“I know.” She sighed. “Just like I know I overreacted today.” Rational or not, the fear had been instant and crippling.
“Know one more thing. Stern and Langley are probably right.” He brushed her hair away from her cheek as he spoke. “Most likely some kid happened across the open window and decided to see if he could score some free shit. Bad timing, and shame on me for making it easy for him, but chances are, Atlanta PD won’t get a hit on the prints.”
She nodded her head against his chest and tried to reason herself out of her fears. “Even if he did know, my head tells me kidnapping Joy and selling her to some baby peddler falls below even Cody’s slippery moral bottom line. Breaking into the apartment we used to share, stealing a bunch of baby supplies he could sweet-talk a Walmart salesclerk into accepting for a full cash return without a receipt? Sure. That’s still a long way from stalking me, staking out this house, and stealing Joy.”
“But?”
So much for reasoning with herself. She swal
lowed and looked into Hunter’s eyes. “But he gets in over his head, with scary-bad people. I don’t know them, and I don’t want to know them…and I don’t think any of them would do his dirty work for him and call it even. I do think they’ll start breaking his bones if he doesn’t come through with the cash he owes.”
Hunter linked his fingers through hers. “You think he owes ten grand?”
She reviewed their conversation in her mind, including how he originally tried to lowball her for five thousand. “Uh-uh. I think ten grand buys him some breathing room. He probably owes way more. Ten grand was his bottom line.”
“All right.” He planted a kiss on her forehead. “We’ll be extra cautious for a couple weeks.”
“Until the fingerprint results?”
“Honey, if he owes scary-bad people way over ten grand, the fingerprint results are irrelevant. He’ll either find a way to pay them in the next week or so, or they’ll…well…let’s just say, he’ll default. Permanently. Loan sharks don’t offer deferments, or extended payment plans, or forgiveness programs.”
Cold vines twined up her spine, despite the heat coming off Hunter’s body. “Oh.”
“Got any plans for February 29th?”
The sudden shift of topic left her blinking, and then her stupid heart soared. He wanted to make plans. With her. Like people in a real relationship did. Maybe she was more to him than a damsel in distress? “Um, it’s a Saturday, right?” She pulled the following weekend’s schedule into her mind. “Aside from work that morning, not really. You?”
He folded an arm behind his head. “I do, actually.”
Her soaring heart nosedived. “Oh.”
“Beau’s wedding.”
“Oh.” Pick another response. “They’re getting married on Leap Day? How romantic.”
“Try cheap and lazy. He only has to deal with his anniversary every four years.”
She smacked him on the shoulder. “It’s romantic.”
“Yeah, well, I’m glad you think so, because I’m hoping you’ll come with me. You and Joy. She should be up to a little interaction by then.”
Her heart took flight without requesting clearance for takeoff. Again. Had he really just invited Joy and her to join him for an important event, packed with his closest friends and their families? A man didn’t ask a woman to a wedding out of a sense of duty, or because she happened to be living in his house and sharing his bed, for the moment. He genuinely wanted them there with him. “We’d love to.”
“Good.” He grinned down at her and looked strangely relieved. “That takes a load off my mind, because it’s an out-of-town wedding, and I don’t think now’s the time to leave you and Joy alone overnight…
He went on about logistics, but she didn’t hear him over the sound of her heart shattering upon impact with the cold, hard truth. He wasn’t looking for a perfect occasion to introduce her and Joy to his friends, or send her a sign he wanted to expand their…arrangement to something ongoing. This invitation sprang from a sense of duty, after all. He didn’t want to leave Joy and her alone in the house for the better part of a weekend. This was Hunter Knox in rescue mode. No good. She couldn’t do it. “I-I can’t.”
He paused in the middle of whatever he’d been saying. “Can’t what?”
“I can’t go. I have to work that Saturday morning.”
He sat up higher in the bed, which she read as him preparing to get his way. Not going to happen. Not this time.
“Talk to your manager. Get the weekend off.”
She sat up, too. “I need my shifts, Hunter. I need the money. You’re not the only one with goals around here, you know.” Okay, that landed in left field like a big ball of psycho. His wary expression said as much.
“Madison, I’m not trying to interfere with your goals. I know how important it is to you to stand on your own two feet. I’ve been there.” He leaned in, fearless as a lion tamer, and kissed her temple, her cheekbone. “I understand.” His mouth wandered to her earlobe, and she felt her resolve draining away like bathwater. Against the underside of her jaw, he murmured, “I just want my girls with me.”