to fear.
“Yeah.” His voice hardened. “Mierda.” He wiped a hand over his forehead. “No, thanks, Hailey. I’ll be right there.” He flipped the phone closed.
“What happened?”
He started walking again, and she had to increase her pace to keep up with his long legs. “Nothing that concerns you.”
Didn’t concern her? Well, it obviously concerned his wife. She clenched her jaw as they walked through the concourse, hating the fact she felt so damn jealous. Where the hell had that come from? She never got jealous. She had nothing to be jealous about anyway. And why did his comment bug her so much?
She stewed over that question while he signed for the rental and they climbed into the car. She waited until they turned south on I-95 before shifting in the Escalade’s leather seat and looking his way. “Where are we going?”
He switched lanes on the freeway. “I’m taking you to a hotel. You can just hang until I get back.”
Hang? Was he serious?
“I don’t think so, Sullivan. White on rice, green on grass, for the next few weeks I’m stuck to you like glue. Ring a bell?”
A frown tugged at his mouth. His irritated dark eyes finally flicked her way, the first time since they’d left Chicago.
She smiled her most sour grin.
His jaw clenched as he looked back at the road. “It’s family stuff, Maxwell. Nothing you’d be interested in.”
She was, though, and the fact he didn’t think she would be made her sarcastic smile fade. “Nice try, Sullivan. We made a deal, and you’re stuck with me.”
“Fine.” His hands tightened on the wheel. “Tag along if you want. I don’t care. But my family’s not like yours, so consider yourself warned.”
She settled back in the seat, feeling smug and victorious. “So what happened and where are we going?”
For a moment she thought he wouldn’t answer, then he said, “My mother’s in the hospital. I need to stop and see her.”
She looked over. “Is she okay?”
Something in his eyes shifted, a look that tugged on her chest, but he kept his intense gaze focused ahead. “She’s got pancreatic cancer. Had a bad reaction to the chemo.”
A ball formed in the pit of her stomach, and she swallowed, feeling like the biggest heel on the planet. “Oh.”
He shifted uncomfortably in the seat as if he didn’t want to be having this conversation. “Like I said, you don’t need to go. I can pick you up when I’m done.”
The fact he didn’t want her to go with him convinced her that was just what she needed to do. Maybe because she sensed the anxiety radiating from him. Maybe because she remembered the fear on his face when he’d answered that call. Maybe because she felt like she was getting her first glimpse at the man he was underneath, and part of her wanted to know what made him tick.
Another part recognized that seeing him as anything other than a thief was a dangerous thing, but she ignored it.
She shook her head. “You don’t need to be worrying about running me all over. I’ll go and just stay out of your way until you’re done. They’ve got waiting rooms at hospitals. I’ll just hang there.”
He slanted a sideways glance her direction, no longer looking angry, simply exhausted. Her heart did that strange thump thing again at the vulnerability she saw in his dark eyes.
Oh, shit. That look was pure trouble. Trouble she did not need on top of everything else.
“Thanks,” he said softly. “I promise we won’t stay long.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Lisa hated hospitals. Always had. Every time she walked into one, it seemed someone was dying.
Drawing in a deep breath, she followed Rafe into the lobby of Mercy Hospital, then waited while he checked in at the information desk.
Jeans and a V-neck sweater had been a bad idea. She’d forgotten how freakin’ hot it was down here. She fanned her face with her hand as she stared at a giant ficus in the middle of the room. Who was she kidding? She wasn’t sweating from the heat but from the stress of being in a hospital again.
When Rafe gestured toward the elevators, she willed her feet forward and followed. Beside her in the car, Rafe was silent, but she felt the tension hanging in the air like thick smoke. He didn’t want to be here any more than she did, and that knowledge helped ease her anxiety. At least a little.
The door opened with a ping. Hailey Roarke turned their way and dropped her crossed