She couldn't stand us. Abbie couldn't imagine feeling that way about her mother, but her father must not have liked her from birth to have turned his back on her. "So why did she want custody?"
"Quickest way to add another couple million to her settlement. She told my dad he could pay enough in the divorce for her to hire someone to take care of their two 'pain in the asses' or he could have us for a million each. She sold us in the divorce."
Hunter had told that as if reporting on an enemy.
She asked, "Your dad told you about all that?"
"Didn't have to. Todd and I watched that last fight from the top of the stairs. I was almost seven and he was five."
Good God. No wonder Hunter could be so cold at times. Something had died inside him as a child. She had no words to express her anger at a mother who could do that to her children. "Did your father remarry?"
His hand unclenched and started caressing the sensitive skin along her stomach again. "Three years later, but wife number two had heard about the first one through the tabloids. She built a bonus clause into her prenup for any children. She put on a good show of pretend Mom for about six months, but our mother screwed up Todd so badly he had a violent temper. My dad traveled a lot with business. While Dad was out of town, wife number two convinced him to ship me and Todd off to boarding schools. I wouldn't have hated her for that, but she had us separated. She thought I'd interfere with Todd's discipline because I kept him out of her reach when he pissed her off."
Abbie closed her eyes, trying not to picture Hunter shielding his brother from a second woman. She hated both women who had married their father. Hadn't the second one realized how much those two boys needed a mother? "Why did your dad agree?"
"He'd gotten sucked into believing this woman might really love him. But eight months later she popped up all excited and told Dad she was pregnant. Way I heard it, he asked how that was possible since he'd had a vasectomy before they married. He ran her off and brought us home. Never married again. Can't blame him."
What man would ever trust a woman again after experiecing all that?
A grim thought followed close on the tail of that one.
Hunter might one day love, but would he ever trust a woman?
Clearly not interested in discussing families anymore, he moved his hand down. Nerves prickled every place he touched along her abdomen, then he slipped his hand soundlessly between her legs. That wiped her mind blank of everything except the exquisite yearning he started again.
"I'm ready," she urged.
"Not yet." He nibbled on her neck. His finger pressed inside her.
She hissed. "Yes. I. Am. Ready."
She would not beg. Much.
Hunter laughed. An honest-to-God true laugh. Her heart somersaulted at the rich sound. "Gotta love a woman who demands service."
Her heart tripped at the word love, just hearing it from his lips, but he hadn't meant anything by it. He had held her all night as if afraid something might tear her from his arms and made her feel cared for.
He'd churned up emotions she'd never thought she'd feel again.
His finger was making her tremble. Her thigh muscles would be jelly by the time they left this room.
"I can't... do this." She squirmed, her body pleading for him to take her over the edge.
"We'll see."
A man not to be challenged, he got busy proving her wrong.
His finger danced over her wet folds and teased circles until her body turned on her, demanding she do something.
If only.
He drove her toward that blinding light and dove a finger inside her. She wanted to scream. He kept up the torture, driving his finger deep, then sliding it out on a wet path and brushing across the nub of coiled nerves. The delicate abrasion inched her to the edge every time.
He stopped.
She clawed at the sheets, lifting off the bed, twisting, a coiled ball of need, waiting to spring. "Hunter... please..."
He repeated the motion... not stopping this time.
Light exploded behind her eyes. She shook with the orgasm that went on and on.
He wouldn't let up until every muscle quivered in defeat.
She lay limp, spent. "You're going to kill me."
He rolled her beneath him. "You're perfect. Never doubt it."
Her mind cleared and heard that. She also heard the door to her heart open and let Hunter all the way in.
She never thought she'd meet someone who made her feel cherished, as though she was safe within his arms. He'd accepted her story about why she'd gone to meet Gwen when someone else might have questioned its validity after Gwen got shot. Might have suspected she was involved somehow. He'd protected her from dangerous threats and hadn't demanded the final key to accessing the Kore Women's Center.
He hadn't let anyone put her where she couldn't get to her mother.
Hunter might not ever let a woman inside his heart, but he'd climbed inside hers and was there to stay.
