by Calista Fox
“Then we’ll figure out what we can do, how we can help Nik and her team, from a safer distance.”
“You’re really incredible,” Kate murmured, her eyes misting. “I hope you know that. I truly am amazed by you. And I’m just…so thrilled to be your wife, Jude. So proud.”
He kissed her. Then whispered against her lips, “We make a hell of a team, Kate. We’ll make one hell of a family.”
“I have no doubt.”
“I can’t believe the dinner service started so late last evening,” Betsy Stockman mumbled over Bellini’s the next morning.
“It was only five minutes past the hour, Mother,” Kate discreetly said across the table from her, not wanting Charlotte to overhear and think for even a second that her wedding was anything less than sheer perfection.
“It’s not polite to keep guests waiting, is all I’m saying,” her mother added.
“Well, everyone was still enjoying the hors d’ oeuvres and cocktails, so I’m fairly certain no one other than you noticed where the minute hand on the clock was.” Kate gazed intently at her mother, willing her to drop the subject. Before the conversation a few seats down ended and Charlotte tuned into this one.
“I just expected more, is all.”
“More, what?” Charlotte suddenly, delicately inquired as she actually did catch wind of Betsy’s complaint.
Kate resisted the urge to grit her teeth over anything potentially spoiling her new sister-in-law’s “morning after” bliss and instead said, “Mother likes her Bellini’s topped off. The one she was just served is a tad below the rim.” Kate winked.
Charlotte laughed. “I’ll have one of our servers rectify that immediately.”
“Not at all,” Betsy quickly interjected, plastering a smile on her face, though Kate knew she inwardly seethed at the particular cover-up Kate had concocted. “I’m perfectly fine, dear.”
Beside Kate, Jude chuckled under his breath. “Way to make your mother look like a lush, sweetheart.”
“Perhaps she’ll be a bit kinder in the future.” Though Kate knew that was wishful thinking.
The brunch was a long, drawn-out affair at the Kensington mansion. At least, it felt ridiculously long and absurdly drawn out, because Kate desperately wanted to be on the plane back to Mexico City. Nikki had been texting frequently and there was an undercurrent of urgency to her comments about Sophie being so distraught. And there was something else…even Nikki seemed abnormally tense.
She sent a curious missive that stated: Nico demonstrated signs of responsiveness again this morning. They took him for a CT scan. Two hours ago.
Kate could practically envision Nikki pacing the hallway outside his room, wondering when he’d return. But that really wasn’t like Nikki, when she had other responsibilities, such as patients to counsel and Sophie to check in on.
Kate and Jude were polishing off their eggs Benedict when Nikki texted again. And while it wasn’t polite when Kate was dining with her family, she spared a glance at her Apple watch under the table.
They’ve moved someone else into Nico’s room.
Kate’s stomach plummeted.
Nikki continued: No one will tell me where he’s been relocated.
Kate gasped. Caught herself and shrugged as several pairs of eyes snapped to her. “I was just lamenting over taking the last bite of my eggs Benedict.” She slipped the forkful into her mouth. After swallowing, she said, “Mm, so good. A triumph, really.”
This pleased Charlotte’s mother. Conversations resumed. Kate secretly exchanged a dire look with Jude, then glanced down at her watch again.
No chart and the two nurses who look after him this time of day are no longer on the floor. WTF?
Kate tapped out: Morales?
He was Nico’s cardiologist.
Nikki: Nowhere in sight.
Kate: Bustamante?
The neurologist.
Nikki: Indisposed, I’m told.
Kate wanted to tell her friend to calm down. To breathe. There might have been a complication and Nico was rushed into surgery.
Of course, Nikki would know this and would have asked around until she’d gotten the answers she wanted and needed. The fact that she was panicking now told Kate she’d done her due diligence…and Nico had disappeared.
She hated to ask, but queried: Still alive?
Not a soul seems to know…
Okay, that was odd.
Jude leaned toward Kate and whispered, “You’re drawing suspicion.”
