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then her. Then his gaze drifted to her blood-stained clothes and his eyes flashed alarm. “Sydney, what the hell is going on?”
    “I’m sorry to come in on you like this, James. But I have no choice. I ran into a problem. I need you to take a look at some scratches.”
    The doc looked at Marco like he might be the source of the “scratches.”
    “I just need a quick patch-up. Maybe some of those new type of stitches. This is the guy who saved me or I’d be dead.”
    The doc nodded, not showing the shock she knew he felt. “Syd, what is going on?”
    “No time for Q and A,” Marco said. “Just fix her up and we’ll be out of here.”
    Sydney nodded. “I have some problems. Do what you can for me. And we need a few things. We were never here, and you don’t know anything about anything.”
    “Be smart,” Marco added. “This can be nothing to you, or it can end up being everything.”
    The doc didn’t waste time. He went to work on Sydney’s wounds.
    Marco said he needed a few food items from the kitchen. He laid some money on the desk, but James said he didn’t need any payment. Marco took the money back and left the room.
    James Young, one of a dying breed of GPs, gave her questioning looks as he worked.
    “Just do what you can and let us go. He’s not my problem,” she reassured him, nodding toward the kitchen. “I’m sorry I put this on you, but I needed a place to get cleaned up. And, obviously, you can’t report this because it never happened.”
    Sydney apologized profusely for smelling of fish and sweat, but the doc didn’t seem to care about that. He still seemed unsure of what Marco was really all about but went about the business of getting her fixed up.
    After cleaning and sanitizing the wounds and using Dermabond, a kind of superglue liquid stitch, he wrapped the graze wounds. Then he went into the adjacent guest room and came back carrying a clean blouse and loose jogging pants. “My sister won’t miss these. I’ll buy her new stuff when she visits again.”
    Then he gently cleaned the bottoms of her feet. He didn’t ask how that had happened. He put some ointment on them, bandages, and then got her some socks and slippers to wear.
    When he was finished, he handed her some antibiotics and some cover bandages, then a bottle of ibuprofen.
    Sydney said, “I was never here. This never happened.”
    “I understand.”
    “Thanks.”
    Marco returned holding two filled paper grocery bags. “We all on the same page?”
    The doc nodded.
    Marco smiled. “As they say in Mexico, stay smart, mantenerse con vida . Stay alive.”

10
    They left the doc’s house out the front door. Walking back to the car, Sydney said, “The Spanish bit, that wasn’t really a necessary touch.”
    “You lay the coffin nails out on the table, and it tends to get attention.” They both got in the Range Rover and Marco eased away from the curb.
    Just as they were about to turn into town to head back, Marco got a call from his uncle. He pulled into an empty strip mall lot and put Cillo on speaker.
    “Marco, we need to meet now,” Cillo said, sounding highly stressed. “This is way out of bounds.”
    “I’m not sure what ‘this’ is.”
    “Don’t play around, Marco. The big boys at Incline know what’s going on. Word is out. Was out before you got half a mile from my place. I can’t talk on the damn phone. I got to meet with you. This has to get settled fast. Tonight. Where are you?”
    “Just driving around thinking.”
    “Where’s that damn Jesup woman?”
    “I assume she’s long gone. I dropped her on a back street behind the casinos and some friend picked her up. She’s probably on her way to who knows where.”
    “Don’t bullshit me. I know you too well. You got her stashed somewhere or you know damn well where she’s headed. That’s your nature and your problem. Marco, you and me need to talk, and right now. Not on the phone. Pick a place.”
    Marco glanced at Sydney as if wanting her