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Chapter Thirty-three
Later that night, after Jill quit arguing about Ruby returning home, Kurt pulled up outside her house. “I’ll go in first.”
“Fine. You go set off the alarm.”
“Hey, my pretty firefighter got smart.”
“Don gave me the name of some people he suggested were the best, and so yeah, I got smart.”
“I’m proud of you, baby. For such a stubborn woman, you can be very intelligent sometimes.”
She hit his arm jokingly and made her voice flattering. “Why thankee kind sir. Now go fuck yourself. I have to work in the morning, and I need my beauty rest.” She saw him ready to answer and cut in, “Don’t say it, pest.”
“You don’t know what I was going to say.”
“Yeah, I do. You were going to bitch about me returning to work.”
“No, I never bitch. If I thought you couldn’t do your job, I’d just keep you home. Plain and simple.”
Swiveling to glare at him, she appreciated his smug grin – kind of expected it. Her pulse rate tripled. “Go check my place.” She passed him a slip of paper. “Here’s the code.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
In minutes, they were inside, and she was putting away the leftovers Jill had forced her to take.
“Your mom’s a real sweetheart, looking after her baby girl so well.”
Ruby nodded, hearing his words and the voice he used as he said them. He’d been sincerely complimentary, and she couldn’t take offense. Not at the truth.
“I’m lucky. Over the years, we’ve had a few tough spots to work through but it kind of made us closer.”
“When you lost your father?”
“Jill tell you about him?”
“She said he died while fighting a fire. It’s her worst fear for you. But then you already know that.”
“Sure, I do. And I wish I could have done what she wanted and become a dentist or an accountant, anything but follow in my father’s footsteps. But it was meant to be. His love of the job passed onto me. Even as a child, it was my favorite place in the world. He loved helping folks who were suffering through the worst moments of their lives, terrified and vulnerable, and I guess it came natural to me.”
He nodded. “I know what that feels like. I do. And Molly has had to live with her fear in the same way. And as much as I adore her, I can’t be anything but what I am. She understands it, and so does Jill.”
Ruby pressed her lips together and nodded. “You know, I’ve never appreciated just how damn hard it would be to have a child in danger. I do now.”
“Aww, honey. We’ll take care of that baby. Don’t be worried.”
“You need to explain to me why these crazies just don’t take any old baby from the hospital. Why make special babies to steal?”
“Ahh, I knew you’d come to that insight eventually.” He put his hands on her arms and caressed her cold, pebbled skin. “So far, we’ve uncovered a few cases, and I’m leaning towards rich daddies in China wanting American sons or daughters to carry on their legacy.”
Ruby thought for a few minutes before speaking. “Why not get Chinese women pregnant?”
“Don’t know. Makes no sense to me either… unless these men are just plain angry at being Chinese or they insist on certain physical attributes in their offspring. Who can be sure? Until we can speak to whoever is responsible and willing to provide the product – in this case, a baby – we only have questions.”
Ruby’s eyes filled and Kurt enfolded her shivering body close. “Like I said earlier, no one is taking anything from you. I promise.”
He kissed her cheek gently and smoothed her hair back from her shoulders. When she pulled away to look into his warm eyes, she moaned and sank into his next kiss.