Kate sighed. “We really need to go—we absolutely cannot miss our flight. Something’s wonky at the hospital, and for Nik to be so on edge about it means it’s serious.”
“Sophie?” he urgently inquired.
Kate smiled, despite the tension suddenly gripping her. The fact that Jude instantly, instinctively, responded with such concern was endearing to her and warmed her heart.
“No. Nico.”
His brow furrowed. “He didn’t—”
“No one seems to know.”
He appeared duly taken aback. “That’s peculiar.”
“Precisely.”
“Something you’d like to share with us, Kathryn?” her mother prompted.
“We have a plane to catch, remember?” Kate shot a remorseful look toward Charlotte and Denny. “We’re so sorry. It’s just that—”
“I do not find this acceptable,” Betsy said, aghast. “We’re still eating.”
That wasn’t true. Plates were being cleared away.
“Kate already explained,” Charlotte intervened. “My family and I knew she and Jude would have to skip out early. It’s all right,” she assured Kate. “You being here with us before your flight was so kind of you.”
“Of course we wouldn’t miss it,” Kate told her. “I’m so sorry to say that I have patients and Jude has clients—some of whom are having difficulty getting back home and really need his legal assistance.”
“We completely understand,” Charlotte avowed as she placed a hand over her heart. “Everything you two are doing to help those poor victims is—”
“Not supposed to take over your lives so that you can’t even spend time with your family,” Betsy scoffed, indignant.
“Mother.” Denny gazed at her, quite sternly, while giving a slight shake of his head to cut her off.
The gesture took Kate by surprise. He was coming to her defense when she was bailing on his newlywed’s brunch? Was Charlotte rubbing off on him?
“We don’t mean to inconvenience anyone,” Jude announced as he pushed back his chair.
“Charlotte’s right, dear,” Mrs. Kensington said. “It’s been so lovely to have you here, Kate and Jude. We look forward to seeing you again. But we understand you have professional responsibilities and a civic duty to uphold. That’s quite admirable.”
Okay… Now Kate was experiencing flashes of Alice as she navigated Wonderland. But then her brother John raised his champagne glass and wished them safe travels, and Kate realized that perhaps the statement she and Jude had made that night in Kate’s apartment when she’d stood up for her choices had resonated.
Hmm.
She suddenly felt a twinge of guilt over having married Jude without anyone knowing.
But across the table, her mother gaped, presumably at everyone’s acceptance of Kate’s obligations elsewhere—and at her audacity for not obediently remaining at the table.
“Again,” Kate reiterated, “We’re so sorry for the early departure. We’ll see you all soon, though.”
“I’ll walk you out.” Charlotte jumped up, before Denny could even assist her. She looped her arm with Kate’s as they headed toward the oversized archway leading out of the formal dining room.
“You do forgive us, right?” Kate asked.
“Of course! It’s just brunch, Kate.”
With a laugh, she said, “Don’t say that too loud or my mother might faint.”
“Just tell me you enjoyed yourselves last night,” Charlotte said, “and I�
�ll be so pleased.”
“It was sensational,” Kate swore. “The ceremony, the food, the company, the dancing. It was an amazing treat, believe me.”
“Absolutely flawless,” Jude contended, making Charlotte beam.
“Thank goodness,” she said. “Your mother seemed to take exception to just about everything—”
“Charlotte, please,” Kate said, suddenly turning to face her. “Never let any of her nits get to you. She will always, always find something unsatisfactory to complain about. You have to let it go in one ear and out the other without a single thought to her jibes. Promise me you’ll remember that?”
Charlotte kissed her cheek. “I promise.”
Relieved, Kate said, “All right. Now get back in there. I see plenty of house staff at the ready to escort us out. Don’t leave your guests for us.”
“We will talk soon?” Charlotte pressed, ever hopeful.
“Very soon.”
Charlotte hedged. “It’s just that I worry you won’t find me the least bit interesting now that all of my wedding hoopla’s over. Or…you won’t have anything you want to discuss with me.”
