SIUBlues12

Harvey stared out the window in the surgery waiting room. His entire body felt numb. He couldn’t believe what had happened. Rachel had worn her body armor and the bullet had still penetrated. Someone knew that she was a cop and shot her in spite of it or because of it. He didn’t know which, but he would find out.

That had been his main focus. He couldn’t think about Rachel in some far away room with a group of strangers cutting on her body because then he had to face the possibility that she might die. That was beyond comprehension for him.

The fact that he was the one that had suggested the plan to draw Bixby out and that he had been the one to suggest Rachel as the bait was like a knife in his gut. He could still hear Nash’s words in his head. It’s not your fault. No one could have anticipated a second shooter. Deep inside, Harvey understood that logic, but it did little to assuage the guilt.

His eyes squeezed shut as the image of her lying on the ground assaulted his psyche. She couldn’t breath. She had started to cough up blood by the time the paramedics arrived. At one point, her breath was so shallow that he thought she had stopped breathing all together. All he could do was hold her and pray.

Bixby was there, he thought, forcing his mind away from those agonizingly long minutes. Harvey wiped away a stray tear, but didn’t give it any thought as he kept his mind moving. Why had Bixby take out the second gunman? Had he tried to save Rachel or clean up after his own assassin? Who was the man that had shot her? Was he there for his own vengeance or for someone else’s? If someone else, then who had hired him?

“I want everyone on this,” Nash said to Ronnie over the cell phone as he walked back into the waiting room. “I want to know who gave the order.” He flipped his phone closed as he stopped next to Joe sitting in a chair by the door. “How’s he holding up?” he asked as he looked at Harvey’s stiff back across the room.

“He hasn’t said a word,” Joe returned softly. “He’s been standing there staring out the window since we got here.”

Nash sighed heavily. That wasn’t good. Harvey was too sensitive a guy to keep something that major bottled up inside. Nash walked up to him slowly and put his hand on his shoulder. “How are you doing, Harv?” he asked softly.

Harvey turned slightly toward the sound of his voice, then stared down at the windowsill. “I’ll be fine once I know she’s okay,” he returned in equally hushed tones.

Nash nodded, praying that would be true. “One of the doctor's told me that she kept mumbling something about being close. Saying something like ‘I’m close. I knew I was close’,” he quoted the nurse. “Do you have any idea what it means?”

Harvey shook his head, his eyes drifting off to stare into dead space as he struggled to recall any conversation that would explain her rambling. “My only guess would be that it had something to do with one of the missing person cases that she’s always working on. Other than that, she hasn’t said anything to me that would explain it.”

“We’ll go with that,” Nash stated. “If we find out why she was shot, we can find out who was behind it.”

“Anything recent that she was working on will probably be on her laptop at her apartment.”

“Joe,” he began, turning to his partner. “Send one of the uni’s over to Rachel’s apartment to get her laptop. I’m assuming that you want to stay here?” he asked Harvey. Until they knew for certain who had Rachel shot and why, he wanted twenty-four hour security.

“Absolutely.”

“All right. I’ll have her laptop sent over here so that you can work on it. If anyone can crack into her system, it’s you.”

“Let’s hope I don’t need to,” Harvey returned. “If she has the files encrypted, it will take me some time to get them open.”

Nash studied him for a moment. Harvey had been through more than his fair share of heartache recently. “If you don’t think you can handle it, let me know and I’ll...”

“No Nash,” Harvey interrupted him. “I need to do this,” he stressed. “I know I’m too close to this to be of any help to you on the street. Going after Evan’s killers taught me that if nothing else. Let me have the laptop. I’ll get you the information that you need to bring down the bastard that did this.” And I’ve got a good idea of where to start looking, he added silently.

The hint of a smile tugged at his lips. “All right Harv. I’ll make sure that the hospital sets you up in a room with a modem connection and I’m going to have a couple of uni’s posted at her door as well.” He pointed a finger at Harvey to drive home the seriousness of his next statement. “I don’t want you following up on any leads on your own,” Nash warned him. “If you find anything, you call me or Joe. We’ll decide what to do from there. As soon as we get a progress report from the surgeon, Joe and I will be checking out the scene.”

“Captain Bridges?”

