Chapter 12 #2
Turning, he drew one leg around her and then he dropped both to the ground and felt just how shaky his legs were after Kay's touch. "Who is it?"
"Uh... Mister Braun?"
He shared a look with Kay and saw her smile.
"Yeah?"
The man on the other side of the door cleared his throat. "I'm sorry to bother, sir. Mister Hennricks asked that I bring you your bag, sir. They left for the airport this morning and he thought you might need some... uh, clothes?"
A quick look at Kay left him surprised.
He'd had a feeling that she might be embarrassed by the whole situation, but instead, she was laughing behind her hand, her hair loose around her shoulders. She was more than stunning, she was, "beautiful."
Her eyes widened at that.
"Would you like me to leave the bag here, outside the door, sir?"
"Uh, hold on."
Gibson got up on his feet and started to search around for this wallet.
Kay got up off of the bed and picked up her purse from the armchair near the foot of the bed. "I've got it."
It galled him that she pressed a ten-dollar bill in his hand to tip the man for delivering his bag, but he'd give it back to her later and make sure she got something delicious to eat on the way to the airport or while they were there.
He'd make it up to her even though he knew she wouldn't care about it.
He did.
Reaching down, he swiped his boxer briefs off the carpet and managed to get both legs into it without falling on his face. When he reached the door and opened it, he saw the man walking away down the hall back toward the elevator.
"Hey, wait!"
The man in full hotel livery stopped and turned back around.
Gibson looked down, trying to determine if his state of dress was enough to walk the halls, but the man down the hall held up his hands in a gesture of surrender.
"No worries, sir. Mister Hennricks left a very generous tip. Oh, and a note inside your bag for you." He smiled and waved. "I hope you've had a nice time with us, Sir."
Gibson reached down and picked up his bag by the handles and brought it inside.
Kay was gathering clothes from the drawers in the dresser. "Your friend thinks of everything, huh?"
He smiled. "Yeah. He's really good to me."
Kay looked up with an armful of clothes. "I bet you're great with him, too."
"I'm going to jump in the shower if you don't mind me going first."
He shook his head. "I'd offer to wash your back, but I don't think that would help move things along."
She shook her head but didn't stop smiling. "No, not exactly, but it would be fun."
"Which is why I'm going to stay out here and get my clothes for the day," he explained, "then I'm going to get us something to eat before we leave for the airport."
Kay nodded and stepped into the bathroom, lightly closing the door behind her.
Gibson lifted the bag onto the bed and opened it to find the note sitting on top of his things.
Gibson smiled at the message. Taylor and everyone else at the wedding had eyes.
He'd seen where they were heading, and Gibson didn't mind at all.
He hoped that it wouldn't embarrass Kay when they got back to Center City.
It helped that no one else at the wedding was from there, but he hoped that the doctor he'd crowded out of the elevator didn't make this into a thing.
Kay's phone rang again on the bedside table and Gibson frowned. Couldn't they just have a little more quiet?
Her phone rang the three times as he dug out his own change of clothing, but as he pulled a pair of socks out of his bag, his own cell phone rang just after Kay's had stopped.
Curious, Gibson dug his phone out of the pile of clothes he'd left on her floor and looked at the screen.
JAKE R
Jacob Rafferty.
Again?
He shook his head and answered the call, catching it right before it would have gone over to voicemail.
"Jake, hey. Sorry. I'm not in Center City, I-"
"Shit."
Gibson reacted to the curse, not because of the word, but from the frustration in the other man's voice.
"What's wrong?"
"Fuck, man. Do you know where Doctor Hata is?"
Gibson looked down at Kay's phone on the bedside table. "She's here with me."
"She's there with you? She's okay?"
Shit.
"Yeah, she's... Jake? What's going on?"
He heard the other man groan. "I dunno if I should tell you. Can you put her on the phone."
Gibson hissed in a breath. He wasn't sure he wanted to tell Jacob exactly where she was.
"Look, Gibson, just tell me."
"I'm here in Chicago for a friend's wedding," he raised a brow at that. He didn't know why he'd said it like he had to excuse it. "I bumped into Kay. We're both on the same flight back to Center City."
"What time is your flight?"
