Chapter 5 Between a Rock and a Hard Place #3
“She’s been dating him for a month, and I think it’s serious.
” It didn’t feel like the time to beat around the bush about it.
“His name is Colonel A.J. Pike. He’s a retired military policeman with two Purple Hearts and a Distinguished Service Cross.
He wants to open his own auto body shop, but he keeps getting recruited to do detective work for various law enforcement agencies.
” Aaron paused for a few seconds to let his uncle digest what he’d told him so far.
Then he went for the money shot. “I think we should make him a job offer.”
“Absolutely not!” Uncle Cary shot down the idea so loudly that Aaron had to hold the phone away from his ear. “Are you sure you’re ready to be discharged? Because you normally understand why it’s not safe to trust outsiders with everything that’s at stake.”
His vehemence made Aaron realize the subject was closed. “Aurora is going to be very disappointed.” Though Aaron didn’t like it, he truly believed she and A.J. were in a serious relationship.
“I’ll just have to take my chances that she’ll still love her uncle after you carry the mail back to her.” Cary Cannon didn’t sound too worried about it, which Aaron found troubling.
He was in no mood to serve as their go-between. “You should tell her yourself instead of making me do your dirty work.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” his uncle demanded.
“Oh, come on!” Aaron held on to his temper with difficulty. “You stay at the home office where it’s safe, while I’m out here taking all the fire.”
“It was your choice,” his uncle sputtered. “In case you’ve forgotten, I never wanted this job!”
No, but you sure cottoned to it after pinning on the CEO’s badge.
“You were part of the decision,” Aaron shot back.
They’d agreed he would remain on the road until he located his parents.
They’d also agreed they would make the biggest decisions about the firm together, but that hadn’t happened.
Instead, his uncle had given Aaron’s ex-girlfriend a pay raise and more responsibility.
She was more of an office manager than a personal assistant these days, something she never hesitated to lord over Aaron and Aurora.
As the daughter of a top JSA executive, her presence at Diamondback ensured they landed some of the best contracts, but that didn’t make it right.
Aaron would’ve preferred to grow their business the old-fashioned way through hard work and word-of-mouth referrals.
“Whenever you’re ready to do things your way,” his uncle ground out, “get yourself back here and take the title. I never intended to fill this role forever, and I’ve already been at it for the better part of two years.” His voice grew quieter. “You know it’s what your father would’ve wanted.”
“You’re right, and I will.” Right after Aaron located his missing parents. Everything else was secondary to that.
“When?” Uncle Cary growled.
“I don’t have an exact date, but soon.” Aaron knew it wasn’t what his uncle wanted to hear, but it was the best answer he could give him.
“Don’t take too long,” his uncle pleaded. “Some of the things you put on hold when your parents disappeared won’t be around forever.”
Aaron knew he was referring to Elise Hathaway, but he couldn’t have been more wrong.
His relationship with Elise had been on the rocks long before Helen and James Cannon had disappeared, something his uncle would’ve known if he’d been around more.
“Speaking of Elise,” he cut in heatedly, “how do you propose we explain her visit to people like A.J.?”
“Oh, Elise already has that covered,” his uncle assured. “She was so upset to hear about your hospitalization that she rushed to town to ensure you’re okay, proving she still has feelings for you.”
It was the dumbest reason Aaron had ever heard. “No,” he said firmly. There was no way he was going to pretend they were reconciling. “It’s over between us.” Doner than done, as his sister would put it.
“It would make things a lot easier if you’d reconsider that,” his uncle sighed.
“For you, maybe.” Aaron wasn’t even mildly tempted to take the suggestion. He would simply have to come up with his own story to explain his ex-girlfriend’s unwanted presence in town.
He could hear voices in the hallway. Then a knock sounded on his door. “Aaron,” his sister called, “it’s me, Aurora.”
Relief flooded him. “Gotta go, Uncle Cary.” His sister had returned to the medical center, hopefully to help get him discharged.
“Alright, kiddo. Get well soon, you hear?”
“That’s the plan.” Aaron disconnected the line. Then he raised his voice so Aurora could hear him. “Come in!”
She cracked the door open, then she pushed it wider and stepped inside. “You look awful.”
“Thanks. It’s one of my special talents.” His gaze settled balefully on the man hovering at her side. Her boyfriend had a lot of nerve showing up uninvited like this.
