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“I’ll tell you later.” I didn’t want to tell him anything gooey when my attacker could overhear.

When we pulled up to the building, Simon Clark and Roan Thatcher came out. I waved to them from the front seat and grinned. Roan came over to the passenger side window and I rolled it down.

“How are you doing, Marlowe?” he asked.

“I’m fine. Doc checked me out. No adverse reactions from the chloroform.”

My head whipped around as I heard Simon shout through the other window. “What the hell Kai, you didn’t tell us he hit her with chloroform.”

“I was going to. First and foremost, we need some answers,” Kai muttered.

Roan opened my door and held out his hand. “Darlin’, why don’t you go on inside with Betty, and she’ll get you set up with whatever you need. If you want snacks, iced tea, soda, beer, whiskey, whatever, she’ll set you up.”

“She can’t have alcohol, are you dumb?” Kai shouted at Roan.

Roan laughed. “She’s a big girl, she knows what she can and can’t do.”

Kai reached across the middle of the van and grabbed my hand. “No alcohol. Not until all of the chloroform is out of your system. Okay?”

I squeezed his hand. “I promise.”

“Oh, you’ve got him wrapped around your little finger, don’t you, Darlin’?” Roan chuckled.

I frowned. “I’m the one doing what he says, so I think it’s the other way around.”

“Didn’t you see—” Roan started to say.

“Give it up, Thatcher,” Simon broke in. “It’ll play out as it’s meant to.”

They thought they were so smart. I’d met Simon’s wife. He was the one who was wrapped around his woman’s finger. As for Roan, I hadn’t met his woman, but considering the way he was just talking to Marlowe, my guess would be he was just as whipped.

“So what do we have here?” Simon asked as he opened up the side door of the van. I got out so I could stare at Marlowe’s would-be kidnapper. Now, besides all the blood dripping on and around his face, there was vomit too. Must not have been a comfortable ride for the bastard.

“This asshole thought it would be nice to kidnap Marlowe outside the hardware store. I thought it was a bad idea, and I made my concerns known.”

“Looks like,” Roan agreed.

“So you brought him here, why?” Simon asked.

“You seem to have a large building here. I was thinking I could make some use of it and get some of my questions answered before I handed him over to a Nash where he would immediately ask for a lawyer.”

“Hey, Simon, he has your number.”

Simon glared at Roan.

“Give it up, Boss. Anybody checking out this place is bound to wonder what all this empty space is for and wonder why there isn’t a big for rent sign up front.”

I glanced over at Simon. “He has you there.”

“Is that what made you think I might rent more of this than just our office space?”

“It finally did cross my mind,” I admitted.

“Shit,” was all Simon had to say about that. “Just don’t mess up the space too badly when you have your talk with your new friend.”

“I won’t,” I promised.

“Why does he get all the fun?” Roan asked. “That doesn’t seem fair. The last time I got to ask anybody fun questions was when we were in Baltimore. I’m going to go with Kai.”