Nash and Harvey turned quickly at the sound of the doctor’s voice. Harvey felt his stomach drop when the doctor motioned for them to follow him out into the hallway. He glanced around quickly. There were several other people around them waiting to hear about their loved ones. The doctor wanted privacy. Was that good or bad?

He couldn’t even remember moving as he stood there listening to the doctor with Joe and Nash on either side of him. “...through the lung...lot of damage...complications...” Only bits and pieces were getting through to him. His heart was drumming so loudly that he could barely hear what the surgeon was saying.

Please God, he prayed. I can’t lose her.

“We’re going to have to keep an eye on her,” the doctor concluded. “But she’s strong and her vitals are holding steady. It looks like she’s going to pull through.”

A heavy sigh escaped Harvey at the news. He thought for a second that his knees would give out under him. “Thanks God,” he breathed as Joe and Nash clapped their hands on his back.

* * *

Harvey had been content to let others do the footwork on Rachel’s case. He knew that Nash and been serious when he ordered him not to follow up any leads on his own. And, as much as he wanted to help, he knew that Nash had made the best decision for them all. He definitely couldn’t put his feelings aside when it came to catching the man behind Rachel’s shooting. He would be a liability in the field. That was, if he ever left the hospital.

He had spent hours pouring over the information on Rachel’s laptop. His only break would be when the nurses allowed him to visit Rachel. The time increments were limited, only fifteen minutes an hour for the first twenty-four. What sleep Harvey had was on the couch in the waiting room. His body had been pushed to the limit. His mind was fogged with endless pages of text and his emotions had been wrung dry. And still, he couldn’t leave.

When Rachel hadn’t regained consciousness after the surgery, the doctors allowed Harvey to stay in her room, hoping that his presence would rouse her. Harvey read to her from newspapers, magazines, anything that he could get his hands on. Then Barry, the sketch artist from the SIU, brought in one of the latest best sellers and Harvey began to read to her from that.

He couldn’t bring himself to leave her side. He was afraid that, if he left, she would be gone before he could return. It was irrational and he knew it, but that fact didn’t alleviate the fear. He just knew that, if he kept talking, she would wake up. Even if it was for nothing else than to tell him to shut up.

Harvey stretched to ease the aching muscles in his back, then flipped down the screen on the laptop computer. He had commandeer the night stand to use as a desk so that he could stay at Rachel’s side. His eyes scanned her face as his hand slipped under hers. He searched for any sign of movement in her face, then in her hand resting lightly against his. When he saw none, he brought her hand up to his lips for a light kiss before leaning back in his chair.

* * *

“Nash Bridges. SFPD,” he said succinctly as he held up his badge for inspection.

“Don’t tell me my parents sent you down here looking for me too?” Lee Chang asked when he was confronted by Nash and Joe outside of the restaurant where he worked.

Nash gave his head half a shake. “No, bubba, this is personal. The officer that spoke to you a couple of days ago, Rachel McCabe, was shot yesterday. Know anything about it?”

“Why would I know anything?” he shot back defensively.

“Whoa. Back up, bubba.” Nash held up his hands to show him that he wasn’t hiding anything. “We’re not accusing you of anything. We’re just trying to find out what happened.”

He nodded once, reassuring himself that he didn’t know enough to be of use to anyone anyway. “I only talked to the chick for a couple of minutes. Never saw her before or after.”

“Did you happen to notice if anyone was following her? A car maybe?”

He thought for a moment. “Come to think of it, some guy did come up to her and started talking. They left together, I think.”

“That would be Harvey,” Joe whispered to his partner.

“But you don’t remember anyone else?” Nash continued to prod.

“No man. Like I said, I only talked to her for a couple of minutes. She gave me the standard reasons why I should call my parents, then I left.”

“There wasn’t anything about the conversation that struck you as odd?” Nash tried once more. There had to be a clue somewhere.

“Now that you mention it, she did ask me if I knew a Hyun Chon.”

“Hyun Chon,” Nash repeated and saw Joe whip out his notepad. “Is he any relation to Yong Cha Chon?”

“I have no idea,” he responded honestly. “Never heard of the guy.”

Nash hesitated for a second, then tossed his hand in farewell. “Okay thanks.”

“Hey,” Lee called out to stop them. “For what it’s worth, I am sorry that Inspector McCabe was shot. She seemed like a straight forward lady.”

Nash handed him one of his business cards. “If you hear anything about this Hyun Chon, give me a call. Day or night. It’s important.” He waited for the young man to give him a nod, then he and Joe left.

