***
Cora hardly listened as Nick tried to explain the messed up situation to several police officers. She wanted to go inside the hospital to look for her dad and make sure he was okay, but she was asked question after question. She, along with Nick and Adam, told them everything they could remember. They stood outside, off to the side of the ER entrance, talking while people walked by and gawked.
It felt like morning was years before. She didn’t remember the beginning of the day. Her mind buzzed with noise, shots, yells, and Jerry’s last breaths. What did he say? Something important...
Someone squeezed her shoulder and she found herself looking up into an older man’s face. He had keen eyes and softly graying hair. “I’m Herald Baker from Baker and Associates, where Nick works.”
She glanced at Nick, and then realized that Herald was there to help them. They were talking and she tried to follow along for a minute or two before giving up. There was something important she had to remember. What had her dad said?
Before the memory came together, Herald touched her arm and said, “Listen, the police will want to question all three of you, probably separately. They’re releasing you to me for now.”
“What about my father?”
Herald reached to take her hand and said, “We just wait. I’m sorry. Remember, I’m on your side. Nick’s been a friend of mine for years now, and I know he always tells the truth. I believe you, and I’m going to do whatever I can to bring both of these men to justice.”
She nodded while trying to pull herself together. Herald shared a look with Nick and left to go inside. Nick led her to a bench where they sat and waited. She shivered despite the afternoon’s heat.
“I should have stayed with you,” she said. Was this all her fault?
“No regrets now, Cora. Jerry’s here where he can get help.” He leaned down next to her ear to quietly say, “I’ll make it right. I’ll make sure they don’t get away with this.”
She looked into his eyes and believed him.
Herald returned, and it only took one look at his face to know she couldn’t see her father yet.
“He’s still in surgery, but they think it looks positive. I think it’s best if we get all of you somewhere safe.”
She didn’t want to think about staying safe. Her dad was critically wounded and needed her. “All this was for nothing.” She felt hot tears stinging her dry, irritated eyes, and reached up to wipe them. A flash of red stopped her. There was blood all over her hand.
Nick was right in front of her, kneeling down and grabbing both her hands despite the dried blood.
“They could have killed him any second, Cora. We got him out of there. You helped him get out and saved his life. Do you hear me?”
She nodded weakly. It wasn’t his words so much that comforted her, but the realization that her dad would feel the same way. He’d probably be upset that she put herself in danger instead of just running.
Nick was helping her to her feet, and all three men were talking as they walked toward the parking lot. Adam must have moved the car. She remembered it hadn’t been Nick’s Mustang, mostly because there had been a roomy backseat. They walked toward a Lincoln that had to belong to Herald.
She was sitting in the backseat with Nick before she even wondered where they were headed, but what did it matter? She closed her eyes and leaned into him.
When he gently shook her shoulder, she opened her eyes. Herald was talking to her.
“I have strong relationships with a few good, dependable guys on the force. I’ll talk to them and make sure the right people are watching Jerry.”
“Thank you, Herald.” That had to be enough for now. She had hell to pay when the dust settled. Wasn’t it so ironic that she thought she was using Alexander? What had she been thinking?
Okay, she had been completely focused on rescuing her dad. Now that he was away from Keith she had to start putting the pieces together. Through the haze in her mind, she knew there was something, or several things, that she was supposed to remember or do.
The car stopped and Herald got out. Nick touched her face. He looked concerned, like he was checking to see if she was really there. Maybe she wasn’t. “Cora, we’re getting a room. You can take a shower and rest a while, and then we’ll try to visit Jerry.”
Another room? She was so tired of running around. “I need a change of clothes…can’t I go home?”
Adam glanced at Nick. She could tell they communicated entire conversations through those looks.
“Cora, you probably know that’s not safe,” Nick said.
She knew, but it sounded nice to soak in her own bath tub and sleep in clean pajamas in her own bed.
Adam added, “We’ll keep you safe here.”
