Chapter Eighteen
Kai stood aside to let Aurora sit in the front with Cory, but she declined by ignoring his gesture and shutting herself into the back. Her paleness worried him as did her unstable appearance probably because he’d never seen her looking so unlike her normal, confident, sassy self.
Her hair, her beautiful cloud of black waves that made a man long to stroke them had been viciously anchored back. Her prominent cheekbones stood out as did her full lips that were ripped and bloody from her ravaging teeth.
She looked exactly like a woman on the edge and all he wanted were those moments back that they’d shared in the doctor’s office. The moments when she’d tried to bury herself inside him. When everything he was, every sinew of his soul demanded he declare his love and commitment.
The only thing that had him backing off from demanding he take her home was her typical self-confidence that she knew exactly what needed to be done and would do it no matter what. Plus the look in her eyes warned that anyone dumb enough to thwart her would pay dearly.
For a second their eyes caught, and hers, shining with pooled tears, increased the agony already ripping through his insides. He gasped and had to inhale to stop the love he felt from gushing out of his mouth and upsetting her even worse.
He’d seen the panic she couldn’t hide. The identical feeling had stricken him. First, unending fear clawed, leaving a person feeling helpless. Then the ‘what ifs’ had to be forced back so madness couldn’t grab hold.
Stop it!
He wouldn’t go there, because if he let the images of the terrible things that could happen to his darling little baby without anyone to protect her, without her Daddy or Mommy… My God, please keep her safe!
Having recently lived through a disaster when his wife Debbie and son Alec had been kidnapped by a crazed maniac, Kai knew that Cory understood their suffering. His intentions were obvious. To keep their minds occupied and off of what they might find at their destination, Cory started sharing facts with Kai and Aurora about the ongoing case to bring them up to date. Kai forced himself to listen. Anything that might help get Lily back into her mother’s arms needed his attention.
Soon the boss called on Aurora to explain certain elements, the parts she’d been involved in personally. Smart as a fox, he forced her to join in the conversation. Concentrating on the upcoming battle made sense and Kai felt indebted to Cory for his quick thinking.
High Stakes Gamble
Mimi Barbour's books
- Her Highness, the Traitor
- High in Trial
- A Brand New Ending
- A Cast of Killers
- A Change of Heart
- A Christmas Bride
- A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
- A Cruel Bird Came to the Nest and Looked
- A Delicate Truth A Novel
- A Different Blue
- A Firing Offense
- A Killing in China Basin
- A Killing in the Hills
- A Matter of Trust
- A Murder at Rosamund's Gate
- A Nearly Perfect Copy
- A Novel Way to Die
- A Perfect Christmas
- A Perfect Square
- A Pound of Flesh
- A Red Sun Also Rises
- A Rural Affair
- A Spear of Summer Grass
- A Story of God and All of Us
- A Summer to Remember
- A Thousand Pardons
- A Time to Heal
- A Toast to the Good Times
- A Touch Mortal
- A Trick I Learned from Dead Men
- A Vision of Loveliness
- A Whisper of Peace
- A Winter Dream
- Abdication A Novel
- Abigail's New Hope
- Above World
- Accidents Happen A Novel
- Ad Nauseam
- Adrenaline
- Aerogrammes and Other Stories
- Aftershock
- Against the Edge (The Raines of Wind Can)
- All in Good Time (The Gilded Legacy)
- All the Things You Never Knew
- All You Could Ask For A Novel
- Almost Never A Novel
- Already Gone
- American Elsewhere
- American Tropic
- An Order of Coffee and Tears
- Ancient Echoes
- Angels at the Table_ A Shirley, Goodness
- Alien Cradle
- All That Is
- Angora Alibi A Seaside Knitters Mystery
- Arcadia's Gift
- Are You Mine
- Armageddon
- As Sweet as Honey
- As the Pig Turns
- Ascendants of Ancients Sovereign
- Ash Return of the Beast
- Away
- $200 and a Cadillac
- Back to Blood
- Back To U
- Bad Games
- Balancing Act
- Bare It All
- Beach Lane
- Because of You
- Before I Met You
- Before the Scarlet Dawn
- Before You Go
- Being Henry David
- Bella Summer Takes a Chance
- Beneath a Midnight Moon
- Beside Two Rivers
- Best Kept Secret
- Betrayal of the Dove
- Betrayed
- Between Friends
- Between the Land and the Sea
- Binding Agreement
- Bite Me, Your Grace
- Black Flagged Apex
- Black Flagged Redux
- Black Oil, Red Blood
- Blackberry Winter
- Blackjack
- Blackmail Earth
- Blackmailed by the Italian Billionaire
- Blackout
- Blind Man's Bluff
- Blindside
- Blood & Beauty The Borgias
- Blood Gorgons
- Blood of the Assassin
- Blood Prophecy
- Blood Twist (The Erris Coven Series)