“No,” Murphy says. “She’s got an early morning class. Teller didn’t want her to know. He’ll talk to her this weekend.”

“Good luck with that.” Rock snorts.

“You staying over?” I ask.

“If you’ve got room, yeah. I’d like to visit Sway with you in the morning.”

I chuckle, not surprised at all that Rock correctly guessed where I planned to head first thing tomorrow morning.

Chapter Twenty

Z

Sitting with Sway’s gotten to be a regular occurrence when I’m not busy doing a million other things to keep his charter afloat. Today will be a little different.

“You don’t have to keep coming down, brother,” Sway says as soon as he sees Rock.

Rock actually smiles. “Sure, I do. Gotta make sure you’re not trying to keep my VP.”

Sway chuckles, then abruptly stops when he takes a closer look at our tense faces. “What’s going on?”

I shut the hospital door, wishing it had a lock. “Ran into some trouble last night.” After a sweep of the room, I give him the abbreviated version of events.

“Jesus Christ. Malone go up with the place?”

“We’re not sure. Didn’t exactly stick around and wait for the cops to get there.”

“Yeah, okay.” He stares off into space for a few seconds. “I knew Shadow had a piece he was seeing there. That’s why he usually took that assignment.”

Well, at least Shadow might not have made up the whole thing. “Is it possible she’s working with the Vipers?”

“Don’t know. Never met her.” He clenches his fists. “Feeling fucking useless here.”

Rock and I share a look. There’s no point stressing Sway out in his condition. As a courtesy, I needed to let him know what was going on, but he can’t help us right now.

“The guys are digging into it today,” I assure him. “What’s new with you? Terrorize any more nurses?”

“Nah.” He chuckles, which turns into a cough.

“How’s the baby?” Sway lifts his chin at Rock when he settles back against the pillows.

The question seems to surprise Rock almost as much as me and he takes a beat to answer. “She’s good. Hope and I talked about bringing her to visit…”

“Nah.” Sway waves the suggestion away. “This ain’t no place for a baby. Fuck only knows what she’d catch.”

“Yeah, that was our thought. But Hope sends her regards to you, Sway.”

“Appreciate it.” His gaze slides to me. “What about you? Someone said you got an ol’ lady and kid. When’d that happen?”

Surprised he gives a shit. “It’s complicated. She’s moving down here with me, so I’ll bring ‘em by soon.”