by Lee Taylor
“You’re a witch. You know that. I don’t want…” Kai’s groan made the words all that more inflammatory.
“Me either. I have a job…”Aurora sobbed.
“There’s no room in my life…” The man positively begged.
“We can’t…” She pushed him away.
He grabbed her back and kissed her again, this time his tongue swept the insides of her welcoming mouth, and sucked the breath from her soul.
His hands gentled her heaving chest while he fondled her breasts. Then he leaned down and kissed them through the silky material of her blouse. Hot and wet, his mouth worked magic; the heat building there ignited the drenched folds of her aching body below.
All the while, she massaged his back and shoulders and eventually held his head in her clutching hands, held him against her writhing body.
“Good Lord, Kai! Don’t ever stop.” She moaned the words and then heard her own voice as it resonated, but she didn’t care. She meant every damn word.
The rude, intrusive ring of her phone finally broke through her haze. She yanked away from him, using every bit of strength she had left in her kitten-weak body. “Someone’s calling. It’s late. Must be an emergen—” She slapped at his reaching hands. “The phone, Kai.”
Closing her blouse, she stumbled into the kitchen, and after three tries, lifted the receiver all the way to her ear. The message had her already over-charged brain cells screaming in denial.
“Debbie’s in labor and wants her coach! Aurora, you hear me?!”
Yanking the receiver away from her ear, she held it a foot out. “Of course I heard you, Cory. Next door heard you. I’ll meet you at the hospital.” She dropped it back into its holder. Then staring blindly at the floor, she stood still for a minute, her knuckles fisted. Kai’s footsteps on her hardwood let her know that he was approaching. She didn’t move. Instead, she waited to see what he was going to do.
The hands he used to massage her shoulders soothed her troubled spirit and calmed her nerves. Her life had run amok, and her first instinct was to go into the bathroom, rip everything off the walls, and shriek until all the raging emotions inside emptied out. How the hell could she have let her life get so crazy?
Being a birth coach hadn’t seemed so bad when she’d promised months ago. She couldn’t refuse, faced with Debbie’s pleading eyes full of tears and need. She’d tried to talk her into doing this with Cory, to strengthen their relationship, but Debbie had broken down and begged.
“I can’t let him see the bitch in me—not yet, Aurora. All the pain will drag her out of hiding. You’ve gotta be there, not him. You’ve already seen her, and you still like me.”
“Who says?” Aurora had teased. She hated to let down the one person she considered as her best friend. On the other hand, being in the hospital room while they delivered Debbie’s baby wasn’t exactly listed anywhere in the BFF manual.
The one Lamaze class she’d agreed to attend had been tough enough. Sitting in the same room with all those expectant mothers—glowing, chattering, unconsciously bragging.
On top of that, Rhondo’s case had been eating away at her more than any other in her career. Most days, it was all she thought about. Other files were worked on, of course, and the tasks got done as a matter of cool routine, but every spare minute and all her resources had gone into finding that one monster. The person she hated above all. The man who’d attacked someone she loved.
Now Kai had entered her life with a blast—literally. He’d shot her, for God’s sake, and she still had the hots for him. How could I let that happen? She silently scolded herself. He was one mixed up dude, had his own demons, and she didn’t need this added burden. Especially now!
Finally, life had seemingly smoothed out for her. Old patterns had changed, and carrying her past hurts around had become passé. Having worked hard on her inner battles, she’d begun to think that maybe one day, she could live a normal life. And now…!
“Shall we go?” Kai’s tender voice awoke Aurora from her reverie. She nodded ‘cause she didn’t trust herself to speak for fear she’d admit to how much she dreaded the next few hours.
Chapter Twelve
In the wee hours of the morning, the hospital waiting room was nearly empty, with the exception of Kai, and one prowling expectant father whose style of verbalizing had deteriorated to grunted exclamations. Kai sat back in the uncomfortable chair, with his head propped in his hands, and his ankle balanced on the opposite knee. Unconsciously, he rubbed his gut and tried to settle more comfortably. Poor Cory! He’d never seen his friend so messed up.
