His dark eyes searched hers. “What are you afraid of, Sonny?”
Reluctantly, she placed the crying baby in his arms. “You are going to stay in the room, right?”
With a crooked grin, he said, “Ellie’s sticking with you, Sonny, because I don’t do diapers.”
She laughed nervously and settled into the seat near him, watching as he put the baby upright against his chest, resting her head on his shoulder. With long soothing strokes he rubbed Ellie’s back. The baby continued to cry a little, but she was definitely calming down.
“Cute train pajamas,” he said, examining the clothes Cooper had purchased for her. “Not very little-girl-like.”
“Beggars can’t be choosers. Cooper said there was slim pickings at the store. Wait until you see tomorrow’s outfit. Ninja turtles.”
Gil chuckled.
“I’m just grateful to have a change of clothes for myself in case she spits up,” Sonny said with a shrug.
She watched with admiration as Gil switched Ellie easily from one shoulder to the other.
“You do know babies,” she said as Ellie finally stopped crying.
Gil smiled. “I never would have made it through high school if I hadn’t figured this out.”
She laughed and felt some of the tension inside her ease.
“When a baby has colic, it’s best for them to sleep upright. I spent a lot of nights stretched out on an old recliner in the living room with Johnny on my chest.”
“Why didn’t your mother or father take care of the baby?”
He was quiet a moment, his expression tense as he leaned back against the sofa. “They did. But they had so much of their own stuff to deal with,” he said. “Mom was real close to my aunt. She took her death hard.”
It was amazing. The man who had grilled her so doggedly earlier—who had refused to leave her be at the airport—was perfectly at home with Ellie in his arms.
“You’re staring.”
Startled, she looked away. “Am I?”
“Yes.”
Heat crept up her cheeks. “I’m in awe. I was just thinking how you couldn’t possibly be the same man I met at the airport.”
“There’s no difference, really. Just another face.”
She wanted to say she liked this face better, but since he’d managed to get Ellie to sleep—her mouth slightly puckered open, her face so serene—she decided to keep it to herself.
“You want to say something.”
He wasn’t asking a question. He was probably reading her expression, which, given her tired state, was the equivalent of reading her mind.
“Thank you.”
He frowned. “That’s it? Nothing else?”
With a heavy sigh she said, “I’m so tired I can’t even sleep.”
He made a move to lean forward with the baby still on his shoulder. “Why don’t you stretch out on the sofa? It’s comfortable.”
“No, that’s okay.”
Before she could protest further, he stood. Ellie seemed unaffected by his movement. “That’s okay. I’ll sit in the chair. You don’t have to sleep if you don’t want to. Just get comfortable. You look like you’re about to fall over.”
Gone were the cold stares and harsh attitude and in their place, Sonny saw concern. She welcomed the change, but she knew she shouldn’t. Gil wanted something she couldn’t give him. Something she didn’t want him to get. As sweet as he was being now, she was sure the accusing glare would return if she didn’t give him the information he wanted.
Walking over to the sofa, she perched on the edge. If she allowed herself to fall back against the deep cushions, she’d pass out. She was sure of it.
“Ellie’s asleep,” Sonny said. “Maybe I should put her back in the crib.”
“Not yet. She needs to be fully asleep or she’ll wake up again. Too bad we don’t have a car seat to put her in,” he said, easing back in the armchair.
“Why?”
“I used to let Johnny sleep in his car seat by my bed. It helped him.”
“I could just hold her like you’re doing.”
Gil shook his head. “You’re not used to holding her like this. If you fall asleep, she might slip from your arms.”
Sonny sighed, annoyed with herself for thinking more about getting sleep than what she might do to the baby accidentally.
“I’m sorry.”
The words were spoken so softly that Sonny would have missed them if she hadn’t seen Gil’s lips move. The expression on his face told her he meant it.
“What?”
“I’m sorry.”
“Why?”
“I was wrong. I shouldn’t have called you a criminal,” he said gently.
Her smile was weak, but she felt it in her heart. “Forgiven.”
“That easy, huh?”
“You got the baby to stop crying, so I’m in your debt for that.”
He looked down into Ellie’s face. “She doesn’t look like you.”
“She looks like my mother. Cash looks like my mother, too.” Tears filled her eyes. How could she be complaining, even if only to herself, that she was tired and out of her element when Cash was the one missing. Maybe being tortured. Or worse.
“Come on,” Gil urged. “You know you want to trust me.”
It was true. She wasn’t just physically tired. Her emotions were dangling by a thread. But how could she? Their goals were on opposite ends of the spectrum.
“Tell me what I want to hear, Sonny.”
Sonny wanted to trust Gil. But she didn’t trust herself. Because the truth of it was, with each passing moment, she couldn’t deny that she was attracted to Gil Waite.
#
Chapter Five
“You never stop, do you?” she said, the weight of the day practically pulling on her eyelids. She was fighting to stay awake.
“No. But I can help you if you let me.”