Chapter Thirty-two
Sullen gray skies hung low over O'Hare airport in Chicago when Hunter helped Abbie into the backseat of a black corporate sedan identical to the next ten picking up passengers. Thanks to his brother's assistant, the car was waiting when the flight Hunter had chartered under the last name Johnson landed at noon.
"Give me a minute," he told Abbie, who nodded before he closed the door and stepped away after instructing the driver to start the car.
Hunter pressed the number in his new cell phone for his brother, sure by now he'd raised more than a few concerns. The pilot of the jet Hunter had taken the night he and Abbie fled Chicago had very likely relayed a bizarre story to Todd by now.
The call went through and his brother picked up. Hunter said, "I owe you a lot of answers I can't give right now."
A few seconds ticked off while he waited for a reply.
Todd sighed heavily. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine."
"What about that girl?"
Hunter had to be careful about what he said since Todd's phone wasn't secure. "Everyone's fine. Just wanted to say thanks and I'll swing by soon as I can." That might be a very long time, but he did mean it.
"You're always welcome, but I'm not in my apartment right now."
"Where are you?"
"In Pia's place downtown on Wacker. Before you say anything, listen to me."
Good advice if Hunter could follow it, because anything he said right now would probably piss off Todd.
"The divorce was both of our faults. We were hot to trot for each other, made a baby and got hitched, then found out it takes more than sex to make a marriage."
"How can you trust her? She got pregnant." Hunter couldn't hold back. Todd knew how women used children against their husbands and Hunter didn't want to watch his brother gutted a second time.
"That wasn't her fault." Todd heaved another long breath. "Not entirely. I didn't use a condom a couple times, but I was crazy about her... the bottom line is that I really love her and she really loves me. She has no reason to trust me either. I acted like an ass after we divorced. Not like you and I had much for a marriage role model. Pia and I just didn't know how to be married, and my temper didn't help, then Barrett came along. We're both spoiled to some degree, but we're learning how to compromise."
"Sure you want to go through this again?" Hunter heard the sincerity in Todd's voice, but was Pia truly committed to making this work?
"If you mean having my heart shredded, no." Todd's good-natured laugh was something Hunter hadn't heard in a while. "But neither does Pia. She's gone through hell with this and loves me. I found out from a good friend Pia only pretended to be happy when she was out in public so she wouldn't look like the pathetic loser still in love with her ex-husband. She hasn't seen anyone else since we broke up. Me either. We're going to make this work. We're talking like we never did before and, hell, I'm just so damned happy to be with both of them again."
Hunter finally accepted the content
ment and peace he heard in his brother's voice. Todd had been thrilled when he got married, but the divorce had soured him to the point Hunter hated to even hear Pia's name.
He might have misjudged her. He'd never heard Todd speak so passionately about anyone or anything he'd wanted. But his brother clearly wanted his family.
To his credit, he went after them.
"I admire you," Hunter said quietly. What he didn't say was that he envied his brother for carving out a slice of normal life in spite of being a screwed-up Thornton-Payne. Good for Todd.
"Thanks. You need anything else?"
"Nope. I will catch up with you, but I've got to take care of some things first." Hunter started to hang up and paused. "Tell Pia I'm happy for both of you."
When Todd hung up, Hunter contacted Gotthard next, but this call would be secure on both ends.
Gotthard answered his cell phone with a cautious, "Yes?"
"It's me. New phone." Hunter put his back to a concrete wall in the parking deck and kept an eye on foot traffic as people dragged carry-on luggage nearby.
"You have trouble?"
Hunter ignored the irritable reply. Gotthard might have had another bad night with his wife. That relationship was tanking fast. "Did Joe send someone to meet me early?"
Gotthard would understand that he was asking if Joe had sent a team to bring Hunter in. "No. He needs you to finish this job." Meaning Joe still wanted Hunter to insert into Kore. "You still good?"
"Sure." If Joe hadn't sent a team, then who had come up Hunter's mountain? "What'd Joe decide? Am I handling all of this or is he inserting a female agent?"