Always immaculate, the man usually wore his suits, dress shirts, and matching ties with a flair that bordered on neurotic. Tonight, his wrinkled shirt hung loose. The creases in his pants were proof he’d grabbed the first pair closest to him, dirty or not, when he’d dressed earlier. Wearing dress shoes without socks had to be an all-time new low. The guy was screwed up royally.
Speaking of being screwed up, Kai knew he had no room to talk. He still didn’t know if he should be feeling relieved or pissed at missing out on making love to the most beautiful woman he’d ever known. One who turned him into a dithering idiot whenever her sapphire beauties connected with his hungry gaze. Damn he wished he could get stinking drunk and just forget about everything.
He switched legs, crossing his left over, and hoped the discomfort in his nuts would soon ease. He hadn’t felt this way in years. Must have been the dancing! They’d danced most of the evening, having fun and making each other crazy.
Then, later, her off-handed invitation to come up to her apartment had been so typical of the hard-assed woman he’d gotten to know, that he hadn’t been able to refuse. Realizing he should have thanked her, then sped away and saved himself this hassle, didn’t help whatsoever. He guessed it was that ornery chip on her shoulder that so attracted him. It would warn off most guys, but he loved challenges.
He had to admit though, if they’d carried on into her bedroom, he’d never have been able to walk away. It wasn’t hard to see that hooking up once with her wouldn’t have been enough for any man. Guess Cory’s call for help had saved him from making the biggest mistake of his life.
Remembering back to when he’d followed her into her kitchen, the décor had registered, big time. This chick wasn’t a party girl at all. Her kitchen spoke volumes about the Little Miss Homemaker she hid inside. Potted herbs decorated her windowsill, and there were antique bottles on her counter filled with fancy cooking oils. He’d spotted a bread-maker in the corner and scads of recipe books tucked away on a shelf.
The woman who lived there expected a lot more than he could ever provide. Right now, his future held little that could be considered positive. He had a date with a killer, and he fully intended for only one of them to walk away. Getting involved in anyone’s life would be a huge mistake. He should thank his lucky stars they’d been interrupted.
Who was he trying to kid? His body still ached, and rubbing his stomach didn’t come close to settling the knots. He hadn’t gotten so worked up in years, and to be left unfulfilled sucked big time.
For most of his life, Kai had been lucky with the opposite sex. Women tended to throw themselves at him, and it wasn’t because he looked for the attention. Truth be told, most times he couldn’t care less.
Sure, when he’d been a rookie, living the life of a cool dude had its moments… but those shallow encounters grew tiresome over the years. Once his tomcatting days had come to an end, he’d become particular, and tended to be more monogamous. Things had been just fine until Rhondo had wrecked his world and blasted his carefree life into smithereens. From now on there were no more fun and games, and absolutely no more women. Especially Aurora.
His sister getting attacked shouldn’t have happened. That kind of horror only happened to other people. Ones he’d sworn to protect. But not to his happy, well-adjusted, secure family. Not to him.
“What the hell is taking so long?” Cory stalked over and t
hrew himself into the chair next to Kai’s. “It’s been hours.”
“Cool your engines, buddy. Far as I know, this could take a lot longer. It’s her first baby, isn’t it? For some women, it takes days.”
Seeing his friend’s face change from red and bothered to white and terrified, made Kai wish he’d run his thoughts through his brain before blurting them out.
“Hey man, chill! Debbie is healthy and young, and they have the best of the best in this hospital. Plus, Aurora’s in there with her. What could possibly go wrong?”
Chapter Thirteen
“For chrissake! Stop telling me to breathe. I’d be dead if I wasn’t breathing.” The fiery-faced, crazy woman lunged toward Aurora and puffed in her face. “See?!”
“Calm down, Debbie. You know what I meant. You need to breathe like they showed you in Lamaze class. It relaxes your stomach muscles.” Aurora wished she’d paid more attention when the redheaded termagant of a teacher had drilled them in their roles. “In through your mouth and then puff it out… or some bloody thing like that. Hell, you should have been paying more attention. I’m not the one having the baby.”