She shuddered. It wasn’t over yet. She needed to keep her guard up. That’s why Adam was keeping watch while they waited in the car.
Herald tapped on the window. Nick and Adam hurried out and she followed their lead. It was hard to imagine Alexander being able to track them down, but he’d shot Jerry. Keith still didn’t have his million dollars back. She wondered if he ever figured out that Alexander stole it.
Upstairs in the bathroom, Cora turned the water on hot. Her entire body felt numb, disconnected from her. She closed her eyes and lost herself in the soothing water running down her and almost forgot she was in the shower. When the water started to grow cold, she snapped awake and remembered that she needed to wash. She had to force herself to forget what she was washing off.
Pictures flashed in her mind, one after another, of her father, Nick, and the other men that had been at Keith’s home. She could hardly believe Nick had shown up and helped her after she ran from him. She couldn’t fathom what might have happened if he hadn’t stepped in.
She wrapped herself in the small hotel towel. There was no way she could put her clothes back on, not with…
Someone knocked. “Cora, I have a change of clothes for you.”
Nick had known. She opened the door to see him holding her bag. “How did you…oh, this was in your car from before.”
She’d packed a skirt, but at least it was something different and semi clean. Nick was waiting for her outside the door and when she emerged he pulled her into a much needed tight embrace. She ran her hands over him and breathed in his scent. After hanging onto him for a minute, she remembered Herald and Adam. Herald was gone and Adam was playing solitaire on a small table by the door. His handgun sat on the table.
The TV was turned on without anyone watching it, maybe for the noise.
“Come over here with me.” He pulled her onto the couch with him. She gladly curled up against him and laid her head on his chest.
There was a lot to talk about, but maybe Nick was trying to wrap his head around it too. She wasn’t sure where to start or where they would go. She wasn’t even sure how she felt. Was she running through fire or drowning in a freezing ocean? She felt Nick’s arms around her, holding her together, and she felt his steady heartbeat beckoning hers to continue.
With new clarity, Cora realized she had been thinking with her head, which had always been her saving attribute, but this last week she had ignored her heart. Her heart had been right.
Nick rested his face on her hair. “Are you doing okay? Do you want something for dinner yet?”
“I’m only twenty five and I’ve lost both my parents.” She angrily wiped at the tears that flooded her eyes.
“You don’t know that.” He took her chin and gently turned her face toward his. “Jerry’s tough. He’s fighting for you.”
That was true. Her dad would fight the world for her. She almost smiled.
“I’m here for you. I’ll do whatever you need.” He watched her eyes like he was watching a beautiful sunrise. Now she could finally follow her heart and believe him.
“I’m sorry, Nick.”
“For what?”
“Alexander. He completely fooled me.” Tears sprang up in her eyes
. A tear escaped and ran down one cheek. She had listened to Alexander and it almost got her dad, and Nick, killed. She had been so focused that she didn’t see thing clearly.
Nick kissed her tears. “He fooled everyone from my father to Jerry. That’s how the guy operates.”
“All I could think about was finding my father. I didn’t consider his motives at all.”
He shook his head. “You did what you had to. I was trying to protect you, but I should have told you more. When Adam first told me what was going on, he said Alexander watched the news every night just to see you. Alexander ‘exposed’ Jerry for skimming money, and he suggested right off the bat that you were the perfect tool for coercing Jerry into repaying the money. He had a master plan all along and you were a big part of it.”
Cora leaned back to look at him, sighing in irritation and frustration. She felt invaded. “So everything happened as he planned it, but why did he want to trick me like that? I was walking around town, tired, hot and hungry. I was trying to figure out where to look first, and then there was Alexander with lemonade and a plan. Why did he pretend to help me?”
“I think he planned to take the money, and you, and run.”
It chilled her to see inside his mind, and scared her even more that she had spent two days with him. Laying her head back on Nick’s chest, she whispered, “Thank you for what you did.”
He started to say something when his cell vibrated in his pocket.
“It’s Keith.”
Chapter Thirteen