Chou was the same color as the sheet, face swollen and bruised, just like his hands. That was off. He’d seen that sort of thing before.
In the mirror.
“M’sieur? Why he all beat-up? That ain’t from a shooting.”
Isaac was just slowly shaking his head. “I don’t know. Jesus, Neil. What did you get into?” Isaac held a hand out like he wanted to touch but hesitated, tried another spot and hesitated again, then pulled his hand back. “We’re here, boy. We love you.” Isaac reached out again and lifted a curl on Neil’s forehead with one finger.
That damn near broke his heart. “M’sieur, your hand? It ain’t going to hurt him none. He needs us, I swear. He needs to know he ain’t lost.”
Isaac looked toward him, but his eyes were focused inward. “You’re right. Sometimes I’m too much of a doctor.” One big hand slid underneath Neil’s bruised one. “I’m right here, baby. Alain too.”
“Hey, Chou. You done banged yourself up. I made etouffee for supper, you know, and today’s bread came out great.” He jabbered, because it was what he knew to do. Give everyone nothing but music.
Isaac followed his lead. “You should have smelled the apartment. It was amazing. Alain’s really comfortable in our kitchen.”
Neil didn’t so much as twitch, but it didn’t matter. That didn’t mean he wasn’t hearing.
“It’s the best kitchen, made for inventing things for my mans.” He shook his head. “Lord, Chou, you scared the fire out of me.”
“Me too. Me too. But I bet this is going to be a damn good story when you can finally tell us. I hope the other guy looks worse.” Isaac snorted.
“I bet he does. You gon’ talk to his boss?” They needed to find out what happened.
“I’m going to talk to anyone that will talk to me. I’m going to get answers for you. For us.”
“Yes, Sir. I trust you to do right.” Him, he trusted to do wrong.
“We’ll figure this out. Right now we just need to be here…one or both of us, all the time until he wakes up. Right? I don’t want him alone.”
Alain understood that. There was something amazing in knowing that someone was there for you, no matter what.
Isaac turned suddenly and hugged him hard. “I’m glad you’re here. You’re important, Alain, and we love you.”
“I love y’all. We’ll make it better, M’sieur. You know the truth—us subs, we got souls of steel.”
“I know the truth. Subs are human like the rest of us. And I’m grateful for yours right now.”
He knew better; his soul was made of stainless steel, but he would just keep that between him and Chou. Some things you had to know deep.
“Hello. Who are you?”
Isaac looked over his shoulder. “We’re his family.”
He turned to find a tall man in slacks and a dress shirt with a badge on one hip and a gun on the other.
“Dr. Daniels?”
Isaac moved him slightly, protectively. “Yes…and you are?”
“Detective Levine. I work with Detective…with Neil.”
“Were you there? What happened? This wasn’t just, ‘he was shot in the hip’ like the nurse told me.”
“I’m his partner. He was off seeing a CI, he managed to get a text off to me. We found him in an alley behind a pizza parlor.”
“A CI.” Isaac shook his head. “So you don’t know anything? Where’s the CI?”
The detective opened his hands. “We don’t even knowwhohe was, much less where.”