* * *

“I don’t believe it,” Harvey said into the cell phone as he spoke softly into it. Even though he knew that Rachel and Hyun had a history, he was surprised to see the information on Hyun turned up in Rachel’s computer. “She has a file on the guy.”

“You’re kidding?” Nash asked as he sped down the street in his Cuda with his cell phone up to his ear.

“That’s weird,” Harvey continued as he clicked down the pages. “Everything in it is from nearly twenty years ago. Very little after that.”

“No current address, I take it.”

Harvey scanned down quickly. “Nothing here, but that doesn’t mean that she doesn’t have it on her pc back home.”

“We’re on it,” Nash returned, “but we’ll probably need your expertise.”

“She had minimal security on this computer. I can probably talk you through it when you get there.” His eyes landed on a few of the details from Hyun Chon’s life. “Looks like our guy was accepted at Harvard Law.” He added as he stared at the screen for any further pertinent information. “Doesn’t say if he actually went or not though.”

“Is Hyun the son that disappeared on Yong Cha twenty years ago?”

“One and the same,” Harvey returned. “Listen Nash, I should have said something to you earlier about this, but Rachel has a history with Hyun Chon. Apparently they went to school together and, from the rumors going around, they were an item at one time.”

There was dead air. Nash was not happy with that particular disclosure. “And you neglected to tell me this because?”

“I was hoping that Rachel would fill us all in. I confronted her about it the day before the shooting, but she wasn’t giving up any details. After that, the only time we spoke was about the job at the SIU.”

Nash didn’t press the matter. He knew that Harvey would be punishing himself enough for his silence. “How is Rachel doing?” Nash asked instead.

Harvey looked over at her bed where she lay perfectly still. “She hasn’t moved. The doctors think that the concussion she suffered at the warehouse may have something to do with it, but they really aren’t sure why she isn’t coming out of it.”

“She’s going to be all right,” Nash said with conviction. “Hang in there, Harv.”

“That’s all I can do,” he returned solemnly, then flipped his cell phone closed.

* * *

Nash held the cell phone up to his ear as he clicked with the mouse with is other hand, following Harvey’s instructions to the letter. “Got it,” Nash told him when the file on Hyun Chon came up on Rachel’s personal computer. He skimmed through the pages to the last one where the name Samuel Chon was typed in bold red letters. “Samuel Chon. Yong Cha’s only grandson. Do we have anything on him?”

Harvey’s thoughts immediately jumped back to the confrontation with Rachel in the park. She had seemed shocked to see Samuel Chon walking out of the TiaPang Building. “Here’s something odd, Nash. See what you can make of it. When I ran into Rachel yesterday, she was watching the TiaPang Building. I assumed she was watching for the old man, but when Samuel Chon walked out, I thought she was going to lose it. I stopped her from chasing after him because, let’s face it, Yong Cha wouldn’t hesitate to take out anyone messing with his grandkid. When Samuel got away, I swear I thought Rachel was going to take my head off. She was extremely intense.”

“That sounds a little hinky. What made you think that she was watching for the old man?”

He paused for a moment. He hadn’t realized how much he had kept from Nash. He had gotten so focused on figuring out what Hyun had meant to Rachel, that he lost sight of what he should have been doing. “I kind of got the impression that Rachel and Hyun didn’t split up so much as they were torn apart.”

“Ah, traditional dad didn’t like the American girl,” Nash deduced. “Are there any more little details that you left out Harv?” he asked pointedly.

“Other than the fact that I’m a jealous idiot, no. That about covers it.” There was a short pause. “I dropped the ball on this one, Nash. I’m sorry.”

“Forget about it Harv. What’s important now is that we get this all sorted out and get Rachel back on the mend. It would sure help if Rachel could give us some answers, though. Is there any improvement yet?”

“She’s starting to toss a little. The doctors are fairly sure that she’s only sleeping now. I’m praying that they’re right.”

“Keep us posted on her condition. We’re going to find out if Yong Cha is working out of San Francisco again. I’d love to have another crack at that guy.”

* * *

Nash sighed heavily as he tapped at the computer keyboard. It was frustrating trying to gather information off of the Internet with his two best hackers at the hospital. He was pretty sure that he had crashed one of Rachel’s search programs. He only hoped that she would be able to get it operational again once she was back at work. “Remind me to put Harvey and Rachel in for a raise,” he said loudly enough for Joe to overhear him at his desk.

