High Stakes Gamble by Mimi Barbour Page A

made.
    “Can you answer some questions?” His eyes, red-rimmed and glowing with righteous rage, softened once she looked up. His smile wobbled and his hands shook as he tenderly caressed her face with his thumbs to wipe away the tears. “Cory has the place crawling with our guys. Anyone who knows anything will be questioned. Forensics is combing the joint for any prints they can use to match anything in the system and Ham and the boys are taking statements from the other patients who were there in the room.”
    “I gave Lily to the nurse. I gave her away.”
    “What did this nurse say?”
    “She told me she was going to weigh Lily and that we were next to see the doctor.” Aurora put her hands over her mouth and squeezed hard. “When I handed Lily to the girl, she started to fuss and I almost took her back. Oh God! Why didn’t I take her back? Why didn’t I sense the danger?”
    Kai stroked her arm and his warm hand on her bare skin soothed and gave her strength.
    “Maybe because there was no danger. You say the female looked like a nurse? Can you give me a description?”
    Aurora kept her gaze locked with his and as long as she maintained that contact, her ability to focus worked. Without conscious thought, she linked her fingers with his and pushed her hair from her face.
    Clearing her throat first and scrubbing away the wetness on her cheeks and chin, she let her mind go back to the waiting room. With her canny knack of being able to envision prior happenings, she described in detail exactly what had gone down.
    “The woman was about my size, had brown eyes and well-kept hands—no rings. With her being dressed in scrubs, masked and capped, I didn’t see much but I had a sense that I knew her. Something about the voice… No, I can’t remember. The memory is fleeting and I can’t grasp it.”
    “Did she sound husky, high-pitched, accented?”
    “No. All I remember is that she spoke kindly and hushed Lily so skilfully that she instantly settled down. That’s what made me back off.”
    Just then Cory stepped close and reached out to take Aurora’s other hand. “Hey, my friend. Don’t you worry. You know we’ll find her. In fact, I just called Alan Haynes at the bureau. They’re deploying their people to hit the warehouse within the hour—”
    “What?” Aurora interrupted. “What the hell has taken them so long? If word got back to Chang-Lee about what happened at the correctional center, they would have stripped the place by now and taken any evidence with them.”
    “Thanks to your quick thinking, we kept the lid on the attempted assassination and also the suicide to give the Feds time to organize the raid. I’m just praying there wasn’t a leak. We’ll give them that hour to set up but then we’ll be there to make sure there’re no screw-ups.”
    “I wouldn’t give them jack!” Kai exploded. “That incompetent asshole Haynes couldn’t organize a fucking picnic for poodles.”
    Icy with the contempt he couldn’t hide, not from those who knew him so well, Cory only grunted. He loosened his tie and then stretched his neck as if his big muscles needed more space.
    Aurora’s eyes narrowed as she stared daggers at him. “Boss, just so you know. From now on, anything I uncover, I keep. No more sharing! I’ll find those poor babies and screw those pricks if they can’t keep up.”
    Hands raised defensively, Cory nodded and then grinned on one side of his unsmiling face. “Fine with me! Let’s go.”

Chapter Eighteen
    Kai stood aside to let Aurora sit in the front with Cory, but she declined by ignoring his gesture and shutting herself into the back. Her paleness worried him as did her unstable appearance probably because he’d never seen her looking so unlike her normal, confident, sassy self.
    Her hair, her beautiful cloud of black waves that made a man long to stroke them had been viciously anchored back. Her prominent cheekbones stood out as did her full lips that were ripped and