“It’s been all quiet here,” Hammer said.
Luca held out his hand and they shook. “I appreciate you doing this.”
“As if you had to ask.”
Kira stayed beside Luca rather than going into the hospital room. “Why do you say that?”
Luca shifted, turning toward her and trying to formulate an answer that wouldn’t sound like tooting his own horn.
Before he could explain, Hammer said, “Because Saxon has saved my life more times than I can count. It was high time I repaid the favor.”
As if it wasn’t a paying gig. “And you’ll get to take your wife and son on vacation.”
Hammer grinned. “That’s a bonus. She’s pretty excited about it, actually.”
Kira smiled at him.
Hammer said, “She asked me to tell the two of you she wants to have you over for dinner. Nothing fancy, probably just a nice home-cooked meal. Whenever the two of you have a break in your schedule and we can get it on the calendar.”
“I would love that.” Kira glanced at Luca. “What do you say?”
The idea of Kira coming over and spending time with him at the Wallace household made the relationship between them sound far more settled than it was. A whole lot more real.
“You look scared.” Kira glanced at Hammer. “I scared him off.”
Hammer said, “He should be scared. It keeps a man honest.”
Kira frowned.
Luca shook his head at this ridiculous conversation. “I’m not scared. I’m just trying to figure out when on earth I’ll have a break in my calendar.”
“You have to do this thing called ‘taking a break.’” Hammer made quote marks with his fingers.
“Maybe you need to explain it to both of us.” She pointed over her shoulder with her thumb. “But I’m going to check on the patient first.”
“Sounds good.” Hammer nodded. “It’s been quiet around here since Dr. Torres headed out.”
She flinched. “He’s not supposed to leave.”
Kira whirled to the door and flung it open. She rushed to Francisco’s bedside and started talking to him in a soothing tone. But Luca couldn’t hear what she was saying to the patient. A second later, the door clicked shut.
Luca turned to Hammer. “How long ago did he take off?”
Hammer shrugged. “Maybe half an hour. He told me he’d cleared it with you guys.”
“He didn’t say anything to us.” Luca scratched his jaw. “Did he say where he was going?”
“Nope.” Hammer looked up and down the hallway, assessing for threats. “What do we do?”
“Maybe the Marshals can find his GPS location from his phone. I’ll call Butler, and if they don’t have access, I’ll head over to his home.” Luca needed ideas. And leads.
The doctor may have just rushed out for an appointment. Or run home to take a shower. There could be any number of explanations, but there could also be one that would prove to be the worst-case scenario. At least Francisco was alive in that hospital bed, because this was a serious breach of security.
Luca paced down the hall and called Butler, but the guy didn’t pick up. He left a message explaining what’d happened and asking for the guy to run Torres’s location and call Luca back.
As he hung up, Kira emerged from the room.
“Is Francisco okay?”