“And put them both above minimum wage?” Joe shot back. “The department won’t hear of it.”

Nash chuckled. “You’re probably right.”

“Bridges!” Truitt bellowed as he made his way into the SIU.

Nash blinked several times as he watched the man approach. “And you would be?” he asked curiously.

“Nash,” Joe interrupted, stepping over to his partner’s desk. “Meet Special Agent Truitt of the DEA.”

“Oh,” Nash returned mundanely, then turned back to his work.

“Don’t try to run one of your scams on me, Bridges,” Truitt warned him. “I’ve heard all about you.”

He looked mildly surprised. “Then you’re one up on me, bubba, because I don’t know a thing about you.” He smiled as he stood, gathering together the files that he had been working on. “Nor do I care to.”

“You’re suppose to be working on the Castle case, not running round town chasing after DEA agents.”

Nash bristled at the case name. It was obvious to him that the DEA was raring to take Victoria down along with her patronage. “Well someone has to go after Bixby, bubba, because you sure can’t seem to catch him.”

“Did your partner happen to tell you that you’re under suspicion of collusion?” he asked pointedly. “If I were to turn in a report stating that you are being uncooperative, what kind of impression do you think that will make?”

“Impression? Hell bubba. I think it will actually prove what an ass you are.” He turned his attention to Joe as he started out of the SIU. “Are you ready?” he asked his partner.

“More than,” Joe returned, falling into step beside him.

“Don’t even think about walking out on me, Bridges. I want an update on the Castle case before you leave this office.”

“Make up your mind, bubba,” Nash tossed back over his shoulder. “Do you want me working on the case or not?”

Truitt shook his head, as he followed. “Don’t try to double talk me Bridges. You’ve got a job to do and I’m here to make sure you do it.”

“Then you’re wasting your time, Truitt. The update on the Greco case has already been turned in.” Nash hesitated so that he could turn to look at the agent. “I’m sure that you will get to see a copy of it eventually...once it goes through proper channels. Procedure, you know.”

* * *

“Russell? It’s Tory,” she said softly into the receiver.

“Tory!” he returned excitedly. It had been several weeks since they had last spoke. “Cruz said that you called the other day. I’m sorry that I missed you.”

“Can you talk?” she asked cautiously, her nerves pushing further to the edge with every heartbeat.

Russell looked around swiftly to make sure that he was alone, then took the added precaution of carrying the phone out onto the patio. “Yeah, I can talk. What’s wrong? You sound upset.”

“I’m all right,” she assured him quickly. She didn’t want to spur him into doing something rash when they were so close to getting what they wanted. “Do you have any new information to add to what we have?” she asked in a whisper even though she was sure of privacy on her end.

“Tory, you know better than to ask me that while I’m here,” he reprimanded her and took another apprehensive look around. “Has something happened?”

“I may have the guy we’ve been waiting for,” she returned, the words catching in her throat. The irony wasn’t lost on her. She didn’t have Teddy at all. He was using her just as she was using him.

“Are you sure, Tory?” he asked cautiously. They had waited for so long that it didn’t seem possible it could all be coming to an end. “Can you trust the guy?”

“I think so,” she said with as much certainty as she could muster. “I’ll know soon. I just want you to be ready when I am.”

“We couldn’t be more ready,” he returned solemnly. “I can’t tell you how sorry I am for ever getting you involved.”

“Let’s not go down that road again, Russell,” she pleaded as she rubbed at the tension headache building at the back of her neck. “It’s ancient history. What we have to concentrate on now is how to set things right.”

“Everything’s covered on my end,” he assured her. “Let me know what you have set up as soon as you can. I’ll get back with you in a couple of days and I’ll call from somewhere else so we can talk. Are you sure you’re all right?” he asked again. He didn’t like the sound of her voice over the phone and she had taken a great risk by calling him.

“I’m fine,” she said, then there was a long pause over the line. “Just watch your back, okay?”

“I will,” he returned softly. “I love you, Tory.”

“I love you too.”

