High Stakes Gamble

Chapter Twenty

As they drove back to the city, Cory tried coaxing Aurora into coming home with him. She panicked and sent a beseeching look to convince Kai that it wasn’t what she wanted.

“You’re not going home alone, Aurora.” Cory’s tone meant business.

“I’ll either stay with her or she can come to the hotel with me.” Kai burst into the argument.

When Kai suggested he take her to his place, all she could do was agree tiredly.

Soon, Cory stopped outside the well-lit building and left the car running. He opened the back door for her and moved in close before she could disappear inside the hotel.

His normally loud voice soothed with tenderness. To add to the moment’s poignancy, not only did he hug her but he used a nickname from their past. “Smidge, in case you need to move quickly, I’ll arrange to have your car dropped off and the keys left at the desk. In the meantime, do me a favor. Get some food into you and try to rest.” His voice broke as he added. “I promise we’ll do everything we can to find Lily. I’ll call in every single cop and you know they’ll all come for you. You know that.”

She nodded and let him hug her again and then she started toward the entrance in a trance of absolute pain.

Cory turned to Kai and whispered. “Get her some food and make her sleep.” He looked downwards and spoke again, his voice quavering. “Her eyes are breaking my heart.” Then he stomped off to get back into his vehicle and he peeled away.

As soon as they reached Kai’s room, she demanded his computer.

“Let me order room service first,” he said. “What do you feel like?”

“I don’t want food. I don’t want to throw up. Where’s the laptop?”

“Fine. I’ll just order hamburgers. In this joint, they don’t count as food. Tell me what you want to drink.”

“Coffee.”

“No. Whiskey. Cory will have my ass if I get you stuff that’ll rev you up. He ordered us to rest.”

Something in his voice got through to her and made Aurora search his expression. Straight away, she noticed how sickly he looked. His suit that had appeared so spiffy earlier, to the point where she almost didn’t recognize him from her purse-carrying cowboy, now looked rumpled and dirty in places.

His loose tie and crumpled white shirt added to his overall unkempt appearance. But it was the lack of color in his thinner, scruffy face and the exhaustion he couldn’t hide, his utter lack of energy that made her re-think her plans and decide to use common sense.

Something had happened to him while he’d been gone. No doubt it had affected his health, because right now he looked weak and drained, barely able to stand.

“Fine, nix the coffee and order me some wine. Then we go to bed.”

She saw the flare in his eyes and added. “Separately.”

Two queen-size beds took up most of the space in the room—one for each of them. Aurora’s plan was simple. Once she’d lulled him into sleeping, she’d sneak out and search for a white Peterbilt.

He hung up the phone and turned her way. “You want to freshen up first? I’m being a gentleman and it isn’t coming easy. Right now having a shower is worth all the money in my wallet.” His cocky grin reminded her of the old Kai and her heart tripped over.

“So you’re broke!” The wisecrack came without thought. “No. I’m okay. I want to watch the news. You go first.”

“Promise you won’t run out on me?”

“I promise I’ll be here. I need a shower also.” Careful of her words, Aurora realized that what she’d told him was a fact. A shower began to seem like heaven.

Kai left the room with a small overnight bag and she heard him turn on the water. Statue-like, she remained where she’d collapsed on the bed and posed a question she had no answer to.

Why wasn’t she furious with that man? Where had all her righteous anger disappeared to? For almost a year, the pain of his rejection had solidified into a hard ball in her stomach. The lesson she’d come away with had been simple. Never, ever trust a man no matter what his smile did to her insides or how his eyes spoke to her heart.

And here she sat not only putting her faith into a male but the same guy who’d been her teacher. Brooding, she carried out an inner search for the old anger she’d fanned for months and accepted that sometime in the last day it had fizzled out.

His disappearing just didn’t seem that important anymore. He’d appeared when she’d needed him most and for that she’d be forever grateful. A tiny bud of warmth crept into the coldness buried inside and she nipped it instantly. Not going there. Right now all that mattered was that Lily needed her. And she’d move heaven and earth to answer that need.

Stepping over to the big-screen television to get the remote, she flipped the channels until she came to the local news. Sure enough, there were pictures of the missing babies and the artist sketch of the ugly beast who held their lives in his treacherous power.

Feelings held at bay loomed over her head and drained down into her soul. The wall she’d built since the incident, the one that had kept her moving one step in front of the other, began to crumble.

Lily’s picture appeared on the TV. She paused it with the click of a button. Her hand stroked the screen and she lost herself in her memories until Kai spoke softly and broke the spell.

“She’s beautiful, Aurora. Perfect.” Kai, looking almost like his old self in jeans and a blue plaid shirt, leaned against the wall as he rolled up the sleeves.

“Yes.” Her voice came out low and raspy, but she didn’t cry. “Lily shocks everyone with her good nature. She’s the most easy-going baby and always has been from the day she came into the world.”

“Can you tell me?” He moved to sit across from where she’d collapsed, knees almost touching.

Aurora settled back on the bed and folded her hands to stop them from ripping at each other. “What do you want to know?”

“Everything. Her delivery. Tell me about the night she was born.”

“You mean the day.” Aurora cleared her throat. “Like everything else our baby does, she revealed great consideration the morning of her birth. She gave me a small hint during the night with a slight back ache and then showed up mid-morning with a few manageable pains and very little fanfare. Easiest delivery the nurses had seen for months.”

“I bet Debbie was impressed?” Kai smiled and for a second the glee they shared made her feel lighter. The memory of Alec’s birth and Debbie’s experience lingered and lightened the tension for a few seconds.

The knock on the door startled them both into jumping, tearing their entwined glances apart and making Kai move away. Once he paid for their food, he served her and then served himself. He held his wine glass and waited until she picked up her own. Then he took a sip.

She knew he expected her to follow suit but she didn’t know if she could. Not without choking. Surprisingly, it went down. So she swallowed again…and again until he took the glass from her hand and pushed the hamburger closer. “Try some food. It’s good.” He took a bite and started to chew.

The smell revolted her. No way could she swallow it. She refused by shaking her head, then smiled when he spit out what he’d had in his mouth. “Okay, not such a good idea.”

He shoved his hands through his wet hair to push it to the back and she saw wet curls form; one day Lily might have her father’s natural curl. Already a tendency showed up in the soft locks at the back of her head.

Spilling the wine over the rim onto her hands, she slapped the glass down on the dark wood of the TV stand and bolted to her feet. “I’ll go for my shower now.”