Gibson rattled off the information as he turned his head, so his ear was closer to the bathroom. He heard the way the spray of the shower change intensity.
"What's going on?"
"We got another call from her next-door neighbor. Her car tires have been slashed, man. The seats cut open."
The seats? "Did they break the windows?"
"Mmm no. The doors were open this morning which is what brought Mister Langston out to look. He saw the damage to the tires when he got to the sidewalk. He's pissed."
"I would be, too."
"At himself." Jacob sighed. "I told him he's not responsible, but he's mad. He's saying he should be more alert."
Gibson shook his head. "I need to install some cameras and outside lights for her."
"I'd say that's a great idea. These old houses are kind of sitting ducks if criminals have any kind of powers of observation. So far it seems like there's someone with a hard-on for your girl."
Given what they'd just done, Gibson didn't like the comment. Not at all.
"You think this is personal."
Jacob cleared his throat. "You heard that in my voice?"
"Kind of." Gibson hated thinking of it. "What makes you think-"
"Look, I don't want to say it over the phone." He sighed and huffed out a breath. "I know I probably shouldn't be telling you this..."
"I'm coming back with her, Jake. I'm going to hear it then. Just say it."
"We got back the DNA we collected from the break in."
"DNA?" Gibson frowned at that. "I didn't see any blood on the scene. What-"
He stopped short knowing exactly what kind of DNA Jacob was talking about.
"Something Kay found?”
Jacob cleared his throat. “She bagged it up and called the Crime Scene Unit. They sent someone to pick it up."
Gibson hadn’t known about it, but he could understand why Kay didn’t tell him. It can’t have been easy for her to find… the evidence in her house. Clenching his teeth, Gibson ground out a few words. “What about the DNA?"
"It doesn't come back to anyone in the CODIS database."
"So the guy doesn't have a record."
Another sucked in breath and a hiss and Gibson wanted to reach through the phone and smack him.
"What?"
"It just means that the guy hasn't committed a certain level of crime before this. We have a bunch of crimes that we can investigate and prosecute without any DNA collection."
"That doesn't make me feel any better, Jacob."
"Yeah, well. It doesn't make me all that happy either, man. But it is what it is." A female voice came through the phone and Gibson narrowed his eyes as he tried to pick up the words she was saying.
"What's that?"
"Nothing you need to know right now. It's one of the officers canvasing the neighborhood for any witnesses or door cameras. Look, if you can get an earlier flight back-"
"Yeah, I have a feeling that once I tell her, she's going to want to move the flight up. Is there anything else you want her to know?"
"No, man. Maybe you should let me tell her the DNA thing, yeah?"
Gibson thought about it for a moment but shook his head. "I'm going to tell her if she asks Jake. I'm not about to keep a secret from her if she asks about it."
"Yeah. Okay." Jacob sighed. "Be there for her, Gibson. This... this whole thing can't be easy to hear. Even more to get through."
"Yeah. I hear you. I've got this, Jake. Thanks for the call."
"Later, Gibson. Call me when you're in Center City."
"Will do."
Gibson hung up the phone as the bathroom door swung open.
"Who was that?"
He turned around and saw Kay walk into the room drying her hair. Otherwise she was dressed.
"I know I look a mess, but I'm suddenly starving. You mentioned breakfast?"
He didn't try to hold back the dark shadows in his expression. He couldn't. He was so thankful that she'd been out of town. "That was Jacob Rafferty."
Kay's hands slowed and then dropped to her sides. "The detective?"
He nodded. "He wants to know if we can come back on an earlier flight."
Kay's towel dropped from her hand, and he closed the distance between them to take her gently in his arms. "Gibson?"
"Someone damaged your car last night. Your tires and the upholstery-"
"They were inside my car?"
He heard the wavering tone of her voice and felt her start to shake. "Yeah. They tore it up inside. Jacob's there dealing with it now."
Kay nodded.
Once.
Twice.
And then she startled as if someone pinched her. "Oh! What about James? My neighbor, Mister Langston? Oh my god. I hope he's not blaming himself for this!"
Gibson tightened his hold on her and pressed a kiss to the crown of her head. Trust Kay to worry more about her neighbor than her car. "He's really upset, honey. But I'm sure Jacob's trying to tell him the truth, that he's not responsible."
