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She shook her head. “As far as family, you’re looking at it.” The corners of her mouth turned down. “I’ve only been in Atlanta a few months, and the friend I came here with didn’t turn out to be very reliable.” Although it was obvious she preferred not to go into details, she took a deep breath and added, “He’s the main reason I ended up having a baby by the side of the road.”
Yeah. He figured as much, but for once being right didn’t offer much reward. A part of him wanted to press for details, because Mr. Not Very Reliable had responsibilities and obligations, whether he liked it or not, but now wasn’t the time to tackle that issue.
“Okay. No problem. I’m off tomorrow. I can drive you home tonight and pick you up in the morning.”
Nervous eyes cut left, evading his. “That’s not necessary.”
“What’s your address, Madison?” He asked the question quietly, but he already knew he wasn’t going to like the answer. She’d alluded to her messed up life the day they’d met. Now he braced himself to find out what qualified as “messed up” to a woman who’d been in labor in the back seat of a car at the time she’d offered up that assessment.
“I’m kind of”—she chewed the inside of her cheek and stared at the baby—“between addresses at the moment. I live at an extended-stay motel near the convention center.” He remained silent, and after a moment, she recited the address.
Yep. That qualified.
The scenery beyond the windshield devolved from a business district, to industrial, to downright fringy, and the bad feeling he’d had earlier turned into a sinking feeling, right in the pit of his stomach. Eventually he pulled into a small parking lot in front of a dumpy two story motel in a section of the city he knew best for calls involving stabbings, gunshots, and overdoses. Hell, no.
“I have an idea.” He turned around in his seat and waited until she raised her head and focused on him. “Why don’t you and Joy spend the night in my guest room? We’ll see about getting your car out of impound tomorrow and then take things from there.”
Beau’s voice echoed in his head. ‘Take things from there’ has no exit strategy.
True, but…to hell with exit strategies. They needed help, and he could provide it. The only person he needed to justify it to was himself. Yes, he had a big challenge lined up on his horizon. He knew exactly how tough med school was, and he didn’t intend to sabotage his second chance with added distractions and responsibilities, but they had plenty of time to work out an exit strategy without endangering any of his goals. He rescued people. That was his job. This rescue was just going to take a little longer and would be off the clock.
Didn’t mean he had a hero complex, goddammit.
“Hunter, you’re very sweet to offer, but no. I can’t do that.” She dropped her gaze to the baby. “Joy and I will be fine at the motel.”
Okay, apparently he needed to justify it to her as well, because she was wrong on all counts. He wasn’t sweet, it wasn’t an offer, and they would not be fine at this motel. But since he’d phrased the solution as a suggestion, she mistakenly believed she had a choice in the matter.
All this takes is a little charm. You routinely coax belligerent, bleeding drunks into your ambulance. You can cajole a scared kid into letting you put an IV in her arm. Sophomore year of high school, you sweet-talked varsity cheerleader Kimberly “Limber Kimber” Colton into the back seat of your Bronco. Surely you can convince an exhausted mama to spend the night in your safe, clean, absolutely free house rather than some fleabag motel in thugtown.
Sure he could. “Sweetheart, this place is a shithole.”
Her head came up so abruptly, he half expected her to get whiplash. “It’s affordable. Fancy’s pretty far down on my list of priorities right now.”
So much for charm. He’d offended her, and there was no backpedaling from it. He forged ahead. “I don’t give a damn about fancy, either, Madison. I realize you didn’t select this place for the view. And while I’m no Sherlock Holmes, I also picked up on enough clues to know you’re not sitting on a pile of money, or options. I’m trying to give you one we can both live with, because I flat out cannot leave you alone with that baby at a down-and-outer motel on the edge of gangland. It’s not right. Don’t ask it of me.”
“We’ve lived here a month, and we’ve been perfectly fine.”
Says the woman who’d been so dehydrated, exhausted, and anemic she’d passed out in a drugstore. “No, you’ve been lucky.” He managed to stop himself from smacking the steering wheel to underscore his frustration. Though he’d sworn an oath to conserve life, he once again felt a decidedly life-threatening impulse toward the nameless, faceless bastard who’d helped put her in this situation.
“Please.” There. He had a little charm in him after all.
She exhaled slowly and looked at the baby again. “All right. We’
ll stay. Just for tonight.
They’d see about that, but for now, he stuck to, “Thank you.”
Another long exhale greeted those words, and then, “No. Thank you. You’re nice to put yourself out like this.”
The gratitude sat uncomfortably on him. His peace of mind benefitted from bringing them to a safe place where he could look after them. He couldn’t live with himself if he dumped them here and walked away.
You can kiss your rec letter goodbye if Ashley ever gets wind of this.
She wouldn’t get wind of it. End of story.
The discomfort stuck as he followed them up to the room and then held Joy while Madison packed. He rested the baby against his shoulder and took in the shabby, smoke-stained hovel some sleazy fuck had the balls to call an extended-stay suite. Extended-stay his ass. Most of the rooms probably rented by the hour. Whatever they charged, it was robbery.
“Okay. I’m ready.”