Her apprehension and tentative tone tugged at Kate’s heartstrings.
“How can you possibly think that, Charlotte? It won’t be the case at all. In fact…” Kate gave her a hug, while whispering, “I’ll leave you with a secret, if you can keep it…”
32
“It’s something we will definitely talk about later,” Kate told Charlotte.
Who anxiously, if not somewhat greedily, encouraged, “Do tell!”
Though there was no one in earshot, Kate kept her tone low and conspiratorial. “Jude and I got married. It’s a secret for now.”
Kate released her and backed away.
“Oh, my God!” Charlotte gasped and pressed her hands to her chest. “You lie!”
“True fact.”
Charlotte’s cornflower-blue eyes lit with excitement—and genuine delight. “That is too, too perfect, Kate!”
Kate held a finger to her lips. “Our secret, remember?”
“Of course. But…ohh, do I want to hear the details!”
And Kate found she looked forward to divulging them.
Yet there were more dire matters on her mind. “We’ll talk soon.”
She and Jude left Charlotte in the foyer, knowing she’d need a few minutes to collect herself before she returned to the group—and didn’t spill the beans.
“You couldn’t resist shocking her, could you?” Jude asked as they crossed the deep porch.
“I trust her to hold this close to the vest. She’ll be thrilled for days to know something no one else does. That ought to more than make up for us having to cut out early on her, don’t you think?”
He chuckled. “Hell, I think Charlotte, herself, would cut out early, if she could. I don’t see her playing the demure housewife in this new marital scenario. Denny might be in over his head.”
“I love a spirited Stockman,” Kate said, happy to finally have some family camaraderie. Though…her brothers—Denny included—had not demonstrated their typical disapproval of Kate going against the grain. And that was a fascinating tidbit she’d mull over on the flight back to Mexico City.
She and Jude reached the awaiting Town car in the circular drive and the chauffeur opened the door. Their bags were already stowed in the trunk.
Before the car even pulled away from the grand entrance to the Kensington mansion, Kate turned to her new husband and said, “My ring, please.”
Kate was dying for him to slip it back on her finger.
“Katie!” The tiny voice came from down the hallway.
Sophie was in her arms moments later. Kate held her tight as the little girl cried. Tears burned Kate’s own eyes, but she murmured in Spanish, “It’s okay. Jude and I are back. I told you we’d only be gone one night.”
She comforted Sophie for a long spell, until the child merely sniffled. Then Kate stood. Nikki had joined them. As Sophie wrapped her arms around Kate’s leg as though she never intended to let go, Nikki told them, “There’s not a trace of Nico in this hospital. Literally. No electronic health record, no order to take him for a CT scan, no—”
“What about the doctors and nurses who’ve treated him?” Kate asked.
“That’s what I’m telling you, Kate. They’re nowhere in sight, not on the floor, in the OR or the pit, not answering pages…they’re not even on schedules. Past, present or future.”
“That’s impossible.” Kate’s gaze narrowed on her friend. “What the hell…?”
Jude gently took Nikki by the arm. “Let’s talk privately.”
Kate collected Sophie, lifting her up and carrying her down the hallway to a vacant conference room where Jude closed the door behind them.
“It’s insane,” Nikki blurted.
“Or a conspiracy,” Jude quietly said.
Kate and Nikki’s gazes flashed to him.
Folding his arms over his chest, Jude further pontificated, “I’m not a fan of these types of theories—I prefer fact-based evidence. But this is a private hospital.”
“There are still regulations to follow,” Nikki insisted.
“Sure. Any sort of ‘donation,’ however, can make it easier for those outside the hospital’s network to come and go without official documentation.”
“It’s awfully suspicious Nico had no visitors other than a few clients,” Kate added. “Plus, he was only vaguely responsive since the explosion and then suddenly became a missing patient that no one claims is actually missing.”