“Oh sure. Now you’re blaming me for getting pregnant.” The snarl had changed Debbie’s voice completely. “Like you’ve never gotten caught screwing up? Screwing up. Get it? That’s funny.” Debbie’s laughter sounded close to hysteria, and Aurora knew she had to calm her.
“Hey, that’s not what I meant, and you know it. It wasn’t your fault.”
“You’re right. It was Cory’s fault. He had to try and make me feel better. Sure—let’s erase all those bad memories and replace them with good ones. How the hell could I have fallen for his bullshit?”
“Because it wasn’t! You know he was sincere, that he’s loved you for years… and you love him.”
“If he loves me so much, why didn’t he use a condom? The bastard!” She screamed the last two words, her face contorting almost beyond recognition.
The older nurse, who’d been in and out of the delivery room, returned and set a bowl of cool water and a clean cloth down next to where Aurora was leaning over the bed. On the same tray lay a dish of ice chips. “Listen, darling, let the contractions happen. The pain will be less if you stop fighting and go with them.” Her voice rang with authority from being in hundreds of deliveries.
“You go—” Debbie’s muffled words couldn’t be heard from behind Aurora’s hand.
“She’s not herself, Nurse. Truly, she’s normally a level-headed sweetheart, but having a baby doesn’t seem to agree with her much.”
The nurse chuckled. “You wouldn’t believe what I’ve been told to do to myself since I began working the maternity ward. I don’t take it personally. You can let her go.”
Aurora had eased the pressure almost immediately, and with her eyebrow raised, she spoke to the sweating, flushed woman on the bed. “You gonna settle down?”
“Oh, bite me!” Debbie’s tone had lessened and her eyes had shifted from hysterical to merely pain-filled.
Another contraction began. This one took all of her concentration and most of the fight out of her. This time, she let Aurora wipe the sweat from her face and neck. She even turned her cheek into the gentle hand, as if seeking reassurance. Without any hesitation, Aurora smoothed her hair back from her forehead and caressed her. “You’re doing great, Deb.”
“Never thought I’d be a mom. This should be happening to you, not me. You’re the one who’s always going ga-ga over the kids at the center. Hell, you go nuts when there’s a family dispute involving children. Not me. I’m the career woman.”
“Yeah, yeah! A real professional.”
“I mean it! I never cared if I had kids. Didn’t really want them.”
“So why’d you keep this one? You had good reason not to go through with the pregnancy.”
“Hell if I know. On the chance it’s Cory’s baby, and I couldn’t hurt anything that belongs to him. Arrggh, shut up and help me!”
This contraction lasted longer than the others, and Aurora could see her friend losing strength with each episode. She seemed to slip into a dazed, semiconscious state that worried Aurora.
Whispering in a harsh voice, she questioned the nurse who’d stayed in the background, fiddling around with her charts.
“Why isn’t the kid coming out? She’s really tired, Nurse.”
“Last time I checked, she still has a ways to go. She’s doing just fine, my dear. It’s not an easy process for a lot of young women, but they make it through in the end. You can trust me.”
Aurora kept wiping Debbie’s forehead, trying to cool her down and make her more comfortable. She held her hand and fed her ice chips from time to time when her eyes opened, foggy and disoriented. Half an hour passed before she panicked. “Why isn’t she having more contractions? They’ve stopped.” With her stomach muscles tensed into a hard knot and a headache clamoring, she turned to the nurse. “What’s wrong?”
Just then, Debbie thrust herself into a half-sitting position as if the little marionette in her tummy, like a puppet master, had pulled on concealed cords. “I have to push! Help me! I think the baby’s coming!”
Within moments, the nurse had summoned Dr. Montgomery and set up a delivery kit. Aurora stayed near Debbie’s head to help support her when she bore down, and the others nonchalantly took their places.