“I’m serious, Aaron.” His sister hurried to his bedside. “Are you sure you’re ready to leave the medical center? Because the doctor said he’d be glad to keep you another day if—”
“Get me out of here,” he growled. “I’ve had enough electronic beeping and antiseptic smells to last me the rest of my life!” He glanced at the bag of his belongings he’d tossed on the chair beside his bed. “I just need someone to remove my I.V. cord so I can get dressed.”
Maggie breezed back into the room. “I can handle that for you.” She rattled off the standard discharge statement. “Plus, the doc is sending you home with some oral meds to speed up your recovery.”
“Tell him I said thank you.” Aaron was grateful he’d been evacuated from his home before suffering any permanent damage to his health.
“I will.” Maggie removed his I.V. cord and gave his shoulder a friendly pat that he felt all the way to his soul. “Call us if you experience any new or recurring symptoms.”
“Will do,” he muttered, not liking the way his sister kept glancing between him and Maggie, her classical features alight with curiosity.
After finalizing his discharge paperwork, Maggie airily announced that she’d go fetch a wheelchair while he changed out of his hospital gown.
“That won’t be necessary,” he called after her. Just knowing he was about to leave the medical center was making him feel a thousand times better.
Until he tried to stand up.
Lightheadedness slammed into him. Just shoot me now! He reached for the bedrail, swallowing hard. “I feel as bad as you say I look,” he grumbled to his sister.
Aurora didn’t so much as crack a smile. “Take it easy, please.” She quickly stepped to his side to wrap an arm around his waist. “I almost lost you,” she choked.
“I hear you almost took a tumble yourself.” Righteous indignation simmered through him, giving him a burst of much-needed energy.
He was tired of their enemies hiding in the shadows while taking potshots at them.
He was going to ensure that whoever had cut the gas line to his rental home was punished to the full extent of the law.
“I’m in good shape now.” She gave him a squeeze hug and helped him hobble to the adjoining restroom. “I was already buckled inside the ambulance, so the EMTs took care of me. A.J. was right there, too. He’s the one who went into the house and rescued Bandit.”
“No kidding?” Aaron returned his attention to A.J., who was still lounging in the doorway. “How’d you avoid the gas leak?”
“With a gas mask,” Aurora chortled gleefully before A.J. could answer.
A.J.’s whole face softened as he watched her. The guy had it pretty bad for her. Aaron would give him that. What he wouldn’t give him was a free pass on the preposterous.
“You just happened to have a gas mask on you?” That wasn’t suspicious at all. So help him, if A.J. had anything to do with the leak!
The retired military policeman shrugged like he didn’t see what the big deal was. “A throwback to my Army days. Plenty more odds and ends where that came from in my truck storage bin.”
Aaron wasn’t sure what to believe as he barricaded himself in the restroom to change into his plaid shirt, jeans and boots. By the time he finished finger combing his hair and donning his Stetson, Maggie had returned with the wheelchair.
He had to swallow his pride to take a seat in it. “This is completely unnecessary,” he grumbled again, though nobody seemed to be listening. The only upside was that A.J. was no longer present to witness Aaron’s humiliation.
Aurora was too busy making friends with Maggie and setting up a coffee date for the two women. She was up to something that would undoubtedly involve interfering in his nonexistent love life.
To Aaron’s further dismay, A.J. was waiting for them at the curb outside the medical center.
The doors of his shiny Dodge Ram were open, ready for the three of them to climb inside.
Logic told Aaron that hitching a ride with his sister’s boyfriend would make it that much harder to negotiate a drop-off at a hotel.
However, he doubted he would win the wrestling match with his sister that was sure to follow. He was too weak.
In the end, he saved himself the additional humiliation by not putting up a fight at all.
Maggie remained on the sidewalk, waving at them as they drove away.
“Your nurse was really nice,” Aurora noted in a laughing voice. “Pretty, too, the Betty Boop way you like.”
Whatever. Maggie Meyer was nowhere near that voluptuous. He knew his sister was only trying to get a rise out of him.
“Oh, yeah?” He stared out the window in the backseat of the dual cab, wishing she’d change the subject. “I didn’t notice.” He injected a note of boredom into his voice.
“Liar!” She swiveled around in her seat. “Different subject. The sheriff isn’t sure when they’ll release the lake house from its crime scene status. Until he does, A.J. has been kind enough to offer us a place to stay.”
Aaron started to protest, but she talked right over him. “His apartment has two bedrooms. You and A.J. will share the one with the kiddie bunk beds, while I take over the main bedroom with the queen-sized bed.”
He sent her a venomous look. “You do realize that he wants me in jail?”
She rolled her eyes and turned back around in her seat. “Maggie warned me that the meds making you loopy had worn off. Guess she was wrong.”