Page 54 of Blind Trust
“Morning, Lyla.”
Did he always have that soft twang in his voice when he greeted her?Yikes. This was going to be bad.
“Good morning.” She quickly climbed into the truck and found a paper bag sitting between them. She sniffed the familiar scent and smiled.Bacon.
When he opened the door, she pointed at the bag. “You got me real bacon.”
“As opposed to fake bacon?”
“AKA turkey bacon.”
Nicolás started the truck and backed out. “I like turkey bacon, but yes, I got you real bacon. And eggs, cheese, and an everything bagel to go with it. They’re all kind of smushed together, like a breakfast sandwich.”
“Har-har.” Lyla unwrapped her sandwich and took a bite. “Mm-hmm. Rwel...con...ishus.”
“I have no idea what you just said.” He looked over with a blank stare.
“Real bacon is—” Lyla tried again around a bite, but she inhaledand a piece of egg or bacon went down the wrong pipe and she began coughing.
“Please don’t choke. I can’t give you the Heimlich while I’m driving.” Nicolás looked annoyed, and then his expression shifted to concern when he realized she wasn’t faking. He reached over and began patting her back, waking up her injuries from the day before. “Hold on, I’ll pull over.”
She coughed some more and then held up a hand, finally catching her breath. Wiping her watering eyes, she took several slow breaths before sipping some of her coffee. Then she began to laugh, and that earned her a scowl from Nicolás. “Good thing we’re already headed to the hospital then, huh?”
Nicolás rolled his eyes at her joke but didn’t stop stroking her back. Even though his fingers were grazing the bruises from the day before, she didn’t move. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, thank you.” She was a bit disappointed when he withdrew his hand, and she half considered faking another choking spell.Time to move to a safer thought. “Death by bacon. Kekoa’s dream.”
Nicolás groaned but then tilted his head in a way that said he agreed before he laughed. Lyla smiled and exhaled. Maybe today wouldn’t be as bad as seventh-grade bangs after all.
“What do you mean Tiffany Miller is gone?”
“Mrs. Miller is no longer here.” The nurse looked up from the computer at Lyla like she couldn’t believe she had to repeat herself. “She checked out yesterday. Against medical advice.”
Lyla repositioned the bouquet of flowers they’d grabbed on the way to the hospital. “Why would she do that?”
The nurse gestured around her. Nurses, techs, and hospital staff hustled back and forth as the phones rang, patient call bells demanded attention, and someone down the hall screamed for pain meds. “I’m nearing the end of a twelve-hour shift that turned into fourteen because two of my nurses called in sick and someonedecided to celebrate their twenty-first birthday by going drunk ice skating. You’ll have to excuse me if I don’t demand a reason from a woman ready to check herself out early.”
“Her injuries from the car accident must not have been too bad.” Nicolás leaned his elbows on the nurses’ station and earned himself a hard stare. He straightened. “To just walk out of here.”
“She was rolled out by a family member, and I can’t tell you about her injuries except to say she likely needed another week here.” Another alarm went off, and the nurse shook her head before pinning Lyla with a stare. “If that’s all, I need to go.”
Lyla set the flowers on the counter. “Keep these.”
The hard lines of exhaustion marking the nurse’s face softened. She pressed her lips together and gave a nod before hurrying away to help a patient.
“That woman deserves a vacation.”
“And a medal,” Lyla agreed with Nicolás as they skirted two nurses jogging toward a patient’s room. She pulled out her cell phone. “I have Jerry’s address. It’s about twenty minutes north of here.”
“Let’s go.”
Twenty-five minutes later, they pulled up in front of a two-story colonial. Unease swirled in Lyla’s stomach. This was Jerry Miller’s home. Where he lived in comfort while stealing millions of dollars from innocent people—maybe even from some of his neighbors—for criminals.
Walking up, Lyla kept close to Nicolás’s side. It was silly. Jerry was dead, but it didn’t ease the anxiousness coursing through her. “It’s weird.”
“What?”
She pointed at the driveway, where a single car was parked. “Jerry died a few days ago, and there’s no one here to console his wife and children.”