She hated that his voice was so sincere and made her yearn to let down her guard with him. It would be so easy to trust Gil. But his motives for wanting information were mercenary.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I’m no fool, Sonny. You really expect me to believe this was a quick vacation to Colombia? Why would Ellie’s mother allow you to take her to a foreign country? And why didn’t I ever see you with her until today? You were out walking around, albeit not very often, all alone. Who was with Ellie then? It doesn’t make any sense.”
She lifted her chin. “It doesn’t need to make sense to you.”
“Look, I know something is going on. I can help you. But only if you let me.”
She turned away from his probing gaze. She wanted to hate him. She really did. But she felt herself caving. “You already ‘helped’ me back at the airport,” she said sarcastically. “Or have you already forgotten that?”
“You’re terrified of something.”
“How do you know it’s not you?”
He took in her words and considered them. “Fair enough. But I know what kind of trouble your brother was in. Drug running isn’t for sissies. If you’re afraid—”
She cut him off. “I told you all I know.”
“Have you?”
Running her fingers through her hair in frustration, she shifted her position on the sofa. “Obviously, you still don’t believe me.”
“I believe what you’ve told me is true. But I don’t believe you’ve told me everything.”
She bit her lip. “You want something I can’t give you.”
“Cash.”
She nodded. “I don’t know where he is. It’s the truth.”
“Then why did you come here? And why do you have his baby, a baby you don’t even know how to take care of?”
His words, however dead on, stung. She closed her eyes for a brief moment to hold back her tears. A good cry was long overdue. She hadn’t really allowed herself that for fear she’d never recover enough to do what she had to do.
“Do you
know who can find your brother?”
Eduardo Sanchez could give Gil a whole lot of information. But she didn’t want Gil or his team to mess with the Colombian kingpin. Or connect anyone in her family to him. At least not until she and Ellie were in the United States again.
When she didn’t answer, he went on in a quiet voice. “Your loyalty to your brother is admirable. It’s clear by your actions that you love him very much. But you’re not doing Cash or yourself any favors. He needs to come out of hiding.”
“You don’t even know me or my family. How can you make a claim like that?”
“He was arrested for a crime and if you cared for him like you say you do, you’d make sure he was brought in for justice.”
She laughed humorlessly. “Is that why you’re doing this? For justice? Don’t even go there, Gil. I know what you’re after. Money. Isn’t that what all bounty hunters are after?”
His eyes darkened for a brief moment. “I’m not going to lie to you. I get paid well for bringing fugitives back in to face trial. But I want justice, too.”
“For who?”
“For the people.”
She shook her head. “You don’t know anything about this case, do you? All you know is there’s a nice bounty up for grabs.”
“I don’t need to know all the details. I know that bail was set at one million dollars and judges don’t issue that kind of bail without a good reason. DEA or not, there had to be compelling proof for the judge to set bail so high. Your loyalty and love for your brother doesn’t change the fact that he’s guilty of a crime.”
It was hard to sit still with Gil talking about Cash as if he was a common street thug. “You’ve been out of the country too long, Gil. In America, a person is innocent until proven guilty. You’ve forgotten that.” Their eyes met. Sonny liked his eyes. Dammit. When he wasn’t being hard and accusing, his eyes were warm and she found herself drifting away from all that was happening, focusing on the depth of his gaze instead of the stress of the past few weeks.
Or the words he was saying.
She shook away the wayward thoughts that invaded her mind. She was exhausted. And she was sure he was using that to get her to talk. She couldn’t allow herself to be trumped in a battle of wills.
“You’re right,” he finally said. “But Cash can’t prove his innocence unless he comes in.”
“I couldn’t agree more. And believe it or not, we want the same thing.”
“Do we?” He scanned her face intently, looking into her eyes, then at her lips, then back to her eyes.
“Yes,” she said, ignoring the fluttering feeling in her stomach. “I miss my brother, Gil. Despite what you think, I’d like nothing more than for him to come home. His wife, Serena, feels the same way. And before you start thinking you can grill her, she’s not in Colombia. And she doesn’t know where he is, either.”
“Then trust me. Help me find him.”
“I have put my trust in others that justice will be served.”
Gil cocked his head to one side. “Others? Who?”
“Just…others.” She’d said too much. Her stomach sank.
He made a noise of frustration. “You’d be foolish to wait around for miracles, Sonny.”
“Why? Miracles happen all the time.”
“Life isn’t a lottery ticket. Most people have to pay the consequences of their actions.”
She laughed softly. “You’re right. But I can’t look at that baby sleeping soundly in your arms right now and not believe in miracles.
Gil made no reply. He just stared at her intently. His gaze was so strong that it seemed to reach inside and touch her heart.
Sonny’s cheeks flamed and she found it hard to turn away. She couldn’t tell him that when their eyes met it made her heart skip a beat and her body warm from her cheeks to her toes. Men didn’t do that to Sonny. At least, no man she’d ever known had.
