Fast Track (Buchanan-Renard 12)

Once they were at the hotel, Aiden helped her get to his suite. Like the hotel suite in Sydney, there were two bedrooms, one on each side of the living room. He guided her to the guest room. Not wanting her to sleep in her clothes, he removed them and got one of his shirts to put on her, carefully slipping her cast through the sleeve. He was pulling the covers up when Spencer came in with the prescriptions and set them on the table next to the bed.

“How’s she doing?” he asked in a whisper.

“You should see her legs and hip. They’re black-and-blue.”

“We should get one of Walker’s nurses in here,” Spencer said. “You won’t hear her if she wakes up and needs help.”

“We’ll figure it out tomorrow. I’ll stay in here tonight.”

“You’re going to sleep with her?”

“Yes.”

“That will freak her out if she wakes up.”

“No, I don’t think it will.”

Cordie slept through their conversation. She woke up in the middle of the night, and, disoriented, she looked around and squinted into the dark. Soft light spilled under the door from the room beyond, but she couldn’t figure out what that room was. A closet? A bathroom? She turned her head and saw Aiden sound asleep beside her. Were they still in Sydney? When she tried to lift her arm, she felt the weight of the cast. She looked around, and on the nightstand next to her she spotted a black-leather folder with the letter H embossed on the cover. Clarity came like a bolt out of the blue. The Hamilton. She was at the Chicago Hamilton with Aiden.

How in the world had that happened?

NINETEEN

Alec laughed when he read the sign Spencer had taped to Cordie’s bedroom door: Warning. Don’t poke the bear.

“I’m assuming Cordie’s the bear,” Alec said.

Spencer nodded. He was sitting at the dining table with his laptop in front of him, trying to get some work done.

“Why aren’t you in your office?” Alec asked him.

“I’m babysitting,” Spencer answered. “Aiden doesn’t want Cordie to be alone.” Smiling, he added, “Those two really got into it. It was something to see. He can’t intimidate her, though God knows he tried.”

“What was the argument about?”

“She wants to go home, and he won’t let her.”

“Regan will be here in a little bit,” Alec said.

Spencer nodded. “The nurse just left. She helped her shower and get dressed. Cordie was very appreciative. She’s only taking her wrath out on Aiden and me.”

“Why you?”

“I won’t take her home. I’m telling you, Alec, this floor is turning into a war zone. Walker’s a hundred times worse than Cordie. She only argues with Aiden. Walker argues with everyone, and now that he’s decided to get involved in the business, it’s a nightmare.”

“Getting involved . . . isn’t that a good thing?”

“God no.”

Alec tapped on Cordie’s door, then went inside. The drapes were open and sunlight streamed in. She was sitting in bed, her back against the headboard. Dressed in a T-shirt, sweatpants, and socks, she had her laptop open, but when she saw him, she closed it and put it aside.

“You’re looking better.” He told the lie without laughing.

Exasperated, she said, “I look like a raccoon.”

He gave up on trying to be diplomatic and dragged a chair over to the bed. Noticing the tray of food on the table, he lifted the silver dome and said, “Aren’t you going to eat your lunch?”

“No, not now.”

He popped a French fry into his mouth and reached for half the club sandwich. “You should eat. It looks really good.” He then proceeded to devour every morsel.

She handed him a bottle of water, wincing as she stretched her legs out. “Alec, I’m being held against my will. Get me out of here. I want to go home.”

“I think you should stay here a couple more days. If you go home, you might trip and fall and get blood all over my hardwood floors.”

“They’re not your hardwoods yet.”

“How are you really feeling?”

“My arm hurts, and I’m sore, but I’m not going to take any more pain pills. They make me too emotional.”

“How so?”

She didn’t explain that the medication made her vulnerable and she needed to be at her best around Aiden. She didn’t want to let her guard down and unintentionally say something she would regret. Not once had Aiden mentioned any feelings for her. The sex in Australia had been incredible, but there were no loving words afterward. For him it had been purely physical. She’d figured that out early on. But for her it had been love. She was worried sick she would tell him how she felt, and that would ruin everything.

The nurse, a stunning brunette, returned to check on her. She beamed when she saw the empty tray. “Thank goodness. You’re getting your appetite back.”

Before Alec could contradict her, Cordie said, “Yes, I am.”

“You’ll be going home in no time at all.”

“That’s the plan.”

After the nurse had carried the tray out, Cordie asked, “Are all the nurses looking after Walker pretty?”

“Knowing Walker, I’d have to guess yes,” he said as he got up and returned the chair to the desk. He went back to the bed and leaned down to kiss her forehead, being careful to stay away from the bruises. “I’ll check on you later.”

“You don’t need to.”

He ignored her protest and was turning to leave just as Aiden, followed by two teenage boys, walked in. Jayden Martin noticed Alec’s gun and holster and took a step back. Sean Corrigan didn’t see the gun. He was staring at Cordie and cringing.

“Sean, Jayden, I’m so happy to see you.” She swung her legs over the side of the bed and slowly stood. Her arm was in a sling, but she still tried to protect it by holding it against her chest with her other hand. “Let’s go into the living room and talk.”

