He didn’t know how much time had passed. It didn’t feel like he’d been asleep for very long when Theo sat up in bed and barked, “Katie!”

Jordan startled awake and tried to push the cobwebs from his brain. “What?”

“Ouch,” Theo rasped, reaching up to touch her throat. “Oh, man, that hurts.”

Jordan thought Theo’s voice sounded worse than it had when they’d gone to bed. “What in particular?”

“Everything.”

Theo turned her bedside lamp on, then blinked in the brightness. “I just remembered. Ashley’s dad lives in Katy, Texas. It’s not a girl’s name,” she said. “It’s a place. I think she was giving me her password.” Both her phone and Ashley’s were side by side next to the bed. Jordan had dug up an extra charge cord, and both of them were plugged in. Theo grabbed Ashley’s phone and brought the screen to life. “There are six characters,” she said. “K-A-T-Y-T-X.” She typed in the corresponding numbers for each letter. 5-2-8-9-8-9.

“That’s it!” Theo croaked when the phone unlocked.

“You really are Nancy Drew. What time is it?”

“Two thirty-seven.”

“It’s what, an hour later in Texas?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Well, if you want to call Ashley’s dad at three-thirty in the morning, that’s your decision. Might I make a suggestion before you do that?”

“Sure.”

“Wait until you hear from Delaney. She’ll text you first thing and let you know how Ashley’s surgery went. Then call Mr. Burgess. It’s going to be awful having to tell him what happened to his daughter. If you wait, and surgery went well as I suspect it did, at least you’ll have something good to report.”

Theo sighed. “You’re so reasonable and rational.”

“That’s why you love me.”

Theo put Ashley’s phone back on her nightstand and turned the light off again. She leaned back gently against the pillows with a sigh. It took her another few moments to find a somewhat comfortable position. “I really do love you.”

Jordan reached over and found Theo’s hand. He interlaced his fingers with hers. “Then let me sleep.”

18. PAYBACK

Theo pushed the door open and stepped inside Ashley’s hospital room. Ashley moved her eyes from the television over to Theo. The volume had been muted, and Theo didn’t bother to look up to see what it was that Ashley had been watching. It hurt Theo’s heart to look at her lying in bed, her face and body battered. There was discoloration beneath her eyes, and it looked as if she’d wrapped a red and purple scarf around her neck. Her thick, black hair was tangled, and a sling cradled her left arm next to her chest.

She gave the woman a smile. “Hey, Ash. I have something for you.” She lifted the phone with the bright yellow case. “I don’t know how much you remember about last night. I asked you who I should call. You said Katie.”

“Huh,” Ashley said. “I probably could’ve made that clearer. In my defense, I don’t remember any of that.”

“It’s okay. I’m good at puzzling things out. Of course, the answer to the riddle didn’t hit me until about two-thirty this morning. I waited to hear from Delaney before I called your dad.”

“Was that Jordan’s suggestion?”

“It was, actually.”

“I figured as much. So, you talked to Dad?”

Theo nodded. “I did. He seems like a really great guy. I wish I’d been able to meet him under different circumstances.”

“Yeah, me, too.”

“I told him I was bringing your phone to you today. He wants you to call him later. I brought you this.” She showed Ashley the charge cord. “And before you ask, yes, it’s from Jordan.”

“Will you thank him for me?”

“Of course.”

“Theodora …”

Theo saw Ashley’s eyes fill with tears. Quickly, she moved forward and sat on the edge of the hospital bed, careful not to bump either one of the woman’s legs. She wore casts that went up to just below both of her knees. The toes that peeked out were swollen and bruised. The right leg had been lifted and was resting on a large pillow. It was hard for Theo to find a patch of skin anywhere on Ashley’s body that hadn’t been brutalized.

“I’m so sorry …” Ashley began bending forward toward Theo.

Theo put her arms around the woman and felt her dissolve into tears. Her body shook with sobs and Theo held onto her the best she could without hurting her.

“You’ve got nothing to be sorry for,” Theo told her.

“He went after you,” Ashley cried. “The cop that was here earlier told me he got into the Brubaker Building, that he attacked you. He said you were all right, but I couldn’t believe that until I saw you. You’re here. You’re okay.” She clutched at a fistful of Theo’s sweatshirt in the fingers of her good hand.

“I am,” Theo reassured her. “I’m okay.”

“Please tell me he didn’t …” Ashley’s voice got lost in the hiccups that come with crying. She was struggling to breathe, and her nose was stuffy.

“No,” Theo told her, knowing that Ashley was worried the man had sexually assaulted her. “That didn’t happen. You know that big, solid door I had installed for my inner office?”

“Yeah.”

“I’d say it’s good and strong. I locked him up in there. It worked well.”

“I don’t understand …” Ashley said, riding on another wave of emotion.

“What don’t you understand?” Theo urged.

“How am I alive?”

“Oh, sweetheart.” Theo gently pushed Ashley back to rest on the pillows stacked behind her. She looked for a box of tissues, and when she couldn’t find any, she hopped up and went to the bathroom and pulled streams of toilet paper from the roll. She sat down again and began wiping Ashley’s face. “Blow,” she said, holding some against Ashley’s nose. “Again.” When all the toilet paper had been used, she got up and got some more, pressing a wad of it into Ashley’s palm when she returned a second time.

“You saved me,” Ashley said after a few moments.

“And Trix said all those classes I took were a waste of time,” Theo chuckled, trying to deliver a bit of humor into a painfully serious conversation.

“How?”