Chapter 17
While Kendall gave Livie a bath, Cooper sat on the couch with his laptop open.
After jotting down Kendall’s dream for an adult evening so he wouldn’t forget anything, he read the emails sent to Kendra Hartley.
Most seemed harmless, but he’d forwarded a few so far to a separate file he’d created.
Grayson and Liam were also reading them tonight, and tomorrow, they’d compare notes.
“Livie wants to know if her daddy will read her a bedtime story,” Kendall said, poking her head around the hallway wall.
As if he could refuse his princess. “Absolutely.” He set his laptop on the coffee table. He’d read Emmie bedtime stories countless times when his sister was a little girl and it was left up to him to get her to bed. Thank you, Emmie, for training me on how to make bedtime stories fun.
“What are we reading?” he said as he sat on the edge of the bed. Ruby had followed him into the bedroom, and she curled up on the floor at his feet.
Livie thrust a thin book at him. “This one, Daddy.”
“Attack of the Underwear Dragon? Sounds…uh, fun.” Children’s books sure had changed since he’d read bedtime stories to Emmie some twenty years ago.
And since when did dragons start wearing underwear?
Turned out it was a cute story that Livie knew by heart and interrupted his reading to tell the story herself. He loved every minute of it.
“Read me another one, Daddy.”
Kendall, who’d been lying on the other bed listening to them, sat up. “No more tonight. It’s time to go to sleep.” She came to Livie and kissed her cheek. “Sweet dreams, precious girl.”
He leaned over and kissed Livie’s forehead. “See you in the morning, Princess.”
“Can Ruby stay with me? She’ll bite the bad man if he comes.”
“She sure can, but I promise you, I won’t let the bad man come here.”
“Okay. I love you, Mommy. I love you, Daddy.”
This girl. “I love you, too.” He’d only known her for a few days, and she already had him wrapped around her little finger. He’d plugged in a night-light earlier so the room wouldn’t be so dark in the hopes that would help her sleep without a nightmare.
As soon as he’d turned to leave, Ruby jumped on the bed, curling up next to Livie.
He should probably tell the dog to get off the bed, but Livie already had her arm around Ruby, and having the dog with her probably made her feel safer, so he let Ruby stay where she was.
He followed Kendall out of the room, leaving the door open so he could hear her if she cried out.
“I promised my sister I’d call her tonight, so I’m going to do that,” he said.
“Okay, I’m going to jump in the shower while you talk to her.”
“Emmie can wait if you need help showering.” He waggled his eyebrows.
She laughed. “Tempting, but you promised to call her. She’s probably sitting by the phone, waiting for it to ring.”
“You’re no fun,” he grumbled. He called her as he walked to the living room.
“Finally,” she said on answering. “I’ve been trying to guess all day what you wanted to tell me.”
“And what did you guess?”
“That you met someone. Did you? What’s her name?”
He grinned, imagining her shock when he told her. “I did meet someone. Her name is Olivia, but I call her Livie.”
“I knew it. Is she pretty? What am I saying? Of course she is.”
“She’s beautiful, actually.”
“What does she do?”
“She goes to school.”
“You mean like college?”
“No, like kindergarten…or maybe preschool. I’m not sure. Considering she’s my daughter, I need to know these things.” He chuckled at the silence on the other end. He wished he could see her face right now.
“Cooper? What are you saying exactly?”
“Exactly what you heard. Livie is my daughter. She’s almost five and is the cutest, funniest and sweetest thing in the world.”
There was more silence, and then, “You have a daughter? How come you never told me?”
“Because I didn’t know myself until a few days ago.” He told her the story from the night he first met Kendall up to now.
“Wow, this is all unbelievable. In my wildest guesses of what you were going to tell me, this wasn’t even on the radar. You’ve had your world turned upside down. Are you okay with this, with having a daughter?”
“Emmie, I’m so okay with it that I want to shout it to the world.”
“And Kendall, what are your feelings on her?”
“That I’m in love with her, but she’s not ready to hear that yet. She does have feelings for me, that much I know, but right now, she’s scared for both Livie and herself. When she feels they’re both safe again, I’ll—”
“Romance her. That’s what you need to do.”
“I plan to.” Emmie had always believed in love and happy endings, even when growing up in the misery that was their homelife.
She’d found it with her husband. John loved her deeply and treated her like a princess.
Cooper had liked him from their first meeting and was thankful she had someone like him in her life.
“When can I meet them?”
“Soon. When all this is over, I’ll bring them to Boston.” He hoped Kendall wanted to explore this thing between them enough to meet his sister. “When we hang up, I’ll send you a picture of them.”
He’d taken one today that he loved. When they’d returned to Grayson’s to pick up Livie, she’d begged them to let her go down to the beach so she could touch the water. The photo was of Kendall, Livie and Ruby at the water’s edge, his two girls laughing at Ruby being silly.
“I can’t believe I’m an aunt.”
“Aunt Emmie has a nice ring to it.” He heard the shower shut off. “Gotta go, though.”
“Okay. Congratulations, Dad. Send me that picture. Love you.”
“Love you, too, Emmie.”
He sent the photo to her, then set his phone on the coffee table. They’d come a long way, he and his sister, and there’d been many times when he’d worried about their futures. Emmie had found her happily-ever-after with John, and he could only hope he’d finally found his.
Kendall appeared, carrying her laptop.
She sat close enough that he could smell her vanilla scent. “How about a glass of wine?” he said before he decided it was a good idea to run his nose over her skin, inhaling her scent.