* * *

Nash stood on the beach at the back of his hotel as he stared out at the Pacific. It was hard for him to accept that he had been out on that ocean less than forty-eight hours before with Victoria in his arms and now she didn’t want anything to do with him. Throughout his entire career as a San Francisco police officer, he had been faced with many difficult decisions. Choices in which men and women paid the ultimate price for. There were so many things that he would have done differently, but none that he wanted to change more than what had happened with Victoria.

After spending a few restless hours in bed, he still had doubts that he had done the right thing. He knew that, with every drug dealer he helped to shut down, one more kid would live to see his next birthday and one less family would know what it was like to lose someone that they love. But, at that moment, he had to wonder if it was all worth it. The war on drugs would continue to wage regardless if he was there or not. Federal and local officials wouldn’t stop trying to get the dealers and the drug smugglers would just find another way to do business. It was a war that he couldn’t win and, for the first time in a long time, his job seemed pointless.

He loved being a cop, but the choice to remain one was getting harder to live with. He was tired of hurting the people he cared about because of his love for the job. Even his dates turned out to be fodder for the next important case to come along. That was one aspect of the job that he could do without.

He darted a glance to his side when Joe walked up beside him. “I just got off the phone with Harvey,” Joe told him as he stared out at the horizon as well. “He said that Rachel still hasn’t come to, but that her vitals are stronger. I told him that we didn’t know how long it would take to hook up with Greco tonight so we were staying at a hotel here. I gave him the number just in case.”

His gaze remained on the horizon. “Sometimes I wonder why we even bother, Joe,” he said reflectively as he watched a schooner in the distance. “For every dealer we bring down, two more pop up to take his place.”

Joe tugged at the cuffs of his shirt beneath his jacket. “Someone has to fight,” he commented. “Someone has to draw the line.”

He nodded slightly. He wasn’t expecting any other answer from his partner. It was the same answer he would have given three days ago. “Then maybe it’s time for someone else to draw that line.”

Joe looked over at him swiftly. It wasn’t like Nash at all to talk about quitting. He loved his job with a passion that was rare in their field. It was difficult for most just to recover from a close call, but Nash thrived on it. He loved living on the edge or, at least, he use to. “You don’t have to go if you don’t want to,” he offered as an out. “I can talk with the locals myself if you want to see Victoria.”

He turned to him then and gave him one of his well-rehearsed smiles. “It’s all part of the job,” he said in conclusion, then walk off the beach.

* * *

Nash’s eyes fell on Victoria the moment that he stepped into Flash with Joe. She was magnetic in a glittering turquoise shift as she tossed her head back slightly, laughing with a few of her patrons. He wanted to freeze that moment in time, but a touch from Joe’s hand on his shoulder brought him swiftly back to reality. He still had a job to do.

They had only taken a few steps toward her when Victoria looked up and they came to a stop once more. She excused herself promptly and removed the remaining distance between her and Nash. “Let’s get this over with,” she said, then turned away abruptly to lead them to Tristan Greco’s table in the loft on the second floor.

Nash gave his partner an I-told-you-so look and Joe shook his hand in the air as if burned. It was obvious that Victoria was still very angry. He knew that he had blown any chance of being with her ever again by meeting with Greco, but he couldn’t stop his feet from following her. Every step was another nail in his coffin, yet he mounted the stairs behind her. I just have to face it, he thought. I’m a cop first and a human being second.

“Tory!” Tristan Greco called out when he saw her approach and worked himself up from his table. He fastened his custom tailored jacket around his wide middle and smoothed it down just as Victoria stepped up to get her customary kiss on the cheek, but Tristan didn’t stop there. His beefy arms went around her with one hand dropping much too low for propriety.

Victoria began to push herself away, but then hesitated when she saw the territorial look that Nash was giving Tristan. The intensity of the stare surprised her. The last thing that she wanted was Tristan pawing at her, but she decided not to brush him off completely. “Behave yourself Tristan,” she told him with a sharp tweak to his belly. It looked like an intimate gesture between close friends, but she made her point to Tristan without embarrassing him or herself.

“It’s been too long, Tory,” he said as he maneuvered her over to a vacant chair at the table. He had gotten her message, but he wasn’t daunted that easily. “Sit down and have a drink with an old man,” he ordered, completely ignoring the men who had arrived with her.

