What Now

23. WTF?!

Loud banging at my front door woke both Lydia and I from a deep sleep. We stayed at the gallery until well after midnight before dropping off Maria at her hotel and then coming back home to crash.

I squinted my eyes as I glanced towards my window. I could tell by the amount of sunlight shining through that it was barely after sunrise. Who the hell was banging on my door this early in the morning?

"Sean?" Lydia mumbled sleepily. "Who is it?"

"Stay here. I'll go see." I kissed her on her cheek before throwing on some pants and walking to my office. I quickly pulled up the security cameras on my computer, hoping to identify the stranger at my door.

"What the...Caffrey?" When I spoke to him yesterday afternoon, he was still in Portland. What the hell was he doing here? I left my office and made my way to the front door while trying to wake myself up by rubbing my face.

Lydia and I both had quite a bit of champagne at the gallery last night. Pair that together with the small amount of food we consumed, I was pretty hungover. My head was pounding and my eyelids felt like they had weights attached to them. I wanted nothing more than to crawl back into bed, wrap my arms around Lydia, and sleep for the rest of the day.

More pounding at the door. "Alright! I'm coming." Finally making it to the door, I unlocked it and swing it open with an annoyed expression. "Caffrey. What the hell are you doing here?"

"Good morning to you too, Sunshine," he quipped as he pushed past me and entered my apartment.

I'll admit, I really liked the guy, but this was just too fucking early. "Sorry. I didn't get much sleep last night."

Hey crossed his arms over chest as he turned towards me and raised a brow. "Oh yeah? Was that because you were out late beating Ryan Sweeney to a pulp?"

Okay....Wasn't expecting that. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Yesterday, you asked me to trace the phone number of someone who had been harassing Lydia. I did you that favor, and I was able to give you a name. I told you how we were going to proceed and handle this, and you agreed."

"Yes, that's right." Okay, this wasn't helping. He's telling me shit I already know. "What's the point?"

"My point is, that at 1:13 a.m., Ryan Sweeney was jumped when he was walking to his dorm and is now in a coma."

Holy shit..."It wasn't me," I said in a surprisingly steady voice. As freaked out as I was, I was at the gallery at that time. Besides, I wouldn't do something that stupid. Revenge like that could land me in prison. That was definitely not something I wanted. 

Caffrey held my stare. "The sergeant of the NYPD for that District called me and demanded I get on a plane and fly out here to get this all figured out. Now my ass is on the line. So tell me, Sean. Where were you last night?"

My head was spinning from all of the information he was spitting out. I ran my hands over my face before meeting Caffrey's gaze. "Wait here. I'm going to get Lydia."

He eyed me suspiciously. "Any other exits?"

"No," I said flatly as I headed back towards my bedroom. I couldn't help but wonder...What the FUCK? I get why he suspected me. I had motive. Caffrey would be an idiot to not count me as a suspect. That's not what had me worried, though.

I stepped into my bedroom and Lydia was sitting up with the sheet wrapped around her. "Sean, what's going on? Who was at the door?"

I let out a long breath as I took a seat next to her on the bed. "It's Caffrey."