“No room reassignment, no generated or signed discharge papers, no…nothing.” Nikki raised her hands in the air. “As though he suddenly ceased to exist. As if he were a complete figment of my imagination.”
“Except that we saw him, too,” Kate pointed out.
Nikki nodded. Then cast an imploring look at Jude. “Can you find him? Figure out who the hell he is and where the hell he went?”
There was a distinct twisting low in her belly. Nikki clearly felt an attachment to Nico Valdiviesio, no matter how brief, light, tenuous, whatever. And chances were, she now experienced that similar sense of unexplainable loss as when Conner’s chopper had gone down and there’d been nothing left but ashes following the blaze in a canyon no one could get to in order to rescue him. There’d been nothing to hold after the fact, nothing to solidify or prove he was gone—that he was truly dead.
Kate handed over Sophie to Jude and then crossed to where Nikki stood. She took both of Nikki’s hands in hers and said, “We’ll figure out what happened to him. We’ll find him.”
“Fuck, yeah, we’ll find him,” Nikki averred. “I can’t believe he just got up and walked away. If he was rolled out of here—in a bed or in a wheelchair—someone saw something. And I’m going to find that person.”
Kate glanced at Jude over her shoulder. He gave a brief nod.
Kate returned her attention to Nikki and said, “We’ll help.”
Kate and Nikki spent time with Sophie in the dorm room while Jude made the rounds in the hospital, trying to track down anyone Nico had saved or one of his clients who might be visiting someone from the apartment complex who’d been injured and was laid up. Kate knew he also discreetly quizzed staff to see if he could discern anything Nikki hadn’t been able to with her own inquisition.
Admittedly, Kate’s nerves were a bit jangled. Not only over Sophie’s distress from Kate and Jude’s absence, but also from the intensity exuding from Nikki, along with the probability that Nikki additionally suffered some form of guilt over being so concerned for another man. Like it was a betrayal to Conner’s memory.
Kate would help her dissect that later. When Nikki was calmer.
In the meantime, Kate couldn’t help but mentally grind over whether Nico had anything to do with the explosions—and that was how he’d slipped out of the hospital, away from the public eye—and the press. With help from his network?
His terrorist ne
twork?
Kate groaned inwardly. Her imagination was running away from her because things like this just didn’t happen in everyday life and it was all so surreal.
Perhaps that was also why Nikki was so frantic; maybe her thoughts were reluctantly turning in that direction, too.
Of course, during their training, they’d all been warned of being caught in the crossfire of potential terrorist plots. That made Kate rationalize that she couldn’t discount any possibility where Nico Valdiviesio was concerned.
“This is just so bizarre,” Nikki said as she turned from the window she’d been staring out—and her gaze landed on Kate’s left hand, covering her throat as she contemplated various degrees of what ifs?
“Um, excuse me.” Nikki took several strides toward Kate and grasped her hand. “That’s the ginormous rock Jude selected for your finger? Your very important finger?”
Kate let out an uneasy laugh. Nikki knew they were engaged in theory. And Kate had sent a photo of the ring when she and Jude were on the plane back to the States. But she hadn’t gone so far as to tell Nikki they’d actually held their own, private ceremony while in New York. It would be nowhere near as simple to tell her best friend about her secret marriage as it’d been telling her new sister-in-law.
“Holy Christ, Kate,” Nikki further said, her voice dropping so as to not disturb Sophie. “Could Jude have picked a larger or more gorgeous diamond? It’s stunning! Even more so in person.”
“Thanks,” Kate beamed. “And for the record… I selected it.”
“When have you two had time to get officially engaged, let alone pick out a ring?”
“Well, it wasn’t exactly planned… It just sort of happened. On our way to Manhattan. Over champagne and Bloody Mary’s. And, uh…” She gave a nonchalant shrug. “I proposed to him.”
“You proposed to him?!” Now, her voice jumped.
“Shh!” Kate said on a laugh. “The whole wing doesn’t need to know. In fact, no one knows. Except Charlotte—now you.”