All the men she’d encountered at work were not men she wanted to date. And although Mrs. Altman, her parents’ next door neighbor, was always trying to fix her up with one eligible bachelor or another, she never found any man interesting enough to pursue beyond a first date. She often ended up turning the relationship into a good friendship.
Sonny had only just met Gil. But she’d never been this attracted to a man before. Especially a man who couldn’t be more wrong for her if he tried.
She shrugged the feeling off. “You remind me of...”
“Who?” he asked.
“My brother.”
“Cash?”
She smiled and shook her head. “No, Dylan. He’s the oldest. Cash is a few years younger. It took Mom and Dad a while after having the two of them to have me.”
“I’m sure they were a handful when they were kids.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“Why do I remind you of your brother?”
They say that if you have a good relationship with your father and your brothers, you look for a man who reminds you of them. Sonny supposed that was why she was suddenly feeling drawn to Gil. He didn’t really look like her brothers. She didn’t think of Dylan and Cash as, well, guys. They were just her brothers. But there was something about Gil that drew her to him.
“He’s gruff, like you. All big, bad, tough guy on the outside, you know?”
She could tell he wanted to laugh out loud. A funny sound escaped his lips, but he held back to keep from waking the baby. His chest rocked up and down as he laughed silently.
“And you willingly handed the baby over anyway?” he finally said.
“That’s just it. Dylan always comes across like the big, bad Marine. He’s a cop now. But when you get him in a room full of my little cousins during the holidays, he’s just a cream puff. He’s the one they all flock to. He rolls around on the floor and plays with them, makes them laugh. They never leave him alone. But he doesn’t mind. He’s just a big kid behind that gruff exterior.”
“You think that’s what I’m like?”
“Are you telling me you’re not?”
“You don’t know me.”
“I know what I see,” she said, gesturing to Ellie, who was completely content on his shoulder. “You just told me you used to rock your little cousin to sleep at night and now you’re holding Ellie like she was made to fit in your arms. You’re a big softy, Gil.”
“Appearances can be deceiving, Sonny. I’m still going to bring your brother in when I find him.”
She nodded, irritated that his determination to collect his bounty had crept into the conversation that had actually been…pleasant. The two of them would always be at odds on that matter. The very last thing Sonny would help Gil with was looking for Cash if it meant he’d interfere with the rescue operation.
“You may want the world to believe you’re a hard case, some of us know better, Gil.”
He shifted in the chair. “Listen, Sonny. Whatever game you’re playing with me, you can stop. Smooth talking isn’t going to keep me from doing my job.”
She tried not to show how much his accusation hurt. “Believe it or not, that was a compliment. I love that part of my brother.”
He nodded, apparently somewhat thrown by her sincerity. “Then thank you. But you should know that Marco is going to figure out what you did online. In fact…I shouldn’t even tell you this…he was sort of impressed by what you did with the virus.”
“Virus? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yeah, right. But when he gets through tracing your tracks online, we’ll find your brother.”
No, you won’t, Sonny thought. She’d made sure she didn’t even mention Cash’s name in her email to her father. If only she’d had time, she would have planted something else to steer them off course in case they did find her email.
Sonny hadn’t had time to think when Gil and Marco had left to get the crib. She just knew that she had to alert her father and enlist his help in getting her out of Colombia with Ellie. It was only a matter of time before Eduardo Sanc
hez put pressure on the law down here. She couldn’t hide forever.
Neither Gil nor his team knew what kind of monster they were dealing with. He was just the CEO of a shipping company to them. But Sonny knew all too well. If they didn’t move fast, they probably wouldn’t be able to use Ellie’s passport to leave by plane. In fact, it might already be too late. Eduardo Sanchez was a powerful man in Colombia. He rose above the law, despite his illegal dealings. To many, he was a king for bringing small hill towns out of poverty and filtering money—despite the illegal means in which he acquired it—back to communities in need.
By the standards of many, he was living as a good Samaritan. But his motives had nothing to do with helping others and everything to do with control and power.
Gil was focused on finding an email containing information about Cash. But that was the least of his worries. He just didn’t know it yet.
“You know, my father must have been devastated when the plane landed and Ellie and I weren’t on it.” Oh, how she wanted to be able to call him to let him know they were both all right. But she couldn’t do that without someone hearing the conversation. And that would only bring on a new onslaught of questions from Gil and his team. Sonny wasn’t ready to deal with that.
She realized that it was a good thing she knew nothing about what was going on with Dylan and his former military team in regards to Cash’s rescue. She was feeling worn down, and knew that she might let something slip if Gil started grilling her again. Fortunately, she had no idea what was going on with Dylan and Cash. Dylan had been right to keep the plans from her.
“You must be having a crisis of conscience.”
Gil’s words broke into her thoughts. “Why do you say that?”
“You were sitting there looking...guilty, actually. Clearly you’re upset.”
He’d misread her expression. Good. “You still think I’m guilty of something?”
“You tell me. Why did you come to Colombia, Sonny? Your passport shows you boarded a plane in Providence and yet you were headed to Miami.”
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