In His Keeping (Slow Burn #2)

“What did she say?” Caleb whispered in a choked voice.

Beau held a finger to his lips. He hadn’t wanted this to come out, damn it. Hadn’t wanted to give Caleb even more reason to despise or disdain Ari. He raked a hand through his hair, wishing to hell that that particular piece of information hadn’t come through Ramie’s connection. A connection that evidently extended beyond Ari’s adopted parents. But it made sense if the stuffed animals were left with Ari, items her birth parents had provided for her.

Then Ramie hunched over, shaking violently, her lips actually blue as though she were exposed to freezing temperatures.

“It’s so cold,” she said in the feminine voice of the first person she’d transmitted from. “What if she freezes to death? We can’t leave her here! What if they don’t even want her?”

“They’ll want her.” There was certainty in the voice Ramie now spoke in. “Franklin told me Ginger Rochester has suffered countless miscarriages and all evidence points to her being unable to have a child. Our daughter will be the blessing to them that she deserves. She’ll never want for anything. And most importantly, she’ll be safe.”

Ari let out a choked cry, unable to comprehend what she was hearing. She slid to her knees, her legs no longer able to bear her weight. She buried her face in her hands as the implications of what Ramie was experiencing—saying—hit her hard, denial sharp and instant. She shook her head irrationally, shutting out the voices. It was a mistake. It couldn’t be true. Ramie was wrong.

Beau sank down beside her, and though his face was a wreath of regret, he didn’t seem surprised. Even amid her confusion and heartbreak, that fact registered. Just how much had he kept from her?

He tried to comfort her, wrapping his arms around her, pulling her into his arms, but Ari fought him off, nearly hysterical. She didn’t want to be touched. Didn’t want to be comforted. There was no comfort, no salve, no bandage big enough to ever cover this wound.

“Goodbye, my love,” Ramie whispered. She mimicked holding an infant in her arms and kissing the air where a child’s head would be.

There was brief silence, though Ramie remained as if in a distant place, not here, lost in some other time, captive to the secrets the stuffed animals were relating.

“Oh dear God, Gavin! Someone left a baby out here to freeze?”

Ari went utterly motionless as Ramie’s voice changed once more to one that so eerily resembled her mother’s that it sent chill bumps racing over her entire body. Instant cold settled into her bones. Dread had invaded her heart as it was confirmed—through Ramie—that the unthinkable . . . was true. No. No! It couldn’t be. She was loved, not unwanted and abandoned by the people who’d given birth to her.

Ari’s entire life was a lie. She was well and truly alone. Adrift. Utterly lost.

She encased herself in an icy bubble, surrounding herself, hoping to shut out the truth. The reality. But she could still hear Ramie’s haunting voice, now her father’s.

“We’re leaving the country and we’ll be gone for a while.”

And then her mother’s again, only not her mother. “What are we going to do, Gavin?”

Ramie’s voice became gruff, just like when her father was serious, implacable. And decisive. “We’re going to do as we were asked and raise her as our daughter.”

Ramie went silent, her eyes flickering in rapid-fire succession as if processing at the speed of a computer. Her hands curled and uncurled in her lap as if in agitation. She was clearly not here, still firmly ensconced in the past. But what about the present?

Not matter that Ari’s entire world had been turned upside down in the space of a few minutes, she still loved her . . . parents. Or whoever they were. She wanted them safe now more than ever because she wanted answers. She wanted the truth! A truth she should have been given when she reached an age where she would be able to understand. And coming from her adoptive parents, the information wouldn’t have been so shocking because she could have been privy to their motives. Whether they truly wanted her or if they just couldn’t bear the thought of an orphan child being taken into child protective services and shuffled through the system, never truly having a stable home and people she could rely on.