“I’d love one.”
“Go relax. I’ll pour.” When he returned to the living room, she had her laptop open. He set one of the wineglasses on the end table near her, then sat close to her but not touching. What was she reading and why was it making her frown?
“Cooper.” She turned her laptop so he could see the screen. “This is really weird. It’s a response to my last podcast. It’s signed the same way the note penned on Livie’s shirt was.”
He read the email.
Hello, Kendra… I have to wonder, though. Is Kendra really your name or is it just your on-air persona? Your last podcast on McKenzie Haywood was touching. You have a way of bringing these children to life. Almost as if you’ve experienced something similar. Have you?
Here’s something to consider. What if instead of suffering, these children you cry your tears over were given a better life?
What if they’re little angels now, existing in a place so beautiful that we here on earth can’t begin to imagine the pinnacle of their joy?
A place where there is no suffering, no hunger, no tears.
Nothing on earth could compare to that, don’t you think?
I would love to hear you talk about that possibility in your next podcast.
A devoted fan
“Send that to me, then Grayson and Liam.”
“It has to be him, don’t you think?” she said after forwarding it to the three of them.
“Yeah, I think so.”
She frowned as she read it again. “Except here, he’s just hinting that he thinks my real name might not be Kendra. The note penned to Livie was to me, Kendall.” She lifted her eyes to his. “So, maybe it’s not the same person.”
“Or he’s playing games with you. Do you remember other emails signed the same way?” If he were a betting man, his money would be on yes, it was from their subject.
“Honestly, I don’t pay attention to how they’re signed. What I’m always hoping for is good ideas from my listeners that will help solve the case. Occasionally, my listeners pick up on clues the police missed.”
“What about an email with the wording similar to this?”
“No, I’d definitely remember if I’d gotten anything like this one. It gives me the creeps.”
It did him, too. “It’s getting late. We have another busy day tomorrow. Why don’t you get some rest?”
“Are you calling it a night?”
“Not yet. I want to finish reading these emails.” He needed to see if there were any more that raised suspicion.
“I am tired, but I don’t know if I can sleep after reading that.”
“How about I give you something else to think about?”
“Like what?”
He set his laptop aside. “Like this.” He leaned toward her, and when his mouth was an inch from hers, he asked for permission. “Yes?”
In answer, she put her hands on his cheeks and touched her lips to his. “Yes,” she whispered against his mouth.
He spread his fingers along the back of her neck and softly groaned when her tongue teased the seam of his mouth.
He opened for her and stroked his tongue over hers.
In that moment, as they tasted and explored, nothing else on earth mattered except the two of them.
He was an addict, craving the taste of her, the feel of her, the scent of her.
He kept one hand on her neck, holding her close, and the other, he put on her waist.
Bed. Now. Great idea.
No, not tonight. Before he could give in to his inner caveman and carry her to his lair, he forced himself to pull away. He had plans, a special evening to give her, and he still had the details to work out.
She blinked as if coming out of a daze, and desire shimmered in those blue eyes. If she didn’t go now, all his good intentions to make being together again special would be tossed out the window. “Go to bed, Kendall.”
“Did I do something wrong?”
“Never. I’m hanging on to my control by a thread.” He took her hand, turned it over and dropped a kiss to her palm. “This is going to happen between us, but not tonight. Go.”
“Humph.” She pranced away with a teasing sway of her hips.
“Minx,” he muttered with a chuckle. He glanced down at his crotch. “Down boy. Not happening tonight.” Boy was not at all happy.
He was going to be up for however long it took to read all the emails that had been sent to Kendra Hartley and decided to make a cup of coffee. He’d just sat back down when his phone chimed, Grayson’s name on the screen.
“I’ve been expecting your call,” he said on answering. “You read the one Kendall sent you tonight, right?”
“Yeah. It’s him, and it’s troubling. I forwarded it on to the profiler. Hopefully, we’ll get something back from her soon.”
“Agree on the troubling,” Cooper said. “He’s taunting her, telling her that he knows her real name.”
“Yes, and I’d bet everything I own that this is the same bastard who took Livie.”
Cooper agreed. What if Kendall hadn’t called him? He didn’t even want to think of her and Livie unprotected while an overworked detective tried to identify Livie’s kidnapper. He made a mental note to call Rossi tomorrow, find out if he’d learned anything.
“I think the person who wrote that email is a very disturbed man,” Grayson said.
“My question at this point, does she do a podcast and talk about the missing children being in a better place? That if anyone thinks that, they’re wrong, or something like that?
The aim to goad him into keeping him communicating with her.
” He wished to God there was a better way, and they didn’t have to ask her to respond to the man.
“It’s something to consider, and she did agree to do it, but first, I think she should answer his email. Open a line of communication with him. Of course, we’ll draft the response to him for her. We can discuss that when we meet tomorrow.”
“Okay, but if she doesn’t want to answer him or do the podcast, I won’t force her.”
“Agreed. It’s her decision.”
“I have a favor to ask. How would you feel about Livie and Ruby spending the night at your house tomorrow?”
“We’d love to have them. Tyler will be excited. Any particular reason?”
“Kendall’s stressed out and scared. I’d like to give her an evening away from worrying about what’s going to happen. A night just for her.”
“Say no more.”
“Thanks, brother.”
“No thanks necessary. Talk tomorrow.”
Now to plan for her adult evening without spoiling the surprise.