Three hard birth-pushes later, and the baby entered the world with a boisterous cry. The doctor took care of the umbilical cord, then passed the child to the waiting nurse. Quickly, she cleaned and swaddled him in a pastel blue blanket. Then, while Aurora looked on in amazement, the satisfied caregiver thrust the squirming bundle into Debbie’s waiting arms. Both women surveyed the wizened little male with tears raining down their faces.
“He’s gorgeous, Deb! Such a handsome baby.” It was actually wrinkly, red-faced and complaining loudly, but Aurora knew she’d never seen anything more beautiful.
Lips quivering, Debbie looked into Aurora’s eyes, a warning glint in her own. “Get Cory for me, okay? It’s time he met his son.”
Chapter Fourteen
The next morning, Cory paced around his office; behind the chair Aurora sat in and past where Kai leaned against the wall. A business card he held in his hand was being flicked back and forth on his palm.
“You didn’t get anything from the clinic? No one talked to our man Rhondo or had an appointment with him? Did you show them his mug shot?”
“Yes! We questioned everyone in the building. Not one person had anything to say. They wanted to help us, but you can’t get what isn’t there,” Aurora said, throwing Cory’s favorite phrase back at him.
“Have you gone through the case files, to see if any of his victims worked there? Are there any other links to the place?”
“Nothing! I checked.” Aurora answered. “Twice.”
A knock on the door had everyone turning to see Detective Hampton making his entrance. The big Irish officer, working follow-up on the case, wore an expression of puzzlement. “Just found something. Not sure if it’s applicable. It says here that the clinic had a break-in last month. But that was almost a week before the day we figured Rhondo arrived back in town.”
Kai leaned forward. His face lit up. “What date?”
“It says here, June 23rd.”
“It could have been him. He went to ground in the second week of the month. We lost all track of him in L.A. He could have been here.”
“We picked him up last week. If he’d returned to town, he kept a low profile.” Aurora’s mind shot back through the relevant dates she’d stored in her mental filing cabinet.
“What doctor’s office?” Cory perched his big body on the edge of his desk, his hand reaching for the sheet.
Ham passed it over. “Some general practitioner called Montgomery. She was the bitchy one who wouldn’t give us the time of day. Said when she’d needed us, we ignored her.”
Cory scratched the back of his head. “The name sounds familiar. Our
department wouldn’t have been called in for a robbery though. What went missing?”
Ham answered, his Irish dialect obvious. “Looked like an ordinary B&E. Figured to be neighborhood kids. The place was ransacked and drugs were missing from the premises.”
“What type of drugs?”
“Mostly painkillers, but they’d have some street value. The doctor said in her statement that she’d been visited by a number of reps from pharmaceutical companies who’d left her a selection of samples. They were all taken. Looks to me like we jumped through the hoops, but nothing came up. Says here that the lass called repeatedly.”
“I want you to go back and get the goods on what went down with that robbery. If she gives you any trouble, either sweet-talk her with your Irish blarney or subpoena her. I want to know what files were tampered with. Also, find out if they took anything other than drugs. This might be a false lead, but we can’t afford to let anything fall through the cracks—not with this slippery bastard.” He handed the sheet back.
“On it, Boss.” Ham left the office.
“That leaves you two to work on the journal. I’ve called the special victims units in the other places Rhondo hit and promised to send any pertinent data their way, ASAP. But we need to follow up on his victims here in Las Vegas.” With his short red hair standing on end and his temper barely held in check, Cory meant business. “I want him Aurora.”
“We’ll get him. You can bet on it.” Flint-hard Kai interrupted, and his positive tone spelled trouble.
Cory swung his head in Kai’s direction. “I know you have as much invested in getting this guy as we do. A warning! We play by the rules and follow procedures. It’s how we’ve always worked, and this case is no different.” He swung away and wriggled his fingers. “On the other hand, I don’t much care how hard you push those rules. You got that?”
“Yes, Boss!” Aurora answered first. Then Kai echoed her answer before they left the room.
Back in their own small office, coffee cups in hand, they sat at desks across from each other. Neither looked at the other; it had been that way since their arrival earlier that morning.