High Stakes Gamble

Chapter Two

“Can’t stay away, Morelli? Always where the action is, and you on maternity leave, Lassie. By golly, even a doctor’s office.” John Hampton’s greying bushy eyebrows covered twinkling eyes that made her feel a whole lot better. All six-plus feet of the Irish devil soothed her uneasiness. There was none better to work with than this solid, good-hearted man.

“Hampton you old rogue, you almost look good enough to hug.” Aurora’s smile couldn’t be hidden when she spotted her larger than life cohort from the office where she’d worked her ass off for the last five-and-a-half years.

When he approached with intent, she backed away and held her hand up in front of her. “I said almost.”

“Wicked tease! Now you’ve gone and broke me heart.” His shenanigans worked its magic. She felt her rioting nerves settle back into place. “What do we have here?” he asked. His demeanour quickly settled into a businesslike manner as he nodded his head toward the huddled woman with the doctor’s arms supporting her from falling out of the chair.

“Craziest damn thing I ever heard. She falls out of the elevator screaming a man drugged her and stole her baby. I’ve closed the place down. No one has left. We can question the ladies in the outer room but all they saw is what I just described. Still, never know what they might have noticed when they first arrived downstairs, or for that matter, outside. We’ll need to get the teams on the rest of the floors, mostly the main one to see if there are any other witnesses who can describe this guy. Have to pull all the security tapes, too. Maybe if we’re lucky, we can ID the perp from a video shot.”

“You finished?” Hampton gazed at her in wonder. “As much as it hurts me to say this, cause things just haven’t been the same for the last few months without you on the job, but I’ll take it from here.”

She knew her eyes had narrowed and the fierce look that she used to intimidate had taken over her features. She knew it from the way he stepped back a pace. But not being a total coward, he still stated the obvious using a very gentle voice.

“If you could drop by the station later, Miss, we’ll take your statement.”

Her pointing finger dug into his chest. “This is my case, Ham…” His half-grin, wry and questioning had her stopping the remark before she ended up making an even bigger ass of herself. She corrected herself. “It’s not my case.”

He shook his head along with her and added. “You don’t know how much I wished it was, Rory. Seriously, I’ve missed you like hell. And so have Lisa and the Captain. He’s been like an old bear these last few months. We all want you back at the place.”

Automatically, she scolded him. “He’s always an old bear, and don’t call me Rory!” Before she could elaborate, thoughts crowded in as Aurora realized just how much she’d missed the guys, and the precinct, and most of all, the job she was born to do. To her being a cop wasn’t just a paycheck.

And because her training meant she believed in the rules, she backed down. “I’ll be in to see you later.” Collecting Lily from the woman who walked the floor to shush the hungry screamer, Aurora thanked her and left.

She took a few minutes after returning to the car in the parking lot to feed the sobbing infant who normally never needed to cry so hard for her food. Aurora’s swollen breasts always announced feeding time, and being a very conscientious mom, she never let her precious daughter wait and suffer.

“I’m sorry, baby-girl. Mommy got caught up in things and left you too long. It won’t happen again, Lily.”

The two-month-old stared at her with her father’s gorgeous eyes and her lush dark lashes saturated with tears. The kisses and her mother’s voice settled her quickly. Being fed also helped calm her and soon she squeezed her mother’s finger, sighed with happiness and drifted off.

Aurora watched the tiny pursed mouth as it sporadically sucked at her breast. She basked in the overwhelming love she felt for the child in her arms. She couldn’t begin to image how Mary Fulton felt at this moment.

A horrible rush of guilt spread into her mind and grabbed hold. Not being a person to toot her own horn, Aurora’s motto had been to keep her head down and her job first and foremost.

Therefore she knew she was a good cop. Maybe even as others had told her, a great cop. This case needed her talent, her dedication to solving every case. As the universe tended to do to keep everything even, for all the strengths she possessed meant there had to be one negative. And that was her penchant to, well… pass out when she saw blood of her own or from someone she loved.

Other than that, she had sharpened instincts, more nerve than most and a woman’s intuition mixed with a strange sixth sense that rang inside her ears as a warning. The abnormal condition had saved her ass more times than she cared to recall.

Right now her head was making a hell of a noise and no way could she stop the racket. Not without doing something about it.