"He said it's your show. You've got eighteen hours. Don't waste it."
Less time than Hunter had hoped for, but he let out a breath he was holding. Joe was leaving the plan for accessing Kore's files in Hunter's hands. "I hear you."
"By oh six hundred. Sooner would be in your favor," Gotthard warned in a clipped tone.
Hunter realized he was hearing more than Gotthard's usual grumpiness. Something to do with this mission bothered the big guy. "We got a problem?"
"Maybe. Our contact hasn't checked in since sending the last missive yesterday. I'm... concerned someone might have discovered the connection."
That would suck in more ways than Hunter could count and explained why Joe was letting him enter Kore solo. Hunter was expendable. If Linette got burned as the mole she'd probably face hideous consequences. The minute she gave up her method of contacting Gotthard the Fratelli would use her to track and expose BAD.
"That may not be the case." Hunter hoped he was right. "If the contact is involved in the current Fratelli operation the contact won't be as free to access a computer if others are around. Just have to be patient."
And hope like hell Linette hadn't been found out.
"That could be." Gotthard still sounded as though he'd been hit in the gut with a telephone pole, but he shifted back to business. "Why'd you ask if Joe sent a team? You have unexpected visitors?"
"Yeah."
"Got an idea who?"
"The list is too long." Hunter joked wryly rather than mention the JC killer since he hadn't told BAD that JC was the attacker he'd confronted at Abbie's. "We'll kick around possibilities later. Gotta roll right now."
"One more thing. We checked out Tatum, that doctor taking care of the Blanton woman's mother. He died early yesterday morning. Police are calling it suicide."
Shit. Couldn't there be one bit of good news for Abbie? "How'd he do it?"
"Looks like drugs. The autopsy will tell, but no note. Tatum lost his wife five months ago and was devoted to raising his two small girls. No suicidal tendencies, no note, but the police found a spoon stuck in the body. It's the JC killer's.
Police don't know what they have. We found a spoon at Abigail Blanton's apartment, too."
"Our boy is getting around."
"Abigail's neck-deep in all this."
Hunter understood the warning from Gotthard--don't get tangled up with Abbie--but he couldn't admit to anyone he was shielding her from BAD as well as the killer. "I'll keep that in mind. Be in touch."
He pocketed the cell phone and climbed in the car next to Abbie. She had on a new pair of jeans and a pink knit top from the several outfits he'd bought her in Gillette, Wyoming, before they took off for Chicago. She'd stuffed her clothes plus a few toiletries in an oversized black canvas shoulder bag.
"Where are we going?" she asked.
He gave her credit for not hounding him all the way there. He'd put in a call to her mom's medical center when they reached Gillette, but her mother had been out of the room having tests. Abbie had deflated at missing the chance to talk to even her sister Hannah. She'd mentioned a second sister, Casey, but just said they weren't on speaking terms.
He'd told her she could try again in Chicago. The police had to be searching for Abbie by now and BAD would have both the medical center and Kore Women's Center under surveillance. If he exposed that he had Abbie, he'd have no chance at catching Eliot's killer or getting into Kore to gain a bargaining chip with Joe. Not if they locked him up. All his training warred against what he'd already put into motion, but every minute they spent on the run could be the last one of Abbie's freedom. "We're going to the medical center to see your mother."
The smile she gave him lit up her whole body. "Thank you."
"But we can't go in through the front doors." Joe's people would grab her the minute they saw her. When she nodded her compliance, Hunter instructed the driver to head to the Oakbrook Shopping Center west of downtown Chicago, where an associate from Hunter's CIA days waited. Their sedan arrived at the parking area for the mall close to two o'clock.
He directed the driver to park next to an ambulance sitting by itself, then told him, "If we're not back by five return to the office." That gave Hunter three hours. If he and Abbie hadn't returned by then he wouldn't be coming back. Plus, he had a meeting with Kore's senior vice president at four o'clock.
A wiry guy in his thirties with sharp eyes and quick movements climbed down from the ambulance driver's seat and shook hands with Hunter. "Everything's in the back."