She shook her head, and her hands lifted to grasp his arms. "You know he's not going to listen to that. We have to... I mean I need to get back as soon as I can."
She started to pull back from him, but while he didn't let her go, he did let her lean back away from him.
"Kay?"
She was shaking and he had a feeling she was equal parts angry and frustrated.
"Kay, baby, look at me."
She looked up at him and he could see the pain she felt in her eyes.
"I'm going back with you if we can find two seats on an earlier flight. I'm not letting you go through this alone."
She was practically vibrating with energy. "You don't have to. I'm just... I'm just in so much trouble. I wouldn't blame you for turning around and walking away."
"Wait. Hold on."
She shook her head, and her hands lifted, and she tried to remove his arms from around her. "Why would anyone want to be with someone who's just a magnet for this kind of thing?"
Her words cut him to the quick.
"What?"
She lowered her chin, and he lost sight of her eyes.
No.
He wasn't going to let that happen.
If she wanted him to go away, she was going to have to look him in the eye.
"Kay. Look at me, honey."
She closed her eyes and winced away from him.
"Look. At. Me."
He bent his index finger and put it under her chin, lifting until she gave in and looked at him.
"You aren't a magnet for this, Kay. Someone is trying to hurt you and I'm going to be there to make sure that they don't get to you. Okay? I'm going to be there with you."
"With me?"
"Yes, Kay. With you."
She shook her head and the look on her face said that she didn't believe him.
No, she didn't believe that he was saying the words.
"I need you to know something, Kay." He drew in a breath and let it out as he looked into her amazing eyes. "I'm serious about us. About you."
He dipped his chin down as he said it, hoping that she could see the truth in his eyes.
"I want to be here with you. Be there with you. Wherever you are. Wherever you're going. I want to be there."
She opened her mouth to argue, but he touched those beautiful lips with the tip of his finger.
"You don't have to ask me why, Kay, because I'm going to tell you."
He moved his finger from her lips and lifted his hand to her quickly drying hair and gently brushed it back from her face, tucking it behind her ear.
"I love you, Kay." He smiled when she stared back at him with confusion written across her features.
"I love you. I think I have since that day you took charge of my cousin's treatment in the Emergency Room.
In the middle of my terror and the fear filling my aunt and uncle, you were light and hope combined.
I saw you then. I saw you in that coat with your eyes filled with compassion and fell for you.
"But I didn't know the depths of my feelings until I got to spend time with you. Then I realized that you were so much more than my family's guardian angel. You were... everything to me."
Her eyes filled with tears, and she closed them, maybe to hold back those tears, but he didn't want her to hide them.
Gibson leaned closer and kissed each closed eye in turn.
He knew she'd been hurt before. He had a feeling that her parents had done a number on her confidence and made it difficult for her to believe that she was worth sticking around for.
She hadn't said the words exactly, but during their conversations he'd picked up on her thoughts and what he believed were her feelings about the emotional distance that she'd experienced from them.
Getting closer to her and staying there wasn't going to be easy, but he needed to be close to her and to protect her.
"Gibson?" She opened her eyes as he leaned back. "I don't know why you'd want to be wrapped up in my mess."
"It's not your mess, Kay. You haven't done anything to deserve this or bring it on yourself. And this latest... problem isn't going to stop me from loving you. Nothing would."
He could see the worry in her face and the way she hesitated.
He swore he could almost hear the question in her head, she was thinking so hard.
"You don't have to say it back, Kay. You don't have to say it because I did."
"But-"
"When you're ready... that's when I want to hear it."
He saw the way she opened her mouth to speak, but she couldn't form the words.
"I'm going to grab a quick shower and then we can get going to the airport. Why don't you look and see what other flights are available and I'll do what I can to make sure we get on that plane."
He pressed a kiss to her lips and moved off toward the bathroom.
"Gibson?"
He stopped and looked back at her. "Yeah?"
"I... I want to say, thank you."
He didn't know how to reply to that, except for the truth. "You're more than welcome, Kay. And I love you."
He closed the door and started to take the fastest shower he'd ever taken and that... was saying something.