Chapter 50
It had been a long damned day. Shaping up to be an even longer night. He’d been to this very hospital six times—chasing down leads on three different cases.
They were going to go over what had been in those files on her dining room table. He’d meant to the night before, but had been called out on an all-nighter himself. He’d won with Madison by irritating her into going to her friends, the Barratts, for the night.
That had paused things for twenty-four hours. He’d spent all of the day before chasing a dozen dead ends, trying to find that asshole Timothy Grundenman and his kid out there somewhere.
She was seriously unhappy with him now, but…he’d make it up to her someday.
Dom was in the room when Heather finally opened her eyes and actually looked around like she was back in there again. Damned woman had scared the shit out of all of them with this. But she looked right at him. And just blinked.
Damn, that woman had a way of looking at a man—he just stared back. “Hey.”
“Ac—ardi. Why…here?”
Hell. She actually recognized him. Unlike the last four times he had sat with her for a few moments over the past week. “Just checking on you.”
“Where…sisters?”
“It’s late, Bonnie shooed them all out a few hours ago.
She’s working a shift upstairs tonight.” Dom moved closer, careful not to get too much into Heather’s space.
He didn’t want to scare her. Not after the pure hell she had been through.
Heather was skittish, and for damned good reason.
“You have a nurse-niece who has been sitting with you, but she’s down the hall getting a soda, I think.
Zoey’s sister. Or as Lake says, that incredibly scary, scary sister-in-law of his. ”
“Cash…That is Cashie…”
Good. She was starting to fire on some cylinders.
But he wasn’t going to push right now. The woman had been through enough.
“I was here to get Madison and drive her home. She’s finishing up processing some suspects in the ER right now.
I wanted to stop by and see how you were doing.
Your niece left me here to babysit while she grabs a snack.
I’m not sure she’d eaten in a while. You good with that? ”
“Oh…kay. My…girls?”
“Doing fine. Frankie drew you a picture of a starfish, I think. Your sister laminated it and made it into a placemat.” Dom showed Heather her daughter’s artwork.
Heather’s eyes welled. Maybe his own allergies kicked in a little at the moment, seeing the giant smiling starfish and a stick-figure woman and little girl and what he thought was a stick-figure baby.
“What day…?”
“Been a few weeks since what happened at Powell Barratt’s parents. You’ve been in and out of…reality…for about ten days now.”
“That long? They okay? All of them?” She was trying to shift on the bed. This woman was probably one of the most stubborn he had ever met. “Powell…baby? Gunn—”
“Recovering. Powell is doing fine. Gunner is out of here, and at Mel Barratt’s with her and her parents.
Dan was released a week after what happened.
They are getting better.” And he wasn’t about to tell her where Daniel had ended up.
Heather would go ballistic if she knew Daniel was sleeping under her roof right now.
“Hope? My baby sister. She…safe?”
“Rodriguez is making sure of it. Your family is okay. You are a great-aunt again, too. Governor’s wife had a baby girl while you’ve been out.
They are a few rooms over now. Carina Maria, I believe.
” A great-aunt—at thirty-four. Dom had run into the governor in the lobby and offered his congratulations.
He’d been shown a dozen photos from the proud papa. “A very beautiful baby.”
No. She wasn’t. The baby was extra ugly, even for a newborn. But Dom would never say that. He knew better. He was sure she was the most beautiful baby in the world—to the governor and his wife, anyway.
“Ari…okay?”
“Doing fine. So is the baby. Cashlyn said the baby looks like your baby pictures. She got a bit of a laugh out of that and said the baby will probably end up looking like…you and Zoey. She told the governor she really hopes the baby acts just like you, too. He looked…mildly terrified.” There was no love lost between Heather and her niece’s husband, the good old governor. Everyone was aware of that.
“Healthy? You sure? Both of them?”
Dom nodded.
“Good. Tired. How long…I…stuck here?”
“That, I do not know.”
“So why here? You have questions.”
“Just a few. They can wait.”
“No. They can’t. Trey…?”
“Going to live. Most damaging shot was Mig’s doing, actually.
Gunnar got Grundenman in the upper chest, ironically enough.