"Thanks, Ned." Hunter rushed Abbie and her purse from the sedan to the rear of the ambulance, then Ned shut the doors.
She sat on the gurney and looked around. "We're going in as an emergency? Won't that be a bit high profile?" The vehicle started moving. She fell sideways.
"Not going to the emergency entrance." Hunter caught her by the shoulders, righting her, and sat down on the gurney. He leaned down and dug through a duffel, pulling out a maternity top. "Put this on."
"I'm pretending to be pregnant?" She eyed him. "What about you?"
"I'm your doctor." He discarded his jeans and the faded green T-shirt came off next, exchanging them for a dark suit hanging on the wall of the truck. The white doctor's coat went on next.
By the time the vehicle parked at the rear of the medical center, he had an ID clipped in place. Abbie had pulled a sleeveless pale yellow maternity top sprinkled with daisies over a long-sleeved white T-shirt that hid a half-round foam piece.
She looked up at him, smiling. His breath caught. She'd make a beautiful mother.
Had Eliot looked at Cynthia and thought that?
Ned opened the back doors, jostling Hunter's thoughts. "Wheelchair's inside."
Hunter jumped down and lifted Abbie to the ground. A short guy with a receding hairline and stained scrubs opened the back entrance for them. For as nonthreatening as the guy appeared, Hunter knew he was not medical personnel but one of Ned's men who had reconned the facility.
Ned gave Hunter directions to the floor for Abbie's mother, then said, "You've got twenty minutes."
"Got it." Hunter ushered Abbie to the wheelchair.
At her mother's room, she pulled the foam piece from under her blouse, dropping it on the chair, then opened the door.
Where the halls had smelled antiseptic, this room reeked of sickness. Her mother had a se
miprivate room, but the second bed was currently empty.
Abbie paused. Hunter looked down to find the misery she'd been holding in check clouding her face. They couldn't stay long so he gently pushed her forward. "Go see your mother."
She took a tentative step, then rushed over and carefully hugged her mother, whose eyes didn't open. Tubes ran everywhere and her breathing was shallow. By the yellow tinge of her skin Hunter assumed her liver was still deteriorating.
He hadn't told Abbie about Dr. Tatum's suicide... murder. Hadn't wanted her distracted while they got inside.
"Where've you been?" a female voice demanded.
He turned toward the doorway, where a woman stood, wearing black pants and a wrinkled cotton shirt a darker brown than her straight hair. Similar to the skinny-looking Abbie he'd orignally met.
"I've been trying to find out what's wrong with Mom, Hannah," Abbie answered.
"Where, pray tell, have you been doing that?" Hannah carried a cup of hospital coffee to a side table and sat it down. "And who's this? He's not Mom's doctor."
"He's just a friend. He's helping me," Abbie answered in as snippy a tone as her sister's. "I can't tell you what I'm doing or where I've been, or where I'm going when I leave here, but I am working on something that might help Mom."
"Oh, I see, you're doing something investigative and important." Hannah's sarcasm whipped across the room to slap Abbie.
Hunter started to step in, but Abbie pushed past him. "Will you give me a break for once? I probably don't even have a job anymore."
"You don't. I tried calling your office to find you and they said you were terminated." Hannah enjoyed sharing that too much. "If I could have found you, it would have been nice to have some help getting Mom a doctor. The new one's so young I'm not sure the ink's dry on his diploma."
Abbie backed up, stunned. "New doctor? What do you mean?"
"Tatum. He committed suicide."
"Oh, my God." Abbie reached for the chair next to her and sat down. "Dear God."
"Yeah, it's the pits," Hannah agreed. "His little girls have lost their mama and daddy in the same year." She took a sip, eyeing Hunter. She put the cup down, discarding it along with her catty snarl. "I can't do this alone, Abbie."
"I don't mean for you to, but you have to believe me when I say I'm really close to finding something that might help." Abbie got up and walked over to Hannah. She put her hand on her sister's shoulder. "Can you trust me for once and just believe me? I'll worry about my job once we get Mom turned around. But I need you to stay with her while I'm doing this. I'll come back as soon as I can."