She took a couple of unsteady steps before getting her balance, but Aiden had already walked over to stand beside her. She didn’t want him to treat her like an invalid any longer. “If you pick me up, I’m going to punch you,” she whispered.

He laughed. It wasn’t the reaction she was hoping for.

Jayden was looking as though he wanted to bolt, and she quickly introduced both boys to Alec. “You’ve seen Regan Buchanan at school lots of times. She helped me with fund-raisers. This is her husband, Alec Buchanan.” She deliberately didn’t mention that he was an FBI agent.

“Oh yeah,” Sean said. “I remember her. She was real pretty.”

“She still is,” Alec said.

“I saw you at Mr. Kane’s funeral,” Jayden remarked, casting a wary glance in Alec’s direction. He was holding a plastic shopping bag. He dropped it on the bed. “Your purse is in there,” he told Cordie, following her into the living room. “We didn’t take anything.”

“I didn’t think you would,” she replied.

“The forty-two dollars is still in your wallet,” Sean volunteered.

She smiled. “Thank you for keeping it safe for me.”

“Some guy tried to take it, but Jayden was faster.”

“He went for your phone, too, but I got it first,” Jayden said. “Miss Kane, you should change your lock code on your phone.”

“It didn’t take much to figure it out,” Sean agreed.

“What is it?” Alec asked.

Jayden looked at Cordie for approval before he answered. “Zero, zero, zero, zero.”

“Yeah, you need to change it,” Alec told her.

The boys were so uncomfortable with Aiden and Alec towering over them, Cordie sat on the sofa and motioned for them to sit in the chairs across from her.

“Thanks, but we should probably go,” Jayden said.

“D

id you see it happen?” Aiden asked as he removed his suit jacket and draped it over the back of the sofa. Rolling up his sleeves, he loosened his tie and waited for one of the boys to answer. They glanced at each other and couldn’t seem to make up their minds about who should reply.

Aiden’s patience was wearing thin and he was about to ask the question again when Sean said, “You should tell it, Jayden.”

“Don’t you remember what happened, Miss Kane?” Jayden asked.

“I don’t. I remember seeing you two, and that’s it.”

Aiden stood next to Cordie with his arms folded across his chest, frowning as he continued to wait for a response. Didn’t he know how threatening he looked?

“Aiden, sit down,” she ordered.

Aiden took the hint, but instead of sitting, he strolled over to the tall windows and looked down on the street with his hands behind his back.

Alec detected the apprehension in the boys. It appeared they knew something more about Cordie’s accident, and he didn’t want them to stop talking. He took a seat in one of the upholstered chairs and leaned back.

Jayden paused a moment, suspicious of Aiden’s question, and then said, “Yeah, I saw it all.” He proceeded to describe in painful detail how she had bounced off the hood of the car. “Everyone was shouting,” he told Cordie. “When I got to you, I heard this guy say you jumped right in front of the car. I couldn’t figure out why he’d say such a—”

“That’s crazy,” Cordie asserted vehemently. “I did not jump in front of that car.”

“I know,” Jayden agreed. “You were pushed.”

Aiden spun around. “What did you say?”

Jayden didn’t hesitate. “I said she was pushed.”

“That’s right,” Sean asserted. He turned to Cordie. “There was this loud bang and everybody jumped a little, but all it was, was a truck. It didn’t scare me none, and I was looking right at you when you kinda lunged into traffic. I didn’t see who pushed you because it was such a big crowd, and everything went crazy when you got hit.”

Aiden couldn’t stand still. The possibility of someone deliberately hurting Cordelia enraged him. He paced in front of the windows while he listened to the conversation.

“Maybe the guy who shoved you was just scared by the loud boom.” Sean offered the theory. “Or it could have been a woman behind you.”

“She’d have to be pretty strong,” Jayden said. “I mean, you were propelled. You know . . . right in front of that car. You should have seen the way you bounced.”

“I experienced it, Jayden,” Cordie said.

“Yeah, but you didn’t see it,” Sean pointed out.

“Maybe you could see it,” Jayden said. Turning to Alec he asked, “Aren’t there cameras at all the lights?”

“That’s right. There are,” Alec answered.

“Maybe you could call, and they’ll let you see the accident. I’ll bet they would.”

Alec had already asked for the video, but Jayden was so proud of himself for coming up with the idea, he went along. “Good thinking,” he said. “I’ll check into it.”

Jayden nodded. “If someone hurt Miss Kane on purpose, you know what you should do?”

“What’s that?” Alec had a pretty good idea what the kid was going to suggest. Most teenagers he’d dealt with subscribed to an-eye-for-an-eye philosophy.

“You should throw him in front of a speeding car,” Jayden said with conviction.

Aiden stopped pacing and nodded. “I like that plan.”

“No, that’s not what should be done,” Cordie said. “We follow the laws here.”

“Most of the time we do,” Aiden said.

The boys weren’t as skittish now, Alec thought, because they were no longer eyeing his gun. “I’d like to ask a couple of questions,” he said.

