“Just don’t go getting yourself arrested.” said Lock, his head propped up by several gleaming white hospital pillows.
Ty waved away his concern. “People like that don’t go to the cops, and even if they did what are they going to say, ‘I helped my buddy beat the shit out of some dude that was looking for a child my buddy’s pimping out.’ In any case, fuck that guy. He’s lucky I left him breathing.”
“I still can’t believe they caught me like that. Rookie error.”
“It happens, especially when you’re retired,” said Ty with a hint of a smile. “You get rusty.”
“It’s not gonna happen again, I’ll tell you that. This asshole, Hanger, he’s mine. So, what else did you get from this guy?”
Ty gave him a quick summary of the information that Monocle had coughed up.
“Can you pass me that?” said Lock with a nod to the locker.
Ty picked up the glass of water and handed it to Lock. He took a sip, grimacing with the pain of even this most basic of actions.
“What they giving you for the pain?”
“Vicodin,” said Lock. “Think that’s what it is.”
“Nice!” grinned Ty. “Just don’t go getting hooked. Opiates can be kind of moreish.”
“Don’t worry. I’m checking out later.”
“You sure that’s a good idea?” said Ty.
“Nope, but no one’s going to find that girl with me lying here.”
“I got you covered.”
“Ty, this is my crusade, remember?”
“And now it’s mine too.”
“You know it’s a pro bono deal,” said Lock. He was sure he’d mentioned this part to Ty before, but he wanted to make sure. There would be no payment, only costs, and he doubted many of them would even be tax deductible.
“Yeah, not a fan of working for free,” said Ty. “But I guess I can make an exception just this once.”
Lock took another sip of water.
“It is just this once, right?” said Ty, his face clouded with concern.
“I’m not sure Carmen would be happy with me doing this full time. Not if it means this,” said Lock, taking in the hospital room.
“Yeah, I know,” said Ty. “Kind of ironic. All the situations we’ve been in and you end up catching a beating on something low end like this.”
“Thanks, but you don’t have to remind me.”
Ty stood up. He patted the end of the bed. “I got some leads to follow up. Don’t go doing anything crazy. Rest up for a few days. I can take up the slack until you’re back on your feet.”
“You sound like Carmen,” said Lock.
“I mean it,” said Ty. “Give it a few days before you get back in the game.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll take it easy for a while,” said Lock, noncommittal.