thing,” I told him. “All she remembers was expecting Chinese food delivery. She was alone. Then she woke up in the hospital.”
“And you’re sure she just didn’t have a bad night?”
“She’s pretty fucking certain. As is her personal assistant who tracked us down and hired us.”
“Alright. Well, yeah, I can ask if any cops were sent to her address at…”
“The Chapel Lane building.”
“Oh, she’srich-rich,” he said.
“Penthouse of the Chapel Lane building,” I clarified.
Gabe let out a whistle at that.
“Yeah, someone would remember being called to that apartment.”
“Exactly.”
“I will ask around today and get back to you.”
“I appreciate it.”
“Maybe when the case is done, we can grab some drinks and talk about how it went. Too fucking interesting not to know what went down. Assuming you’re not balls-deep in the client at the end of the case.”
“I can behave myself, for fuck’s sake,” I said, letting out a laugh as a car pulled up and parked a few yards away, a slick jet-black sports car that cost a cool hundred grand, easy.
“Who’d bring a car like that into this…” I started, then the door opened, and out walked a gorgeous woman with black hair and a killer body.