Stuck in a chair for life thanks to Mig’s round, I believe.
However long that will be.” Trey Grundenman was a murderer several times over—he’d probably get the death penalty eventually.
Dom didn’t give a shit at all. Couldn’t happen to a more deserving man.
The security guard Grundenman had killed outside the Barratts’ house that night had had a family.
Kids who’d been waiting on him at home. He hadn’t been any older than twenty-four himself. Grundenman would get what he deserved.
“No regrets. Always a monster. His father?”
Dom hesitated. She wouldn’t be happy when she found out. And he didn’t want to upset her. But she was looking at him, like she could see right through his soul. “Still looking for him. He’s…wily.”
“No kidding. Smart…brilliant, really. Like…his daughters. But…no real common sense. The little girl…? Have they found her yet?”
Dom just shook his head. He’d heard what she’d had to say when she’d learned that her sister Denita had been the egg-donor for that little girl.
But that had been over a week ago. Heather had been in and out of consciousness for almost two weeks now.
He didn’t have a clue what she remembered or didn’t.
Apparently she remembered that little girl who had Heather’s smile, too. “Still looking.”
“I see. We need to find her. Make sure she is okay, and with us where she belongs. With her sisters. What do you…want to know?” She reached one skinny arm out toward the water. “So…thirsty.”
Dom helped her, feeling like an awkward idiot.
He wasn’t a nurse. She just looked so damned fragile.
This woman was one of the toughest, strongest, he knew.
She had deserved better than this. “You need to just rest. I’m holding down the fort now.
And…Rodriguez is taking care of your family. Nobody can get through him.”
“Except…Hope? She…figured him out yet?”
“Last I saw her, she didn’t have a clue. And he’s still drooling over her every time she moves. Fun to watch, actually.”
“He’s the best man I know…good for her. Tired again. Sorry.”
Dom was just floored that she was coherent. Hopefully it meant she was going to be okay. The woman had scared them all. "You have any idea who is behind all this?"
"Not yet. Some things Kimball said… starting to fall in place now." She closed her eyes. She opened them again. Stared right into him. “Just need…to…think…connect dots…”
He'd heard Daniel say once that this woman could stare right into a man's soul and see all of his weaknesses. Well, yes. Dom believed that.
"You need to talk to my sister. Talk to Hope. She'll tell you. Tell her that I told you the secret word is Elspeth. Great-great-grandmother. You tell her I…told you Elspeth will tell you. She should know what it means."
"Elspeth." Locked down in his brain now. Dom would not forget. “I’ll do that.”
“You give her that name and she’ll give you…what I have been working on. Trust…you…don’t…let down…”
"I won’t. You just rest. I'll keep an eye on things now. Just worry about getting better. Your girls need you."
"My girls… tell them… that I love them. And I'll be home soon. No matter what I have to do."
“Sleep. I’m not going anywhere until your niece or sister gets here. You’re safe now. I’m going to damned well make sure of it.” He didn’t tell her they had two guards on her door at all times. He didn’t want to scare her. She drifted off again. He just sat there.
He studied her, taking in the perfect face. Heather Coleson was one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen. She had lost weight now, of course, but that physical perfection was still there beneath the surface. Classical, really. The kind men fought wars over in mythology, he suspected.
Beautiful, but he’d never been attracted to her the way some of the men of Major Crimes had. He’d always wondered why, from the moment Daniel had walked her into the Major Crimes bullpen.
Of course, it could have been because of how strongly she’d resembled his teammate Murdoch Lake’s wife, but Dom didn’t think it was that. By the time Heather had joined Major Crimes, everyone knew she was related to Zoey. But…seeing her in person for the first time…wow.
She was just a beautiful, physically attractive woman. And men had noticed her. Bringing trouble her way that she didn’t deserve.
A sound had him looking up. At the young woman standing in the door frame. “Well, well, well, a copper who is a man of his word. How extraordinary. Other than Uncle Nick and Uncle Miggy, I didn’t think it was possible to find.”
“Uncle…Miggy?”
Heather’s niece Cashlyn—Murdoch Lake’s little sister-in-law—shot Dom a grin.
