“It can’t hurt and it won’t take much. I have a first name and an address of where she used to live. If you can track her down –” I stopped speaking when his face started to get hard.
“Cora, I can’t use department resources to track some random woman down. That shit isn’t right.”
“And sleeping with someone you’re investigating is? You rolled with that, Noc, I get it but you kept rolling with it so much your clothes were in my closet.” I returned and scored a point, I knew it when his eyes flashed again.
Still, he said, “Babe, I was undercover. Shit happens.”
Damn. He was right and I was getting desperate.
I tried something new. “Okay, and the shit that happened is that you think you got me pregnant. That means you think we’re connected. And that means, as the woman who you think is carrying your child, you being a cop and all, one of the good guys, you have to help me. Just look her up, you find her, you give me her address, I’ll go to her.”
“I’m not gonna provide you with an address so you can visit someone who’s probably a whack job.”
“She’s not a whack job,” I returned though I couldn’t know that for sure, maybe she was, but I couldn’t worry about that now. “She can help.”
“Babe, you got my kid inside you and this woman who might be a whack job also might be dangerous.”
“I don’t have your kid inside me, Noc.”
His hand tightened on my neck. “Cora, you do.”
“Noc, I don’t,” I retorted. “But okay, you think I do, then you can go with me to see Clarabelle.”
“Clarabelle?”
“The lady I have to see.”
“Cora –”
I lost patience, my hands lifted, I grabbed his shirt and fisted it in my fingers.
“All you have to do is look her up!” I cried. “That’s it. Look her up, take me to her if you find her and if it doesn’t work then I’ll do whatever you want me to do except,” I said sharply when he opened his mouth to speak, “get an abortion. If I can’t get back to Tor and I live through this pain, I’m keeping his baby.”
“Jesus,” he muttered.
I twisted my fists in his shirt, got up on tiptoe and begged, “Please.”
Noc stared down at me and he did this for awhile as my heart beat hard in my chest.
Then he ordered, “Get your shoes.”
My head jerked. “What?”
“Babe, get your shoes. You’re comin’ to the Station with me. The state you’re in, you aren’t outta my sight.”
I leaned back and his arm got tighter, his hand at my neck moving so his other arm could close around me but it did this up my back.
“Why are you taking me to the Station?” I asked suspiciously.
“So we can look up this Clarabelle woman, I can take you to her then whatever you think is gonna go down is not gonna go down and then I can get you some real help.”
Holy crap!
He was going to help me!
Hurrah!
I felt the pain shift, it lightened and I smiled at him the second before I let his shirt go and threw my arms around his wide shoulders.