“About what?” Sean looked worried.

“About the accident,” he explained.

“What else would he want to talk about?” Jayden muttered to Sean before addressing Alec. “Go ahead and ask your questions.”

Alec wanted to know what the boys had noticed before they spotted Cordie. How observant had they been about the people around them? What were they doing on that corner? A couple of questions turned into quite a few, and he kept circling around to the minutes before the accident.

“I just remembered,” Jayden said. His voice became animated. “I saw Miss Kane before she reached the light. I didn’t know it was her at first because she was far away, but I was watching her walk down the street.”

“Why were you watching her?” Alec asked.

“Well . . . you know . . .”

“Go ahead and tell me.”

The kid’s face turned red. “She was wearing a dress, and I noticed . . . you know . . . her legs.”

“Yeah,” Sean said as though the light had just dawned. “I noticed them, too. And the guy walking behind her sure was noticing.”

“Yeah, that’s right,” Jayden said. “I forgot him. He was looking down. He definitely was interested.”

“This guy . . . did he follow Miss Kane to the corner?” Alec asked.

“I don’t know,” Jayden answered. “There was a crowd of people squeezing into that corner, and I didn’t see Miss Kane again until she was waiting for the signal.”

The kids had seen a lot more than they’d realized. “That’s a big help,” Alec told them.

“If you’re finished with your questions . . . ,” Cordie said. When Alec nodded, she turned to Jayden. “How is your mother doing?”

“She’s much better since the surgery.”

“Please tell her I said hello. Sean, what about your family?”

“Everyone’s good. We should probably go now, Jayden. I’ve got to get home before Mom does.” Turning to Cordie he explained, “I’m grounded.”

Cordie struggled to stand so she could walk the boys to the elevator. Sean rushed forward to help, and immediately she thought, oh no. If he yanked her or pulled on her, she’d probably pass out. Fortunately, Aiden got to her first and helped her up. He must have seen the panic in her eyes.

“Thank you so much for keeping my purse safe. All my identification was inside.”

“And forty-two dollars,” Sean reminded her.

“I think I should treat you to dinner. I’ll just get my—” she began, but Aiden stopped her.

“Let me,” he offered.

“Oh, you don’t have to . . . ,” Jayden started to protest, but Sean elbowed him.

Aiden pulled out his wallet and gave them enough cash to eat for a week, suspecting that most of it would go for video games or something other than food.

“Do you miss your dad?” Jayden asked Cordie as he stuffed the bills in his pocket.

“Yes, I do,” she answered.

“I miss him, too.”

“So do I,” Sean said.

“Could I ask you a favor?” Jayden asked, stepping closer.

“Yes, of course.” She realized she was leaning into Aiden and tried to pull away, then decided it was just easier to stay where she was.

“I got a new car,” he said. “It’s not really new. Your dad would call it a clunker.”

After glancing up at Aiden, she turned to Jayden and whispered, “How did you get the car?”

“I paid for it. Honest,” he said. “I saved up, and your dad . . . he gave me a little money for my birthday.”

Another nice thing her father had done and never told her about. “What’s the favor?” she asked.

“I was wondering if you would go for a ride and tell me what you think, maybe next week, when . . . you know . . . you look better.”

She smiled. His assessment of her appearance may have been a little harsh, but she couldn’t fault the accuracy. She knew she looked as if she’d been in a fight with a w

recking ball. After agreeing to the ride, she said good-bye, and Aiden walked the boys to the elevator.

As soon as the doors were closed, he said, “You were worried he might have stolen the car, weren’t you?”

“Maybe a little,” she admitted.

“I’m out of here,” Alec said as he stood to leave. “I want to see what that street camera got, check out the crowd around you.”

“I should look at the crowd, too,” she said. “I might recognize someone . . . if I was pushed,” she qualified. As she began to take slow steps back to the bedroom, she looked over her shoulder at Aiden and asked, “Will you take me home this afternoon?”

“No,” he answered.

She refused to let him irritate her. “Okay,” she said. “When will you take me home?”

He couldn’t resist. “Maybe next week when . . . you know . . . you look better.”

• • •

By seven o’clock that evening Cordie was convinced she was never going to get out of there. No one was willing to drive her home, not even Regan. Apparently they all thought they knew what was best for her. Or they were following Aiden’s instructions, which seemed more likely. She thought about asking the doorman to get her a cab, but in order to get to the door, she’d have to cross the lobby in her socks. The tennis shoes Regan had brought her from the house had mysteriously disappeared. She even threatened to call the police, which Aiden thought was hilarious. He had a good laugh while Spencer put the sign back on her door.

Around seven thirty she came to the realization that she was acting like a spoiled ten-year-old. She should be thankful she had such good friends who wanted to take care of her. And at the Hamilton she was pampered. Earlier Regan had sent up a member of the spa staff to wash and blow-dry her hair. After she’d taken a lovely bath, the nurse came in to help her change and fix the sling for her cast. She was feeling so much better thanks to all the support she was getting.