She was a beautiful woman, too—just not in the same way as her older sister Zoey or her aunt.
But the resemblance was there. Strongly.
She looked more like a fairy princess than a goddess, as he’d heard Lake describe his wife. No denying that.
Hell, every Coleson woman on the planet could have a man hitting his knees begging, with just one smile.
“Why not? It’ll happen eventually. Hope just doesn’t seem to realize that yet. It’s getting a little entertaining, you know. Especially with…him in and out all the time. And Daniel.”
Dom just snorted. Poor Daniel. Bastard was getting what he deserved. Dom knew exactly what the other man was trying to accomplish by staying with Heather’s family.
It wasn’t what the man said it was. Not by a long shot. “Dan doing okay tonight?”
“As far as I know, he was having a bit of trouble…resting. No surprise, honestly. Our house is a bit chaotic at times. There are just so many of us. Bound to get a…rise…out of a man now and then.”
She was up to something. This woman had a wicked soul.
He’d bet his last paycheck on that. Yes, he’d admit, there was a small stirring of attraction for this one.
Nothing like the hold Madison had over him though.
Just enough to appreciate that she was an attractive woman.
But Madison had him completely. “I’m sure it does just that.
Heather woke. Recognized me. Asked me a few questions.
I told her the elder Grundenman was still on the run. She was lucid, but exhausted.”
“That’s wonderful. Hopefully, next time she can stay awake longer. That’s what’s next in her recovery. Longer stretches. She’s going to be okay.”
He ignored how her voice broke.
The Colesons had been through some serious shit lately.
And unlike a lot of his pals, Dom didn’t believe they were up to their eyeballs in what was going on in this city. He just didn’t. But why shit seemed to be circling one particular family didn’t make a bit of sense to him at all, either.
Someone else came to the door. Dom tensed then relaxed. Heather’s oldest sister stood in the door—looking very much like her daughter. Maybe it was the almost matching scrubs. Wonkus McBubbles and Prince Rufus dotted both women’s shirts.
“Hi, Mama. Break time?”
“Yes. I wanted to check on her, sweetie. How is she?” The two even sounded alike when they spoke.
“Handsome here said she woke and spoke for a little while. Even recognized him.”
They sounded alike, and Cashlyn looked very much like the woman who had adopted her.
Too much like her, he’d heard one idiot say.
Even the damned Snotty Garlic had weighed in—claiming this woman wasn’t adopted, but was a clone of Bonnie provided by Eastman to serve Bonnie’s need to be a mother.
An actual genetic clone. The latest theories didn’t involve IVF, they involved cloning and surrogates.
Or aliens—the Snotty Garlic said the Colesons were all alien-births.
Never mind that the very police report where Denita Coleson had abandoned Cashlyn in a hospital at birth had been found by all the major news companies in Texas and part of Oklahoma.
And published. Bonnie had been almost seven months pregnant with her only biological daughter when she’d adopted Cashlyn straight from the NICU. It was very well documented.
This young woman’s history was plastered all over the internet now.
He did see where clone would make sense. Cashlyn was a younger version of Bonnie right down to the hairline and ears.
“Hello, Detective Acardi. How are you this evening?” Bonnie turned her attention to him. Turning those eyes on him. And smiled.
That was all it took.
Dom stumbled through the small talk. Cashlyn was beautiful, but Bonnie carried herself in a way that he found disconcerting. No denying that to himself. She was such a…lady. Almost like a little queen, too good to be bothered by the rough peasant men like him.
Rather like her niece, the governor’s wife, who also resembled this woman a great deal. Dom had gotten tongue-tied around Ariella Deane a time or two, too. Never had a problem with the governor’s wife’s sister Zoey, though. Zoey was as intense as Heather—and looked just like her. Terrifying.
Funny, how genetics worked. How families tied together, even when the people involved didn’t recognize those ties.
When he left Heather’s room, he at least had a direction to go in.
He just had to track down her precious baby sister.
The Gremlin of the TSP.
That was what he’d do—first thing in the morning.
Now, though…he had a Madison to catch.