Victoria tossed a wave at a passing waitress and signaled for drinks to be brought around the table. If she was going to be forced to sit with Tristan until she had a drink, then she wanted to make sure that it got there as soon as possible. “I’m only going to stay a minute,” she warned him, automatically pushing his hand from her knee when he dropped down heavily into the chair next to her. “I have a couple of people with me that I thought you would be interested in meeting,” she said quickly before Tristan began barking orders again. “This is Mr. Malone and Mr. Hernandez,” she said in lieu of a formal introduction, then her eyes locked with Nash’s. “They have a problem that they think you can help them with.”

“This isn’t a place to talk about problems,” Tristan said, waving the two men away. “This is a place to have a good time.”

When two of Tristan’s men sitting at the table began to stand, Victoria knew instinctively that they weren’t reaching for their wallets. She quickly put her hand on Tristan’s chest and leaned toward him suggestively. “I’d consider it a personal favor if you hear them out, Tristan,” she said coyly, then felt the involuntary urge to throw up. The one thing that she had always avoided was becoming indebted to any of the dealers that came into her club, but now she was offering up herself in the hopes that Teddy Malone was who she thought he was.

Tristan looked up at Nash and Joe once more as he sighed, then he waved to his men to be seated. “Do you trust them?” he asked.

Victoria looked up into Nash’s eyes once more and saw something in the hazel depths that she couldn’t quite define. “Yes Tristan,” she said as smoothly as she could. “I trust them.”

Silence reigned around the table as everyone waited for Tristan’s next words and he knew it. He loved being the center of attention and he basked in the spotlight. “Mr. Malone, Mr. Hernandez,” he began slowly, holding onto every second that he could. “Tory has bought you ten minutes of my time.”

Victoria immediately began to rise from the table, unwilling to speculate on what Tristan considered a fair price for her deed, but her departure was stalled when Tristan grabbed her arm. “Where are you going, Tory?” he asked. “You haven’t had your drink yet.”

“Now you know I have business of my own to attend to.” She let him down as gently as she could while trying to expedite her departure. “We’ll have that drink some other time.”

He was reluctant to let her go, but he knew better than to push Victoria Castle so he satisfied himself with watching her walk away until Nash deliberately stepped into his line of vision. Tristan looked up at his face and saw a wild-eyed man glaring back at him. Tristan was taken aback for a moment, then he fixed an expression of boredom on his face. “What seems to be your problem, Mr. Malone?” he asked as a double edged question.

“I’ll tell you my problem, pal,” Nash snapped back as he leaned a hand onto the table, but Joe quickly cut in.

“We’ve lost our supplier and we are looking to move large quantities of merchandise very quickly,” Joe said dispassionately, then paused to give his partner a chance to remember why they were there.

“How much merchandise are we talking about?” Tristan asked, his eyes leaving Nash to speak with the more levelheaded partner.

“One hundred and twenty kilos,” he returned. “But we need it in two days.”

“Such a large shipment in two days?” he asked doubtfully, then glanced up at the waitress as she brought their drinks.

Joe’s eyes darted around the table, making a mental list of faces and any names that he heard, then he looked down at Greco who was flirting as blatantly with the waitress as he had with Victoria. As the proprietress came to mind, he glanced back at Nash. For just a second, he thought that Nash was going lose it and that worried him.

“Thirty thousand per,” Tristan said as he watched the waitress walk off, picking up the thread of conversation just where they left off.

“Thirty?” Joe quickly returned.

“You must be dreaming bubba,” Nash spoke up once more.

Tristan smiled. He knew that he had the upper hand. “I may be dreaming, Mr. Malone, but I’m the one with a hundred and twenty little white pillows. There will be risks moving that much merchandise on such short notice. If you want to supply your buyer within the next two days, the price is thirty. Otherwise, you can walk on out of here and this meeting never happened. The only reason I’m even talking to you is because Tory asked me to.”

Nash and Joe exchanged a brief look. They were skating on thin ice, but they weren’t quite ready to let the snowman slip away. “We’ll pay twenty-seven,” Joe countered. “In the interest of a speedy arrival and if you can guarantee the purity.”

Tristan waved that stipulation away. “Purity isn’t a concern. I only handle the best.” He knew that he could hold out for more, but he was more interested in collecting his debt from Victoria than negotiating with a couple of middlemen. “I will contact you with the time and place,” he finally conceded.

“Don’t keep us waiting too long,” Nash insisted as he turned away.

Joe nodded slightly. “We’re staying at the Hyatt,” he said, then followed his partner.

