“Ricky was bonded out?” I breathed.

I watched, fascinated, as the anger slid out of his eyes and a different kind of anger replaced it (don’t ask me how I knew this, I just knew) and then I saw a muscle leap in Hector’s cheek.

“Yeah,” he said. “I guess Donny and Marty were moved to brotherly love once Harvey’d been poisoned while on the inside.”

I closed my eyes.

The doorbell rang.

Hector muttered, “Fuck.”

I opened my eyes again and he was looking at me.

“Get dressed and come downstairs. We’ll talk later about what was in your f**kin’ head,” he finished.

Great, just great.

He stood up, taking me with him and putting me on my feet.

I was realizing for the first time that I was na**d as the day I was born when both of Hector’s hands came to my neck, fingers sliding up in my hair, thumbs on the undersides of my jaw and he tipped my head back to look at him.

He touched his mouth to mine softly, eyes open the whole time and when his head moved back half an inch, he said, voice low and powerful, “He isn’t gonna f**kin’ touch you.”

He watched me until I nodded, my head moving against his hands.

Then he was gone.

I pulled my head together, quickly got dressed (in the forbidden skirt but I shunned the Stella tee and put on Hector’s flannel because it covered more), ran to the bathroom and let out a surprised, muted scream when I looked at myself in the mirror.

Eighties Rock Video Bimbo was scary the night of but she was hair-raising (literally) the morning after.

And Hector had seen me like that!

And kissed me!

Oh… my… God!

I took a deep breath, calmed the mental flip out, washed my face, found Hector’s brush and was tearing it through my wild, bimbo-groupie, morning after hair when there came a knock at the door.

Before I called, it opened and Hector came in. I just stared at him as he walked up to me, put a cup of steaming coffee on the side of the sink, turned to me, grabbed my wrist, opened my palm with his other hand and planted four white pills in it.

“Hangover cocktail, ibuprofen and Midol. Don’t ask, it works. They give you salve for the tattoo?” he asked.

I was staring at the pills but I looked up at him and nodded.

“Douse it before you come down, you gotta keep it moist so it doesn’t fade.” He reached beyond me, opened the medicine cabinet, rooted through it and came out with a package of new tops for an electric toothbrush. He handed them to me without a word, touched my lips with his again and he was gone.

I kept watching the door, not knowing what to feel.

After my Mom left (or, I should say, was murdered), whenever I was sick, my father sent one of our maids to take care of me. They did it because it was their job not because they cared about me.

But no one had brought me a hangover cocktail in my life.

No one.

Shakily, I sucked down the pills, pulled his electric toothbrush out of its charger, found his toothpaste and went to town on my teeth. Once done, I dug the tattoo balm out of my skirt pocket, pulled up my skirt and peeled back the bandage to salve the tattoo. While I was righting everything, I heard the doorbell ring again.

I sighed, wondering what now, wiped the goo off my hands with a towel, grabbed my mug and walked downstairs.

I stopped at the foot of the stairs.

The living room was filled with people. Detective Marker was there and so were Jet and Eddie, Indy and Lee, Hank and Roxie and Daisy and Marcus.

Someone had uncovered and moved a couch and a coffee table into the living room. There was a box of donuts opened on the table. Everyone had a mug of coffee, apparently courtesy of Jet who was holding the empty coffeepot and on her way back to the kitchen.

“Mornin’ sugar, I brought hangover donuts,” Daisy called, waving a glazed in my direction.

“How’s the tattoo?” Roxie asked, sitting by Daisy on the couch and leaning toward the donut box.

I came unstuck and walked into the room.

“It’s okay,” I answered Roxie as she pulled out a long, glazed cinnamon twist then I looked around. “What are you all doing here?”

“Eddie heard the news. We had to come up to the Highlands anyway for La Reunión so I came with him,” Jet told me on a smile then lifted the pot. “I’ll make more coffee.” And she exited the room.

“Lee heard too,” Indy said. “I came because you left your purse in the Explorer and because I’m nosy.” Then she scrunched her nose, took a bite of a powdered sugar, chocolate icing filled donut and grinned.

“Hank heard too. I thought I’d come to introduce you to Shamus, our chocolate lab. He’s out in Hank’s SUV,” Roxie added.

“Marcus heard too, I decided to bring the donuts,” Daisy finished.

That was super sweet of her, of all of them, because I knew they weren’t there because of Family Meetings, returning my purse, being nosy, wanting to introduce me to family pets or bringing donuts. They were there for me.

This felt nice. Super nice.

Though, the very thought of donuts made me queasy.

I looked at Roxie.

“Why’s Shamus in the car? Why didn’t you bring him in?”

“I didn’t know if you’d want me to but I can go get him now,” Roxie answered, her eyes lighting up.

“That’d be great,” I smiled.

Before Roxie could move, Detective Marker cleared his throat.

“Maybe you can meet the dog in a minute, Sadie. If you don’t mind, we need to talk.”

Oh darn.

I minded.

I minded loads.

But my father taught me never to procrastinate. Get things done in a timely manner and do the tough jobs first to get them out of the way.

I’d much rather meet Shamus but instead I blew out a sigh (even though it was rude) and said to Detective Marker, “All right.”

I walked into the room and sat on the arm of the couch next to Indy.

“Hector told you Harvey was found dead last night?” Detective Marker asked me.

I nodded. “What happened?”

“We don’t know, we’re investigating. It looks like poison,” Detective Marker answered.

“How could someone poison him in jail?” I asked.

“Don’t know that either, they’re lookin’ into it. You know Donny posted bond for Ricky?” Detective Marker carried on.