* * *

Harvey’s fingers laced through Rachel’s as he sat at her bedside. Her soft moan was like music to his ears as her eyes fluttered open. She had been unconscious far too long. “Welcome back,” he said with a smile.

Rachel tried to smile, but her dry lips made it difficult. She tried to raise her hand to touch her face, but her body didn’t seem to want to respond. She knew then that she had been out for quite awhile. “How long?” was all that she could manage to get out before her throat closed on her again.

“Have you been here?” he correctly assumed. “Three days.” He reached up with his free hand to retrieve a cup of water at her bedside, then held the straw up to her mouth.

She cringed when the icy water hit her throat. She had no idea that it could be so painful to swallow. Her eyes didn’t want to focus, but it was easy to see that Harvey hadn’t had much sleep for the past several days. “You look like hell.”

Harvey smiled at the insult. She was getting some of her fight back. “I was going to get a facial, but Elisabeth Arden was booked solid yesterday.” He was gratified when he received a tiny smile in return, then he turned to the matter of primary concern. They still didn’t know why she was shot or who ordered the hit if anyone. “Do you remember what happened?”

She fought to clear the fog in her brain. She remembered the park and that she was there for bait. “Bixby?” She finally managed to recall the name as her eyes fluttered closed briefly.

Harvey nodded as he reached up to lightly caress her cheek with the back of his fingers. “He was there, but he wasn’t the one that shot you. In fact, if he had fired a second sooner, he would have taken out the guy before he got you.” He smiled when her eyes narrowed. He knew that she was struggling to follow what he was saying. “We haven’t figured out why he did it yet, but we think that Bixby was actually trying to protect you.”

“Wow,” she mouthed more than said.

His eyes drank in her face. She was so pale, but still so beautiful with that sleepy-eyed expression. He knew that he should be getting the medical staff, but he just couldn’t bring himself to leave her side. He had waited for three days just to hear the sound of her voice again. He brought her hand up to his lips and lightly kissed her fingers. “Did you know that you have your own entourage? Forest and Monet are outside.”

She studied him for a long moment. “You don’t know who’s behind it, do you?” she asked.

He smiled again. He was certain then that she was going to be okay. Her mind was already trying to analyze what had happened. “We’re still working on it,” he admitted. “The only things we know for certain is that he was Asian and he wasn’t a local. We found round trip tickets out of Hong Kong in his hotel room.”

Her mind snapped to attention. Yong Cha Chon. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that he was behind it. She just prayed to God that Samuel had nothing to do with it. Where is Hyun? she thought. How could he let it happen? Why hadn’t he put a stop to what was going on long ago?

He knew that Yong Cha was behind her shooting, she surmised as she held his gaze. It was a logical conclusion to draw considering her history with the Chon family. He simply wanted her to confirm it. If he was so certain that it was Yong Cha, then she had to be right about Samuel. Yong Cha was afraid of what she might do. “Was Samuel involved?” She had to ask. She had to know. Even Yong Cha couldn’t be that cruel.

Harvey’s gaze dropped to the bed. Of all of the questions she could have asked, why that one? The inspector in him was on full alert. He must have missed something along the way. Why was she so concerned about Samuel Chon? Why had she asked about Samuel and not Hyun? “Even if he was, I doubt that we will ever know for sure barring a full confession,” he told her with calm certainty.

Samuel Chon. Her eyes closed as her heart threw an erratic beat. It just had to be him. Why had Hyun done it? Why had he followed in the life that he had professed to hate? Worse still, how could he let his own son follow in his father’s footsteps. Had it all been a lie? Had she really known him at all? With all of the questions swirling around in her head, she welcomed the darkness of sleep creeping back into her consciousness. It was too much to think about.

Harvey hadn’t missed her heart jumping suddenly on the monitor and something told him that the reaction had been from his questions rather than her condition. He was certain that she was holding something back. “Who’s Samuel Chon to you?” he asked and saw the heart monitor jump again. He had been right.

He knows, she thought, her eyes raising to his once more. Three days. She had been out for three days. Could he have gotten so close in that short amount of time? It had taken her years to find the name. But then again, Harvey was the best. Perhaps he could help? Think of something that she hadn’t? She was certain that she needed help now. There was no way that she could go on alone if Yong Cha was onto her. It would be too dangerous. “Samuel Chon is my son.”

* * *